Bake Off: The Professionals 2022: who are presenters Liam Charles and Stacey Solomon on Channel 4 show?

Bake Off: The Professionals is back for a fifth season of the Channel 4 which sees professional pasty chef pairs tackle a series of competetive baking challenges.

The Great British Bake Off spinoff series pits bakers with decades of experience against each other ad nothing short of perfection will be enough.

The pair who win the elite competition will be presented with an engraved silver tray, but they will also take home something more valuable - the prestige that comes with being named the creme de la creme of professional bakers.

Who are the judges?

While Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are the judges on the regular and celebrity versions of Bake Off, they do not appear on The Professionals.

Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden will present the series - they have been at the helm since the first season of the show.

Blin is a pastry French chef who grew up in France and began his culinary career by taking on an apprenticeship at a bakery on his street.

He specialises in desserts and has 20 years experience as head pastry chef at Raymond Blanc’s two Michelin starred restaurant, Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Relais & Chateaux, in Oxford.

At the restaurant he leads a team of 13 pastry chefs in making break, chocolates, ice creams and pastries.

He is also Chairman of the UK Pastry Club which aims to support future pastry chefs.

Cherish Finden is known as a grand dame of British pastry, and was born in Singapore where she began her career.

She went through culinary school in Singapore and began working at some of the countries top venues including Raffles Hotel and The Sheraton.

Finden moved to London in 2001 and is now executive pastry chef at the Langham hotel where the tradition of tea drinking in Britain supposedly began.

Finden’s other TV appearances include Heston’s Great British Food, the UK and Australian versions of MasterChef, An Extra Slice, and Junior Bake Off.

Who are the presenters?

Liam Charles was a contestant on the eighth season of The Great British Bake Off in 2017 and was eliminated in week eight, coming in fifth place.

In 2018 he joined comedian Tom Allen to co-present Bake Off: The Professionals and in 2019 he joined Prue Leith as a judge on Junior Bake Off.

Charles also presented the Channel 4 show, Liam Bakes, in which he visits friends and family in his East London neighbourhood and encourages them to get into baking.

He will also be a judge in the nationwide Platinum Pudding Competition, in which bakers across the country will try to devise a new dessert to mark the Queen’s jubilee.

Stacey Solomon will join Charles as a presenter, taking over from Tom Allen.

She became famous for her appearance on season six of The X Factor in 2009, where she came in third place.

The following year she won the 10th season of I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, and in 2016 she became a presenter on I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp.

Solomon has been a regular panellist on talk show Loose Women since 2016 and has also appeared on Celebrity Juice, and Celebrity Gogglebox.

She has released several albums since her X Factor days including her debut Driving Home for Christmas, and Shy.

Why did Tom Allen leave Bake Off: The Professionals?

Tom had helped to co-host Bake Off: The Professionals since 2018 but decided not to take part in future seasons of the show.

In an Instagram post, Tom explained that it was “Time to move on”, and added “Stacey Solomon you are going to be absolutely amazing I can’t think of anyone better to be doing it!”

When is Bake Off: The Professionals on TV?

The first episode of season five of Bake Off: The Professionals will air at 8pm on Channel 4 on 24 May.

Later episodes will air at the same time weekly and all episodes will be available to watch on All 4 shortly after they are first broadcast.