S12.E04: Dessert Week

[LBS]

My favorite moment was when Amanda said her showstopper looked like one of her crime scenes.  My guilty pleasure are British* police procedurals so I have a soft spot for her although I think she’s the next to go.

*British, Scottish, Swedish, Norwegian, Irish.  Hit me up if you want fun, quick books recs to read that are usually free/under $5 on Prime unlimited.  I dove deep in that genre since I couldn’t travel  these  past 18 months.

[Aulty]

3 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

Juergen's Insta account is JuergenTheBread? I don't get the play on words? And, ironically, he didn't do well in the bread competition.

I assume its a nod to Bernd das Brot (Bernd the bread), a really rather weird TV show about a grumpy loaf of bread that aired during the wee hours on some German TV channels.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Aulty

[cynicat]

10 hours ago, kittykat said:

I'm torn about the technical.  I don't think ninety minutes is too short for sticky toffee puddings.  Desserts of the like are usually short prep and quick bake.  It was all the damn extras that annoyed me.  Isn't sticky toffee pudding self saucing?  Why the creme anglaise and toffee sauce?  And did it really need those damn tuiles?  I think there were so many undercooked puddings because there were too many extras.

Yes, we're kind of saying the same thing and you made a great point.

It's the whole technical that is too short.  The fact that only 1 or 2 bakers had the time to fully bake their puddings supports that.  If only a few of them made that error it's one thing, but so many having that problem speaks to an issue with the whole technical itself, most likely due those silly extras taking too much time.

[Rickster]

17 minutes ago, cynicat said:

Yes, we're kind of saying the same thing and you made a great point.

It's the whole technical that is too short.  The fact that only 1 or 2 bakers had the time to fully bake their puddings supports that.  If only a few of them made that error it's one thing, but so many having that problem speaks to an issue with the whole technical itself, most likely due those silly extras taking too much time.

 In general, I agree with the points made about the time to do technicals being too short and the dishes too complex (I thought doing tuiles with what appeared to be sesame seeds in them was weird for sticky toffee pudding). However, there is a point to be made about testing time management. If 90 minutes is enough time to bake the pudding, isn't the problem not focusing on getting the pudding in the oven first before moving on to the accoutrements? Or it could be possible this week that, given how vague the instructions for technicals apparently are, they just didn't know how long to bake the puddings.

[Yokosmom]

Re Maggie and the flour—she told Noel that it was listed on the second page of their directions and she’d forgotten to look at it when mixing the ingredients.

Didn’t Freya use butter in one of the earlier challenges? Perhaps it was a Technical though.

i hope Matt leaves after this season—nothing against him personally but the skits have become coarse since he arrived, especially this season. He just isn’t working. I like Noel, but he needs a different partner.

[LBS]

1 hour ago, Yokosmom said:

Didn’t Freya use butter in one of the earlier challenges? Perhaps it was a Technical though.

Freya will use the non-vegan ingredients in the technicals only.  I think because it makes the playing field even. I’m intrigued by her vegan bakes and was surprised that her tofu chocolate set so hard since I’ve had that before and it was silky.  

 

5 hours ago, Aulty said:

I assume its a nod to Bernd das Brot (Bernd the bread), a really rather weird TV show about a grumpy loaf of bread that aired during the wee hours on some German TV channels.

Oh Juergen -  you keep making me love you more……

[AZChristian]

18 minutes ago, LBS said:

Freya will use the non-vegan ingredients in the technicals only.  I think because it makes the playing field even.

And identical ingredients for the technicals are provided, not chosen by the bakers.  She has no choice if she wants to be able to compete.

[dgpolo]

19 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

And identical ingredients for the technicals are provided, not chosen by the bakers.

Which is why Maggie missing it was even stranger, I tracked down the recipes and it had 20g of flour for the tuiles and 100g for the puddings, they were given way more flour than was needed for just the tuiles, she should have known the flour was there for a reason. Also, the recipe said 60 min. hands on time (?), 35 min. bake so even the original recipe was more than 90 min. especially since they had to read it first.

