Bake Off: The Professionals returns to Channel 4 on Tuesday 17 June at 8PM with Season 8, Episode 4—upping the ante with an elite challenge straight from Raymond Blanc’s legendary Le Manoir kitchen. No recipe. No room for error. Just twelve duos and one very famous dessert.
Now in its eighth run, this is the most technical of the Bake Off family—a pastry-focused crucible where perfection is the price of survival. This week, teams are tasked with recreating chef-judge Benoit Blin’s ‘Le Café Crème’—a signature Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons creation known more for precision than pity. No full recipe will be provided, just a name and reputation to live up to.
The second half doesn’t let up. Teams must produce a large-scale illusion piece—gardening-themed and hiding a vegetable cake centre—for 24 people. These aren’t your typical home bakers. They’re hotel pastry chefs, restaurant dessert leads, and competition veterans. But even the most seasoned hands can buckle under time pressure and sugar work.
The format remains tight. Ellie Taylor and Liam Charles return to host, keeping things buoyant as the teams battle through custard collapses and praline panic. Judging duties fall once again to Blin and the ever-exacting Cherish Finden, whose poker-faced critiques leave no room for soggy shortcuts.
For Channel 4, this is part of a reliable summer strategy: midweek appointment viewing with just enough jeopardy to keep audiences engaged. While Bake Off: The Professionals doesn’t have the same tent-based warmth as its amateur counterpart, it’s carved out a lane of its own—glossier, sharper, and unapologetically tough.
If you’re looking for light escapism, this isn’t it. But if you want to see the best of British patisserie under pressure—genuinely innovative baking, tight deadlines, and desserts that could headline a Michelin menu—this is the one to watch.
Bake Off: The Professionals airs Tuesday 17 June at 8PM on Channel 4.
