Tent Pressure #2: Jürgen's world
A second straight Star Baker award to open the season, and someone answered the phone this time!
Jürgen, our delightful German contestant, won his second straight Star Baker honor to open the season. And this time, someone answered the phone when he called! But ol’ Jürgen found a way to make it charming nonetheless, telling his son “This is Jürgen” when he’d answered. YES YES, your son knows your voice, also does he not refer to you as “Dad” or “Father” or “Papa Jürgs”?
This season of Bake-Off is now at serious risk of just becoming the Jürgen season. Baking’s Werner Herzog is clearly über-talented — I had missed that he has a science/engineering background, like Giuseppe — and has an unfettered creative mind. The producers of the show are also weaving a minor underdog narrative in here: the narrator explicitly mentioned that Giuseppe (the other early frontrunner) comes from a family of professional chefs, and they highlighted Jürgen’s comment that he and his brother didn’t really have toys as children on account of poverty.
Jürgen is nothing like an underdog now, though. Too precise, too well-reviewed by the judges, too well-liked. He doesn’t even have any of Rahul’s self-doubt or David’s confidence. Giuseppe’s right: he’s like a baking terminator.
On the flip side, we saw Giuseppe sweat for the first time in Week 2, both in the signature challenge when his brandy snaps slipped off the baking sheet and in the technical after making his filling before the cookies. (It worked out, despite Paul’s doubts.) That Giuseppe made it through and almost took Star Baker is a good sign for his future chances. I think I still have Giuseppe at No. 1 in my power rankings. Maybe 1B to Jürgen’s 1A. Two Star Bakers to zero looks like a bigger gap than it really is.
You also wonder if Giuseppe is playing it a bit safe early on. The board game was a safe play from a construction standpoint, and he’s an engineer by trade so he shouldn’t be that concerned with construction compared to the others. That said, the level of detail, neatness and interesting shapes in the board game still set it apart. I’m looking forward to seeing what he pulls out in future showstoppers.
Freya is a force — she has the techniques down and her designs are really cool. Plus she’s baking vegan (except in the technical challenge it appears; is she not tasting the recipes made with animal products in the technical?). I can’t believe she didn’t get more credit for her rocking horse, especially given what happens to Amanda’s.
Crystelle is also a top contender: the vanity looked incredible and really clean. You wonder if there’s added pressure being stationed directly in front of Jürgen, especially when the presenters are commenting on the difference in tidyness between the two counters.
Amanda of the shattered rocking horse and Maggie’s bewildering beachscape — those two bakers got so lucky that Jairzeno had another bad week. The thing with Jairzeno’s ship is that it should have been the safest build (other than Giuseppe’s board game) but he still built the cookies really thick and didn’t get the decoration down pat.
George did something similar in terms of a safe, sturdy and not-beautifully-decorated build … except George dangled it in the air and made it fly! Fortune favors the bold. That could have been a disaster for George, and he went for it. I also feel kinship toward him given that he was sweating from basically the first minute of the episode.
[One more George note: Matt’s joke about Paul maybe being George’s dad was brave on a number of levels, in fact braver than singing the Flintstones theme song in German. I’m a little surprised that they left that joke in! (Yes, I researched it. Paul first went to Cyprus in 1996. George would have been 10 years old by then.)]
And finally: justice for Lizzie. I was skeptical of her last week based on her apparent lack of urgency in the kitchen, a lack of perceived seriousness about how hard it will be to survive on this show.
Then this happened: Matt asked her if she had practiced her signature bake the day prior in the practice tent. Lizzie revealed that she had not. Matt asked what she did instead. Lizzie said she had watched Harry Potter instead.
Lizzie is not just any contestant with a lack of urgency and perceived seriousness about how hard it will be to survive on this show. She is the great unbothered contestant ever. Every week she survives is now a triumph. All hail Lizzie, our Whatever queen.
was eagerly awaiting the recap for episode 3, but now 4 is already here!