[Cetacean]

2 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

I tracked down the recipes and it had 20g of flour for the tuiles and 100g for the puddings, they were given way more flour than was needed for just the tuiles, she should have known the flour was there for a reason.

But do we know if they get exact amounts?  Seems like we've had at least one baker start over on at least part of the technical which leads me to believe they get extra.

[dgpolo]

Just now, Cetacean said:

But do we know if they get exact amounts?  Seems like we've had at least one baker start over on at least part of the technical which leads me to believe they get extra.

Yes, I do believe they get extra but not 80g (or more since they have to give enough to remake the puddings) extra. If they double it that would mean they were given at least 240g! that seems excessive for just the tuiles.

[AZChristian]

12 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

Also, the recipe said 60 min. hands on time (?), 35 min. bake so even the original recipe was more than 90 min. especially since they had to read it first.

I suspect that the "60 minutes hands-on time" was done by combining all the prep work for all the ingredients.  Some of those ingredients would be baking DURING some of the hands-on time for other parts of the project.  It wasn't a requirement for 95 minutes worth of work to be done in 90 minutes.  

Although they sure don't give the bakers time to be sitting around drinking tea, do they?

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, dgpolo said:

Also, the recipe said 60 min. hands on time (?), 35 min. bake so even the original recipe was more than 90 min. especially since they had to read it first.

That is what bothers me about the short time limit for technicals. With the other two bakes, the Bakers have practiced, they have figured out what order to do things ahead of time. With the Technical, they are often told "read the instructions carefully" but to do that, they need time to read the instructions carefully, then time to process how to time manage and by then, if something takes almost the whole time, they are already behind before they start. They can't both read the instructions carefully and rush rush rush to get everything done. 

Maybe a work around would be to let them read the instructions and get organized for a few minutes, then BAKE! Or just give them a bit longer to do it than the actual bake requires. Some of us take a few minutes to think about what we are doing before we rush into it. But maybe our kind shouldn't go on this type of show. :( 

[Adiba]

5 hours ago, Rickster said:

 In general, I agree with the points made about the time to do technicals being too short and the dishes too complex (I thought doing tuiles with what appeared to be sesame seeds in them was weird for sticky toffee pudding). However, there is a point to be made about testing time management. If 90 minutes is enough time to bake the pudding, isn't the problem not focusing on getting the pudding in the oven first before moving on to the accoutrements? Or it could be possible this week that, given how vague the instructions for technicals apparently are, they just didn't know how long to bake the puddings.

I, too, thought the sesame/hazelnut tuiles didn’t go with the toffee pudding. They seemed to add nothing but appearance to the dessert. 
As for time management— one of the bakers did say that they weren’t given a baking time for the sponges. The full recipe on the GBBO site gives all of the times for everything and it still comes to 1 hr35 min. That’s with detailed instructions and no guesswork. Why shave 5 minutes off when that could be the difference between a fully-baked and an under-baked sponge? 

Also, time management seems more important in the professional baking arena rather than in the amateur one. If the contest’s premise is to look for the best amateur baker— why short the challenge time?  
(yes, I get that they can’t let them take forever— but it seems they want to rush the bakers for no apparent reason except for “good tv”)

[Yajmele]

22 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

Juergen is such a sweet nerd.  I'm delighted by him getting the musical notes just right and by him making that lovely Star Trek wedding cake.

Maybe that’s part of why I like him so much.  Seeing him humming the tune as he tries to transcribe the melody (and having to do it as a mirror image, on top of that) really spoke to my former self as a musician and back when I was in school as a young music major.  I was so glad to see him bounce back after a rough bread week.

