288 "Bread Week" GBBO Collection 11 E3

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to our bonus podcast segment dedicated to the Great British Baking Show. This week we are covering Collection 11 Episode 3 Bread Week. Ooh, Bread Week, the most intense week and challenge of the whole season, right? They're all scared of Paul Hollywood. Yeah. I mean, they are.

[00:00:33] And so yes, Bread Week is, I think, the most intimidating of the weeks. But I don't know what it was this week, but this episode just like, it didn't bring me the same joy that it brings me from week to week. Yeah, yeah, I agree.

[00:00:57] What do you think, Wendy? It did for me. I think they're all such feel good and of course, at the end, somebody goes home. I don't know, maybe this season they're just all so sweet that losing any of them, I mean,

[00:01:17] there's a couple that we probably just haven't seen as much of. You know, like I think Rowan we haven't seen as much of, Dan we didn't see as much of this week. You know, there just wasn't as much focus.

[00:01:29] But I think in general, they're all so sweet that I wouldn't want to lose any of them. But I still enjoyed it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. There's no fucking way Abby should have gone home. No fucking way.

[00:01:43] I'm just like, it's not even like I picked her for like, you know, competitor, but like Rowan made three piles of shit. No, you're wrong. Come on, let's fight. You couldn't serve Dan's raw shit like his pizza shit was shit. His final one was shit like how? Jesus.

[00:02:05] I think, I honestly think that's what it was. We had a debate this week and got some feelings on this episode. I will say like, Rowan, when he described what he was gonna do for the showstopper, I was like, no, don't do that, Rowan.

[00:02:20] Like, no one else was doing something like that. But he like, I know it didn't look great. But I think he was super ambitious and he got it up and standing. And so I gave him credit for that. I have zero issues with the presentation.

[00:02:38] I think the presentation was great. It has to be edible. It was not. And it wasn't just Rowan that had challenges with that this week. I mean, I think a lot of there were a few bakers for their showstoppers had some not fully baked.

[00:02:59] I think they, Pru had said about Saku's showstopper or at least part of what she had eaten was gluey. That's never a good term. That's not what you want to hear. It doesn't sound appetizing.

[00:03:14] No, I think what I saw with it, at least with the showstoppers, and I know we're kind of going out of order because we usually start with Signature and then go to Technical and Showstopper.

[00:03:23] But I definitely think we've got some things we want to talk out as far as how things went. But I think what happened with the showstopper for some of them was it was they got so focused

[00:03:34] on the presentation and worried about the plating and the presentation and how it was all going to come together. And they lost their focus, I think a little bit on how long or how much it was going to

[00:03:45] need to bake or prove and then also their flavors and textures. Just like they got so focused on presentation because it was a showstopper. That's my opinion anyway. I think if Abby had done better in the Signature, she would have been saved.

[00:04:01] I honestly think that was what did her in, was because Dan did really well in the Signature and she kind of struggled with all three. But I think Dan's showstopper was definitely much worse than Abby's.

[00:04:17] I'm sorry, I said Dan produced a piece of shit in the first in the Signature and I was thinking of the pizza, which was nightmarish. Yeah, it was. Not completed. And you know what? I didn't even think...

[00:04:32] It didn't seem like a great thing, even if he had pulled it off. I mean, I'm sure if it was delicious... I don't think it would have been impressive at all. It's a word and...

[00:04:42] I'll tell you what, if he had pulled it off, if he had taken the time, he hadn't run out of dough, if he had actually gotten each of those flavors wrapped up inside of each one and so you're basically almost like flavored breadsticks.

[00:04:56] Okay, I think that there's a pretty good dish in there. But I don't know that it looked as impressive as some of the others. I was not impressed with his design. No. Yeah, I think he wanted to demonstrate a whole bunch of different ways of...

[00:05:16] It was all too much. He just was his own victim. I just don't think he had a lot of... I don't know, when it showed his design and when you look at everyone else's, I'm just like, really?

[00:05:29] You're going to plate some bread and spell out the word pizza? Yeah, it's exact. When you've got Medusa and you've got a peacock and a tree and... Yeah, you've got a standing tree. Even though it wasn't executed as beautifully, maybe the flavors and things are just whatever,

[00:05:48] but it was still like he was trying to do something a little bit inventive and a little different so I still have to give him kudos for that, but I was just like, you're just plating some bread and spelling out a word.

[00:06:02] Especially considering where we saw Dan in weeks one and two, it was like Prue said. We expected so much more from you. We know that you can do better. I don't know what if it was just...

[00:06:13] Sometimes it's so mental, especially with it being bread week, that it just gets in your head. You get all up in your head about it and you know it's going to be challenging. You've got Paul Hollywood's eyes piercing you about the bread. That's intimidating.

[00:06:27] Maybe he just got kind of in his head about it. His signature wasn't bad, but it was uneven distribution of his pesto. It wasn't a disaster or anything, but it still fell short. I just felt like his mistakes were more critical than what Abby's were in my opinion.

