A SHIRLEY pastry chef is hoping for ‘second the best’ as he takes on Britain’s ‘toughest’ baking competition.
Bharat Chandegra and his head chef from SOKO Patisserie have made it through to the final six of Bake Off: The Professionals on channel four.
The pair went head-to-head against hotels, restaurants and cafes from across the country in the elimination round and wowed judges in their first challenge with their coffee eclairs and were deemed to have won that challenge by judge Benoit Blin.
The teams were then tasked to create a trompe l’oeil showpiece which would trick the judges into believing it was real and not made from chocolate and sugar which had a tarte tatin hidden in it.
Bharat said: “For the first episode I would say our best moment had to be successfully baking our eclairs correctly as that can be very tricky in unfamiliar ovens and settings.
“Our worst moment was probably knowing we could have done more on our showpiece.”
But this isn’t the first time in the competition for team captain Bharat who made it through to the final of the competition in 2018 as part of the Resorts World team.
He was pipped to crowning glory with while working with team captian Darryl Collins after their grand sugar showpiece smashed.
But now Bharat is back and he’s hoping to go one better with John at his side who he mentored to the final of the UK and Ireland Chocolate Masters.
Since their first challenges Bharat and John have gone on to win their second round with their haute couture showpiece dressed with aperitif-flavoured desserts.
Their final heat saw mixed reviews from the judges in both their viennoiserie and choux tower challenge.
Despite this they won second place and saw them through to next week’s round.