Oh, Maggie.  I think she’s lovely, but she was just not right for this competition.  Her mishap with the sticky toffee puddings reminded me of the first time I tried to make peanut butter cookies when I was 9. I misread the recipe on a crucial element.  The recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder.  I put 1/4 cup.  They looked disastrous, and holy lord, they tasted AWFUL.

Chigs - He looks lovely when he smiles.  And I don’t know whether it was just this episode, but his neutral had him looking constantly horrified or looking like he’s wondering what the hell is going on around him.  

[janie jones]

They were referring to Maggie "forgetting" the flour, but she didn't forget. She even said that it seemed like it should have flour in it, but she checked off all the ingredients and it wasn't there. She didn't see it on the next page until Giuseppe showed her. Even though she was the only one who made this mistake, I still don't think it was very fair of them to have formatted the ingredient list like that.

On 10/16/2021 at 9:07 AM, meep.meep said:

Actually, we thought if George had used peanut butter instead of a layer of peanuts in his show stopper, that it would have worked much better and still gotten across the peanut flavor he wanted.

I thought he should have chopped them up. You'd still get the crunch but you would be able to cut through the cake easier. They would be distributed more evenly as well.

What was the deal with the recycle bin Lizzie gave Paul?

Edited October 17, 2021 by janie jones

[GaT]

Please show, just admit it already, Noel & Matt are not good hosts together!!! They are dragging down the show, & I think Matt is the real problem. I remember Noel being really sympathetic with the contestants, just like Sue & Mel used to be, but ever since Matt joined the show, that's gone. I just want the old feeling back.

[sandyskyblue]

On 10/16/2021 at 11:20 AM, Cetacean said:

I bet she is everyone's favorite midwife. 

Paul was horrible to her.  Like she said, she baked twice in the showstopper so it's not like she was sitting around knitting. I'm glad she doesn't have to put up with his crap anymore and can bake in peace.  

I think Paul will make sure she's next to go, if at all possible.  He makes his dislikes known and never bends if someone dares ignore them - referencing anyone who dares to use peanut butter in bakes.  He hates it and never lets them forget it.  If you are truly a good judge you'd put your dislikes aside rather than making people bend to your will. Allergies are one thing, dislikes are entirely another. 

Freya is working outside the box and he doesn't do well with that either.  I can't stand listening to her but I do give her props for making the attempt to stay true to her beliefs and still meet the challenges.  That has to be brutal.

Paul made an exception to his no-peanut rule in the season where Nadiya won, she got a handshake from him for her Peanut Salted Caramel and Chocolate Tart in Chocolate Week!!  I have watched the first few seasons of GBBO over and over and over....and over!  They are my comfort food in TV form!

[Straycat80]

I was really rooting for Maggie, she was so positive. I was happy Chigs won, amazing how well he’s doing after learning to bake after only a year. 
I’ve been ignoring most of the Matt scenes, he’s not funny and just gets in everyone’s way. 

[kittykat]

10 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Maybe a work around would be to let them read the instructions and get organized for a few minutes, then BAKE! Or just give them a bit longer to do it than the actual bake requires. Some of us take a few minutes to think about what we are doing before we rush into it. But maybe our kind shouldn't go on this type of show. :( 

Agreed.  Especially since most of the hints are usually along the lines of "read the recipe twice". Give the bakers 2-4 minutes to skim everything devise a plan in their heads then call BAKE.  We know that some bakers have 4-5 pages of instructions they write for themselves on the other two challenges and organization is key to baking success.

By my recollection step one was make and bake the tuiles which probably took about 10-15 min (I'm assuming this was first because they needed to be baked at a different temp than the puddings).  Step two was make the toffee sauce, then step three was the puddings.  I'm guessing the judges wanted them to start mixing the puddings while the toffee was going but most didn't because sugar is fickle and the moment you take your eyes off, it burns.  So at best most didn't start their puddings until a half hour was nearly gone plus a 35-45 minute bake means it was a tight crunch.  

 

[SemiCharmedLife]

17 hours ago, cynicat said:

Yes, we're kind of saying the same thing and you made a great point.

