Bake Off: Crème de la Crème

Bake Off Crème de la Crème
Genre	Cookery Reality Competition
Directed by	Emma Reynolds
Presented by	Tom Kerridge
Judges	Benoit Blin Cherish Finden Claire Clark
Theme music composer	Tom Howe
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producer(s)	Anna Beattie Richard Bowron Richard McKerrow
Producer(s)	Kate Baller, Laura Smith
Location(s)	Welbeck Abbey
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Love Productions
Distributor	BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network	BBC Two
Picture format	16:9
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	29 March 2016 – present
Chronology
Related shows	The Great British Bake Off
External links
Website

Bake Off: Crème de la Crème is a British television baking competition on BBC Two featuring teams of professional pastry chefs put against one another through two different challenges. The programme is presented by Tom Kerridge, and the competition judged by Benoit Blin, Cherish Finden and Claire Clark.^[1] It is a spin-off from The Great British Bake Off, and the eight-episode series was first screened on BBC Two beginning 29 March 2016.^[2]

Format

The series is a competition between teams of professional pastry chefs from high-end hotels and restaurants, as well as supermarkets, armed forces and other companies and organisations. The competition aims to find the finest pastry chefs in the country, who can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary and can create desserts that have "stunning visual impact, phenomenal flavour, and texture."^[2] Fifteen teams of pastry chefs are chosen for the competition, with three pastry chefs in each team, one of them the team captain. In the heats, the three teams are given two challenges and are awarded marks from the three judges for each of their creations, the team with the best total score after both challenges is guaranteed a place in the semifinal. The team with the highest total score throughout the whole of the heats is also guaranteed a place within the semifinal.^[1]The competition was filmed at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.^[3]

Miniature Challenge

In this challenge each team have to create a batch of 3 different types of miniatures. All must be uniform in appearance, finished to the very highest professional standards and will only have three hours to make all 108 pastries. Each miniature is marked out of 30 with a total of 90 points available.

Showpiece Challenge

In this challenge each team are asked to reinvent a popular British dessert and present it as a fine-dining showpiece display. Each judge has 50 points they can award with a total of 150 points available.

Episodes

     Team got through to the semi finals

     Team with the highest total score in the heats

     Team was the series Winner

Episode 1

Team	Pastry Chefs	Miniatures (Framboisier, Paris-Brest, Petit Gâteau-cylinder)	Miniatures Scores		Showpiece (Apple crumble & custard)	Showpiece Scores		Total
Restaurant Associates	Neil Alice Paula	Raspberry mouse, pistachio frangipane & meringue Praline mouse & coffee crème pâtissère Chocolate caramel mousse, coconut dacquoise & mango and passion fruit brûlée	20 15 16	51	Apple and caramel mousse, apple chunks & vanilla brûlée	26 24 30	80	131
The Grove, Hertfordshire	Reece Ben Lauren	Raspberry and lavender jam & yoghurt and honey mouse Almond brittle & rum caramel Orange mousse, tuile biscuit & orange and chilli curd	21 18 10	49	Apple mousse, caramel mousse & sablé breton on a white chocolate tree	23 21 24	68	117
Marks & Spencer	James Graham Makiko	Raspberry mousseline, tonka ganache & vanilla cheesecake tube Hazelnut and espresso praline Smoked chocolate parfait, yuzu ganache & peanut butter feuilletine	10 19 17	46	Bramley and fenel purée, calvados parfait & sabayon custard	28 34 32	94	140

Episode 2

Team	Pastry Chefs	Miniatures (Opera aux fruits, Babka knots, Petit Gâteau-sphere)	Miniatures Scores		Showpiece (Trifle)	Showpiece Scores		Total
British Army	Liam Andrew Ian	Raspberry and chocolate ganache & pistachio créme mousseline Salted caramel & pecans Lemon and poppy seed sponge & lemon gel	15 14 18	47	Strawberry jelly, genoese sponge & sherry syrup	32 32 31	95	142
Savoy Hotel	Felicien Irina Loic	Bluberry joconde & yoghurt mousse Raspberry jam & lemon zest Yuzu and mango mousse, jasmine ganache & chocolate sablé	11 11 4	26	Matcha sponge and mouse & cherry jelly	29 31 31	91	117
La Pâtisserie des Rêves	Kumiko Anais Jennie	Dark Chocolate ganache, pistachio joconde & cherry buttercream Matcha tea butter & dehydrated raspberries Sablé breton biscuit & yoghurt mousse	18 17 13	48	Pear bavarois, elderflower jelly, gin sponge & quince coulis	22 14 28	64	112

Episode 3

Team	Pastry Chefs	Miniatures (La Petit Antoine, Macarons religious and Petit Gâteau-pyramid)	Miniatures Scores		Showpiece (Lemon meringue pie)	Showpiece Scores		Total
Julien Plumart Boutique Et Salon De Thé	Julien George Sian	Raspberry and chocolate ganache, Chocolate Chantilly cream & raspberry yolk Lemon Chantilly cream & chocolate and hazelnut mousse Strawberry compote & balsamic jelly	16 10 10	36	Raspberry, rose and lychee sorbet, lemon curd & hazelnut-topped tonka bean pastry shells	16 18 22	56	92
Gleneagles Hotel	Neil Melissa Tomas	Hazelnut croquant, chocolate mousse & tonka bean cream Apple jelly, caramel chocolate & white chocolate and apple ganache Strawberry and chocolate base, strawberry liqueur mousse & strawberry buttercream	13 14 12	29	Sablé breton biscuit, yuzu mallow & lemon curd	27 27 26	80	119
Boulangerie Jade	Christophe Josua Valeria	Chocolate croquantine, Chocolate daequoise & Chocolate Chantilly cream Blackcurrant and vanilla mousseline & Blackcurrant jelly Plum purée & vanilla bavarois	17 22 14	53	Lemon mousse, lemon curd, lemon glaze	23 27 27	77	130