[00:06:48] He left out his sugar in the technical. He didn't make enough dough for his showstopper and he didn't get an even distribution in his signature. I felt like his were a little bit more careless, honestly. I just really didn't think that Abby deserved to go at all.

[00:07:12] I really am going to miss seeing what she could have done because I do think she was just having a bad week and she's super talented and sweet and earnest and really nice. I feel like Dan, they graced him because of what he's shown in previous weeks.

[00:07:38] I do think sometimes I see that happening. I've seen it. Abby did really well in previous weeks too. I think Abby did too. And that's what I'm saying. Rowan, I think should have gone home and I know that in this particular situation he

[00:07:55] was daring and he was like, yeah, I'm going to make a monstrous loaf and then a hideous loaf. And then I was just like, I can't. This was kind of almost to the point of where Keith was last week where it's obvious he's going home.

[00:08:15] We're not really discussing it. I mean, it's just like, oh, well, okay, we got to come up with this competition. He was bottom third of everything. I understand that Abby was too, but Abby has shown the creativity and the innovation to man.

[00:08:37] Like, yeah, I was just, I was very disappointed in the final call. Obviously absolutely thrilled for Tasha. And I know I said, hey, possible flash in the pan. She may run out of her speed.

[00:08:51] I don't think we're there yet and maybe she will be a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the season. Oh, I think she's going to be. That is definitely possible. Yeah. I think she had a slow start, but she's going now.

[00:09:03] I mean, I do not deny her talent. I was very, I mean, like, yeah, I was just. I think Tasha has her strengths. I think. I don't know if it was. I think Tasha has her strength too, which is good sometimes. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right.

[00:09:22] Going balls out all the time. Gets you in trouble. But I mean, sometimes it makes amazing things. Sometimes it can. Yeah. Sometimes it can save you. But sometimes like that's the, what is it? The pitfalls of being an artist, right? Is that sometimes you can make phenomenal things.

[00:09:44] Right. And then other times it is just bad. And you can't just be just bad on this competition. It's even though everybody is super sweet and even though everybody is, is, you know, is very, very kindhearted and all that.

[00:10:06] But like, yeah, I this is, I think, honest to God, this is the first time that I've been actually kind of upset at a decision. There was a lot of negativity. This episode, all of the under proves. It was like, this is under proved, the under proved.

[00:10:28] Oh, this is way under proved. This is massively under proved. Oh, this one's, this one's actually okay. That was the, the temperature splits. It was just like. That happened. Yeah. In the technical.

[00:10:40] And it made me think because almost everyone's was under proved in some form, either just by a little or a lot. Wouldn't you say maybe there's not enough time in that challenge? I mean, sorry.

[00:10:57] No, I was just going to say, it seems like I know it's a challenge and it's in a technical, but I mean, they should still be a lot of the time to actually pull it off. Right?

[00:11:07] I mean, unless it's a case of people had extra time at the end. I mean, we don't really see. I know they edited. Yeah. Yeah. But is it a thing where that bread is proved longer than most breads and they're not familiar

[00:11:26] with it because it's a technical so it just says prove. Yeah. Right. I do think that the editing makes it more difficult for us to tell because yeah, some, I mean, I believe was this the one that had to do the two proves?

[00:11:47] Well, I think they all do bread. I think all the challenges had two proves. They had the first prove and then they had a second one. It was, is that the one that had made the, yeah. Yeah. So they had to do the whole thing, right.

[00:11:59] And then prove it for X period of time. And then they had to cut it to eight balls and then prove each prove that again. And I think, I mean, as you say, like it's a technical challenge, but I think that

[00:12:16] like, I don't know if like the, uh, if the idea is, Hey, we're going to have Paul Hollywood do this, that you can have him make it. And then we're going to add 20 minutes, like from beginning to end,

[00:12:34] we're going to add 20 minutes in the time that actually like, so maybe they add 10 to like, Hey, if, if they know what they're doing, they're going to be good. If they don't, they're going to under prove or whatever. Right. Um, they can almost, they can almost set up.

[00:12:57] There are break bakers for failure and for, uh, for, for differentiation, right? So some people may be able to do it in, in two and a half hours, but some people may

[00:13:11] take a little bit longer for technical aspects, uh, on the front end or on the back end or this third step or the 12th step or what the hell ever. Right. Like, and I can appreciate where technical challenges end up being, uh, kind of like

[00:13:27] we talked about the custard creams last week. It was, yeah, it is a good technical challenge in that if you don't know, you don't know, and you're going to mess it up. But I will say that this, the fact that every I'd say, I think that one, right?

[00:13:43] I think who was it that got the one suckers. Saku and Tasha were, I think were the two that were not under approved. And I think even Tasha's was slightly under approved. Um, so a little bit, yeah, I, I get what you're saying. Yeah. Prima.

[00:14:00] And, uh, it, it does. I feel that way almost on a regular basis. I'm pretty forgiving. Yeah. I'm pretty forgiving. Uh, but like, especially on bread week, like you should give them three and a half hours and see if they overprove it.

[00:14:17] Like, see if they know exactly what it is that they're doing or if they're just being like, oh, well, I just have to use all of the time. I mean, generally they picked that technicals that they won't know.

