The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals is better than just a spinoff

The Great British Baking Show isn’t what it used to be. The absurdly charismatic hosts of the first few seasons are long gone. Only one of the show’s original judges is left (and that’s not the Good An). The show’s own popularity has cost it much of its coziness, while more and more of its challenges have seemed to be aimed at creating viral (possible problematic) social media content instead of immersive television.

The Great British Baking ShowThe show’s saving grace has long been the contestants, whose charming normalcy made the show somehow feel like anti-reality TV. It continues to melt the heart as the bakers help each other (you’re in! What are you doing?!) But overall, the show quickly becomes a victim of its own success. As more and more contestants are also long-time fans of the show, it starts to feel incestuous and self-aggrandizing rather than strange. Its popularity has also allowed contestants to launch a social media baking career with just one appearance on the show. Fame (or the potential for fame) can spoil anything, even a healthy little baking show.

All things considered, the show just doesn’t feel like it used to. But I’m happy to report that there is an alternative: The Great British Baking Show: The Professionals.

This spin-off series is available for streaming on Netflix and is the most fun series in years. First off, as the name suggests, this isn’t a show about hobbyist bakers (or future social media stars). Instead, this show draws its contestants from professional bakers and pastry chefs, who compete as two-person teams. Crucially, they operate actually bakeries. Don’t expect a precocious school prodigy or an endearingly bumbling home baker among these contestants, who are all in business (because to them it already is!). Of course, that means there’s a little less drama among the contestants, but that was never what I was looking at The Great British Baking Show for.

The other thing about watching these true professionals make tough bakes is that the only limitations they face are their own abilities. The show takes place indoors, meaning there won’t be an episode where they cruelly have the contestants build chocolate sculptures in an outdoor tent in the hottest week of the summer.

Nothing beats the technical challenge from the main series, either, where contestants take on a mysterious recipe with deliberately vague instructions. Later seasons of the original show have increasingly made this segment gimmick. You won’t get the amusingly wrong attempts at a recipe The professionalsbut at least you don’t have to watch their pathetic attempts at making tacos.

The other thing that makes The professionals so much more fun that it doesn’t share any of the main show judges or hosts. It has two hosts that may sound familiar: Tom Allen, who recently became a Great British baking show holiday special, and Liam Charles, who took part in Season 8, which is the first season after Mary Berry, Sue Perkins, and Mel Giedroyc left.

It would be too much to ask the hosts to measure up to the perfection of Sue and Mel. Honestly, hosts that aren’t annoying and/or boring would be more than enough – so it’s a real treat that the chemistry between Liam and Tom is actually entertaining. I actually have chuckled in some of their antics, which didn’t annoy me so much that I wished they would just cut back on bakers.

In fact, the judges feel like an instant improvement. Instead of the obnoxious myopia of Paul Hollywood or the understated, milquetoast presence of Prue Leith, The professionals is presented by two flamboyant, outspoken, fascinating judges: Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden. While the contestants are generally more buttoned up…well… professionals, the judges bring a tremendous amount of personality and energy to the show. Even though their antics and curious word choices can be almost silly, they are also tough, intelligent judges. Their standards are pretty high too: some rounds, their caustic criticism leaves you wondering which team did it least bad.

It’s also refreshing to have a few judges who aren’t weighed down by multiple seasons of the show. Instead of the judgment being reduced to the hair-raising question of whether someone gets a Paul Hollywood Handshake®, the focus is on the bakes. You often learn something about obscure pastries, intriguing flavor combinations and what is possible with sugar sculptures. It’s just fun to watch The Great British Baking Show go back to great baking.