S10.E08: Pastry

[Mabinogia]

7 hours ago, LeDucDiableBleu said:

In past seasons the bakers were shown having a deep love of baking in their personal lives - baking in their college dorms, baking from a very young age, etc. This year I haven't really seen that being shown.

I hadn't noticed it but now that you say it, you're right. There is a lack of So and So at home baking for their kids/spouse/parents/neighbors. I don't feel like I know much about these contestants outside the tent now that I think about it. I wonder why the change. Is it that this bunch have terrible outside lives lol, or the show wants to shift focus for some reason? That is interesting though. 

[janie jones]

18 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

I think that's the crux of Paul's issue. He didn't believe that David was producing a proper pie, because it had no pastry top. It's not like there's a written set of rules as to what constitutes a pie, but if you asked most British people they'd tell you that they have pastry on the top and bottom and a savoury, usually meat, filling.

There are sweet versions of that too, with various fruits. But a pie without a pastry top, whether sweet or savoury, might be considered a tart instead. I imagine most people wouldn't really give it much thought, but I suppose it's Paul's job.

I think if it matters that much it should have been specified in the instructions. 

[springbarb]

18 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I hadn't noticed it but now that you say it, you're right. There is a lack of So and So at home baking for their kids/spouse/parents/neighbors. I don't feel like I know much about these contestants outside the tent now that I think about it. I wonder why the change. Is it that this bunch have terrible outside lives lol, or the show wants to shift focus for some reason? That is interesting though. 

Yeah, we seem to have lost the weekly clips of the bakers at home.

[krankydoodle]

20 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

There is a lack of So and So at home baking for their kids/spouse/parents/neighbors. I don't feel like I know much about these contestants outside the tent now that I think about it.

I don't think Rosie's clips even mentioned that she was married until this episode. Meanwhile, I remember Helena's rescue dog being named and shown at least twice. Strange.

Edited October 23, 2019 by krankydoodle

[Fiddler1]

I loved Henry’s comment after getting no answer from Paul (though maybe it was just edited that way) “It’s the eyes.  Like a shark....but with less mercy” 😂

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 10/22/2019 at 5:30 PM, janie jones said:

I think if it matters that much it should have been specified in the instructions. 

I agree. There have been signature and showstopper challenges in the past where the bakers were told "you must have XYZ" so if a pie top was THAT important then it should have been included in the requirements.

[janie jones]

19 hours ago, krankydoodle said:

I don't think Rosie's clips even mentioned that she was married until this episode. Meanwhile, I remember Helena's rescue dog being named and shown at least twice. Strange.

Maybe Rosie's husband prefers not to be on TV.

[Tabbygirl521]

On 10/16/2019 at 1:05 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Recipes

Signature challenge
Henry's tomato & new potato tarte tatin with crab salad

Technical challenge
Moroccan pie

Showstopper challenge
David's Whitby fish pie

Thanks! I’m dying to try the Moroccan Pie, although I will likely cheat and use phyllo. 

[krankydoodle]

6 hours ago, janie jones said:

Maybe Rosie's husband prefers not to be on TV.

Sure. I just think it's odd that it wasn't even mentioned before as it was in this episode without the need for him to appear on screen. I enjoy knowing a little more about the lives of the bakers outside the tent than we've been getting this season. And I would've thought the show would jump at the opportunity to show a few interactions with cute animals now that they have a prime opportunity with Rosie's work as a vet.

[Bethanne]

On 10/22/2019 at 10:43 AM, LeDucDiableBleu said:

I knew Henry wouldn't win it all so he had to leave sometime, but he was my favorite so I'll miss him a lot.

In past seasons the bakers were shown having a deep love of baking in their personal lives - baking in their college dorms, baking from a very young age, etc. This year I haven't really seen that being shown. And I've noticed they complain a lot about what they have to do. I remember Ruby saying once something like no one looks forward to the technical and I thought then it was pretty bold statement. But this year all the contestants are saying things like that constantly.

I agree with you that the backstory on the contestants is significantly lacking this season. I don’t feel like I know these folks nearly as much as I have in years past. 

In their defense, the “technical” challenge isn’t so much a true test of their technical fluency and execution as it is a scavenger hunt for details in a scaled down and puzzling recipe. That’s the pet that annoys me about the gingham altar part. It’s more of a “How cagey can Paul and Prue be and how well can the contestants decipher their partial instructions?”

[ElectricBoogaloo]

19 minutes ago, Bethanne said:

the “technical” challenge isn’t so much a true test of their technical fluency and execution as it is a scavenger hunt for details in a scaled down and puzzling recipe. That’s the pet that annoys me about the gingham altar part. It’s more of a “How cagey can Paul and Prue be and how well can the contestants decipher their partial instructions?”

This is why I often dislike the technical challenge. I don't like the argument that bakers should be able to figure out the missing info based on their baking knowledge.