[00:14:29] Well, obviously the, the instructions and recipes that they get is just says make dough or, and then prove like, okay. But, you know, there's no proof for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes. You know, I know it all varies depending on what you're working with, but, you know, and

[00:14:48] I get that. I, you know, that makes sense to me, but it's, it's, it's like, it just seemed like whenever it was everyone and not just one or two people, you know, cause usually, yes.

[00:14:58] I mean, we, we see it sometimes, you know, um, between different challenges that, oh, you didn't prove this long enough, but when it was consistent amongst almost every baker, it's like, well, did they a lot enough to, and again, yeah.

[00:15:10] Good point, Wendy, about the, you know, the, um, editing, you know, it's it. I'm always like, is it really when they say bakers, you have one minute left or five minutes after you see everybody go, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And they're rushing and trying to hurry.

[00:15:23] And it's like, is it really like that in there? Like, is everyone really rushing up to the very last minute? I think some people are, but I don't think everybody is. Yeah. I think a lot of that is edited and I appreciate the editing. Like it looks cool.

[00:15:36] Yeah. Yeah. No complaints. I totally get it. You know, it's fun to watch, but I'm just like, I don't know. It just felt like when almost every single baker was, was being called out for under proving, then maybe there wasn't enough time.

[00:15:49] And again, it being a technical, maybe that's just something that, hey, either, you know, how to work with this kind of dough, um, that for these Devonshire splits, you know, and you

[00:15:59] just know it needs a certain amount of proving time or, hey, I've never made one in my life and I have no idea how long it takes. And you're just going like with your past knowledge of other bread. It did look really good. Didn't it look really good?

[00:16:12] Yeah. I bet it tasted amazing with that, uh, chantilly cream. I've never seen anything like that. No. Well, one of them, one of them had talked about the cream was curdled and I was like, oh, yeah, that didn't sound right. That's not good. No. No. Yeah.

[00:16:30] So I just, just to go back to the, to the signature real quick. I, I thought that Josh's pizza, ninja pizza, I don't know what that is, but that looked really, really good. He did. I was like- He had a really good week. He did.

[00:16:46] Somebody to look out for. To say Josh has been a sleeper. Uh huh. You know, yeah. He's creeping up there. Yeah. I think he could have won Starbaker. He was pretty close. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:16:57] I mean, between that and his tiger, like, uh, like, hey, we just, just, we just assumed that like, yes, everybody failed the technical. Um, but then I guess the fact that Tasha was number two. Yeah.

[00:17:09] Um, like that probably, I don't, I, I see that I, I didn't catch like the middle, like five, six or four, five, six. I never keep track of it. So Josh was in there somewhere. He was in the middle. So, but yeah, Tasha had a phenomenal-

[00:17:25] Tasha was two. She was- Sekou was one in the technical, which is amazing. Sekou and Dana also, I think people to watch out for. Dana had a really good week and she was kind of, um, struggling the first week. She struggled. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:39] But she's, she had a good week. Yeah. The, the, the chipotle paprika smoked cheddar, like I, they talked about her, um, having the cheese in the bread and not letting it prove long enough or doing, making it stodgy.

[00:17:59] I don't remember the term that Pre used, but, uh, and then at the end they were basically both like, okay, yeah, you got it. You nailed it. Like it was, it was good. I was like, yeah, that's something. It sounded really good. Yeah. Yeah. The flavors sound amazing.

[00:18:14] Yeah. The chipotle smoked cheddar and bacon cob loaf. Um, Hey, it must've been a hell of a dough. It shattered her glass in her mixing bowl. Oh my gosh. Yes. I've never seen that before in all the seasons.

[00:18:28] Some crazy things happen, but I don't think I've seen that yet. But, uh, yeah, it sounded amazing. Maddie's looked good. I liked his flavor. Perfect. It was spicy. Yeah. Was his had, was that when, um, the signature with the like pepper, pepper flakes or was it?

[00:18:46] Oh, I think so. It was rustic looking. Okay. Yeah. It was the olive tomato. Uh, and something else. Uh, yeah. So I don't, I don't, I don't honestly, I don't recall Maddie's. It had, it looked, it had spicy flavors in it. I thought I would've liked it.

[00:19:10] It was interesting. A lot of folks had a garlic and rosemary. They were really, yeah. And that's, that's tough. Yeah. Well, I believe last week we were talking about bread week and I was like, yeah, this garlic rosemary bread sounded real.

[00:19:25] I think it was, I think what I said was olive rosemary, but, uh, or olive oil and rosemary, but I was like, yeah, like rosemary is a popular savory bread flavor. I thought Saku's cinnamon toast with orange sounded really good.

[00:19:42] Which one had the chocolate in the, I know that was the, that was in the showstopper. Christie had, uh. Yeah. That was, I was like, Ooh, that sounds really good. And I did think Tasha's was probably the best signature. It looked beautiful. Oh, stunning.

[00:20:00] I mean, even, even Saku's peacock, there were probably three quarters of them that looked great. Yeah. And I would say the other one quarter was damn. But like Christie's honey challah bread looked, and the chocolate, I thought it was stunning.

