S13.E10: The Final

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, Suzn said:

This season was a huge disappointment.  The challenges were terrible with so many being inappropriate with little to do with baking and then the travesty of the Mexican episode was insulting and didn't have the grace to even bother with the correct pronunciation of taco!  Paul was insufferable as possible and Noel's and Matt's so called comedy was lame at best. Add the inadequate time to do justice to the challenges and it was a train wreck from start to finish.  I will watch another season but I'm definitely losing interest in it.

Syabera appeared to be the obvious designated winner through most of the season.  I can't say that it was not deserved but I wasn't impressed with what she presented.  It seemed like none of the bakers were quite up to the level of those in previous seasons.

I honestly thought the designated winner was Maxy. 

[Deskisamess]

I'm finding it impossible to express my thoughts on this season, so broken sentences it is.

Hugely disappointing. No longer charming. No longer about baking. Unfunny hosting. Awkward ill cast host. More fails than showstoppers. Not enough time allotted too many times, which led to most fails. Obviously biased editing. Not enough actual baking.

How far it's fallen. From a spectacular bread lion, to limp asparagus, baby corn, and a cucumber fishing rod. The latter belongs in the Gallery of Regrettable Foods.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Was the audition process different this year? The skill level of the bakers last season was so much better than this season, and I’m just trying to figure out why. Were the bakers chosen for their personalities, and not their baking? The challenges were bad, but these bakers didn’t even have a lot of the basic skills that bakers in other seasons had.

I don't think you can fairly judge the skill level of any of these bakers based on these challenges. They are being asked to do increasingly absurd things in an absurd amount of time. Do the producers strive for some diversity in casting? Sure, but that's always been the case.

The mark of a good baker isn't speed. When you're choosing which bakery to go to, you don't decide based on who makes things the fastest. That's just not a criteria in baking. That's why this show tells us nothing about whether these are good bakers or not.

On top of everything else some of the things they were required to make had nothing to do with baking. Tacos anyone? I can't remember who went home on Mexican week but if it were me I'd be fuming. It's like showing up for a swim meet and being told you're playing volleyball instead.

[meep.meep]

The sainted bakers of last season, or perhaps it was the sainted bakers of the season before that, all failed miserably at baking brownies!  I think these folks were just fine and I'd like to taste what they made.  The problem was the production company is taking them far away from decent baked goods.  And, of course, they have to advertise for Paul's Mexico special program.

[xfuse]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:32 PM, TVbitch said:

I watch to see beautiful bakes that I want to stuff in my pie hole

You should watch the last Canadian season. Most of the bakes were simply stunning.

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, meep.meep said:

The sainted bakers of last season, or perhaps it was the sainted bakers of the season before that, all failed miserably at baking brownies! 

And they had to follow Paul's declaration that brownies must be chewy.  Those of us who prefer cakey brownies are just stupid, I guess. 

[TVbitch]

15 hours ago, xfuse said:

You should watch the last Canadian season. Most of the bakes were simply stunning.

I have been! I think that was one of the best Bake Offs I've even seen! It was absolutely wonderful, with a joyous finale! Totally worth tracking down if you can. 

[Starry-Eyed]

23 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I honestly thought the designated winner was Maxy. 

While hindsight is 20/20, it couldn't have ever been Maxy, because they sent her home on a week they definitely could have sent Sandro home instead. I do think she deserved to go the week she did, but it wasn't a situation where they sent her home because they had no choice.

[LeDucDiableBleu]

10 minutes ago, Starry-Eyed said:

While hindsight is 20/20, it couldn't have ever been Maxy, because they sent her home on a week they definitely could have sent Sandro home instead. I do think she deserved to go the week she did, but it wasn't a situation where they sent her home because they had no choice.

I think Maxy had a good chance of defeating Syabira in the final. My conspiracy theory is that they wanted Syabira to win, and so removed her toughest competition.

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, LeDucDiableBleu said:

I think Maxy had a good chance of defeating Syabira in the final. My conspiracy theory is that they wanted Syabira to win, and so removed her toughest competition.

I don't know if they would intentionally do that though. I remember them being much more into Maxy then Syabira, at least early on. 

[SandyToes]

On 11/18/2022 at 6:11 PM, iMonrey said:

I've been beating this dead horse for a long time now but I think it bears repeating. This isn't a competition to see who is the best baker out of twelve. It's a competition to see who can bake the fastest with the least amount of errors. And that's a very different thing.

