Now that's what I call a perfectly cooked stud muffin: JAN MOIR meets the unlikely heart-throb of the Great British Bake Off Paul Hollywood

Professional baker Paul Hollywood is an unlikely sex symbol, an improbable secret crush. Look at him. He wears his shirt tails over his dad jeans, his hair is gelled into porcupine spikes, his little goatee is frosted with grey.
He trundles around like a Smeg fridge on wheels saying things like: ‘That’s a good bake.’ Or: ‘It’s got a good wobble.’ Or even, with a look of equal parts threat and regret when he espies the wan undercarriage of a luckless quiche: ‘Soggy bottom. You’ve got to raise your game.’ It is an unlikely recipe for a pin-up, yet women absolutely adore him. Almost imperceptibly, like a hunk soufflé rising in the national oven of lust, the 46-year-old food judge has become a housewives’ favourite. He is the star, along with fellow umpire Mary Berry, of BBC 2’s hit show, The Great British Bake Off.
His fans call him the stud muffin silver fox, the new George Clooney and even — for those with spatula spanking fantasies — the Christian Grey of the baking world (after the millionaire in Fifty Shades Of Grey).

The crumpet-maker's trumpet? Paul Hollywood is helping to make The Great British Bake Off so popular

Hate to break it to them, but Hollywood has been married to wife Alexandra — to whom he has dedicated his two baking books — for 14 years. The couple, who live near his artisan bakery in Kent, have a  ten-year-old son, Joshua.
Yet caught in the prism of primetime TV, something incredible has happened to the Wirral-born baker with a personal fondness for iced buns and a professional appreciation of good crumb structure.

 

He has become the crumpet-making woman’s crumpet.
Why him? ‘He’s got eyes to die for,’ says one baking fan I know. ‘He’s so tasty,’ say others. ‘It’s the way he stares at contestants so intensely when he is tasting their bakes,’ says another.
Even the big man himself, who has been a cookery show TV regular for eight years, hasn’t got a clue why he has suddenly attracted all this heated attention. ‘Why have I become a sex symbol? I really don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine,’ he says.

Stars of the show: Judges Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry dish out feedback on baked goods

Many women will be disappointed to hear the BBC star is married wife Alexandra and has been for 14 years

He shrugs. He looks at his feet, clad in a pair of brown trainers. He is almost blushing, but not quite. You can tell that he secretly loves the attention — what man wouldn’t? — but what does his wife say?
‘I haven’t really asked her,’ he says. ‘She just laughs at it all. After all, she sees me in the morning. She has not really said anything. To be honest, we haven’t really had that conversation. I think, as much as possible, we are trying to pretend it is not happening. I find it flattering, but a bit embarrassing.
‘It is tricky. I was prepared for it, but wasn’t ready for it, if that makes sense. I used to be able to go to the supermarket and do a bit of shopping on my own. I still can, but it takes a lot longer because so many people want to speak to me.’
What do they want to talk to you about?
‘Their cakes, of course.’
One thing is for sure. This third series of The Great British Bake Off, with Paul Hollywood in the cockpit, has taken off like a rocket. Every Tuesday night, audiences of more than five million and rising tune in to see the participating home bakers take part in a ‘bake off’, which tests every aspect of their skills from bread to sponges and beyond.

Presenters Sue Perkins (left) and Mel Giedroyc (right) bring an element of humour to the show

The action takes place in a marquee decked with bunting — the ‘bake-off tent’ — which this year is parked in a leafy corner of Somerset. It couldn’t be more middle class if it tried. Among the contestants is Sarah-Jane the vicar’s wife, who recently cried because she mucked up the pastry lattice on her treacle tart.
Handsome James from Shetland wears tank tops and a pair of giant spectacles that steam up when he takes his four-meat pie from the oven. He also has a passion for sour dough and is studying to be a doctor at Glasgow University. He would be too far-fetched to be a hero in a romantic novel.
And this week, another contestant, Brendan, stayed true to his flamboyant, Seventies dinner party roots by presenting the judges with a fish Wellington, while a panicky Ryan eventually scored with his ginger-scented key lime pie. ‘You have absolutely . . . nailed that,’ said Hollywood, after sampling a slice.