[00:20:20] Um, but obviously, you know, uh, Josh's tiger was great. Dana's picnic basket. Holy bejesus. That was phenomenal. Like I thought it was like. I think they didn't like the bake on it a little bit. So, but I still think like she's really come a long way. Yeah.

[00:20:40] At least aesthetically it was beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it was funny because they like take it, they immediately like turn it over and dump all the stuff out. They knew exactly what to go look for. I suck this basket. Yeah.

[00:20:56] Nikki, Nikki got a, I guess about another cow, but like absolutely beautiful. Yeah. I thought it looked great and I know they thought the flavors were a little spotty, but, um, it looked really good.

[00:21:12] I thought it was beautiful that plating for its like hair that was running in his face. It was just gorgeous. It's funny. You say plating and I'm like plating on the plate. No, it's the plating. Plating. Oh, I'm sorry. Plating. Not all of the plates.

[00:21:27] It's like, cause I absolutely read P L A I T as plate. Um, but then I hear them talking about all the plating and I'm like, the what? I think of braiding. If I didn't have subtitles on, I'd be very confused. America. Braiding. America braiding.

[00:21:45] That's what I'm talking about. Um, Maddie and with his showstopper, they really liked the flavors, but it didn't look great. But I think the flavors were there. I mean, the fact that he had West ham, especially in light of Ted Lasso. Maddie's a good flavor guy. Yeah.

[00:22:05] And the Tasha's was just amazing. The Medusa, I thought. I loved it. Yeah. What did Abby's look like? It was a tree. Yeah. The tree. You know, even when I saw the diagram, I thought, I don't get it.

[00:22:24] I don't, you know, especially after, um, Rowan's tree, which looked so ambitious and, and, you know, so, and I think there were like three people that did trees, right? I'm not sure. But, but I think it just didn't work out. No, it was just, just Rowan.

[00:22:44] Well, maybe Christie. No, because Christie had the one that didn't fit in. Yeah, the wreath. And it really was nicely done. It had a real nice sheen on it and the bake looked good.

[00:22:57] Because I'm like a, I'm like a keep it in five more minutes kind of bread girl. Like I always order my pizzas well done, which is a weird thing, but that's how I like them. I mean, crispy is good. Crispy is good.

[00:23:14] Well, I think Tasha made a comment too with her, her. She's like, well, I'm going to keep it for keep it in there for a few more minutes. She said, I'd rather have it just a little bit crispy and not have it underdone, which

[00:23:26] I think they'd had comments for other folks not cooking it long enough. So at least she had that. Nobody wants a soggy bottom. No soggy bottoms. Saku's peacock was beautiful. Yes. Stunning. Yeah. I love Saku. I think she's like my fan favorite.

[00:23:44] And she's just so afraid of Paul and it's so adorable. I know. She's like always looking at me. Her faces are just spot on. I'm like that now, if I were ever on that show, that would be me because I may not say it,

[00:23:57] but you're going to see all over my face. When I see her facial expressions, I'm just like, I feel you right there too. And it's so sweet. She's such a sweet sweetheart. And when she talks about like her daughter, her kids, like when she was talking about,

[00:24:09] you know, oh, I know how to do this. I've been doing my own hair for this long and doing my own daughter's hair since she was 21. And then she goes, oh, my baby girl. That's like, oh, that's so sweet. And she's from Sri Lanka, I believe.

[00:24:22] And she brings a lot of the Sri Lankan flavors to her bakes. And I think that's really neat and good. Yeah. Wasn't her cinnamon from? Yeah. That's cinnamon and orange. And yeah, that's right up my alley. Yeah, she does some amazing flavors and she's definitely got some great

[00:24:43] technique and great ideas for her bakes so far. Predictions? It's so hard because I think we're really seeing that so many of them are really good. Like I could definitely see Dana or Josh or Sekou.

[00:25:08] I could definitely see any of them kind of bust out and get a good week Star Baker. I think this is again, going back to my process of elimination. I don't think Rowan is long for the show or long for the tent.

[00:25:27] I think he's just going to run up against a bunch of really, really good bakes. I think Rowan and Maddie are probably just not up to the same level as the others, but you never know.

[00:25:39] Maddie was my other one that I was like, I don't think he's going to hold on. And if he does, great, good for him. I would love to see somebody pull it out. Yeah.

[00:25:50] But I mean, like you guys said it, I think that Josh and Tasha, they obviously had the best weeks. But both of them have been significantly improved since week one. And I think that it's funny, Tasha said, I don't think that I will underestimate myself anymore,

[00:26:17] like the last line of the show. And I think my fear is that she may go too far to the other end, like to the, hey, I can do it and then bite off more than she can chew.

[00:26:35] But yeah, I think that I personally think that a sleeper is Christy. I could see that. I want Nikki to go far because I love her and she's so a lot of fun. She's great. I think that Josh, Tasha and Christy are the ones to watch out for.

[00:26:59] And I think that Maddie, Rowan and Nikki may not go as far as maybe they hope. Nikki and her horns. And her horns. That was so freaking adorable. Yeah. Just love her. That was really, really funny.

