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REVIEW: “I’ll help you by cleaning these with my face.”
Yes, as new The Great Australian Bake Off co-host Cal Wilson uplifts one contestant’s used mixing bowls, still laden with copious amounts of discarded chocolate, it’s clear the Kiwi is not only there to entertain the audience, she’s also keen to help out the competitors where she can.
Part of the long-running reality show’s latest makeover (which debuts on TVNZ 1 on Thursday night at 7.30pm), the colourful (in more ways than one) Christchurch-born comedian is the undoubted breakout star of the new hosting and judging quartet, delivering just the right mix of deadpan observations, saucy banter, sassy commentary and food-related puns. And that’s despite some illustrious co-workers.
“Rachel Khoo, a woman so beloved by nature that pigeons call her name,” Wilson says of the British cook, who is far more akin to Nigella Lawson than Prue Leith in her co-judging role with Melbourne-based “pastry king” and MasterChef Australia regular Darren Purchese.
Wilson goes easy on him in the opening episode, offering a far more pithy assessment of her fellow host – Australian YouTuber Natalie Tran, as she describes Cake Week’s technical bake – Khoo’s Raspberry and Pepper Cake: “It’s small and delicate like Natalie Tran, until you tell her there’s no coffee – and then it gets peppery.”
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Kiwi comedian Cal Wilson, second from right, is part of an all-new hosting and judging line-up on The Great Australian Bake off that also includes, from left, Darren Purchese, Rachel Khoo and Natalie Tran.
But while the personnel have been refreshed, the show’s recipe is essentially the same.
“Twelve of Australia’s best amateur bakers of all flavours and appropriate demographics”, as Wilson describes them (they include a Canadian flight attendant, a 1950s-loving health policy advisor and an unsurprisingly fastidious scale technician), have been gathered together in a Greater Sydney dog park, where the judges will “nurture and challenge contestants to create some of the most, delicious, elaborate and jaw-dropping bakes ever seen”.
Each themed week, they will all have to create a signature bake and follow a recipe in the technical bake, before producing a suitably showstopping creation. One will be crowned Star Baker for their efforts and one will be sent packing.
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While the personnel have been refreshed, The Great Australian Bake Off’s recipe is essentially the same.
Five previous seasons of the potent and delightful combination of Claire Hooper, Mel Buttle, Matt Moran and Maggie Beer means Wilson and company have some big shoes to fill (and indeed the producers have smartly retained the beloved Beer as an occasional guest judge), but, on the evidence of the opening instalment (and Wilson’s admission that she owns a extremely large collection of footwear), the new foursome look like they are going to be just as awesome.
The new season of The Great Australian Bake Off debuts on TVNZ 1 at 7.30pm on Thursday, August 17. Episodes will also be available to stream on TVNZ+.
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