Bake Off: The Professionals 2026 semi-finalists: who they are and what to expect

Four teams remain in Bake Off: The Professionals 2026, with the semi-final and final airing on Channel 4 across two consecutive nights.

Emma and Flore from Lexington Catering, Ashish and Loki from Edwardian Hotels, Aubin and Avneet from The Stafford London, and Italian duo Valentina and Aurora have reached the closing stages of the professional pastry competition.

The semi-final airs on Tuesday, July 21 at 8pm, when the four teams will be asked to create classic île flottante desserts and summer holiday-inspired showpieces.

One team will be eliminated before the three remaining pairs return for the final on Wednesday, July 22 at 8pm.

The finalists will then face the longest challenge ever set on Bake Off: The Professionals: a 12-hour Masquerade Ball Banquet, with one team eliminated halfway through.

Here is everything you need to know about the four semi-finalists and what awaits them in the final two episodes.

Who are the Bake Off: The Professionals 2026 semi-finalists?

The four teams competing in the semi-final are:

1 - Emma and Flore from Lexington Catering

2 - Ashish and Loki from Edwardian Hotels

3 - Aubin and Avneet from The Stafford London

4 - Valentina and Aurora

Emma and Flore finished first in the quarter-final, with Ashish and Loki taking second place.

Aubin and Avneet and Valentina and Aurora also progressed, completing the final four ahead of Tuesday night’s semi-final as Francesca and Alejandro were eliminated.

Who are Emma and Flore?

Emma and Flore represent Lexington Catering, a contract catering business providing food and hospitality across a range of workplace locations.

Flore Kubaku is a chef de partie specialising in pastry. She developed her career through Lexington’s apprenticeship programme, working across five different kitchens before deciding to focus on pâtisserie.

Speaking about her development at Lexington, Flore said the programme had taught her to work with different people and operate as part of a wider kitchen team. She has also said she would eventually like to own her own bakery.

Flore has represented Lexington at professional competitions, including events held as part of the Hotel, Restaurant and Catering show.

At the 2025 International Salon Culinaire, she received bronze in the Association of Pastry Chefs Dessert of the Year competition and was also awarded the competition’s hygiene prize.

Emma competes alongside Flore as part of the Lexington Catering team.

Their place in the final four continues Lexington’s association with the programme. The catering company has previously fielded other teams on Bake Off: The Professionals, including Margo and Ally in 2023.

Emma and Flore head into the semi-final after finishing first in the quarter-final, giving them the strongest result from the most recent stage of the competition.

Who are Ashish and Loki?

Ashish and Loki both work for Edwardian Hotels, although Bake Off: The Professionals marked the first time they had worked together in the same kitchen.

Ashish is the team captain. He grew up in northern India and began his career in a small cake shop before building his experience across luxury five-star hotels.

Before moving to the UK in 2022, he spent five years working in Dubai and developing his pastry skills within high-end hotel operations.

He now lives in Manchester with his wife and works for Edwardian Hotels.

Loki was born and raised in southern India and is now a pâtissière chef in London.

Away from the kitchen, she has a strong interest in art, music and karaoke, bringing a creative background to her work as a pastry chef.

The pair began the competition strongly, finishing first in the opening episode, and have remained in contention throughout the series. They finished second behind Emma and Flore in the quarter-final.

Their backgrounds combine experience of luxury hotel pastry, large professional kitchens and creative presentation, while their run to the semi-final has also required them to build a working partnership during the competition itself.

Who are Aubin and Avneet?

Aubin Farges and Avneet Kaur represent The Stafford London, the five-star hotel in St James’s.

The pair work within the hotel’s pastry operation and have been credited together with creating cakes and pastries for The Stafford’s afternoon tea offering.

Their work in 2026 included a floral afternoon tea produced for the Chelsea Flower Show season, featuring cakes developed to complement a collection of Jo Malone London fragrances.

Aubin previously worked as pastry sous chef at Marcus Belgravia, the former Michelin-starred restaurant at The Berkeley.

In 2023, he became an achiever of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts’ Annual Awards of Excellence in pastry.

The award requires candidates to demonstrate a range of professional skills under examination conditions and achieve a score of at least 70 per cent. Aubin was among the pastry chefs recognised at that year’s presentation dinner at Claridge’s.

Together, Aubin and Avneet bring experience of luxury hotel pâtisserie, afternoon tea production and classical pastry to the competition.

The Stafford is one of London’s best-known five-star hotels, located in St James’s close to Green Park and Buckingham Palace.

Having reached the final four, Aubin and Avneet will now attempt to become one of the three teams competing in Wednesday’s final.

Who are Valentina and Aurora?

Valentina and Aurora are an Italian pastry duo who first met more than seven years ago while working together at EL&N London.

Soon after joining the business, they were thrown in at the deep end when they were tasked with creating the menu.

Although they no longer work together, the close friends reunited for Bake Off: The Professionals to demonstrate what their combined talents could achieve.

Team captain Valentina grew up in southern Italy and originally studied mathematics before swapping equations for éclairs.

She trained in Rome and Chieri before working across Italy and in Barcelona. Valentina later settled in London, where she now develops desserts for high-end luxury brands.

Aurora works at a luxury retirement living complex in London, where she has embraced a gentler pace of life.

Away from the kitchen, she enjoys pole dancing, ecstatic dancing, painting and drawing.

Their progression to the semi-final places them among the final four from an original field of 12 teams drawn from hotels, restaurants, bakeries, patisseries, cafés and catering operations.

They now face Emma and Flore, Ashish and Loki and Aubin and Avneet for one of the three available places in the final.