They need to choose. If they want this to be a show where bakers make elaborate structures out of baked goods then they need to give them a realistic amount of time to do that. Otherwise you just get sloppy looking disasters. They can drop the whole Signature/Technical/Showstopper format and just have one elaborate bake with two days to complete it.

On 11/18/2022 at 8:36 PM, festivus said:

I don't like failure showstoppers and like has been said, judging which one is the least bad. 

Exactly!! 

This is why I no longer watch figure skating competitions.  Just fall after fall after fall, people trying to outjump each other.  I watch the bakers move their showstoppers from between my fingers - anticipating the fall, the collapse, the disintegration into smithereens.

I liked watching the growth of the bakers, who spent a week practicing something they might not have ever done before (I bake cakes and pie crusts, and have used different recipes/techniques,  but had no idea what different types there were and their characteristics), and learning.  We, as viewers, learned, too, and looked forward to trying new things at home.  But I did love the cast this season, and how joyful they all were, and eager to help each other.  I knew Syabira was a lock, when the judges said they'd be looking at past performance, too.  But that's fine - well-deserved!

[blueray]

21 hours ago, xfuse said:

You should watch the last Canadian season. Most of the bakes were simply stunning.

I watched the final as it just happened to be on. They were definitely wait more talented.

[Mittengirl]

22 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

And they had to follow Paul's declaration that brownies must be chewy.  Those of us who prefer cakey brownies are just stupid, I guess. 

Well, not stupid.  Just wrong.

[LilJen]

On 11/19/2022 at 7:31 AM, Johnny Dollar said:

I wonder if Sandro had just stuck to the task at hand and didn’t constantly overdo things if he would’ve won. Of course his pies were underbaked, he had to take them out of the oven to bake the cookies/biscuits nobody tried.

That concoction with the soaked bread looked like the nasty things you’d see on TikTok. 

I could tell his pies were going to be underbaked—he didn’t roll the crusts thin enough. Nice editing with Syabira saying “three millimeters” and the cutting to his thick crusts set in the tins… 😁

[Rickster]

On 11/21/2022 at 2:06 PM, Deskisamess said:

I'm finding it impossible to express my thoughts on this season, so broken sentences it is.

Hugely disappointing. No longer charming. No longer about baking. Unfunny hosting. Awkward ill cast host. More fails than showstoppers. Not enough time allotted too many times, which led to most fails. Obviously biased editing. Not enough actual baking.

How far it's fallen. From a spectacular bread lion, to limp asparagus, baby corn, and a cucumber fishing rod. The latter belongs in the Gallery of Regrettable Foods.

I wonder if Paul Jagger of Bread Lion fame would even get cast on the show in its  current iteration, with its emphasis on diversity, youth and personality.

[Salacious Kitty]

Sure he would. I loved Prison Paul! 😀

[Eliza422]

I’m wasn’t really invested in any one of them winning, but I have to laugh at the idea that Syabira winning was a foregone conclusion.
 

Doesn’t anyone remember season 5 Richard, who had won lots of star bakers, and was, I think, the top contender going into the final? Completely blew it!

Same with season 8’s Steven - again, the fave going in, lost to Sophie.

And don’t forget Stephanie from season 10 - another complete failure when she had to be the favorite going into the finale, losing to David who never won star baker!

I think all of those seasons prove that there is no “designated “ winner, nor that that the winner can be known ahead of time. 
 

IIRC, most of the other seasons had finale contestants who were pretty evenly matched.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Eliza422

[SuprSuprElevated]

2 hours ago, Eliza422 said:

I have to laugh at the idea that Syabira winning was a foregone conclusion.

Eh, people think what they think.  NBD

[janie jones]

On 11/18/2022 at 12:17 PM, Adiba said:

No big surprise, Syabira won, but her finale showstopper was unimpressive. She does seem to have good baking knowledge and the judges like her flavors.

Yeah, the baking knowledge. Matt asked Sandro what went wrong with his bake and Sandro goes, "science ¯\_(ツ)_/¯". I don't think a contestant should be so dismissive of the science of baking, and I don't think that someone who is deserves to win.

[awaken]

On 11/21/2022 at 7:15 PM, xfuse said:

You should watch the last Canadian season. Most of the bakes were simply stunning.

