Save articles for later
Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.
As any good baker knows, following the recipe is vital if you’re going to produce a winning cake. Leave out a rising agent, such as baking powder, and your cake becomes a bit solid, stodgy even. Add too much sugar, and the sweetness overwhelms the bake. Too much, too little – it all adds up.
The same goes for rebooting a beloved TV franchise. The ingredients must be measured, weighed and the flavours checked for balance before it is presented for judging by a dedicated audience.
New The Great Australian Bake Off judges Rachel Khoo and Darren Purchese.
It worked for MasterChef Australia in 2020, when the three original judges were replaced to great ratings success, while My Kitchen Rules reported modest gains in 2022 when it replaced the controversial Pete Evans with new judges Nigella Lawson and Matt Preston, while keeping original host Manu Feildel safe.
Now it’s The Great Australian Bake Off’s turn. For season seven, the cosy original judges and hosts Maggie Beer, Matt Moran, Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle are out. In are two new judges – renowned pastry chef Darren Purchese and British TV cook and personality Rachel Khoo – and two new hosts, Kiwi comedian Cal Wilson and Sydney social media personality and actor Natalie Tran.
It’s smart casting that hits all demographics. Khoo has a global following, Purchese’s patisserie in Melbourne is a must-visit for pastry hounds, while Wilson has a 20-plus-year career on TV and in stand-up (and a portrait of her won this year’s Packing Prize at the Archibald). Tran, though, is perhaps the biggest coup. A classic multi-hyphenate, she rose to fame (and 2 million-plus followers) through her comedy YouTube videos and then manoeuvred that into an old-school media career, with appearances on The Project and acting gigs on Mr Inbetween and Heartbreak High.
Cal Wilson and Natalie Tran have taken over hosting duties on The Great Australian Bake Off.
In cooking terms, the icing is the same – it’s still in a bunting-strewn shed in Sydney’s inner west, there’s an overabundance of fairy lights and one contestant in a hat – but the ingredients have been given a slight update.
“I’m a massive fan of the show,” says Purchese, during a break in filming when I visited the set in September last year. “I’ve watched every episode and I love the whole vibe, the positivity. I love the fact there’s no prize money involved [but there is a Smeg kitchen up for grabs].
“I’m not into the ‘drama, drama’ type of TV gigs. I’m into positivity, helping people out and good family entertainment. It’s an honour and quite a responsibility as well.”
In other words, he has no intention of rocking the boat.
Wilson, who has appeared on everything from Have You Been Paying Attention? to I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here, says the anticipation of stepping into an established format was much worse than the reality.
“I was kind of going, ‘Is it going to be weird for everyone else?’” she says. “Because we’re new people coming into something that [people] are all familiar with.
“But everyone has made us feel so welcome. And we were all shocked at how easily we slipped into the rhythm of it. Especially with Rachel and Darren as well. It didn’t feel like two other strangers that we hadn’t worked with.”
Adds Tran: “Someone from Foxtel commented on our second week, and this made me laugh, ‘How have you all gotten so close? I’m worried about how close you’ve gotten so quickly.’ ”
As far as hosting gigs go, Tran and Wilson agree it’s a doddle. Full days spent watching people bake, eating leftovers and then being topped up with tea between takes. “I know it sounds like we’re in a cult,” says Tran. “I’m just so conscious that it sounds like we’re in a cult.”
Bake Off contestants Felicity Dobson (left) and Laura Foo.
Apart from guest appearances on MasterChef, this is Purchese’s first full-time judging gig. He and Khoo – who was busy breastfeeding during the break in filming – don’t stray too far from the cuddly judging style used by Bake Off presenters in the show’s roughly 14 international versions.
In episode one, as he and Khoo valiantly sample their way through 12 different types of showstopping cakes, which range from a durian-flavoured sponge to an orange hot milk cake, the most damning they get is a “little bit dry” and a coded “you can taste the coconut!”
Did Purchese think about what kind of judge he wanted to be?
“It was hard,” he says. “Because I’ve seen every episode, I’ve also seen the UK version as well, so there’s already an idea in your head of what you’re supposed to be like because you see Matt Moran or you see [UK host] Paul Hollywood. But I’m just trying to be myself. I’m trying to give positive criticism if I have to. I’m not going to criticise anything if I don’t have to.
“If we can all see there’s been a little bit of a baking disaster, we can all see that, I don’t need to delve deep into it. I’m absolutely going to champion people’s efforts. And give them encouragement and try to give some feedback in terms of how they can improve next time.”
Purchese, unbelievably, is supposed to be the scary judge.
“He’s very good at eating something you’ve baked while looking you in the eye,” says Wilson. “It’s quite stressful.”
One of those contestants on the end of Purchese’s criticism (which, to borrow Paul Keating’s famous putdown of John Hewson, is probably “like being flogged with a warm lettuce”) is Laura Foo, a 26-year-old management consultant who channels her Singaporean background in her bakes.
“I don’t think I understood the magnitude of what it was going to be until you get here and you see all the wonderful crew and all the other bakers and how many people it takes to put on this incredible show,” says Foo, who had just finished a four-hour showstopper bake (“that’s one of the shorter ones”).
Watching Foo in the shed that afternoon, she is remarkably unruffled as she constructs a croquembouche covered in spun sugar, while simultaneously batting away Wilson and Tran and agreeing to a producer’s request that she turn the tube of vanilla paste one way so the label can clearly been seen on camera.
“We have to perform,” says Foo. “And I think what helps is that we’ve all got that reference point of having watched GABO as a viewer and obviously when you’re a viewer you want to know everything that’s going on. You’re like, ‘Oh, what? Oh, no, she overmixed the thing.’ For me, I’m kind of visualising, ‘Oh, OK, I need to say that so that the people at home can understand what’s going on.’ ”
For Purchese, the biggest stress comes from the cake cutting at judging time.
“Number one, I don’t want to cut into their beautiful bakes because they’ve just spent the last five hours creating something amazing,” says Purchese. “I feel really bad, ‘I’m so sorry. I have to cut into it.’ And then number two, you only get one shot at someone’s showstoppers. You don’t want to stuff it up and you want to make sure you highlight what’s inside and all those amazing layers. It’s nerve-racking.”
What Purchese doesn’t find stressful, however, is the eating.
“Quite early on, when there was a lot of contestants, they produced this amazing showstopper and it had three different flavours in it,” he says. “And all of a sudden, I’m up to 36 spoonfuls or something. Rachel has the knack of eating very small bits. And I tend to have larger bites.”
Does Purchese worry about, ah, bracket creep?
“I’ve banned the scales,” he says. “I can feel myself creeping up and I just don’t want that confirmed to me.”
The Great Australian Bake Off premieres on June 13 at 8.30pm on Foxtel.
Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.
Most Viewed in Culture
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