Episode 4

Team	Pastry Chefs	Miniatures (Saint Marc, Sfogliatelle and Petit Gâteau-dome)	Miniatures Scores		Showpiece (Sticky toffee pudding)	Showpiece Scores		Total
London Hilton on Park Lane	Sajeela James Sam	Biscuit joconde, chocolate mousse & vanilla cream Rum ricotta, raisins & orange zest Chocolate ganache, orange mousse & chocolate rings	13 23 19	55	Date sponge, caramel and plum jelly, vanilla mousse & brandy snaps	26 31 32	89	144
Squires Kitchen	Mark Helen Samantha	Chocolate joconde, Amaretto Chantilly mousse & Chocolate macaron Ricotta and semolina pastry & cinnamon and orange Pistachio dacquoise, cream and raspberry coulis, vanilla mousse & crystalised pistachios	15 12 19	46	Date sponge, toffee mousse & vanilla cream	29 33 31	93	139
Comptoir Gourmand Patisserie	Sebastien Christian Laure	Joconde sponge, rum chocolate cream & Chantilly cream Ricotta, lemon, cinnamon and orange semolina & crushed pistachios Sablé biscuit, apple tatin & chocolate glaçage	7 15 12	34	Black treacle dacquoise, date and apricot compote & caramel mousse	13 13 18	44	78

Episode 5

Team	Pastry Chefs	Miniatures (Coconut Dacquoise, Breton fruit tartlets and Petit Gâteau-cube)	Miniatures Scores		Showpiece (Chocolate cheesecake)	Showpiece Scores		Total
Celtic Manor Resort	Karl Amit Ffion	Coconut joconde, mango and coconut ganaches, coconut mousse & Swiss meringues Orange and thyme sablé, créme chiboust & Summer berries Granola crumble, lemon sponge, lemon, poppy seed and ginger buttercream, blueberry buttercream & blueberry gel	11 14 13	38	White chocolate and mascarpone mousse, ginger beer panna cotta, orange jelly & chocolate and orange streusel	20 18 23	61	99
Panoramic 34	Tomas Simon Victor	Coconut dacquoise, chocolate crémeux, coconut mousse & passion fruit bavarois Orange diplomat cream, almond streusel, mixed berries & bitter orange glaze Mint and pistachio sponge, chocolate mousse & a pistachio tuile	13 14 12	39	Hazelnut sponge, chocolate soil & chocolate cream cheese.	23 24 26	73	112
Chocolatiers	Stephen Nelson Stefan	Coconut meringue, coconut mousse, pineapple and rum jelly & pineapple crémeux Mascarpone and pepper mousse, fresh figs & roasted blackberry Pecan nut streusel, yuzu jelly & pecan and praline cream mousse	18 14 12	44	Chocolate sablé, chocolate cream cheese & chocolate mousse	27 28 26	81	125

Critical reception

Early reviews were largely negative, with many reviewers comparing it unfavourably to The Great British Bake Off, suggesting that it had lost the crucial elements that made the original Bake Off a success.^[4] Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph complained that the new show "bore no resemblance to it whatsoever, thus seemed to be merely piggybacking cynically on the Bake-Off “brand". He also found two of the judges' accents as well as the scoring system "impenetrable", the baking "bafflingly scientific" and the teams not "terribly likeable". He concluded that Creme de la Creme "was nice but dull", and that as "a Bake-Off spin-off, it was a soggy-bottomed disaster. "^[5] Many of the viewing public concurred with the assessments of the critics and found the show lacking the "charm, fun and warmth" of the original.^[6] Chitra Ramaswamy of The Guardian thought that when the professional version of Bake Off gets serious means that "it gets silly", and he "found the format convoluted, which telly like this should never be."^[7] Gabriel Tate of The Times found the show a to be a "bloodless, uninvolving affair at once frenetically busy and yawningly free of incident, full of astounding technical proficiency and jawdropping invention, but devoid of passion and identity."^[8]

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.^[9]

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers (millions)	BBC Two weekly ranking[10]
1	29 March 2016	4.43	2
2	5 April 2016	3.96	2
3	12 April 2016	4.00	2
4	19 April 2016	3.74	2
5	26 April 2016

References

1. "Great British Bake Off gets professional spin-off show". BBC. 2 December 2015.
2. Alexander, Saffron (29 March 2016). "Everything you need to know about Bake Off: Creme de la Creme". The Daily Telegraph.
3. "The grand home of Bake Off Crème de la Crème - Welbeck Abbey". Radio Times. 29 March 2016.
4. "Bake Off: Creme de la Creme gets a creaming from the critics". The Week. 30 March 2016.
5. Hogan, Michael (30 March 2016). "Bake Off Crème de la Crème, review: 'a soggy-bottomed disaster'". The Daily Telegraph.
6. Shepherd, Jack (30 March 2016). "Bake Off: Crème de la Crème is The Great British Bake Off without the 'charm, fun and warmth' according to Twitter". The Independent.
7. Ramaswamy, Chitra (30 March 2016). "Three teams of professional pastry chefs compete in the Bake Off: Crème de la Crème". The Guardian.
8. Tate, Gabriel (30 March 2016). "Bake Off: Creme de la Creme; The A Word". The Times.
9. "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
10. "Weekly Top 10 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 16 September 2015.

External links

• Bake Off Creme de la Creme at the Internet Movie Database
• Bake Off Creme de la Creme at BBC Programmes