Sounds good, I’ll try it! Which network is it on?

i really thought it would be maxy, janusz, and syabira in the finals. I’ve liked syabira from the beginning!  

[Athena]

We do not allow for "Methods of Flying" to Canada or the UK to watch shows, only official sources. We know people do it but we don't allow the info being publicly shared on the forums. Thank you.

[Ilovepie]

Finally caught up, and wow. Those had to be the ugliest show stoppers ever on this show. But considering this disappointing season that featured challenges ranging from bizarre to gross to downright offensive, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The producers need to go watch the early seasons - whoever is picking these themes (it can't really be Paul and Prue can it?) needs to be fired.

I will say that this cast was lovely. I would have been happy to see many of them win, but Syabira was so far ahead all season it was kind of anti-climactic. My personal favorite was Sandro. Has there ever been a sexier baker in the tent? ;-p

[awaken]

6 hours ago, Ilovepie said:

My personal favorite was Sandro. Has there ever been a sexier baker in the tent? ;-p

Salassie was a close second!  😉

[blackwing]

Late to the party, but we finished the season.  Not surprised that Syabira won.  I agree with the comments above that none of the final showstoppers were that great.  But Syabira was overall the best, and it was obvious that the judging incorporated previous results.  She was always getting praised on her unusual flavours and as she mentioned, she is a risk taker and her products were always more interesting than the others.

Not surprised that Sandro was too ambitious, he has been doing that throughout the season.  And his items are always too large.  I didn't fully understand why he didn't choose to have the tart as one of the judged items if it looked better than some of the others.  I was also very surprised that he didn't seem to incorporate either 1) booze or 2) coffee in any of his items, as he had been doing so throughout.  It seemed to me that Sandro peaked early, he received high praise and seemed to be one of the front runners, but then kind of limped into the final.  Not sure what happened to him.

On 11/19/2022 at 1:05 AM, Cherpumple said:

When I rewatch this season I definitely need to pay more attention to Abdul. He seems like a nice guy, but I literally forgot about him for several episodes and can't remember a single one of his bakes. It's bizarre.

That's the same as how I felt... I don't think any of his bakes were memorable.  Prue mentioned that he was the most consistent, but I can't really remember anything that wowed me.  It seemed to me that he got to the end mainly because the only other people that may have gotten to the finals (Maxy and Janusz) faltered.

On 11/19/2022 at 6:04 PM, theatremouse said:

I'm pretty sure he said was wasn't going to try the extra things, but that the tarts looked lovely. The way he said it came across to me as a sort of a "nice try but no extra points, but since I said your other stuff was bad here's a compliment".

Correct, Paul said they looked nice but he wasn't going to try them.  I wonder if he later got one to try after the cameras stopped filming.

On 11/22/2022 at 12:42 PM, LeDucDiableBleu said:

I think Maxy had a good chance of defeating Syabira in the final. My conspiracy theory is that they wanted Syabira to win, and so removed her toughest competition.

I always thought the toughest competition was Janusz and I thought that Janusz was the annointed winner.  I was quite surprised when he was taken out at #4.  They could have easily overlooked his mistakes that week and kept him for the finals and sent home Sandro.  Once Janusz was removed, I thought the clear winner was going to be Syabira.

I do agree that overall, the caliber of the bakers and the bakes doesn't seem as good as even the previous season.  I think of that cake that Hermine made with the clear gelatin dome and the flower design that she created that IIRC, Prue said was as good as anything she would see in a shop in Paris.  That was just beautiful.  I can't think of one item from this season that even approached that level.

[Mr. R0b0t]

On 11/20/2022 at 4:12 PM, NoThyme said:

I am happy with the winner. However, can we find a way to replace Matt? 

Apparently he is OUT!  

[MagicEyes]

On 12/6/2022 at 10:53 PM, awaken said:

Salassie was a close second!  😉

I would argue that Selasi is at least as hot as Sandro, and possibly more. I say we need to put wings on both of them and do a direct comparison. 😊

[Salacious Kitty]

Oh, Selasi >>> Sandro.

[awaken]

40 minutes ago, MagicEyes said:

I would argue that Selasi is at least as hot as Sandro, and possibly more. I say we need to put wings on both of them and do a direct comparison. 😊

Agreed!

[MagicEyes]

Selasi just has that look. You know what I mean, right? 

