The Great British Bake Off lost a little bit of its allure this week, when JC favourite, Jurgen was evicted from the tent.
Most of wanted to give our favourite challah baker a hug as the forlorn-looking physicist exited the show. Some Twitter commenters criticised Paul Hollywood after the gentle German after the silver-haired judge awarded all three of Jurgen’s rivals a handshake for their show stoppers leaving Jurgie’s hand empty.
It did feel unfair when Jurgen had successfully fashioned a complex Japanese temple out of gingerbread while Guiseppe’s Leaning Tower of Pisa and Crystelle’s floral arch were constructed of far safer and technically less challenging rice crispies.
And even Prue felt Hollywood’s hand should have been outstretched after sampling Jurgen’s matcha-based entremets. For those unfamiliar with the show, an entremet is an elaborately layered, mini cake. The bakers had to construct 12 of them with a larger, related structure. True, Jurgen's pale green pastries in tiny boats were less glam but surely his tottering temple AND technical winning status should have sent him sailing through. But It was not to be and he's back at home to bake challah again.
At least he has left us with a Chanukah-friendly, deep fried Yuzu choux nut and the perfect Pesach pud — his pavlova complete with orange-based charoset and home-made, chocolate-coated matzah.
Jurgen – you were robbed but you’ll always be a winner in our book.
