Bake Off: The Professionals 2026: all you need to know
Bake Off: The Professionals returns to Channel 4 next week, with 12 teams of pastry chefs preparing to compete in series 11 of the show.
The new series starts on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 8pm on Channel 4, with Ellie Taylor and Liam Charles back on presenting duties.
Judges Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden also return for their 11th series, with teams from across the hospitality and pastry sectors battling it out through technical challenges, showpieces and large-scale patisserie tests.
The format sees teams of two professional pastry chefs compete across the series, with contestants representing a broad range of businesses, from hotels and restaurants to bakeries, patisseries, cafés and catering operations.
This year’s teams are The Stafford, The Beacon, Valentina & Aurora, Levy, Simon & Oli, Edwardian Hotels, Francesca & Alejandro, Scotiq, Lexington Catering, Liba, Sutton Hotel Collection and The Cellar Door.
What is Bake Off: The Professionals?
Unlike The Great British Bake Off, which focuses on amateur bakers, Bake Off: The Professionals is designed to test working pastry chefs at a professional level.
Across the series, teams are judged on technical skill, precision, creativity, teamwork and consistency, with challenges covering classic pastry, plated desserts, chocolate work, sugar work, showpieces and banquet-style production.
This year’s series was filmed at Firle Place in Sussex and features themes including a childhood toy showpiece, Shakespearean showpiece, biscuit modern landmark, Victorian Britain showpiece, biscuit ancient wonder, a world of candy, circus of horrors pinata, summer holidays floating showpiece and a masquerade ball final.
The chefs will also face a wide range of pastry challenges, including Paris Brest, battenbergs, cream buns, citrus tarts, bakewell slice, savoury mille feuille, afternoon tea time treats and île flottante.
Episode one
Across two days, the teams will face challenges set by Benoit and Cherish, beginning with the show’s now familiar secret challenge.
For episode one, the chefs are asked to make a Paris Brest, but with a twist. For the second challenge, the teams are asked to go back to their childhoods and create showpieces inspired by childhood toys, each concealing crumble and custard themed desserts.
Benoit on the standard of this year’s teams
Benoit worked at Raymond Blanc’s two-Michelin-starred Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons for more than 30 years, where he was chef pâtissier and led a team of 13 pastry chefs.
He was team president of the UK team in the 2011 Pastry World Cup, served as chairman of the UK Pastry Club and was awarded the title of MCA (Master of Culinary Arts) in 2005.
Asked about the standard this year, Benoit said: “As always, I’d say the standard is really strong. They don’t all necessarily start at the highest level, but every team grows during the competition, and gets better as time goes on, which is great to see.
“It’s always a real mixture, which is part of the beauty of the show. The pastry industry is vast, and full of people from different backgrounds. So we’ve got chefs who work in Michelin-starred restaurants, others have come from the great five-star London hotels, and then we have people who work in a little family-owned chocolate shop.”
This year’s final includes the longest challenge ever set on the programme, with a masquerade ball banquet.
Benoit said: “I think it was about 12 hours in total. They were given 12 hours to create a banquet-size table, displayed with showpieces made out of chocolate and sugar work. Go big or go home – and it was time to go home anyway, so we went big.”
Cherish on series 11
Cherish is a world-renowned pastry chef, international pastry consultant and TV chef, who has worked as executive pastry chef at The Langham Hotel and Pan Pacific London.
She has won a host of awards during her career, including Dessert of the Year, Pastry Chef of the Year and The Macallan Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Gourmet Summit in 2015.
Cherish has also been appointed as chair of pastry judges for the 2026 National Chef of the Year and Young National Chef of the Year competitions.
Asked about this year’s series, Cherish said: “The standard this year is exceptionally high and continues to elevate with each series. We are seeing some of the UK’s most talented pastry chefs, and the level between teams is incredibly close, so even the smallest detail can make all the difference.
“For me, the standard has truly skyrocketed. The contestants are more refined, more creative, and far more daring in their approach. It’s not just about technique anymore, it’s about precision, elegance, and pushing boundaries. That’s what makes the competition so intense and exciting.”
Discussing the range of teams involved, she added: “The teams this year came from across the full breadth of our industry: hotels, cafés, patisserie restaurants, and large-scale catering operations and that really showed in their work.
“Each team brought a distinct strength, whether it was precision, creativity, efficiency, or consistency, reflecting the demands of their environment. This diversity not only elevated the competition but reinforced the exceptional standard seen throughout.”
Bake Off: The Professionals starts on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 8pm on Channel 4.
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Bake Off: The Professionals 2026: all you need to know