[Cetacean]

2 minutes ago, MagicEyes said:

Selasi just has that look. You know what I mean, right? 

And that sly little smile.  He was understated, Sandro was in your face.

[Dobian]

A shame no one nailed it on the showstopper.  I did like the contestants this season.  Matt and Noel have grown on me the last couple of seasons.  I'm actually sorry to see Matt go.  Did Paul really want to charge Sandro for his book?  Seriously?  Good grief!

[irisheyes]

On 12/9/2022 at 12:47 PM, Cetacean said:

And that sly little smile.  He was understated, Sandro was in your face.

Selasi wasn’t quite as thirsty as Sandro. But, it was a different time too. 

[Deskisamess]

The show really went downhill this season, it will take more than Matt being gone to improve it. They need to get back to baking, nice traditional baking. Cookies, pies, bread, pastry. There is no reason why they can't reuse challenges, and surely there are enough recipes in the world to keep them actually baking. Not frying, not cooking. Baked goods.

And I like Noel, but can do without comments about blood and death. He was so charming the years Sandy was hosting with him.

Better yet, bring back Mel & Sue.

[dargosmydaddy]

Quote

Was the audition process different this year? The skill level of the bakers last season was so much better than this season, and I’m just trying to figure out why.

Quote

I do agree that overall, the caliber of the bakers and the bakes doesn't seem as good as even the previous season. 

Could it be that this season didn't compare to last season in part because last season was sequestered due to lock down, and this season was not?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but last season's bakers only had to focus on baking, and had practice time and ingredients provided to them. Granted both the time and ingredients probably weren't limitless, but I would imagine they were still given ample of each, and had the remaining time to research/ plan/ pick the brains of the other bakers, etc., whereas this crew had to go back to their normal lives, kitchens, jobs, etc. each week. When Paul said something about, "well, if they practiced everything," leading up to the final showstopper, and then looked all judgmental when Syabira admitted she hadn't practiced doing everything in the time... like, she has a job, Paul. Similarly, I doubt Sandro could practice whatever it was from the previous week that had the 24 eggs in it more than once. And Abdel seemed to consistently have trouble with slightly under/ over baking things, and mentioned on one of the pastry challenges that he'd never had butter leak before-- to me that spoke to a big difference between the tent oven and his home oven. 

Granted I still don't think any of these three were at the level of Giuseppe/ Jurgen/ Chigs/ Crystelle, but I think the aforementioned conditions were a major reason why there seemed to be such a huge gap in quality between this season and last season.

Of course these bakers were baking under the same constraints as ten years' worth of pre-COVID bakers, but the producers keep upping the ante to ridiculous lengths, and maybe last year's successes made them think they could continue pushing it and everyone would magically rise to the challenge.

I did enjoy this year's group, so I'm not feeling as negative towards the season as some people clearly are, but it was admittedly a pretty lackluster final showstopper. 

I remember being taken aback a few years ago when one of the (pre-COVID) winners said that he'd had an eliminated previous contestant practice his final signature challenge for him (taking copious notes about each step) because he just didn't have time to practice. Maybe it's time the producers realize if you're going to use real home bakers, you need to give them challenges they can actually make/ practice at home without quitting their jobs.

[stewedsquash]

On 11/21/2022 at 9:48 PM, Quilt Fairy said:

And they had to follow Paul's declaration that brownies must be chewy.  Those of us who prefer cakey brownies are just stupid, I guess. 

 

On 11/22/2022 at 8:05 PM, Mittengirl said:

Well, not stupid.  Just wrong.

What am I if I like a chewy brownie and a cakey brownie😄? The best brownies I have ever had were made by an old lady who would alternate between chewy or cakey version. What put them over the edge was a perfect size layer of perfectly textured peanut butter icing that she put on each version. sigh, so good.

I got bummed when Kevin was eliminated because I just enjoyed his personality. Best line ever was  the off the cuff “child prodigy” comeback. I didn’t care toooooo much one way or the other for Janusz so didn’t mind him not making it. Solandro was very kind, funny, self deprecating, but I didn’t care if he made it or not either. My final three just on feelings from the first episode to the finale was Syabira, Kevin, and Abdul. 
 

One I did not care for at all was the purple hair lady. She just came across as unkempt and I couldn’t focus when she was on.

Just got around to watching this season over the last couple weeks and now will catch up on the new season. 
 

please please please let Noel still be on the show.