Paul Hollywood has claimed contestants on The Great British Bake Off were cheating during the disastrous technical challenge, which left judges unable to taste most of the flatbreads.
Technical challenge goes wrong
During Tuesday's show (October 13), contestants tackled bread week, with the technical challenge involving making a blue cheese and roasted grape flatbread. However, instead of making one singular flatbread, they all opted to make smaller ones, which made them extremely thick and uncooked in the middle.
When it came to Paul and Nigella Lawson judging the flatbreads, they were unable to taste most of them due to the majority being raw. This meant they had to judge them based on look, shape and uniformity.
Judges react on spin-off show
Discussing the disastrous outcome on Bake Off's spin-off show, Second Helpings, Paul revealed to presenters Jon Richardson and Judi Love that he believes the contestants broke the rules while preparing their flatbreads.
With Jon describing it as an "exceptionally poor show", Nigella labelled the challenge "catastrophic". In the aftermath of the unsuccessful technical task, Paul subsequently posted a demonstration video on Instagram showing himself creating the blue cheese and roasted grape flatbreads, describing the recipe as "simple" to execute.
Disagreement over cause
Nigella commented: "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, swiftly rejected Nigella's assessment, responding: "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."
He added: "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."
However, his Bake Off co-star was quick to challenge Paul's assessment, arguing she wouldn't describe it as cheating. Nigella added: "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."
Standing up for the bakers, Nigella described them as "really good" while pointing out how 'annoying' it was for them, given that the contestants were well aware they were capable of performing far better than they had during the technical challenge.
Elimination and next episode
Ultimately, one baker produced a flatbread that was slightly cooked to claim the top position in the technical challenge. Elsewhere during the Channel 4 broadcast, audiences watched Molly become the latest contestant to depart the tent, having become the third baker to face elimination.
The Great British Bake Off continues Tuesdays on Channel 4 from 8pm.
