A pair of pastry chefs will represent an award-winning Ayrshire hotel in front of thousands of telly viewers next week as they battle it out on Bake Off: The Professionals.
Channel 4’s Bake Off: The Professionals is back for another season from Tuesday, July 4 with a fresh batch of pastry chefs competing to be named Britain’s Best.
And hoping to make history as the first all-female winning team are Glenapp Castle’s pastry chef Chantelle Louth and fellow chef, Kasia.
The pair, both 39, join talented twosomes from hotels, patisserie shops and small firms from around the UK as they compete in a series of challenges to claim the prize of best patisserie team in Britain.
Team captain Chantelle landed in Ayrshire after spending time honing her craft alongside Gary Rhodes OBE, on cruise ships and in exotic destinations such as Antigua, Seychelles, Casablanca and St Lucia.
It was in the cooler climates of Scotland that she met teammate and avid cyclist Kasia and the duo hope, with their combined experience and drive, they’ll take top spot in this year’s series.
Chantelle and Kasia say they work well together and “balance each other out.”
Chantelle, whose typical day at Glenapp is preparing afternoon tea and lunch bookings, said: “We have known each other for around four years, having previously worked together at another property.
“We stayed in touch after both moving onto other jobs and have become even closer since taking part in the show.
“I think the pressures of challenges we faced together during practice and also during filming have brought us even closer and given us a better understanding of each other.”
Teams tackle tricky recipes including reinventing family favourites, themed challenges including safari, archaeology, and mad science, and for the first time, teams are asked to create a fully suspended showpiece on the theme of take flight.
And to kick things off, each group face a fiendish secret challenge: create 36 individual opéra aux fruit and one chocolate amenity in just three hours... without proper recipes to hand.
Chantelle said: “I think we were both quite nervous at the start but everyone was lovely and we formed a close bond with all the other teams which definitely helped.
“There wasn’t the cut throat competitiveness that we had perhaps expected. The worst was probably in terms of the surprise challenge, trying to work out the best plan of action while making a cake we had never heard of before!”
It’s not the first time Glenapp has been in the telly limelight, as earlier this year the Relais & Chateaux Hotel featured on ITV’s This Morning and Loose Women during a Burns Day segment, as well as featuring in the first episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars, where Ayr café owner Rachel Munro was a contestant.
The Great British Bake Off alumni and Junior Bake Off judge Liam Charles returns as host, alongside a new co-host for 2023- comedian, actress and writer Ellie Taylor.
Benoit Blin, Chef Pâtissier at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, and Cherish Finden, formerly Executive Pastry Chef of the Pan Pacific London Hotel, judge once more.
• Bake Off: The Professionals will air on Channel 4 on Tuesday, July 4 at 8pm. The show will also be available on catch up via the Channel 4 streaming service.
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