[00:27:18] That was one of my moments that I honestly, I forgot to play. Allison was so funny and Nikki just threw it right back out of her horns. Horns? Horns. Absolutely adorable. I just, I love her accent.

[00:27:34] So I can't, I'm glad I watch with, it's silly to watch maybe in, you know, to watch a baking show with captions, but if I almost have to with Nikki, she has such a strong accent, but I absolutely adore her. I love it. I love accents.

[00:27:50] I put the captions on. Yeah, I have to. Yeah, she's adorable. Yeah. You know, I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I do think Josh is a sleeper. He's kind of crept up there a little bit, you know, like last week he had some really good

[00:28:07] bakes and was, I mean, I think he was right there in the running for Star Baker and just missed it by a nose. And, you know, I'm of the same opinion as far as, you know, Maddie and Rowan. I think that they are talented for sure.

[00:28:22] You have to be to even be on the show and even to get a place there, but I'm worried a little bit about their level. I feel like, you know, each week challenges just get more and more difficult.

[00:28:32] I mean, if you think they're hard now, I mean, they just get more and more difficult and I think they might run into, they could definitely surprise us. I've seen people really turn it around, but I do worry a little bit about how skilled

[00:28:45] they are compared to some others. But, you know, and I really thought Abby was going to go a lot farther. So that was a shock for me because I think, I mean, I know I was rooting for her.

[00:28:57] And like we've talked about, it takes one bad week, one just crap week for things just to hit the fan every time you turn around. You can be so stunning or do very well in other weeks, but you have that one and that's all it takes.

[00:29:11] You really just have to be on your game every single week. Right. And you can get into your head and, you know, she could have just done poorly that one day and then that bleeds into the next.

[00:29:24] And then before you know it, you've just had a really bad week. But I am sorry because I would have liked to seen what she was going to do. I know.

[00:29:33] I think she had a lot, you know, a lot in her and, you know, to be able to go farther. And I don't know. I'm of the opinion that Dan better step it up to turn it around for me.

[00:29:44] I'm really disappointed because I'm just like and again, I don't know if it was just like a mental thing for everyone that it's just, ooh, bread week and that just gets in your head. Right.

[00:29:53] So I don't know if that's what it was because I'm just like, dude, y'all, you've been so meticulous about, you know, your work and your bake and to the things that he did that were kind of just careless and thoughtless.

[00:30:06] And I'm like, wow, that's not like you, man, you know, compared to what we've seen in his other he's just he was so meticulous about everything and he just kind of fell apart. So I don't know.

[00:30:15] I feel like he needs to earn back a spot a little bit because I just felt like he should have been the one to go. So but I think Dana's definitely got a lot of talent there. She's got a great understanding of flavors.

[00:30:30] So I think I think she can really pull something to and I just love Tasha, too. She's just an absolute favorite for me. So I hope she she goes farther. Yeah, I can't wait to see what they do in the next few weeks. What's what's what's next week?

[00:30:45] Chocolate week. Oh, right. Yeah. I mean, you know, I know you guys are all into it. I enjoy chocolate. Like I said, I enjoy it. It's just not chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. I go back and forth. Anyway, I like chocolate on chocolate on chocolate.

[00:31:07] Chocolate cake with some chocolate frosting and some chocolate chips and some chocolate sauce. That sounds awesome. That's funny because I actually did eat like I had breakfast and then literally all I had until dinner was chocolate.

[00:31:27] But not like throughout not throughout the day, but we were cleaning out the garage and I found some some Cadbury from from Christmas. You had to get rid of them. Ten months ago. I was like, well, I mean, I'll give it a shot. I'm hungry.

[00:31:43] So it was good. I mean, it's it's chocolate. So you need to sit there. Got to eat it. What about any standout moments or funny moments, funny lines, anything? Like I honest to God, like outside of the horns at like I outside of that, I didn't.

[00:32:06] I think I feel like this was I was honestly, honestly waiting for something. And I well, I like to fool around with Paul. I thought that was really cute. And I have been liking Allison a lot, I think.

[00:32:21] She seems really natural and like she's having a good time. Was this the one where they because they were waiting for stuff to prove, right? And she was bowling and Allison playing cricket, weren't they? Yeah. Yeah, I think they were.

[00:32:35] And maybe that's why we don't have as many because there's so much downtime because bakers are just kind of sitting around like, well, we're just sitting here waiting for the bread to prove, you know, and twice, you know, they have two rounds of it.

[00:32:46] So maybe, maybe, you know, and they were trying to make some things happen to fill in the time. But yeah, a little bit of cricket. What do y'all think about the innuendos again, which Bake Off always has a lot of innuendos,

[00:33:00] but they felt a little forced to me this week. I don't know what y'all thought. I don't think any of them were real memorable. So maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I don't even I don't even remember them.

[00:33:12] Just during the signature and Paul was asking Maddie about the proportion of his balls. His dumplings. Oh yeah, I thought. Cottage loaf has the big loaf on the bottom, the smaller on the top. And I was just like, I don't know.

