Baked to perfection

By Luchia Robinson

Fresh from their time spent staring on Channel 4’s hit tv programme: Bake Off: The Professionals, artisan bakers Geanina and George Ursache are busy implementing the combinations they developed on the show, at their Tottenham based patisserie.

With plans to now write a book, provide baking lessons, and offer future dining experiences with Romanian and British cuisines, all in the pipeline, the duo share what led them to take part in the national baking competition.

“We wanted to see how we work together under pressure,” explained George.

“We learned a lot about ourselves; we learned about our value as well − how good we are and what we could do.”

Geanina added: “Sometimes, you know you’re doing great things, but it’s not about you knowing, but when other people tell you that you are doing great.

“So many of our customers would come to our place telling us that we should go on Bake Off. We thought we were never going to have time for that.”

Going on the show required a lot of time, many hours of which the pair spent pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.

“We trained ourselves a lot, especially with the showpieces we made out of chocolate or sugar,” said Geanina.

“Of course, we had the knowledge about the process, but we trained a lot to be good, and to perform at our best.

“We’ve always thought that we worked well under pressure because we work a lot, and we are used to there only being two of us in our business. But accomplishing what you have to do in those challenges, under that timing, is a different story.”

Geanina has always been passionate about baking, starting from a young age, when she would make huge batches of panettone and cozonac with her grandmother during the holiday seasons, in Romania.

She said: “We’d bake little petit fours for Christmas − back then, it was the communist period, you couldn’t find anything in the patisserie shop, so everything was made at home by parents and grandparents.

“I used to bake for all my relatives because I was so passionate about it. I’d spend nights with friends making roses out of sugar and chocolate, and big cakes for celebrations − and when I was 23, I met George.”

Along with partner George, an engineer chemist turned baker, the pair decided to leave Romania, choosing to explore opportunities in England twelve years ago.

Although always having been passionate about cooking, George discovered his love for baking upon coming to England and gaining experience of mixing and making breads.

“George came first, one month before me,” said Geanina.

“The first job that he found was in a bakery based in Tottenham. Since then, we’ve been locals – we live here, and we have our business here.”

The pair started their business, Prestige Patisserie five years ago, after initially baking their sweet and savoury treats from home. First located in Holcombe Market, Bruce Grove, the couple settled into their unit in Rangemoor Road, three years ago.

Known for making moist cakes inspired by the ones they grew up with, Geanina and George found that the outbreak of the Covid- 19 pandemic last year, gave them a good reason to seek a new challenge.

That challenge came in the form of Bake Off: The Professionals, which aired on Channel 4 this summer.

The couple achieved their first goal of not being eliminated on their first episode − everything on top of that was a “bonus,” they say. With each challenge being very different, they found their skills were stretched to the maximum.

Geanina said: “At first, it was unusual to have so many cameras around you, at every single step someone interviewed you to ask you things, and in the meantime, you had to work.

“We didn’t know exactly how to manage, so on the second day we were so stressed and so nervous because we wanted to do our best. Then step by step we planned everything, and we took advantage of applying what we learned each day, to each new challenge.

Geanina added: “The Dracula castle was a beautiful challenge.

“It was George’s idea to make that showpiece – I think we loved the castle because it represents memories of ourselves back in Romania.

“With George being a chemist, it’s very easy for him to do all the little details with passion and patience, whereas myself, I create a lot of things, but sometimes I lose the finesse and the speed, so he balances us in that way, especially with chocolate and sugar art. He is the one who’s got the patience to do all of those things, I’m the one who’s pushing, pushing, pushing.”

The challenges saw George and Geanina travel in time to their future 50th wedding anniversary, as well as creating a teddy bear’s picnic-inspired table scene that would ultimately see them exit the competition at the semi-final.

Geanina said: “We have been blessed to have the judge’s opinion. We didn’t only learn from their critiques, but from others as well because we paid a lot of attention. To be judged in that competition, and to be at that level, you really do gain a lot.

“[ Judges] Cherish [Finden] and Benoit [Blin] are amazing, they are gods in the patisserie for every single pastry chef. We learned what we could do, what others could do, and how you can present it.

“We didn’t take it as criticism, we took it as the most amazing thing that could happen to us because we learned combinations that we can apply in the future in the patisserie, for our pastries.”