Prue Leith spills the tea on the differences between the 'Great British' and 'Great American Baking Show'

You know, one of the extraordinary things about both baking shows

is that you always think you know who's going to win and then sometimes, and always, every single time

Paul and I think we know who the winner is and we're always wrong

Because there's always some twist and turn. It's almost like a script writer says

now we need a bit more excitement, so the guy who's doing really well starts to bake really badly

It's extraordinary. We're back in the tent. Did you guys miss us

Something that's been bugging me for a while, and I'm sure it's a very simple answer, is sometimes I hear the show referred to as the Great British Bake Off

Sometimes I've heard it referred to as baking show. Is it both or is it one or the other

We would have liked to call it, when we started doing the American one

we'd have liked to call it Great American Bake Off. But the word Bake Off belongs to Pillsbury

But anyhow, we're not allowed to use the word. So we had to say baking show So it is a more simple answer than I thought It starts tomorrow And I binged all six episodes And I got to say the winner I not going to spoil it

but the winner, I was equal and surprised and elated. Sometimes the winner is someone who has been just consistent and solid

the whole way through. Maybe it's one, you know, Starbaker once. It's under the radar and then just really comes into their own at the end

It's such a mixed bag. You never, never know what's going to happen. and I suppose that's part of the charm

And also I think that the audience get really fond of the bakers. Yes

And they begin to sort of root for them and they want some particular baker to do well

Oh yeah, I mean, I feel like they're a friend by the end. And more than any other reality show

I have followed more bakers from the baking show than any other show I watch

I get so invested in who they are, their lives, like that and are they going to keep baking after the show um and a lot of them do and they go on to

be food writers or professional bakers or they start a little cupcake business or something this season was filmed in the iconic tent right in england and something that I noticed that was sort of fascinating to me was that you know normally on the normally on the British version you know it it like it a metric system What was

changed? Well Paul and I find it a bit difficult to remember to say cookie instead of biscuit at all

They're just a few things like that that are difficult but And the recipes just go straight into cups

I often bake with American measures because it's so much easier. You just scoop, you just use a cup and you don't have to worry about 350 mils

And the American bakers are really, really good. And I think this year's bunch are the best we've had

and you know when you think how they decorate things they're as good as any professional

and you have to remind yourself all the time these are amateurs not professionals they are

just ordinary people who've taught them usually who've taught themselves to bake

often by watching to youtube or very few of them have ever had a formal cookery lesson Yeah which makes it even more amazing when they create things like what Kim created in

the final showstopper or what Daniel had created. You know, it is mind-blowing

I mean, some of those things are actually engineering constructions. I mean, it's not all about the flavor of the bake, though most of it is

I mean, most of the things that Paul and I care about most is how it tastes. Right. But they have to be able to think like engineers

because sometimes we ask that the showstopper is, you know, half a meter high or something

In the British version, I feel like they generally go home during the week, right? And then they come back

But when the Americans go over there, are they all just there for the duration and then they stay until the end

Yeah, they're all there for the duration because we need them all to be there right at the end because they all come back for the final day

and so if they're thrown out right early on they can of course go home if they like

but they can stay on and a lot of them just have a lovely holiday and go to Scotland

What a dream At least there's a reward for being thrown out early