A2A from DaddyBearDan.

Let me break it down to separate points.

• Ambiance:

This is the set for MasterChef.

Classy, expensive-looking, artificially illuminated, a lot of shiny metal furniture. It strikes some awe. But, it fails to ignite happiness.

Now let us take a look at the set of Great British Bake-Off (GBBO).

We can see natural lighting (using sunlight), furniture of pastel-shades, a lot of white and other bright colors in the palette.

GBBO starts off creating a more innocent, more amateurish ambiance— which immediately puts the viewers in a lighter and comfortable mood.

• It. Is. Desserts… DUH:

Seriously! Desserts are always worth the calories. Get me anything sweet, and I’m in. Desserts are the most enjoyable invention by mankind (including porn). Additionally, they do an excellent job segregating all those different sweets into separate competitions every week.

• There are no team competitions:

One major problem I have with the Masterchef franchise is the existence of those godawful team competitions every week— which always leads to infighting, politics and a LOT of bitterness among the participants. Team competitions are typically outdoor, unnecessarily large scale, and very very chaotic to watch.

Also, from a more meritocratic point of view, a comparatively weak-competitor can survive for long just by being on the right team every episode, which is unfair to the more consistent performers.

In GBBO, a competitor has to complete three tasks every week, and they will be judged based on those three treats only. Fair and Square. There are no team, every baker for himself/herself.

• There are nice moderators and remarkably nicer judges:

Mel, Sue, Sandy, Noel — all four are AMAZING. I am not gonna take sides here. Personally, my least favorite among the four is Sandy, but even she is really really good. I LOVED Sue, and Noel kind of grew on me. Their(all of them) brand of humor is cheeky, innocent and in an odd way, really really fun.

Apart from those amazing presenters, we have nice judges. I mean really nice judges.

Paul Hollywood is supposed to be the mean one. But even he never exhibits anger, let alone swear on the set. The worst he says is —

it’s a shame

That is quite vanilla if you compare him with this guy…

• Competitors are nice :

They. Even. Help. Each. Other. during the competition! How outrageous is that?

It is amazingly comforting to look at a bunch of nice people helping each other. It makes me forget about the upcoming conference talks, lab-demonstrations, thesis defense, journal drafts — and takes me to a nice world for an hour.

• The masterpieces:

In every episode, competitors are expected to make baking ‘Masterpiece’-s which are almost always amazing to look at.

• Paul Hollywood

Personal opinion: He is so fucking HAWT. To top it up, he gives these intense looks. I do have a major crush on him.

And yes, for this particular show— he is the cherry on the top (can be interpreted naughtily) for me.

MMM… YEAH!