A team of pastry chefs from Gleneagles Hotel will be put through their paces at the toughest baking competition on television.
Neil Mugg, who was the head pastry chef at Gleneagles Hotel, captains his team in the third heat of BBC Two’s Bake Off Crme de la Crme on Tuesday evening.
The team also includes senior chef de partie Tomas Kunovsky and Melissa Wood, who now works for Andrew Fairlie’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant at the Perthshire resort.
The trio will battle against two other teams as they are asked to make 36 Petit Antoine chocolate slices, another 36 of Macaroon Religious and 36 pyramid-shaped cakes invented specially for the competition in just three hours.
Each element is judged by the formidable panel of Benoit Blin, chef patissier at Raymond Blanc’s luxury hotel in Oxford, Claire Clark, world-renowned pastry chef and consultant, and Cherish Finden, executive pastry chef at The Langham in London.
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Precision is the top priority for the teams when they are asked to make row upon row of identical pastries.”
In previous weeks, severe criticism from the judges has reduced some competitors to tears and left them doubting their own abilities.
One judge, Ms Finden, even took a ruler to miniature cakes baked by a team and told them there was a 0.5mm difference.
Speaking after filming, Mr Mugg said they were delighted to have been shortlisted to appear in the competition.
The programme, presented by top chef Tom Kerridge, is shown on Tuesday at 8pm.