Great British Bake Off 2024: New series set to kick-off to find which baker will follow in the footsteps of Peterborough's Matty Edgell
Matty Edgell was named the winner of the 14th series of the Great British Bake Off.
On Tuesday night, a brand new series of one of the UK’s biggest shows, The Great British Bake Off, returns to the nation’s screens.
12 new bakers will begin their quest across ten weeks to be named as Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith’s star baker and follow in the footsteps of last year’s champion- Peterborough’s Matty Edgell.
At the time of broadcast, Matty was a PE and science teacher at Hampton College as well as a footballer for local side Stanground Sports.
Since winning the 14th season of the competition, has since left his job to focus on baking and follow his passion of building his own cake business as well as potentially writing his own book.
It has been a rapid rise for Matty, who didn’t even apply for the show, rather it was has fiancee Lara that sent off the application.
Speaking of his experiences on the show, Matty has previously spoken of his “once in a lifetime experience” inside of the famous tent.
The show was filmed in April and July last year across a series of weekends at the picturesque Welford Park in Berkshire.
He said: “I wouldn’t never have submitted the application so I have to credit Lara with that one.
“I’ve always watched the show but never saw myself as being part of it. To walk into the tent was so strange and the only way I can describe it is like stepping into your TV, it is exactly how you expect it to look.
“Alison and Noel are so great as well. Sometimes they are the perfect distraction and they’re just what you need to feel at ease again and other times, you’re up against it and you’re just trying to carry on what you’re doing and not be rude.
"They understand what the bakers are going through though and they’re really good.
“Both of them make you feel at ease in different ways because you’re so out of your comfort zone.”
Matty’s inspiration
The news of Matty even being on the show took many in his life by surprise as it was not something he regularly discussed aside from making birthday cakes here and there.
He does, however, credit his baking talent to his grandmother- an extremely talented baker herself with a teddy bear cake she made Matty for his fourth birthday still living in the memory today- as well as his parents.
“It’s difficult for me to put my finger on how I started out. My nan passed away when I was five or six so I didn’t grow up watching her bake but there’s some stand out bakes she used to make for me that have stuck with me, Matty remembered.
"I know that she was very talented, she used to make wedding cakes for people as a hobby. She was my first introduction to it but my parents facilitated it in me, baking isn’t cheap or clean when you’re young!
“It was a complete shock to so many people who know me to find out my passing for it. I’d only really make birthday cakes, it would never be too much outside of that or to the scale I do now.
“I remember mine and Lara’s engagement party. I made a cake for that and people asked where we brought it from and that was my friend’s first insight into the fact that I can put a cake together. So I suppose that was a good confidence boost.”