[Danny Franks]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

This is why I often dislike the technical challenge. I don't like the argument that bakers should be able to figure out the missing info based on their baking knowledge.

The technical challenge simply needs to be less strictly timed. I suspect that's one thing that the producers have cracked down on, over the last couple of years. Because part of the technical aspect is reading and interpreting the instructions, and using that baking knowledge to figure out what they're supposed to make.

Perhaps it's the editing that makes it seem like there's just a mad dash to read the instructions then get on with it, lest they run out of time. But the relatively poor technical results this year suggest there's more going on than that.

Something like "you've got ten minutes to read and understand the instructions, then you start baking" would probably improve the process significantly.

Edited October 31, 2019 by Danny Franks

[romantic idiot]

On 10/17/2019 at 12:11 PM, MerBearHou said:

Can you imagine taking your beloved pet to her and she’s explaining the diagnosis and you’re like “I’m sorry, what? Could you repeat that??”

I don't have an issue understanding Rosie at all.

On 10/17/2019 at 4:27 PM, Lois Sandborne said:

What a strange week. This is the first time I've really paid any heed to the griping that this crop of bakers isn't skilled enough, because when they can't nail tart crust?

I thought all of the showstoppers looked kind of cool, even Henry's pie stack, but I don't understand how they all wound up so dry. It's still just pie, y'all.

I'm in line with the people thinking David should've got star baker.  No one was really exceptional, but he had an okay signature, won the technical challenge, and his showstopper was more impressive looking than Steph's, even if it had salty filling. I've said before that I don't care much about who wins week to week, but in a week like this there's just no reason to plump for Steph who already has three titles over David who has none.

Who's Adam Hills?

You can't win Star Baker if your bakes didn't taste well. 

On 10/19/2019 at 4:08 AM, Rinaldo said:

That doesn't mean Henry was entitled to an answer. In general, I've seen that the judges in general have generally avoided saying things from the sideline during challenges, as distinct from their up-close conferences once in each challenge. I don't see it as "being a dick" at all. (Paul can be a dick in other situations, for other reasons.)

Henry was my favorite from the start, and his remarks each week have gone into my book of favorite GBBO sayings (along with those of Glenn Cosby). I wanted him to go to the end. But he flat-out had a bad week, and at a point when his Showstopper could have redeemed him, he made one that tasted no better than any of the others, poorly baked and devoid of imagination. He had to go.

I thought it was unfair of Henry to ask and Paul shouldn't have answered. Henry, while cooking a meat pie and deciding how much meat to put in it asked a judge whether like a lot of meat or not. Of course Paul shouldn't have answered, and in making a game of it, I thought Paul handled that rather gracefully. 

On 10/21/2019 at 7:11 PM, peeayebee said:

I wish more bakers had done better in the showstopper. I assume they were so afraid of getting soggy pastry that they went in the opposite direction.

I think this is almost the first time this has happened. I remember previous seasons where the concern was about a soggy bottom but for the most part the pies actually had them or didn't. This was the first time I saw so many dings for being too dry. 

On 10/22/2019 at 6:43 PM, LeDucDiableBleu said:

In past seasons the bakers were shown having a deep love of baking in their personal lives - baking in their college dorms, baking from a very young age, etc. This year I haven't really seen that being shown. And I've noticed they complain a lot about what they have to do. I remember Ruby saying once something like no one looks forward to the technical and I thought then it was pretty bold statement. But this year all the contestants are saying things like that constantly.

I think you nailed why I don't like the crop that much - they all seem to be complaining too much about things. It's hot, technical challenges are terrible, Paul is mean, the tent is very stressful...too much whinging. Only David seems cool.

On 10/23/2019 at 4:30 AM, janie jones said:

I think if it matters that much it should have been specified in the instructions. 

I assume they thought that the very fact that they said pie it was implied, especially if it is standard in Britain. And part of the challenge would be to ensures these expert bakers know what a pie is supposed to be?

[janie jones]

1 hour ago, romantic idiot said:

I assume they thought that the very fact that they said pie it was implied, especially if it is standard in Britain. And part of the challenge would be to ensures these expert bakers know what a pie is supposed to be?

They often praise outside-the-box thinking, so if they didn't want nonstandard pies, they should have said so.

[Zuleikha]

and the whole time I was watching the technical which I admit was  cool technique I was like, "Yeah, I could just buy some phyllo.

You can use phyllo, but the traditional bastilla has layers. I think the warqa is thinner than phyllo. Although I'm not much of a baker, so maybe that's not true.

Anyway, the atrocity that Paul had them make wasn't like a real bastilla at all. I though technicals are supposed to be real recipes representing real foods that people eat, so I'm still annoyed about it (I just saw the episode today, though, so it's not that I've been annoyed for months). Bastilla is such an important and special food in Moroccan cuisine that it really bothers me to see it misrepresented like on GBBO like this. Paul's thing might have tasted fine, but it was NOT a bastilla.