CAUTION: CONTAINS SPOILERS for Ultimate Baking Championship!!

Four weeks in, what do we think of the rotating guest judges, friends? Guest judge tonight was Bryan Ford, whom if you’re a baking show addict like me you may remember we saw as a judge on Sandra Lee’s Blue Ribbon Baking Championship a couple years ago – which, that was one of the best baking shows that’s come out recently! When are they going to do a second season? Bryan was an excellent judge on that show, and it was nice to see him back at it again. Since that show, he’s published a cookbook and he and his ridiculously-gorgeous wife have had a baby, hurray! I’m a fan of his.

Although personally, I do miss the familiar, regular panel of Duff, Nancy, and Kardea; but, I also kind of like seeing these illustrious guest judges come and go; it adds to the high-end, fast-paced feel of the show, and keeps things unpredictable.

Anyway, the highlights of tonight were Juan and Christopher being best bros, and Rochelle and Florencia being… the exact opposite.

Apparently, Juan and Christopher used to work together, so they’re already friends and really good teammates. The whole theme of their pastry display was the story of their friendship, which was so adorable I just about died, like, they even made a little chocolate clock with mini-croissants for the numbers and set it to three o’clock, because that was when Juan’s shift would begin on the days that they worked together in the restaurant, HOW CUTE IS THAT. 😭🥰 I just love friendship, I love seeing people who are friends – it’s just such a cool and fascinating thing when two people just like each other for who they are and enjoy each other’s company. To make things even cuter, they both scored exactly 38 points; #twinning.

Rochelle and Florencia, on the other hand… oof. As Adalberto observed while watching their judging, “this is torture. Torture.” It really was painful to watch them. And I’m sorry to say it, because I’m a fan of Rochelle, but it did kinda appear that Rochelle was the one being difficult to work with – the way she snapped at Florencia to “just worry about herself” when Florencia was trying to make sure their pastries would be approximately the same size. Ouch!

To her credit, Rochelle did apologize later. And I can certainly understand how she must have felt; it would suck, for me, if I were already in some high-stress, highly-demanding situation and then, to make matters worse, had to cooperate with a teammate on something creative, ugh. I’m not a good team player, and apparently Rochelle also prefers her independence. This challenge threw off her vibe; her sweet croissant came out “bready,” and her savory one tight, flat, and dense. Florencia did a bit better and managed to stay safe.

Meanwhile, “Girl Power” team Molly and Casey won the night – my girl Casey is now the only one with multiple victories! 🥳 She did a beautiful job, drawing inspiration from her Italian heritage; that raspberry cheesecake danish sounded dreamy.

And Clement was predictably amazing, being an expert of laminated dough – Duff said his looked like a machine had made it. It was kinda hilarious to me, though, that he made a hot dog croissant for his savory pastry, lol! All this talk about the Frenchman being so good at pastry because it’s so quintessentially French and French this and French that and how very French it all is — and then he decides to stick an all-American hot dog in it! I guess his idea was to show the blending of his native culture with his new life in America. In any case, he certainly made it work.

But I was disappointed that his teammate Adalberto didn’t do as well as he’d hoped. I keep wanting him to pull back into the lead! He was up there for a minute in a couple challenges in the first two episodes. Come on, Adalberto, we know you’ve got this!

And tbh I’m still over here reeling from the loss of Robert. It just feels wrong that he’s not on this show anymore. I almost want them to pull a Spring Baking Championship Season 8 and “resurrect” him (remember that? My husband and I still joke about how stupid that was, lol).

Vocab words I learned on tonight’s show: cacciatore, queso fundido, humita, duxelle-au-vent, flamiche, guajillo. It’s nice to still be surprised by a baking show, after all these years.

HERE’S THE RECAP:

Only One Challenge: Pastry Shop – Partners Challenge, teams randomly assigned: each team must create two dozen savory and two dozen sweet pastries with laminated dough, and a “pastry shop window” display to arrange them in. Flavors and theme must be cohesive. Points awarded out of 50.

Casey & Molly: European theme

• Casey: savory Italian ham and cheese croissant; sweet raspberry cheesecake danish
• Molly: savory sun-dried tomato-mushroom cacciatore danish; sweet cannoli croissant

Florencia & Rochelle: International theme

• Rochelle: savory queso fundido guajillo croissant; sweet matcha yuzu croissant
• Florencia: savory puff pastry mille foglie w/ caprese filling; sweet croissant w/ humita & blue cheese sauce

Clement & Adalberto: Immigrant theme

• Adalberto: savory open-face Cuban meat pie w/ picadillo filling; sweet croissant muffin w/ cream cheese & blueberry-lime filling
• Clement: savory hot dog croissant; sweet brownie croissant crown

Juan & Christopher: a testament to their bromance; as Juan said, “to honor the relationship that Chris & I have”

• Juan: savory flamiche roll w/ bacon & leek; sweet chocolate pretzel caramel danish
• Chris: savory mushroom duxelle-au-vent; sweet rice pudding-filled pastry w/ mango compote

STATS:

• Casey & Molly: 46/41
• Chris & Juan: 38/38
• Adalberto & Clement: 32/42
• Florencia & Rochelle: 32/30

Winner: Casey

Sent Home: Rochelle

A dessert is called “sexy”: 0 times (but we did get one “naughty”) (running total: 3)

Superlatives from the judges: 0 (running total 1)

Dead family members mentioned: 0 (running total 1)

Duff’s gaping maw spotted: 2 times (running total 10)

The dessert that I would most have liked to eat: Juan’s chocolate pretzel caramel danish! With that sponge and chocolate ganache.

Wins so far: Casey (2), Juan (1), Molly (1)