Please wait, the site is loading...

Food

Great British Bake Off heroes and their memories of the tent

by Hannah Sherwood

Great British Bake Off is back (hip, hip, hooray!) and, to celebrate, we’ve asked some of our favourite Bake Off stars to share their most memorable moment in the tent…

Great-British-Bake-Off-hereos

John Whaite won the show in 2012

‘My favourite memory, aside from winning, is of that very first morning. After an early dinner and a few drinks with my fellow bakers, none of us got much sleep. We had breakfast together, bleary-eyed yet excitable. When our minibus pulled up and we caught a first glimpse of the tent, we all fell silent. It was weird and wonderful.’

Photo credit: Jan Baldwin
Photo credit: Jan Baldwin

Follow John on Twitter @John_Whaite. His new book, Comfort: Food To Soothe The Soul, is out in October.

Nancy Birtwhistle was crowned 2014’s winner

‘My favourite memory – apart from winning, of course – is week one. My Jaffa orange cakes were a huge hit with the judges. Thankfully, I completed everything in the allotted time, and I recall Mary saying, "These wouldn't look out of place in the window of a French patisserie." I was absolutely thrilled, and remembering that first week in the tent always makes me smile. Paul said they were one of the best things to ever come out of the tent. It doesn't get better than that for me.’

Photo credit: Tara Fisher
Photo credit: Tara Fisher

Nancy is currently doing the #365Challenge, where she is sharing cooking, baking, growing and household tips, recipes and videos every day for a year. Follow her on Twitter @nancybbakes.

Chetna Makan reached the semi-final in 2014

‘My most memorable moment was when, in European week, I made a swirly bread in the first round, and we later had to make the same bread for our technical. It was shocking, and had never happened before. It was quite a fun technical to do, but I had an added pressure to do well, as I knew what I was doing. Another memorable moment was the baked Alaska madness. It was the hottest day, and we all struggled with our ice creams. That challenge will stay with me forever.’

Photo credit: Maja Smend
Photo credit: Maja Smend

Follow Chetna on Twitter @chetnamakan. Her new book, Chai, Chaat & Chutney, is out now (Mitchell Beazley, £20).

Howard Middleton was a contestant on the 2013 series

‘It's almost always such a stressful, time-pressured environment that it's hard to reflect on the wonder of being in the Bake Off tent. But there are those rare occasions – usually when you're waiting for bread dough to prove – when you can just enjoy a cup of tea and a chat with your fellow bakers. The feelings of camaraderie and the brief moments of calm before the storm will always be special to me.’

Photo credit: Kirsten Johnston
Photo credit: Kirsten Johnston

Follow Howard on Twitter @HowardMiddlebun.

Don`t miss

We value your privacy

We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our site and to allow us and third parties to customise the marketing content you see across websites and social media. For more information see our cookie policy.

Cookie Preference Centre

Learn more about what each cookie category does and choose your settings (toggle right to opt in or left to opt out). Cookie policy


Strictly Necessary

These technologies are needed to enable our websites and apps to run and to keep it secure.

Sainsbury's Magazine

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
PHPSESSID Until the browsing session ends
device_view 1 month
viewedRecipes 1 year
subscription-{popup-version-date}-PopupClosed 12 days

Vimeo

Enables Vimeo videos on the site

Cookie name Duration
_derived_epik 1 year

Constant Commerce

Enables shopping tools for recipe ingredients

Cookie name Duration
cc_a_h 10 years
cc_a_s Until the browsing session ends

DoubleClick

DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) is an integrated ad-technology platform that enables us to more effectively create, manage and grow high-impact digital marketing campaigns.

Cookie name Duration
DSID 10 days
IDE 1 year
RUL 11 months

Performance/Analytics

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Google

Google Analytics tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
__gads 13 months
gadsTest Until the browsing session ends
_ga 28 months
_gat 1 minute
_gid 1 day
1P_JAR 1 month
ANID 10 days
CONSENT 18 years
NID 6 months
__Secure-3PAPISID 2 years
__Secure-3PSID 2 years
__Secure-3PSIDCC 1 year

Marketing/Targeting

These technologies help us decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you. We use this data to customise the marketing content you see on websites, apps and social media. They also help us understand the performance of our marketing activities. These cookies are set by us or our carefully-selected third parties.

Pinterest

Pinterest conversion tracking gathers conversion insights and builds audiences to target based on actions our visitors have taken on the site.

Cookie name Duration
_pinterest_ct_rt 1 year
_pinterest_ct_ua 1 year
_pin_unauth 1 year

Outbrain

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
outbrain_cid_fetch 5 minutes
adrl 5 weeks
apnxs 6 weeks
criteo 2 months
obuid 6 months

Twitter

Twitter conversion tracking enables us to measure our return on ad spend by tracking the actions people take after viewing or engaging with our ads on Twitter.

Cookie name Duration
personalization_id 2 years
muc 2 years
ads_prefs 5 years
auth_token 5 years
dnt 5 years
guest_id 2 years
twid 5 years