Juergen Krauss, the German-born star of last year’s Great British Bake Off, served borscht, rye bread and apple cake to a hungry audience at Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue as he demonstrated his culinary skills while recounting his experiences on the show.

Mr Krauss is not Jewish but his wife Sophia is a Brighton Reform member, who co-organised the shul event. And he cites his father-in-law as the inspiration for his borscht.

He told the audience of 100 that one of the frustrations of Bake Off was not being allowed to talk to anyone other than immediate family about his appearances until after broadcast.

During the initial filming, he wondered what his neighbours thought as he was regularly collected from home in a limousine.

Although Mr Krauss has returned to his job as a software engineer, his popularity is undiminished, with 188,000 Instagram followers for Juergen the Bread.

He revealed some unlikely spin-offs of Bake Off fame. “A band called Japanese Breakfast contacted me and invited me to perform with them on stage, playing the trombone. They were all wearing Juergen T-shirts too!

“On another occasion, I was asked to demonstrate my cooking skills to the department of physics at the University of Oxford, where I baked a three-layered cake and humorously discussed the physics of the process. I was even asked to bake a cake for the London Philharmonic’s 90th birthday.”

The talk and demonstration at Brighton Reform was a “way to give back to the community that has supported me and my family. Rabbi Andrea [Zanardo] was so excited when I participated in Bake Off and I believe that he was very upset when I had to leave.”

Shul vice-chair Debra Goodman said the event had been a huge success, adding: “Juergen is a great friend of the synagogue. His talk and demonstration was engaging and insightful and all were transfixed, including the children who attended. It has not been easy to organise gatherings since the Covid era but we were overjoyed with the response of our members for this event.”