‘Great British Baking Show’ Contestant Ruby Tandoh Dishes on Show Secrets

Ruby Tandoh rose to fame after finishing as a co-runner-up on the fourth season of The Great British Baking Show back in 2013, and now, over a decade later, she is opening up about her time on the hit show.

The British baker and author recently penned an essay for The New Yorker, discussing her experiences in the baking industry, including her time on the popular competition series, which originally aired on the BBC in the U.K. before moving to Channel 4. The series is available on Netflix in the U.S. (Season 4 is labelled as Collection 2 on the streamer).

Speaking about the filming process, Tandoh explained what would happen in the moments between challenges, sharing, per People, “We’d sit in a sofa-crowded snug in the east wing of the house, talking s*** and selectively sharing baking tips.”

She also recalled how the show’s former executive producer, Kieran Smith, once spoke to the contestants about why some critics find the show “boring,” blaming it on the camaraderie between the contestants.

“‘The boring thing that everyone talks about is that [the show] is kind,'” she claimed Smith once said. “We didn’t start off by going, ‘We want to make a really kind, warm show.’ Bakers are quite unusual television characters. It came from them.”

Even though the show leaned into the “kindness” theme, Tandoh claimed that the producers would still employ the usual reality television tricks. Remembering how she and fellow contestant Glenn Cosby would sneak away for a cigarette, she said they often “moaned about the challenges and the ambushes from producers.”

“Their overeager commiserations, the way they’d bait you into narrating your downfall in real time,” she stated. “We took slow drags, discussing the merits of poaching meringue in custard as producers scurried across the lawn with ingredients veiled under gingham.”

Tandoh also noted she could see the “edit” coming together in the midst of the competition, explaining how she “could imagine how the footage would be metabolized in the edit.”

“There would be longer clips of the front-runners and the people at risk of going home; the rest of us would serve as the rhythm section, reading the recipes, putting things into the oven and taking them out, hitting the major beats of any particular challenge,” she detailed. “Somebody would be set up as a dark horse. Somebody else would be tripped up by their pride.”

Tandoh ultimately finished as joint runner-up on Season 4, alongside Kimberley Wilson, both of whom lost out to Frances Quinn. Throughout her time on the show, Tandoh was the subject of fan debate, with some viewers accusing her of having an affair with judge Paul Hollywood to get ahead in the competition.

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Following the end of the season, Tandoh came out as gay and slammed those who had accused her of being attracted to Hollywood. “P.S. For those who thought I fancied Paul Hollywood or that I’d ever bang him to get ahead – JOKE’S ON YOU, YOU MASSIVE S***TING MISOGYNISTS,” she wrote on X (then Twitter).

Hollywood responded to the tweet, blasting the former contestant for “bringing me into your announcement.”

When the show moved networks in 2016, Tandoh slammed Hollywood as a “peacocking manchild lingering wherever the money is.”

Appearing on Elizabeth Day’s How to Fail podcast in 2021, Tandoh admitted she no longer watched The Great British Baking Show, explaining, “No, not at all. No, I can’t. I appreciate it as a show. I think the format is clearly compelling, but no. When I hear the little song, the little jingle at the start, I feel sick.”

Since her time on the show, Tandoh has written several books, including Crumb: The Baking Book (2014), Flavour: Eat What You Love (2016), Eat Up!: Food, Appetite, Eating What You Want (2018), and Cook as You Are (2021). Her fifth book, All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now, is set for release on Tuesday, September 9.