Doctor Down: Paediatrician Yannis Leaves the Bake Off Tent in Dessert Week

Yannis Ali, a 28-year-old paediatric doctor based in London, became the fifth baker to leave the seventeenth series of “The Great British Bake Off” on Tuesday night, eliminated at the end of Dessert Week on Channel 4. Presenter Alison Hammond delivered the news that Yannis was going home, while her co-presenter Noel Fielding named Connie Star Baker for the week, Channel 4 and Memorable TV reported.

Dessert Week opened with a first in the show’s history: a staggered-start Signature, in which the bakers began their self-saucing puddings at different times. Gary started first, and Yannis was left waiting until last, SquareMeal reported. For the Technical, the Gingham Pantry returned and Nigella Lawson set the task — a bread and butter pudding, with the flavours left to the bakers. The Showstopper sent the tent back in time: a retro dessert trolley carrying at least three different puddings, Channel 4 said.

Yannis finished seventh in the Technical, and his Showstopper fell short of the standard the judges were set. The cream on his Black Forest gateau had split and turned sour, and his sticky toffee pudding was judged too dense, SquareMeal and TV Guide reported. As his trolley of retro British desserts was assessed, Lawson also pointed out that Black Forest gateau originated in Germany, TV Guide said.

Connie’s Star Baker title rested on consistency across all three challenges. She received a Hollywood handshake for her self-saucing chocolate orange puddings in the Signature; a forgotten timer nearly cost her, but the pudding came out just saucy enough, leaving Lawson, in SquareMeal’s account, “mesmerised.” The judges did pick faults in her trolley — Paul Hollywood liked the flavour of her pineapple upside-down cake but called it overbaked, and neither judge liked her apple and pear pie — but her work across the week carried the title.

The week’s standout tasting came from Tom, whose cocktail-themed trolley included a mojito-layered pavlova that drew Lawson’s highest praise. “This is the ideal dessert,” she told him. “This I will be making, if you’d be so kind as to share your recipe with me,” TV Guide reported.

Yannis was born in Vienna and moved to London at the age of 11, and has said that watching “Bake Off” formed part of his English-language education growing up, Memorable TV reported. He trained at Norwich Medical School. On leaving the tent, he said: “Thank you, it has been a pleasure. I grew up watching this programme and being here for five weeks is surreal. I will be very proud of that and it’s been absolutely wonderful,” Channel 4 reported.

Speaking after his exit, Yannis said he was “heartbroken to leave my Bake Off family, but there was also a strange sense of relief,” explaining that filming long hours in the tent alongside his full-time job — often 12-hour shifts and nights — had been exhausting, Memorable TV and other reports said. His standout moment, by his own account, was the Signature cheesecake challenge in Audience Choice Week, which he baked side by side with his sister in the tent: baking had always been something they shared, he said, and the memory was one he would keep forever, Channel 4 reported.

This series is Nigella Lawson’s first as a judge, following Prue Leith’s departure; she sits alongside Paul Hollywood, with Fielding and Hammond presenting from the grounds of Welford Park. Channel 4’s billing for the series counts 12 bakers, thirty challenges and ten episodes.

One number in the coverage does not agree. Twelve bakers started the series, and Yannis follows Danni, Shannon, Molly and Nikki out of the tent — a count under which seven bakers remain, and most reports say it is seven bakers who go on to Pastry Week. Memorable TV’s report of the same episode, however, says “the remaining eight bakers return” next week. The count is muddied further by the manner of one earlier departure: Nikki withdrew from the competition the previous week rather than being eliminated by the judges, the Daily Story Desk noted. Both figures for the bakers remaining are printed here as reported.

The series continues with Pastry Week on Tuesday, October 27, at 8pm on Channel 4, the channel’s listings and TV Guide said.

Sources: Channel 4; Memorable TV; Particle News; SquareMeal; TV Guide; Daily Story Desk.