[00:33:31] It just felt a little forced to me. I think maybe that's a better description. I would say juvenile, but like I am juvenile and typically that stuff appeals to me. Yeah, well, same. But like even the juvenile humor, I was like, meh.

[00:33:51] Yeah, that's like I said, there were just there were things about this episode. I would rather go back and watch the beaver episode again. Yeah. Yeah. On repeat. No, that was fine. And again, yeah, I have the humor of a 12 year old, you know, so I'm right there

[00:34:08] but I was just like, I just I didn't really love it. I felt it was a little too forced. Like they tried to put it out there and I just I guess I just didn't appreciate it. But I'm just kind of over that.

[00:34:24] Are we still calling some of y'all's favorite bakers? Are the favorites you had last week the same as this week or standouts for you? I really think I now have like six or seven. So it could be anybody. You know, higher and higher. Basically, I left.

[00:34:40] Yeah, I know. They're all so sweet. They are. Go home. Yeah, I mean, it's hard. It's hard to root against Tasha. Yeah, I'm not doing that. No. Yeah. And then like I said, Josh, Josh is like, who are are ones that I'm looking forward to.

[00:34:58] And now Dana has really come on, come kind of into my into my my purview is like, what's she going to come up with this week between that that pizza last week and her breads this week?

[00:35:12] I was I was pretty between visuals last week and flavor profiles this week. I was actually I was really interested. Cool. All right. Any other notes or anything at all you guys want to say about this week's episode bread week? I think I covered everything.

[00:35:35] I will be glad not to talk about this. I'm sorry. It was just I mean, it was still I I I'm right there with you. I still had fun. It was still fun because it's still an episode of sure. Absolutely. There's always joy with that.

[00:35:50] But I don't know that I've ever been so upset by a decision. You know, I mean, there are sometimes just like, oh, wow, you know, I didn't see that coming or oh, wow, I didn't, you know, oh, OK, well, that was fair.

[00:36:02] This just this week just really felt unfair to me. I felt like that. I thought that's what was going to happen. Goodness. I just think it was close. It usually is close, but I did think that was what was going to happen. Yeah. It's a rough week.

[00:36:17] Let's hope chocolate week is better. I mean, you can't really go wrong with chocolate. Well, I mean, chocolate's great, but it's like, what are they going to have you do with chocolate? Sometimes they really want something intricate and delicate.

[00:36:33] And I'm just like, oh, I just I could never. So it'll be interesting to see what they want them to do with the chocolate. So, yeah, it'll be great. So just based on this, speaking of that, based on the finesse required for those really,

[00:36:52] really delicate chocolate carvings or decorations, who do you guys think is going to shine next? Oof. I mean, chocolate's a really specific thing. It is. So it's hard to predict. I mean, it might be somebody like Nikki or, you know, it's kind of old fashioned.

[00:37:17] I feel like Dana and Saku and I could see Nikki breaking something out and be like, oh man, this is my jam. But I could see one of them because that's always one of the challenges, right?

[00:37:32] It's always the very specific decoration and like either carving or piping or whatever. Maybe not piping with chocolate, but maybe like a mousse cake or something like that. Mousse pie? No, mousse cake, right? Whatever. Mousse chocolate. Whatever. Mousse chocolate. But yeah, anyway. Doesn't matter. Cake or pie.

[00:38:00] But yeah, so I feel like the delicate touch is going to be required. And this is where I could see somebody like Rowan or Maddie flopping. And again, if they prove me wrong and they're like, oh look, Maddie's just like,

[00:38:18] yep, let me whip out my scalpel and carve up some amazing designs. Awesome. Fantastic. Just based on previous watches, I just don't know. I agree. I mean, with just the three weeks that we've had so far, I'd have to say I don't know that

[00:38:39] I've seen Rowan and Maddie have that very fine attention to detail. They've done some good work. But again, if they and I don't know what they're going to ask them to do. It could be a chocolate cake or it could be chocolate anything.

[00:38:54] But normally in one of the challenges, signature technical or showstopper, there's going to be some very intricate usually chocolate work. And if that's called for, if they do something like that, I think they might struggle just

[00:39:11] and again, just only based on what I've seen, they could completely surprise you because sometimes people do just come out of nowhere and you're like, wow, I didn't know that you had it in you. But I think Josh would be really good.

[00:39:21] I think he definitely has an eye for detail. I think Dan, who I know definitely had challenges this week for whatever reason, but I think based on what I've seen in other weeks and how he's really very technical and seems to

[00:39:39] pay attention to detail, I think he could do very well. And he might have learned from what happened and start having a little restraint. I was going to say, he might take away and go, wow, I need to buckle down.

[00:39:53] I think we're going to see a Dan bounce back next week. Maybe not a Starbaker, but I think he'll be at least back to middle of the pack. Yeah, I agree. I think so. I think so.

[00:40:04] I think sometimes they take that and they're like, wow, I really skirted by there and I was pretty lucky. I really better tighten it up. I don't think he'll get another pass if he has another failed week by any means. Yeah, we'll see.

