A little while back I noted my… irritation… with the otherwise really enjoyable Great British Baking Show show.

In sum, I felt that toward the end of seasons, the two judges sometimes -not always, mind you- play favorites and wind up dumping someone even if they perform well and should (IMHO, of course) stick around (you can read my ridiculous ramblings about that here).

The next episode after the one I mentioned above featured a very surprising elimination.

Now, the show has been over for a couple of weeks so I imagine most people have already seen the end results. However, if you have not, I WILL GET INTO SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPHS ABOUT WHO WON THIS SEASON’S BAKE-OFF.

So if you have yet to see the season and plan to, PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

So in the third from the last episode, which was the subject of the link I presented above, it was my feeling in that episode Giuseppe Dell’Anno, despite being a really consistently great baker for most of the show’s run, had an off day and Lizzie Acker, who was far more inconsistent in the show’s run, nonetheless had a really good day and it was my opinion, based on what I saw (obviously, I cannot actually taste their bakes so I have to take the judges’ opinions about how good -or not- they are), that Dell’Anno should have gotten the boot.

Instead, it was Lizzie Acker who got the boot despite having what appeared to be a very good baking day (or two) that episode.

Yes, she was more inconsistent and yes, if I were to have the two before me and had to pick which was overall the better baker I would go with Dell’Anno.

However, if we were to judge them just by what they did that episode, it sure did appear to me like the judges decided to go with the better overall baker and not the one that shined that particular episode.

Interestingly, the next episode featured (AGAIN, SPOILERS!) one of the two very favorite bakers, Jurgen Krauss get shockingly booted, but I suspect in his case the judges simply had no excuses. Mr. Krauss did well but the two “lesser” (I say this only in terms of overall performance across all episodes to date) bakers, Chigs Parmar and Crystelle Pereira, did exceedingly good while Giuseppe Dell’Anno bounced back from his not very good performance the week before.

In fact, of the remaining four, Ms. Pereira was likely the one most in jeopardy in the semi-final episode if one based their opinion on overall performance. However, she simply smashed the semi-final bakes and wound up being the week’s “Star Baker”. Giuseppe and Chigs appeared to do quite spectacularly during the early rounds as well so it fell on Jurgen, who did well (as usual) but not spectacular to be the odd man out.

Apparently, this was a controversial end result as many viewers felt Jurgen should stay but I had no problems with this end result. In fact, the way it went seemed to me the way it SHOULD have gone the previous week and when Dell’Anno was spared when, IMHO, he performed worse than Ms. Acker.

Anyho…

So going into the finale, we had Giuseppe Dell’Anno, Chigs Parmar, and Crystelle Pereira.

And as we moved along from the first two challenges, it seemed to me Crystelle Pereira, who was very much on the outside it seemed, I felt was doing the best.

The others, don’t get me wrong, were doing well but it seemed like heading into the final bake she was the one inching over the others.

However, one of her elements in the finale wound up being uncooked, a major problem.

At that point, I felt the finale’s champion would be Chigs Parmar, who was most consistent throughout. Mr. Dell’Anno wasn’t doing bad but didn’t seem to be quite as spectacular as the week before when he was saved and Jurgen was taken out.

So it was a HUGE surprise to me when Giuseppe Dell’Anno was crowned the finale’s winner.

Sigh.

Once again I felt like the judges decided to supplant their views of that week’s baking and look at the overall performance in order to crown the winner.

I cannot argue that over the course of the show’s season Mr. Dell’Anno was the overall best baker of those three that remained. Both Mr. Parmar and Ms. Pereira started decently but sputtered here and there. They really seemed to get their collective acts together as the show’s final episodes were made but the errors they exhibited earlier on seemed to weigh more on the judges’ opinions as we reached the finale.

Again, its something I’ve seen in the show and which bothers me because you would think the judges would base their opinions on that week’s bake, as they did when Jurgen was booted, but they simply do not as they go along and, as with other seasons here and there, I feel Mr. Dell’Anno’s win was not totally deserved.

At least not for what he did in the final week.

C’est la vie.

I’m going to get really deep into the weeds here so if you have no interest at all in The Great British Baking Show, scroll on to another post and find something more interesting.

Further, if you are a fan of the show (like me!) and don’t want to have the latest episode, which aired last Friday on Netflix, SPOILED, then avert your eyes, watch the show and catch up, then read on.

All right then, you’ve been warned.

To being, I love the damn show. Unlike the American/Food Network shows that feature chefs competing against each other -and there are so many of them!- The Great British Baking Show is generally pleasant and deceptively placid. Deceptively because there is tension beneath the surface but it is like watching, of all things, professional golf: The contestants are truly competing with themselves to do the best they can. They have no control over what the others do so their struggle ultimately is with themselves.

Yes, the same thing happens in the American shows but there always seems to be a more raw edge to the competition, a dog-eat-dog in-your-face tension and sweat and the smell of cigarettes (or worse) in the air.

Here, its all so pleasant, so quant. So very British.

As I said, I love the show.

However…

Way back in one of the show’s earlier seasons and I believe during a quarter or semi-final episode, the judges (the incredibly named Paul Hollywood and, at that time, Mary Berry -seriously, can two people have more awesome names?!) wound up booting a very young contestant from the show. I thought they did so not so much for what she did that particular episode, but because they got to the point in the late stages of the season where they felt she didn’t deserve to go to the finals rather than performed poorly enough in the given episode.