It's the whole technical that is too short.  The fact that only 1 or 2 bakers had the time to fully bake their puddings supports that.  If only a few of them made that error it's one thing, but so many having that problem speaks to an issue with the whole technical itself, most likely due those silly extras taking too much time.

I agree that the technical bakes would be much more enjoyable if the contestants were given adequate time and/or less extras.  Do you remember the Sussex Pond Puddings from last season- a complete disaster!  I like the idea of allowing them 5 minutes of looking over the recipe and getting organized before they begin the timer.

[libgirl2]

13 hours ago, SemiCharmedLife said:

I agree that the technical bakes would be much more enjoyable if the contestants were given adequate time and/or less extras.  Do you remember the Sussex Pond Puddings from last season- a complete disaster!  I like the idea of allowing them 5 minutes of looking over the recipe and getting organized before they begin the timer.

I think that would be helpful, give them even a couple of minutes and they cannot start preparing anything until that time is up.  

[dleighg]

On 10/13/2021 at 12:52 AM, ShortyMac said:

Poor Maggie. Why would you not put flour in sticky toffee pudding?? I enjoyed her, sad to see her go

when she turned out her lumps, all I could do was laugh. And i think her every-week-I'm-doing-it-the-classic-way thing was running thin. I mean, she should know that the judges want to see some innovation! She always had a smile on her face, however, which was endearing.

Freya's swirled pavlova was gorgeous.

[Quilt Fairy]

Do you know what bothers me most about that offensive and definitely unfunny butt fart joke in the beginning?  They could have edited it out!  The show's not done bloody live!  Someone could have (and should have) said, "You know, guys, that bit doesn't quite work, why don't you try something else?"  But no, the producers of the show decided to leave that piece of crap in there to start off the show. 

In other news, I noticed that everyone appeared to have their own refrigerators this week, which may be a blessing come Chocolate Week. 

In the one season of the US version of this show, The American Baking Competition, I remember one of the contestants (a Southerner) made a dessert with peanut butter and bacon.  I thought Paul was going to have a heart attack.  Then when he finally tasted it, I believe he liked it!

[laredhead]

Dleighg, how did Freya get the swirls on her pavlova tinted with red on the top?  I reran that part a couple of times, and could not figure out how she did it.

[dgpolo]

38 minutes ago, laredhead said:

Dleighg, how did Freya get the swirls on her pavlova tinted with red on the top?  I reran that part a couple of times, and could not figure out how she did it.

I'm not Dleiqhq and I can't be sure but in the past they coat the inside of their piping bag, just a strip, in the color they want then when they pipe it, it gets that effect. I know Candice did that with green in her season then didn't like the way it looked so she swirled it all together.

[dleighg]

19 minutes ago, dgpolo said:

n the past they coat the inside of their piping bag, just a strip, in the color they want then when they pipe it, it gets that effect.

yes, that's how I've seen it done. Simple idea, but it looks so fabulous. Given that whenever I try to fill a piping bag I just make a god-awful mess of things, I bet it takes some practice to really look that great.

[LeDucDiableBleu]

Earlier Juergen made the sculpted cake with the book Utopia, and this week he made his cake with music that Henry the 8th wrote. I think he must be a Tudor fan. I am too. It's my favorite genre of historical fiction and I love any books, tv shows, movies about it. It makes me like Juergen even more.

 

On 10/17/2021 at 6:15 PM, sandyskyblue said:

Paul made an exception to his no-peanut rule in the season where Nadiya won, she got a handshake from him for her Peanut Salted Caramel and Chocolate Tart in Chocolate Week!!  I have watched the first few seasons of GBBO over and over and over....and over!  They are my comfort food in TV form!

Same. He also gave a handshake to Liam's salted peanut butter caramel millionaire shortbreads.

[Spunkygal]

1 hour ago, laredhead said:

Dleighg, how did Freya get the swirls on her pavlova tinted with red on the top?  I reran that part a couple of times, and could not figure out how she did it.

