DREAMS of lifting the trophy of one of Britain’s ‘toughest’ baking competitions came to an end for a Berkswell chef and his team mate.
Mustapha Rahimi and his commis pastry chef Tracy Cheung failed to make it to the final six in Tuesday’s (August 8) episode of Bake Off: The Professionals.
The pair went head-to-head against hotel and a patisserie from across the country during chocolate week.
The teams were tasked to create two chocolate desserts – one which featured fruit and the other highlighted autumnal flavours.
Determined not to be in the bottom two Mustapha and Tracy set out to wow the judges – Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin – by striking a balance of powerful flavours.
Speaking to the judges during baking Mustapha said: “We have been twice in the last two, I think we should not be today.
“If we don’t get the right balance it will be a bomb.”
At the judging table, several issues were highlighted, from missing fruit desserts to unset desserts.
There were a few glimmers of hope with flavours of the blackcurrant cremeux.
In the second challenge Mustapha and Tracy were determined to be crowned king of the jungle with their lion safari themed showpiece with a moving part.
They were hoping to strike the right balance of flavours with a matcha and mango moulded bar and a Szechuan pepper brownie crunchy base and a salted caramel ganache and honey and rosemary cremeux free-form and dipped bar.
The pair fought tooth and nail to stay in the competition with Mustapha attempting to cast a lion’s head three times before time was called.
Once again flavours were highlighted as being an issue and the piece was unfinished – as it didn’t have a moving part.
After being announced as the team to go home Mustapha said: “It’s just not our day and we go home.
“I think we deserved it because we had a bad day yesterday.”
