Had a lovely chat on the phone this afternoon with Great British Bake Off winner, 2011 – Jo Wheatley.
She was down to earth, chatty and we even had a few giggles! Winning the GBBO was ‘life changing’ and she has become a confident business woman with two cookery books and a cookery school too!
Jo told me that being on the show was completely nerve wrecking! To have the competition, Paul and Mary coming up and wanting to ‘chat’ during a task as well as sometimes 8-12 camera crew hovering around your workspace, its amazing you manage to produce anything and for her winning was just unbelievable! Her favourite challenge was the final. By the last week Jo’s nerves had calmed down and she actually enjoyed putting together her showstopper – petits fours. “There was that feeling that I had achieved so much to get there, it was much easier”, but when the winner was announced she said she could not believe her ears. In fact, Jo actually thought they were announcing the ‘runner up’ first… she was utterly speechless!
Jo is now in the process of moving from Essex. She is buying a beautiful thatched property in Cambridge which is currently a gastro-pub. She will be having it converted into a coffee shop and cookery school – her dream! Everyone will be welcome, dog walkers and families to grab a coffee and piece of cake or for someone to have a more gastronomic experience at the cookery school. I hope to get an invite up when its open, bet the lemon drizzle would be worth the trip!