From other baking shows I’ve watched, she put streaks of the colored meringue on the inside lining of the bag and then filled it up with uncolored meringue. So when she piped, it came out streaky! 

[chaifan]

I'm a bit sad to see Maggie go, but it was her time.  She was just such an enjoyable person to watch on screen.  From the Prue-twin jokes, to her self depreciating humor.  The one thing that I couldn't figure out on the sticky pudding mess - I can understand missing the flour on the 2nd page, but all the ingredients are set out for each baker.  There would have been a container of flour sitting, unused, on her bench, so why would she miss that?  eh, doesn't really matter, I think her time was up even if she had produced a decent sticky pudding.  (This is one reason I do the whole "mise en place" thing when cooking or baking - I'm prone to forgetting something if it isn't sitting there on the counter staring at me.)

Tuiles - I never heard this word before and had to look it up.  I've seen them, eaten them, just never heard them called that.  I'm surprised every baker knew what the recipe was referring to.  And I think I have to try making a joconde cake one of these days.  I'm sure I'll make a horrible mess, but I feel I need to try this.  I've made a lovely pavlova and delicious crepe cake, both inspired by GBBO, so joconde may be next.

Freya - I still can't handle her voice, but I appreciate her commitment to making vegan bakes.  I wonder if this is part of a greater plan - get far enough through GBBO to get some name recognition, and launch a vegan baking cookbook.  She's young and could easily turn this into more, like Nadiya did. 

So here's a question for the group... I know this site isn't necessarily US specific, but has mostly (from what I can tell) US users.  Is there a GBBO comment thread that is mostly Brits?  Because I'm interested in knowing what the Brits think of Matt and Noel.  Is this just some "Americans don't get British humor" thing?  Do Brits find them funny, or as annoying as everyone here seems to think?

[AZChristian]

8 minutes ago, chaifan said:

So here's a question for the group... I know this site isn't necessarily US specific, but has mostly (from what I can tell) US users.  Is there a GBBO comment thread that is mostly Brits?  Because I'm interested in knowing what the Brits think of Matt and Noel.  Is this just some "Americans don't get British humor" thing?  Do Brits find them funny, or as annoying as everyone here seems to think?

I googled "Noel and Matt Annoying" and came up with a discussion site that seems to be located in the UK.  Looks like they are as divided there as we are here - but everyone misses Mel and Sue.

[Cetacean]

37 minutes ago, chaifan said:

There would have been a container of flour sitting, unused, on her bench, so why would she miss that?

There was flour in the tuiles.  But I was surprised that she didn't know how to make those puddings.  Aren't they come kind of British staple?

 

[chaifan]

52 minutes ago, Cetacean said:

There was flour in the tuiles.  But I was surprised that she didn't know how to make those puddings.  Aren't they come kind of British staple?

 

Ah, yes, the tuiles.  That makes a little more sense in how she would have missed it with it sitting there on the bench.

 

[Danny Franks]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

I googled "Noel and Matt Annoying" and came up with a discussion site that seems to be located in the UK.  Looks like they are as divided there as we are here - but everyone misses Mel and Sue.

I miss Sue. I do not miss Mel.

[dgpolo]

1 minute ago, chaifan said:

Ah, yes, the tuiles.  That makes a little more sense in how she would have missed it with it sitting there on the bench.

As I above in previous posts, the recipe called for 20g of flour for the tuiles, 100g for the puddings, if, as I believe, they are given extra in case of do-overs, then she still had 80-220g of flour left. Enough, I think, to question whether she forgot something.

[Ilovepie]

On 10/18/2021 at 12:20 PM, dleighg said:

when she turned out her lumps, all I could do was laugh. And i think her every-week-I'm-doing-it-the-classic-way thing was running thin. I mean, she should know that the judges want to see some innovation! She always had a smile on her face, however, which was endearing.