[00:40:24] Anything else you all want to say? I'm good. Okay. Well, we did get one piece of feedback from our good friend Penny, whom we all know and super excited to see this weekend, right? Yeah.

[00:40:37] She left us a little note and says, I've never watched a whole episode of GBBO. I just don't find it compelling to watch people make food. I don't get to eat, but the podcast is great. Y'all have good voices and the discussion is soothing. Well, thank you, Penny.

[00:40:55] Although I don't know if the discussion was soothing this week. Yeah, you may not find it. I thought that was just a lovely thing to say. I do think a lot of people feel that way.

[00:41:05] Why would I want to watch all this delicious food being made that I can't eat? Let's be fair. I used to fall asleep watching Food Network, watching Mario Batali. Me and my husband, we love Top Chef.

[00:41:19] I remember I was like 19 and I would work nights and I would wake up, I'd get home in the mornings and I just turn on Food Network and I just fall asleep on the couch. And that was the thing.

[00:41:36] And regardless of, I'll just say poor choices, like the Paula Deens and the Rachel Rays. They were people that I watched growing up. Watching people make food that I can't, to me, that is an American institution. I don't even have to try. Wow, that looks really, really good.

[00:42:01] I think I like this one better because I can watch the process and I can see where it can go wrong. And not that I'm trying to build in drama or anything like that, it's just

[00:42:17] I used to watch Top Chef with my ex-wife and Top Chef is great. I really, really enjoyed it. But it's almost like Survivor with the, hey, I'm gonna do this. And it was like, oh, hey, you have to make bread but all by hand, no mixers.

[00:42:40] Right, and sometimes you see people getting chucked out of the competition for the wrong reasons. Like they're chucked out of the competition because their partnership went bad or because it was a crazy, just themed competition that didn't really have anything to do with the quality of their food.

[00:43:06] And I don't like those pieces. I think they've gotten away from that more. I just watched the last season, which was the International All-Stars, which was really cool. If you like ethnic cuisine, there was so much I had never seen before.

[00:43:22] It was really good because it was from all around the world. And it was in England and France. But I don't know, it seemed like a nicer group of people. I don't know, it just seemed less American. Less cutthroat, I will say. Sometimes less American is good.

[00:43:45] But yeah, so I can appreciate the idea of not necessarily wanting to watch food being made that you can't eat. But thanks for listening to us. Yeah, I love it. Because I like to speak into everyone's ears. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was a really nice comment.

[00:44:09] So thank you, Penny, for leaving us a nice little note. I'm okay with it as long as I'm not hungry whenever I'm watching. That's when I have a problem. So it's like this. Oh, yeah. I think we can all share that.

[00:44:23] So next for us, we're going to cover episode four from Collection 11, which as we discussed is Chocolate Week. Chocolate. Exciting to see what kind of challenges they'll have for chocolate. It could range, I mean, we've seen it. I feel like they always do a chocolate week.

[00:44:37] So it could be something very like just a cake or it could be something very different. It could be very intricate, delicate work that they want them to do with the chocolate or shapes or something.

[00:44:48] So it'll be interesting to see what they do and how all the bakers rise to the challenge. And I'm thinking we might be a little late with next week just because of the trip. We're all going to be gone and meeting each other. Maybe. So I don't think-

[00:45:04] Are we going to watch it together? We can. We can do that. I don't mind that. But yeah, we won't be recording while we're all together. I think we're all or at least most of us- We'll make everybody else watch it and give us opinions too.

[00:45:18] Yeah, we can take polls and things and read them out on the next episode. So I don't know if anyone's podcasting next week at all. I know I'm not. So almost everything I'm doing is going to be a little late.

[00:45:32] So apologies in advance, but we'll definitely make some time to come back to this and talk about chocolate week. So as far as what we have going on outside of Bake Off, this isn't the only one that we're doing.

[00:45:51] Peik and I are covering the fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. I don't know if you guys have watched that yet. I haven't seen it yet, but it's on my to-do list. I we covered episode one and I've already warned everyone that

[00:46:05] that one's going to be a little bit late too, getting episode two out. So again, apologies out to everyone. Sorry, we're all got so much travel going on right now, but we did cover episode one. So it is out right now.

[00:46:17] If you would like to listen to that, we'll have episode two as soon as we're back from all of that. And I got to say just based on that first episode, I can't recommend it enough. I'm absolutely loving it. So go watch.

[00:46:29] So I just have to, I have to ask. I watched the little preview type thing and I've watched a bunch of Mike Flanagan with you guys. And a lot of it is rooted more in emotion and connection to the characters.

[00:46:49] But I'm not familiar with the fall of the House of Usher and the Poe story. But I did see the mask of the red death is the title of the second episode, which I believe

[00:47:00] is, I don't, was this based on a series of stories or was it on like one or two? So, so far they, and I've only seen the first episode. I still haven't even had a chance to have a lot going on in the last few days.

