Who is in the line up to co-host the Great British Bake Off?

Imagine trying to replace Mary Berry...

Well, someone has to do it and the search is on. The three candidates, all women, have emerged this week, one of which will co-host the show with Paul Hollywood, showing on Channel 4. Hollywood was seen this week arriving for what was described at a “test shoot” at a location in south London. He was joined by Rachel Allen, the Irish television chef who has released several books on baking. Next through the door was Frances Atkins, the Michelin-starred chef and co-owner of The Yorke Arms in Ramsgill, North Yorks. She has written books about her love of baking, which she was taught as a young child by her mother. Claire Macdonald was also spotted, she is a food writer and runs Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye. “I’ve got a list of people as long as your arm who are qualified for the job with me, and I’m going to find out more about them over the next few weeks,” Hollywood said. “My specialism is all about yeast, it’s all about pastry, so their criteria will be something different.

“It’s all about that chemistry and how that whole thing fits together.” He added that the ideal person would have “a minimum of 10 to 15 years’ experience in the industry, otherwise you’re still learning”

Hollywood and Berry had very different techniques when it came to judging  - Hollywood would never shy away from critical comments, while Berry would share some thoughtful and kind comments for every contestant even when their bakes were disasters. Allen would fit the Berry mould well. “I’m not going to toughen up,” she said in one interview. “I believe it’s nice to be nice. I was brought up to treat others the way you’d like to be treated yourself.” Roux was a BBC face until 2014, when he quit as presenter of MasterChef. Since leaving MasterChef, he said, other broadcasters had approached him with “more offers than you could shake a stick at”. The new series of Bake Off will go ahead this summer, after the BBC nearly continued with their “hold-back” clause which would have stopped Channel 4 from being able to air the show until 2018 There have been thousands of applicants to the new show but the programme still must find a presenter, or presenters. This story first appeared on The Telegraph