Wigan-based patisserie to showcase their skills on Bake Off: The Professionals

Harwoods Patisserie, based in Standish, will begin their journey to be named as Britain’s best as host Liam Charles is joined by Ellie Taylor and world-class pâtissier experts, Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden on Bake Off: The Professionals tonight (July 4).

Former volunteer firefighter Andrew started his business in 2020 after an illustrious 15 year career in the kitchens, and while one might think it’s scary to open on their own during the pandemic, Andrew’s experience in large scale sporting events around the world including working around George Foreman means there is nothing he can’t take on.

With a wide range of high end delights as well as chocolate and macaroon classes, Andrew and his partner Raf believe they have what it takes to go all the way.

Le Cordon Bleu alumni Raf has swapped his life from the warmer climate of his home in Brazil for the lights and glitz of Blackpool, having stopped off in London first to begin his career at the iconic, The Wolseley.

When not busy with patisserie, Raf can be found enjoying hobbies such as DIY, open water swimming and paddleboarding.

Having known eachother for around five years, the duo believe that their strong relationship and respect for each others’ cooking style will put them in a strong position.

Andrew said: “My partner has said for a few years I should ‘go for it’ and when Raf said he was interested I felt it was right to apply.

“We hadn’t seen many of the recent years’s episodes until entering but we knew it would be challenging so that can only be a good thing. Even things that go wrong give you a lesson in life. Best moment was just completing the challenge in the short time frame, worst was the wait to find out the first (secret) challenge."

As always, contestants face two days of testing challenges and, to kick things off, the judges whipped up a surprise for the teams with a secret challenge.

Without proper recipes to hand they must rely on their patisserie instincts, innate knowledge, and above all their teamwork to create 36 individual opéra aux fruit and one chocolate amenity in just three hours.

Themes range from safari, archaeology, land of the giants, mad science and for the first time, teams are asked to create a fully suspended showpiece in the theme of take flight.

Andrew said: “A typical day is making and decorating items for our shop, organising the production kitchen for our wholesale customers

"The time limitations were tough as even if you had time to practice it’s also hard to factor in the stopping for presenters and judges etc. You seem to “forget” the cameras are filming at points as you are so focused on the challenge.

"Competing in the series was a rollercoaster of emotions but overall enjoyable as we were learning a lot about cooking and ourselves.”

Find out how Andrew and Raf do on Bake Off: The Professionals tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.