A schoolboy error when making a cheesecake nearly saw everything to go pear-shaped for
Neil Reid
during the making of the first episode of the new series of
The Great Irish Bake Off
.
Reid didn’t get his measurements wrong or mess up his biscuit base or forget to add the gelatine to the mix. He just never checked if the fridge he was putting the cakes in for safe-keeping and setting was plugged in.
It wasn’t. So his first effort didn’t firm up leading to panic stations on day one in the Bake Off tent. And not just any old panic stations, but panic stations under the harsh and unforgiving glare of multiple cameras silently willing him to have a meltdown.
“When I pulled the mould off the first cheesecake, it went all over the place. It was all my fault, I should have checked the fridge,” he says.
Unusually for a baking programme, Reid had time to right the wrong. The most challenging thing about baking – for most aspiring cooks – is the precision required and the inability to wing it.
If you’re making a savoury dish and something goes awry mid-way through the process, it’s easy to mask the mistake with more seasoning or more booze (in the dish, not your mouth). When something goes wrong mid-dessert it is almost always game over.
He just whacked his remaining cheesecakes into the freeze to turbocharge the setting process and away he went.
“I got through the first week by the skin of my teeth,” he says, the relief easy to see in his face. It probably helped that one of his rivals was living through an even worse cake-collapsing nightmare that proved impossible to fix, so it was she who was sent home.
Reid is 36 years old and married, with a four-year-old son. He works for the Irish Times-owned myhome.ie and is doing a masters in digital marketing. Before that, he was a chemist.
His degree in chemistry has to give him an edge in the dessert stakes because he is more accustomed to handling precise measurements than most of us. He’s more methodical too.
He has used dry ice to make ice-cream and has tried “reverse spherification” – what ever that is – to make a yoghurt and mango dessert look like a poached egg.
“I have always liked to cook, but I got into baking in a more serious way maybe three or four years ago, mostly because I like eating cake,” he says. “But it is also a social thing. It is nice to be able to bring a few bits and pieces into work and it is a good way to get to know people when you are in a new office.”
He recalls using cake to break the ice with colleagues in Irish Times Towers when myhome.ie entered the building a couple of years ago.
This writer does not recall such a thing, having been given no cake. And that is why, at this point, we must tell readers that Reid once sang with a Westlife tribute band on The Afternoon Show.
Yes, revenge is a dish best served cold. Like cheesecake
He was encouraged to apply to be part of The Great Irish Bake Off by colleagues, used to having his cake and eating it. "They were always saying I should have a go, so when the third series was announced I filled in the form and was called to the first audition. It was a taste test with Paul Kelly and two of the show's producers.
“Then there was a technical challenge in which I had to make three fruit tarts in 90 minutes. I really enjoyed that, although it was a bit stressful specially when I was trying to get my sugar cage off the ladle only for it to shatter.”
The series was filmed weeks ago and Reid has had to spend the time since lying to us all – or at the very least evading questions. “I have been able to keep what happens a secret from everybody outside of my immediate family. You have to. Mind you, they are all very interested in it and you do get people asking very specific questions hoping to work out how I got on. It is difficult, but difficult in a nice way.”
While he says the recording was stressful, he enjoyed the experience immensely. “I know we’re not saving lives, but it is very tough and very stressful and I had a ball. Some other contestants forget that ultimately it is an entertainment show and I think that means they take both it and themselves too seriously. The reality is, we need to see the baking disasters.”
And does he win? His poker face is impressive. “I don’t go into anything to come second and I am very competitive, but I am also realistic and I know there are better bakers than me in the competition.
“Some of the others want to use it as a platform for something else, maybe a career in the sector, but for me the whole programme has been about personal achievement, doing something I could look back on and be proud of.”
The Great Irish Bake Off is on Sundays at 9pm on TV3
