Baking fanatics rejoice.
Not only is Bake Off back on our screens this month for its 17th series, but Adnams has just announced a special event collaboration which will see 2021 winner Giuseppe Dell’Anno at the centre of a unique Southwold occasion. Debbie Watson catches up with him.
Take one chemical engineer, born and raised in Italy, and with a family whose love language is food itself — and is it any wonder that Giuseppe Dell’Anno became the victorious ‘precision baker’ of the 12th series?
Long before stepping into the famous tent for the first time, the 50-year-old father of three had routinely been producing stand-out creations in his home kitchen, simply by way of passing down a generational family legacy of expressing affection through food.
And yet, it wasn’t Giuseppe who himself saw a TV show as the obvious target for his creative culinary genius.
He places that seed very much at the door of his eldest son.
‘Honestly, it was never something I had considered doing myself, despite the fact that as a family we had become avid fans of the show and always sat down to watch it together,’ he says humbly.
‘It was sparked by my eldest son, who turned to me after I’d made his birthday cake, and said “Papa, you really should be on Bake Off”.
‘I guess that was the seed sown. I kept thinking it over and concluded that if I was going to do it, I should apply quickly — before I had chance to change my mind.’
As the Bake Off wall of fame now confirms, Giuseppe was to become a much praised precision baker whose engineering mind clearly gave him a certain edge alongside his inherited Italian talent for serving delicious food.
His ‘Breakfast in Gaeta’ Focaccia would memorably earn him the first Paul Hollywood handshake of the series, and his repeated use of Italian flavour profiles consistently had judges salivating at his offerings.
‘There’s no doubt it was an incredible experience,’ he reflects.
‘It was unusual and often quite unsettling because it happened to fall in the midst of the pandemic when bubbles were required — but I did thoroughly enjoy it and I felt proud that I was able to do something which was removed from the career I was known for, and also spoke of my Italian heritage and all that I’d been taught by my father and others whose world revolved around baking and food.’
With candid honesty and the occasional break to his voice, Giuseppe talks with great respect and love, of the father who had so influenced his baking.
It was Cosmo Dell’Anno to whom Giuseppe dedicated his Bake Off victory, thanking him for instilling in him such high standards and an unmistakable attention to detail.
Known affectionately as Mimino, his career had taken him into cooking for cruise ship companies — and subsequently as a pastry chef.
‘My father was typically strong and silent,’ he says.
‘He was rarely affectionate, but his love language was food, and without fail he would make a cake every Sunday which we all devoured with such relish.
‘In fact, many of the recipes which feature in my book are those which he created — often having been developed because he was short on an ingredient or out of it altogether, but every creation was incredible.
‘The torta Mimì is one to which my own family and I have always been very attached, and I remember compiling the cookbook in 2022 and wanting to tell him that his recipe was at the heart of it.
‘He was already in poor health at the time, but when I sat with him and told him that I was featuring his cake, he looked up at me, paused, and although he didn’t have the strength to say a word, he leaned over and kissed me.
‘That meant the world and I’ll never forget it.’
It is perhaps perfectly fitting that a man who is so wedded to the traditions of food and of provenance, should now be finding himself en route to Suffolk.
In November, he will appear at The Swan in Southwold, hosting a Great British Afternoon.
The event will include plenty of stories about his family’s baking legacy, and anecdotes from his time in the tent with Prue and Paul.
He’ll also be offering up perfectly timed festive baking tips, and tastings of his tiramisu — which famously achieved him a Hollywood handshake.
‘I’m so excited to be coming to Southwold for the event and am very grateful to Adnams for asking me,’ he says.
‘Being of Italian heritage, I live by the idea that conversation is always best done over food, so this is the perfect kind of occasion for me.
‘Not only do I get to talk about my experiences and my passions, but I get to visit a part of East Anglia which I’ve not yet been fortunate enough to spend time in.
‘It’s a county which I know has its own strong food heritage and a great deal of proud producers and venues which are much loved for the dining experiences they deliver.
‘I cannot think of a lovelier way to spend an afternoon as we head toward the Christmas season and the idea of being in your kitchen preparing treats for those you love.’
Giuseppe admits that the post Bake Off haze has at times been somewhat confusing, given the immediate attention and adulation — followed by a far quieter interest in his talent than he might have liked.
‘Having gone into the tent at 45, I was incredibly grounded, so I can honestly say that I wasn’t expecting much,’ he says.
‘But you do get swept up in the attention and excitement, so, given the fact that it didn’t automatically result in a thriving career for me — yes, that’s the only stain on what was otherwise a wonderful landscape.
‘It’s not that I’m disappointed, but perhaps that I am a person who loves challenge and stimulation, so it’s natural that I might still look to the future with some hope for what else might come. Never say never.’
But where a relentless TV baking career has, as yet, eluded him, the self-titled Britalian knows that he has always got one very important set of fans who will forever remind him of his kitchen genius and ability to convey love through delicious treats.
‘If there’s one thing you want more than anything from an experience like Bake Off, it’s to know that you’ve made your family proud — and that they still want to experience your cakes at the dining table every week,’ he says, cheerily.
‘I’ve accomplished that, and I know I’ve been able to share the story of my family heritage and my father’s talent in a way that the whole country has been able to see and hear.’
**Giuseppe will be at The Swan in Southwold for A Great British Afternoon on November 11. Tickets cost £90 and are available via https://theswansouthwold.co.uk/whatson-2/a-great-british-afternoon-with-giuseppe-dellanno/
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