But before I get to the whys of this, let me explain what the show is about.

Each episode of The Great British Bake Off features three “challenges” which are…

…a signature bake, which tests the bakers’ personality and creative flair; a technical bake, which tests experience; and a showstopper bake, during which the bakers are able to showcase their depth of skill and talent.

The first two challenges are considered lesser challenges but do, of course, figure into the ultimate judgment at the end. The final bake, the “showstopper” is graded much more strongly and, in various episodes has times saved or condemned chefs who were on the proverbial bubble.

Which, is as it should be, if each episode was graded strictly.

However… (redux)…

Back in that early season episode I mentioned above, this very young chef (she was, if memory serves, maybe just turning 20), was at times inconsistent in her baked deliveries but clearly tried very hard. No, she was not the very “best” of the chefs, especially in the show’s early episodes (it sometimes takes a bit for a chef to start to shine), but each week you could see improvement to the point where I began to feel she was a legitimate contender for the finale (again, if memory serves).

So in this particular episode, and if memory serves, she does decently in the first two rounds and quite well in the showstopper round. I felt -and this was obviously my opinion and nothing more- her overall performance, based on what the judges said, was better than at least one if not two of the remaining chefs.

And further, I felt one of the more consistent chefs, one of the ones that looked to be a shoo-in to the finale, should have been booted at that point instead of her.

Yet she wound up being the one removed.

The family and I -we really need to get a life- argued about the choice and I felt, rather strongly, that the judges at that point essentially chucked their grading guidelines in favor of allowing what they felt was the overall better chefs to continue to the finale instead of adhering to their grading guidelines.

Welp, the very same thing seems to have happened again this past Friday with Episode 8 of Season 12, Free From Week.

In this episode, we’re down to the five chefs, Jurgen Krauss, a soft-spoken chef who hails from Germany. He’s easily the most consistent chef of them all, winning star baker 3 times (which means in the 8 episodes aired, he “won” 3 of them) and received Paul Hollywood’s famed handshake (if you know the show, you know what I’m talking about) once.

There’s Giuseppe Dell’Anno, a very pleasant guy who hails from Italy. He’s easily the second most consistent of the chefs and my youngest daughter’s favorite to win it all. He’s had 2 wins and 1 handshake.

There’s Chigs Parmar, a young and rising talent who started a little rough but over the weeks got his act together and created some very beautiful bakes, and according to the judges tasty, bakes. He’s won 2 star bakers and gotten 1 handshake.

There’s Crystelle Pereira, another incredibly pleasant chef who’s won 1 star baker and gotten 1 handshake. She can be very, very good but at times flounders.

Finally, there’s Lizzie Acker, the most inconsistent of the remaining bakers. She tends to impress with her flavors but often presents bakes that simply do not look all that good.

Yes, these bakes are graded for flavor and presentation!

The rundown of the final five I’ve given above was done very much on purpose: I’ve given you who I believe is in the #1 position through who I believe is in #5 position.

So, logically, Lizzie Acker is the one that would seem to be the one most at risk.

True to form, she was the one cut in this latest episode.

However… (redux times two)…

The fact is that in this episode she didn’t do badly at all. In fact, she did quite well -at least according to the judges- with her “showstopper” bake while Giuseppe Dell’Anno, the man I feel is the #2 position… most certainly did not.

The first two rounds were, it felt, something of a wash. Crystelle Pereira did the worst on the technical round and Lizzie Acker, if memory serves, was in 3rd place. The first round, frankly, escapes my memory but I believe everyone did decently enough.

So like previous episodes of the show, to me and the family it seemed like the “showstopper” round would be the one to decide who goes forward and which of the five would get cut.

Here’s where the trouble comes in: Every one of the contestants did very well in the showstopper round, including Ms. Acker… except for Giuseppe Dell-Anno. His bake, the judges felt, was a failure, both in how it looked as well as how it tasted.

Once the reviews by the judges were done, the family and I (I repeat: We gotta get a life) got into an argument over who we felt was about to be kicked out.

My youngest daughter, who wants Guiseppe to win, was disheartened. As much as she felt he was the one who was going to win in the end, she acknowledged that based on his showstopper performance, things weren’t looking good for him.

It seemed, frankly, like we were about to witness a HUGE upset: that one of the two top chefs in this season’s show was about to go down.

And here’s where, IMHO, the judges decided to chuck their rules.

In the conversation Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith (she took over for Mary Berry), the show’s hosts talked with them about who looked to be a potential star baker and who was in danger of elimination (they do this, by the way, every episode and just before the judgment is rendered).

Paul Hollywood, at this point, says something to the effect of “Guiseppe did well enough in the first two rounds to make it to the next.”

My jaw, frankly, dropped.

He effectively gave Guiseppe a pass for a rare (it was!) failure in what should have been the round that determines who stays and who goes: The showstopper!

Again: That’s not the way it should be. The showstopper round is supposed to be the single biggest determinant of success, and Guiseppe plain and simply failed while everyone else, including Ms. Acker, did well!

By all rights, and though it would have been an incredibly shocking development, Guiseppe wound up staying while Ms. Acker was booted!

It’s annoying, to say the least, and it shows that, at least on The Great British Baking Show, sometimes your previous successes guarantee your future ones.