Great British Bake Off’s Amanda Georgiou reveals show secrets and huge amount of money bakers spend

Great British Bake Off star Amanda Georgiou has spoken about the massive amounts of money bakers hand out while appearing on the show.

The former contestant – who appeared in the 2021 series and was eliminated in week six – said she had hundreds of eggs and a huge selection of ingredients, as well as pots, pans and expensive cans in reserve so she could reach her full potential while filming. , while speaking out about the secrets behind the scenes.

About the trial, she told Johnny Seifert about Secure the insecure podcast: ‘You all spend a lot of money. I would go to the supermarket and I would always buy at least 10 boxes of eggs. I always have more than 100 eggs. Eventually I stopped putting things in my closet.

“I had very big tubs of flour… had all my baking powder out and all my syrups and all the bits and pieces you need to bake.

“It’s a lot of money, but they’ll cover it for you. They do help you with your ingredients. They don’t just expect you to pay for everything yourself.

Amanda said that while Channel 4 gives each baker a budget, most decide to deposit some of their own money as well.

“They all give us a set amount and it’s not just the ingredients that we bought, we took all our own cans and everything with us because you couldn’t guarantee they would have the can you want, so I bought fonts. The font cans alone were £50,’ she explained.

Ready for action: The former contestant – who appeared in the 2021 series – said she had hundreds of eggs and a huge selection of ingredients

“I now have a garage full of baked goods where my garage used to be full of lawnmowers and garden tools. My husband is not very happy with me,” she continued.

She talked more about how long the bakers have to prepare their recipes before they go into the tent, revealing: “We’ve got a few weeks, I think it was about five or six weeks (preparation). We received all the briefings so that we knew which week was cake week, cookie week, bread week, dessert week, German week and so on.’

“It’s not just bread, it has to be a theme so they tell you what the theme is and then you start writing your recipes. It’s very hard work, especially if you’re also trying to do your full-time job.’

Competition: Amanda, who was voted out in the sixth week of last year’s series, also had pots, pans and expensive cans in reserve so she could reach her full potential while filming

‘You have deadlines, where you still have to hand in your two prescriptions every week.

“For example, if it was bread week, you have your signature bread box and then you have your showstopper for bread week. For example, I did my seabed theme when I had the octopus and it was custom to practice that.”

“But you also have to write your recipes and they have to be your own original recipe, you can’t copy Mary Berry or Hollywood’s recipe. You send in your prescription and they say, “No, you have to rewrite it. You can’t use it, it looks too much like someone else’s.”‘

Verdict: About the process, she told Johnny Seifert on Secure The Insecure Podcast: ‘I would go to the supermarket and I would always probably buy at least 10 boxes of eggs’

Meanwhile, Amanda revealed the tremendous effort she put into the application form and follow-up interviews with the production team and baking technicians.

She explained, “It’s about what your hobbies are, what you like to bake, what you don’t like to bake, what are you good at, what you’re not good at.

“They want you to send in pictures too, they don’t just want to see an application form, they want to see at least five pictures of different baking styles. That’s a minimum, I think I sent about twenty photos.’

‘It takes you endlessly to fill that in. Then you wait for a call, which you may or may not receive. The phone call is almost like a quiz, talking for an hour with someone who knows all about baking, asking lots of questions to see if you’re really as knowledgeable as you said in your application.’

Comeback: The Great British Bake Off returned to the screens on Tuesday for its 13th series, with 4.4 million viewers tuning in

“Because you know what it’s like to fill out an application for a job or something, we’re all exaggerating a bit when we say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got all those A-stars. And I’m brilliant at this. brilliant at that.”‘

“So if you’re not as good as you say they’ll come out and you won’t get a call again. So you have to pass that tech quiz before moving on.”

“Maybe they ask you what sort of things make your cake go flat, if you open the oven too early, if you blow too much air into it, if it rises and then falls very quickly. There are so many reasons. ‘

To be a good baker, you have to understand why things go wrong, because you have to make sure you don’t do it again.”

The Great British Bake Off returned to the screens on Channel 4 on Tuesday for its 13th series, with 4.4 million viewers.

The Great British Bake Off continues on channel 4 at 8pm on Tuesday.

Entertainment: The Great British Bake Off continues Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4 (Amanda left in picture)