A fter 13 seasons on-air, The Great British Bake Off is now a much- beloved institution. A global cultural phenomenon that attracts a massive following of devoted fans who eagerly tune in to each episode to see the latest mind-blowing creations by talented bakers. Chef Briony May Williams joined the 2018 series and captured the imagination of many. Although she was born with a physical defect—a left hand that stops at her wrist (which she charmingly calls her “little hand”)—she finished in the top four and won countless fans. She grew up with her mother, father, two brothers, and grandmother, who happened to be a home economist. As one can imagine, a great amount of knowledge, techniques, and recipes in baking and cooking were passed down to her. “[My grandmother] lived in quite rural Northern Ireland. So she would make soda bread every morning. She’d make scones every morning,” she says, while burying the amazing lede that she baked them all strictly from memory. “She wouldn’t weigh the ingredients; she’d just kind of look at it and do it, which blows my mind—like how anybody could do that? And for it to come out tasting amazing too!” And just to be clear, Chef Williams’ mother also contributed to her current career as she used to make birthday cakes for young Chef Williams—a fact that is often jokingly brought up. Though now a prolific baker, she did not start seriously baking until 2013 when she took nine months off work due to an illness. She was working at a school then, and the school nurse suggested
EASY AS CAKE
Recalling her experiences, she cherished everything she experienced during the show— including the time when she cried in the freezer, “You know, all like, sobbing into a corner,” because things were not going well. She simply felt honored to be a part of a beloved show, able to learn from other bakers and expand her baking horizons so she could work on new baked goods every week.
that point, she started baking birthday cakes for other people, and many of them suggested she should try her luck at the Great British Bake Off. She would reply that she was not good enough to participate but applied secretly. She was eventually selected as one of the contestants, even though she had only started baking five years before that point.
taking up a new hobby to keep busy during that difficult period. So, she first tried knitting but then concentrated on baking because she found it more enjoyable. “I started baking, and the first few things I baked were just awful. I mean, really bad. But then I kept at it and got better and better,” she says. Through persistence, however, she began improving quickly. At
Chef Briony May Williams
Chef Briony’s Unbreakable Rise in the Bake Off Tent
WRITTEN BY CARY WONG
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