Freya's swirled pavlova was gorgeous.

Ok - I'm glad I'm not the only one who laughed. And I laughed every time they showed her black blobs. I couldn't help it! I don't watch this show for the disasters, but when it's this bad, it just was funny to me. I did feel horrible for her and when her show stopper leaked I felt even worse. She was a delight - I will miss her on this show.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually like Freya a lot. Until this week, she has done quite well, and she knew this was going to be a challenging week for her - she said so before they even started. I like that she's just getting on with it and not making a big deal about her stuff being vegan.  Her pavlova looked better than almost everyone else's even if it didn't taste great. I hope she lasts a while longer.....

Very happy with Chigs' win - I love when Paul shakes their hand and they are so happy, and when they win star baker and call their family. These are the sweet moments I love about this show.

And I am with the group who supports Matt leaving the tent - I like Noel, but not as much as when he was with Sandy. These two together create a sour note in the tent.

Paul is Paul. I don't think he's any meaner than he ever was, but Prue does seem nicer to me than when she first joined. I like that she now tempers criticism with something positive, like "it looks a mess, but it tastes lovely" or something. Maybe she's been studying video of Mary Berry......

[janie jones]

5 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually like Freya a lot. Until this week, she has done quite well, and she knew this was going to be a challenging week for her - she said so before they even started. I like that she's just getting on with it and not making a big deal about her stuff being vegan.  Her pavlova looked better than almost everyone else's even if it didn't taste great. I hope she lasts a while longer.....

I like her, too. I don't mind her voice, and I don't mind hearing about her being vegan. She can't avoid talking about it, since she has to describe her ingredients, and it's not like she's proselytizing or something. And I'm someone who can't go a meal without an animal product.

[ombre]

15 hours ago, janie jones said:

I like her, too. I don't mind her voice, and I don't mind hearing about her being vegan. She can't avoid talking about it, since she has to describe her ingredients, and it's not like she's proselytizing or something. And I'm someone who can't go a meal without an animal product.

I'm a decent hand at baking and have watched this show enough to have a sense of skills that I haven't done.  So for me, she really adds to the interest level because I don't know a darned thing about vegan bakes.  And how can one not admire someone who willingly takes on an extra challenge in a competition?  Plus her accent - and Noel's delight in it - makes me giggle.

[chaifan]

23 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

Ok - I'm glad I'm not the only one who laughed. And I laughed every time they showed her black blobs. I couldn't help it! I don't watch this show for the disasters, but when it's this bad, it just was funny to me. I did feel horrible for her and when her show stopper leaked I felt even worse. She was a delight - I will miss her on this show.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually like Freya a lot. Until this week, she has done quite well, and she knew this was going to be a challenging week for her - she said so before they even started. I like that she's just getting on with it and not making a big deal about her stuff being vegan.  Her pavlova looked better than almost everyone else's even if it didn't taste great. I hope she lasts a while longer.....

 

I think a GBBO Redemption special episode or mini-series would be fun.  Bring back the contestants who just really really blew it on one of their bakes.  I think Maggie deserves a "best sport" award. 

I like Freya, but the vocal fry really is nails on a chalkboard to me.  What would be interesting is if a challenge has a vegan alternative, but not one that fits in the time limits.  Something like, "oh, you can substitute XXX for the YYY, but you have to let it soak overnight.  Since I can't do that, I'm just going to use the non-vegan YYY ingredient."    Because it seems like her egg white substitute needed more time to dry/set than what was allowed.  It sort of worked, but not quite. 

 

[WatchrTina]

On 10/16/2021 at 1:24 AM, Danny Franks said:

I do think they give them barely enough time to get the technical bakes done.

I agree and I think they do that to increase the drama without increasing inter-personal conflicts.  