[00:47:13] So I haven't even had a chance to watch the second one yet. But he's taking inspiration from multiple works from Poe. Oh, okay. Now the main, I think the main theme is from the fall of the House of Usher, but he's taking

[00:47:29] pieces from, or inspired by, I should say, from other Poe stories, novels, poems, things like that and weaving them in. Is it as scary as like Haunting of Hill House? Because like Haunting of Hill House was fucking freaky. It was amazingly scary. Yeah, it was great.

[00:47:48] I, based on the first episode, the first episode to me was not scary, but it's dark. It has, it feels like you're in a Poe novel or short story or poem. It has that dark Gothic feel, at least the first episode. Again, that's all I've seen.

[00:48:05] I don't know that this one is going to be just from what I read from the critics and non-spoiler critics reviews, like from Rotten Tomatoes, it's not as scary as Hill House. If you're looking for a super scare, it's not there, but not any less good.

[00:48:19] Not this guy. This guy is not down with super scares. It had, I think a 93 or 94% on Rotten Tomatoes right before it was released. I don't know where it's at now since it's out, but it had the highest Rotten Tomatoes

[00:48:33] score for Mike Flanagan's series so far, which I thought was, I'm thinking, wow, because to me they're all really great. So yeah, if you don't love the super scary, but you like still the dark kind of stories, then it's for you. Sorry, I know I extended that.

[00:48:51] No, well, I love talking about it. I can talk a lot more about it, but yeah, no worries. There might be someone listening to this that would be interested in hearing it, but that's all I know and that's all I can base it off of for the moment.

[00:49:06] Fair enough. Fair enough. Wendy, Greg, anything you guys want to promote that you have going on right now or upcoming or just wrapped? I really don't have anything going on, lucky. I know, it's a nice break. We just wrapped Wheel of Time.

[00:49:27] Veronica and I did a closeout and it was a good long episode. It was almost three hours of recording and it was, I'll tell you what, if you have not, if you've been sleeping on the Wheel of Time and you enjoy high fantasy, this is pretty good.

[00:49:48] They spent the first season, it was a little bit slower. I was a little bit, I was very forgiving given that it was bringing a story that I love to life, but this season they really kind of turned it on.

[00:50:02] Great reviews and the critics really liked it and I think that's hard for a season two. I think they are not suffering from the sophomore slump and I thought that they closed that out really, really well and I cannot wait for season three.

[00:50:22] Unfortunately, that will probably be mid-2025, so that sucks. I mean, between that, I don't think that She-Hulk is going to get a second season. Really? Extraordinary season two, I believe is coming.

[00:50:43] I think it'll be coming in the next year or so, but yeah, I don't really have anything on the horizon unless I just find something and I'm like, oh hey, I'll do that. That's the same. I have Yellowjackets and Hammead's Tale and those will probably be, you know.

[00:51:00] They might be a little late. They might be 2025 as well. It's the last season of Hammead's Tale. Yeah, I've got a lot that I think is going to be also pushed till 2025 as well.

[00:51:12] That was one that would take 18 months or two years anyway and then with the strike, who knows? Yep. It is a little shocking that the SAG strike's not over yet, but given the writer's strike, closed it out.

[00:51:29] But I was a little surprised that the SAG after it was not closed out much sooner after the writer's strike finished. Yeah, I hope they get what they want and we can all just get them all back to working again.

[00:51:50] Well, you can catch Greg's wrap-up of Wheel of Time, Strange Indeed with me and Paik, covering Fall of House of Usher. All of that's on podcastica.com. We've got Paik and Daphne with Run For Your Lives. They just covered Pet Sematary.

[00:52:10] I think this week's the finale of The Walking Dead, Daryl Dixon. Jason and Lucy are going to be wrapping up that coverage, so check them out. Penny and company, go ahead. Sorry, I do want to go ahead and plug.

[00:52:24] If you haven't watched it yet, Ted Lasso, Kristen and Ben are killing it with the coverage. I've watched the episodes repeatedly, and then as I'm watching them, I'm like, ooh, I need to send in feedback for this episode three episodes ago because I just

[00:52:42] haven't had time to do it yet. It's just so exciting to watch it again. It's so awesome. It's so great. Yeah, you beat me to it. But yeah, no, it's all good. Throw it out there because I might miss something.

[00:52:55] Ben and Kristen doing their Ted Lasso rewatch, and then Penny and company doing a Buffy rewatch. Got a lot going on at Podcastica. There's something out there for everyone. Go out to the website, podcastica.com, and scroll around, find and listen, and subscribe and follow.

[00:53:18] Sydney's doing Lokiverse too. Oh, Lokiverse, thank you. With Alex. I think with Alex, yeah. And Jim. I know Ahsoka wrapped up. Yeah, like this. Ahsoka's wrapped. We are not in a lull necessarily because there are some great things on, but for me, I'm in catch-up mode. Same.

[00:53:40] I'm just trying to get caught up. I'm always feeling constantly behind. So a lot to catch up on and a lot of content for everyone to go listen to. Planning on my hibernation for the winter, so. Same.

[00:53:57] You would think I live in Montana, but I live in Maryland, but it's still winter for me. Well, this was great. Thank you, Greg and Wendy again for a great week. Thank you. Oh yeah, thanks. On your marks. Get set. Bake!