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Western Telegraph
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Western Telegraph
Fishguard's Abbie starts in Bake Off: The Professionals
Abbie from Scleddau, near Fishguard, is known locally for her amazing custom-baked cake creations by Abstar Makes. Tomorrow, with partner team Amun, she will go head-to-head against 11 other talented teams all vying to be crowned Britain's best professional bakers. Abbie and Amun met 16 years ago while working at Gordon Ramsay's the best friends have been inseparable ever since. Team captain Amun lost his eyesight due to diabetic retinopathy at the age of 24. He cites Abbie as his rock through his sight loss and said that there is no one else he would do this competition with. Through hard work and sheer determination Amun, who is registered blind, managed to re-learn the basics such as holding a knife and piping skills and is now back to the top of his game as a pastry chef. Abbie said that when Amun first contacted her to ask if she would apply for the series her initial reaction was 'are you mad? Absolutely not'. 'But after a few convincing messages, I gave in and said yes,' she posted on her Abstar Makes page. 'Then came the wait and finally, the phone call: we were in. 'I still can't believe this actually happened,' she said. 'Stepping into the Bake Off kitchen felt like a dream, totally surreal. 'I'm beyond grateful for the experience and all the amazing people I met along the way. The production team was phenomenal, the amount of work that goes into creating this show is just mind-blowing.' Abbie said that all the chefs that took part were amazing. 'We connected instantly,' she said. 'It was such a unique experience, and it's created a bond between us that I'll always treasure.' She added that she couldn't be prouder of Amun, not just for how he handled this show, but for everything he does in life. 'Being visually impaired has brought countless challenges his way, yet he continues to rise above them with strength and determination,' she said. 'He's genuinely inspiring, and I'm so proud to call him my friend.' This year's series of Bake Off: The Professionals is filmed in the spectacular Firle Place in Sussex. The talented twosomes hoping to bake, decorate, sculpt and build their way to success this year will face some truly jaw-dropping challenges, including the show's first ever showpiece floating on water. Other themes include tiered wedding celebration mille-feuille, Japanese Gardens, extraterrestrial sugar and jelly desserts, a tiered St Honore, some fiendishly clever illusion showpieces, and the intriguing-sounding Whoops I Dropped the… suspended showpiece. In episode one the chefs will face two days of testing challenges which have been set by world class top pâtissier experts, Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden. For their first task the chefs will face a secret challenge unlike any ever set before; without a proper recipe to hand, they are going to have to rely on all their pastry instinct, innate knowledge and above all their teamwork to create one of Cherish Finden's very own creations, the Apple Tin, in just two and a half hours. For their second challenge the teams must become masters of illusion with a Food and Drink inspired showpiece which within is a hidden Victoria Sandwich elevated to new heights, far from its humble beginnings. The first episode of Bake Off: The Professionals airs on Channel 4 on Tuesday 27 May, at 8pm.
Times
15-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Zen out and visit a Japanese garden — it will slow your heart rate
There is something soothing about Japanese gardens, with their precise stone paths, red-leaved maple trees and carefully pruned shrubs. Now, science has backed this up: seeing a well-designed garden has an immediate relaxing effect. When 16 study participants visited a famous viewing garden, sat still, and simply observed its various elements, their heart rates slowed by roughly 4 per cent on average. Afterwards, they reported being in a better mood and feeling significantly more relaxed. The garden in question was the Murin-an Garden in Kyoto. An international research team from the University of Nagasaki and the University of Pittsburgh compared its effects to those of the garden at Kyoto University, which featured similar elements — such as trees and a stone path — but was
