Paul Hollywood has accused Great British Bake Off contestants of "cheating" during a flatbread challenge in the current series, a claim his co-judge Nigella Lawson pushed back against.
Speaking on the companion programme Second Helpings, the judge told hosts Jon Richardson and Judi Love that he believed the bakers had broken the rules while making their flatbreads. Jon described the round as an "exceptionally poor show", while Nigella branded the challenge "catastrophic".
Judges clash over technical round
Nigella said: "For them, I mean, I think that the difficulty is that once confidence starts going, it's very hard to get it back."
Paul, however, dismissed that interpretation, retorting: "It's not that, they were cheating. They were cheating. This is flatbread, there's a clue straight away. It is flat."
"Not crumpet, not chunky. Someone was looking over the shoulder, going: 'Oh, ok'. Someone else has copied that person and then somebody else, and in the end, they all ended up."
Nigella defends the bakers
Nigella said she would not necessarily call it cheating: "I think that is about not having confidence because suddenly, you know someone was going to do a flatbread and then you see it and think: 'Oh no, maybe it's meant to be like that'. I think that's the difficulty."
She defended the bakers, praising them as "really good" while noting how "frustrating" the situation was.
Following the failed technical round, Paul shared a tutorial clip on Instagram demonstrating how to make the blue cheese and roasted grape flatbreads, calling the recipe "simple" to follow.
One baker managed to produce a slightly undercooked flatbread to secure first place in the technical challenge. Molly became the latest contestant to leave the tent, the third baker sent home this series. The Great British Bake Off airs every Tuesday on Channel 4 from 8pm.