I still have PTSD from some of the shitty conduct I witnessed from bakers in the early seasons and I have always had a theory that that kind of conduct was -- at first -- "rewarded" by the show-runners by putting footage of it into the edit that was aired.  But somewhere along the way I think the show-runners realized that viewers were getting turned off by the toxic behavior of certain contestants and as a result those people stopped being cast (or at least their toxic conduct is no longer highlighted in the edit that airs.) They may have also stopped requiring competitors to share refrigerators and freezers, which was a source of some of the worst blow-ups back in the day.  I think most people watch this show now with unfailingly positive feelings.  Our hearts break for the contestants who fail and we cheer on the successes. I'm glad there are no more "villains" in the tent (other than the clock).

Edited October 26, 2021 by WatchrTina

[xfuse]

2 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

still have PTSD from some of the shitty conduct I witnessed from bakers in the early seasons and I have always had a theory that that kind of conduct was -- at first -- "rewarded" by the show-runners by putting footage of it into the edit that was aired.  But somewhere along the way I think the show-runners realized that viewers were getting turned off by the toxic behavior of certain contestants and as a result those people stopped being cast (or at least their toxic conduct is no longer highlighted in the edit that airs.)

I don't remember any shitty conduct from the earlier seasons and I just rewatched season 1-5. The only time there was problem was in season 5 when Ian when off because another contestant accidently left his  baked Alaska out of the freezer. Even season 4 when someone used another Howard's custard there wasn't really anything to it. They have always helped each other when they can.  

[roseslg]

4 minutes ago, xfuse said:

I don't remember any shitty conduct from the earlier seasons and I just rewatched season 1-5. The only time there was problem was in season 5 when Ian when off because another contestant accidently left his  baked Alaska out of the freezer. Even season 4 when someone used another Howard's custard there wasn't really anything to it. They have always helped each other when they can.  

Yeah, I watched all the seasons repeatedly, even the two early ones, I can't recall any mean-spiritedness during the technicals.

[dgpolo]

3 minutes ago, xfuse said:

I don't remember any shitty conduct from the earlier seasons and I just rewatched season 1-5.

I was going to say the same but I realized that I have never seen the 'real' seasons 1 & 2, I don't remember anyone talking about any bad conduct in those either but I can't say for sure on my own. However I have watched all the other seasons repeatedly and I don't recall anything except people trying to help each other whenever they could.

[WatchrTina]

Hmmmmm.  Okay, maybe I'm mis-remembering.  Maybe I was so scarred by baked-Alaska-gate that I'm thinking there were more incidents of bad behavior in prior seasons than really happened.  But never mind.  What matters NOW is that the show gives me unfailingly positive vibes.  I like all these current competitors and I think the right people are winning (and, alas, the right people are going home.)  The challenges are difficult (which you need to separate the field) but not designed to fail.  (I can recall at least one technical challenge in the past that NO one was able to make successfully in the time alloted, which was just mean.)

[magdalene]

Was Ian the later eliminated baker who threw his bake in the trash and had therefore nothing to present the judges?  I don't remember why he did that.

I don't remember any bakers that behaved badly or un-sportsman-like intentionally.

There is usually at least one female baker a season who draws the ire of the audience for very dubious reasons to me.

[Suzn]

3 hours ago, magdalene said:

Was Ian the later eliminated baker who threw his bake in the trash and had therefore nothing to present the judges?  I don't remember why he did that.

I don't remember any bakers that behaved badly or un-sportsman-like intentionally.

There is usually at least one female baker a season who draws the ire of the audience for very dubious reasons to me.

You're so right.  There always has to be a woman targeted for no good reason.  It's an ugly thing.  Apparently they are given a very rough time on social media.

[xfuse]

18 hours ago, magdalene said:

Was Ian the later eliminated baker who threw his bake in the trash and had therefore nothing to present the judges?  I don't remember why he did that.

He threw it in the trash because it was melting. He could have kept it and they would have judged the flavours. The woman who left it out left the next week for medical reasons.

[Athena]

Please go back to discussing this episode and this current season.