How Bake Off changed my life

When Edd Kimber applied for a new televised cookery competition her had now idea it would change his life.

The show turned out the be The Great British Bake Off and the Edd Kimber turned out to be the first every winner in the inaugural 2010 series.

The timing could not have been better for the then 24 year old who was stuck in a job he hated and had been trying to figure out what he was going to be with the rest of his life.

After the wine, he decided to quit his job and pursue a career as a food writer and food stylist, and has published three books, most recently Patisserie Made Simple.

“The thing I remember most about the show is the contestants and the travelling,” says Edd who had been working a debt collector for the Yorkshire Bank in Leeds while filming Bake Off.

“We were thrown together with a bunch of strangers and spent the next eight weeks with them. It was an intense process and we formed some really strong bonds, and the longer you stayed on the show the stronger that got.

“Our series was the only one to travel around the country, and we were lucky to film in some wonderful places. My favourite happened to be the semi-final in Mousehole in Cornwall, a stunning little fishing town on the coast. The tent was pitched on the side of the harbour and it was just idyllic.”

Back then Bake Off was on BBC 2 and no one could have imagined what an incredibile success the show, which starts a sixth series on BBC One next Wednesday, would become.

“As contestants we knew it was going to be on BBC2 and I think we all assumed it would be this little daytime show that did ok,” he recalls. “The only thing we could compare it to was Masterchef, but I don’t think anyone thought it would even replicate that kind of success.

“It certainly didn’t feel as polished as it does now, but we got around four million viewers which I remember seemed amazing for something that was so untested. It’s crazy to think it now gets three times that number.”

He has since moved south, written three cookbooks, two of them have been published in America.

“I ran a pop-up bakery in Fortnum & Mason, they allowed me to take over the kitchenware department and turn it into a bakery for a few weeks.

“The thought of this boy from Bradford being given an opportunity like that is just unbelievable.

He was also chosen me to be the resident baker on the final series of The Alan Titchmarsh Show and writes.recipes for a magazine.

“Every day is different, but every day is about food. It is all I ever wanted.”

He may have been the first winner from Yorkshire but he definitely wasn’t the last. Hull grandmother Nancy Birstwhistle won the show in 2014 followed by Nadiya Hussain who is preparing to hand over the crown she won last year.

Bake Off 2016

A pastor, a hairdresser, a nurse and an aerospace engineer are among those who will be seen competing for this year’s Great British Bake Off crown. Viewers will see 12 amateur bakers trying to impress judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood when the new series begins on BBC One on 24 August. Among them is Val, 66, a former primary school head teacher from Yorkshire who now lives with husband near Yeovil, Somerset.