Paul is from a dynasty of bakers and has made himself a household name with his range of books and shows

Of course, part of GBBO’s unique appeal is its total lack of forced, reality show nastiness. Also that judges Berry and Hollywood are proper experts who are honest and direct, and restrict their verdicts to the finished product.
Mary Berry has written 70 cook books — Hollywood likes to joke that the first one was published around 1840, and he doesn’t mean twenty to seven last night — while he has been a professional since he joined his father’s bakery when he was 17. Off screen, the pair of judges are great friends.
When working, he often stays at her house near Windsor, and he drives the 77-year-old author to and from filming locations. ‘I’m not really a baker. I’m Mary Berry’s personal chauffeur,’ he quips. On screen, they have very different judging styles.
In meringue week, for example, Mary was not impressed with baker Danny’s Monte Bianco. ‘I am a little sad that I have not got crispness from it,’ she said.
Paul was much more direct. ‘It just feels a little bit stodgy, which I wasn’t expecting,’ he said.
He also told a chap called Stuart that his Chocka Blocka Mocha Meringue was something ‘you could wedge a door open with’, and even James failed to impress with his slightly barf-acious fig, chestnut, cherry and chocolate confection.

Cue glittering ice-blue stare from Hollywood — apparently inherited from his maternal grandfather — and a look of baking doom.
‘I don’t like it,’ he said, bluntly.
‘Oh, you are brutal this week,’ Mary told him.
It is hardly surprising that Hollywood has been dubbed the Simon Cowell of the baking world — even by Cowell himself. The pair met at a party recently, where The X Factor maestro said to him: ‘I like you. You’re just like me.’
‘I said to him, Simon, no I’m not. I’m judging cakes, not people,’ says Hollywood, who also revealed that the arch talent spotter was keen to talk about possible projects.
‘He wanted to chat about ideas he had for me. He said he liked the show. Honestly, to get recognition from someone like him was amazing for me. And what a fascinating man, a really nice fella.
‘I thought he would be a bit standoffish and big-headed, but instead he was such a genuine person.’

Meet the competitors: Paul and Mary stand in the middle of those battling to be crowned the best baker in Britain

There is no confirmation of any forthcoming Cowell projects, but Hollywood says he has had to turn down Strictly Come Dancing this year because he’s too busy.
‘I’m not doing it. Maybe I am. I’m not doing it. Maybe I am,’ he teases, though he is not ruling out a twinkle-toed turn next year.
So Simon wants him, Strictly wants him, but instead he is focusing on a new BBC series, which will be broadcast in February: a kind of baking guide to regional Britain, which he will present.
‘Like around here,’ he says, waving towards the Merseyside skyline. ‘The colour of the bread in Liverpool is different. They like a bit of burnt here. When I worked in Dad’s bakery, an old dear would always come in and say: “Listen love, can you stick it in the back of the oven and burn it for ten minutes.” ’ He laughs. ‘She’s right. I like it crusty and dark myself.’
We meet at the Liverpool Food & Drink Festival, where Hollywood is judging a baking competition and being surrounded by adoring fans who want his autograph and photograph.
On a live stage he is funny, fluent and entertaining; a complete natural. He has excellent communication skills, but even when judging the collapsed scones of hopeless amateurs, the passion shows through.

Heart-throb: Paul shows journalist Sadie Nicholas how to bake bread

‘How important are scones? To me, very important,’ he says. ‘They are the basic of baking. If you know how to make a scone, it means you understand manipulation and consistency and not overworking. You know how to feel a dough, how not to make it rubbery. You understand.’
Baking runs in the Hollywood family — his great-great-great grandfather was the head baker at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel — but the young Hollywood was determined to do something different. He went to the local art college to train to be a sculptor.
However, when he was 17, his father said: ‘Look, son, I’ll give you £500 if you quit college, cut your hair and join the family bakery.’ He did, and never looked back.
Hollywood went on to become head baker at a number of top hotels, including the Dorchester, the Chester Grosvenor and Cliveden House in Berkshire.
At the latter, the Queen Mother adored his scones and would always come into the kitchen to tell him so; at the Dorchester, the Sultan of Brunei always ordered his salmon brioche.
Later, Hollywood went to Cyprus to work for a hotel group, where he was ‘haunted’ by having to bake 500 lavroche — a type of local sesame seed bread — every day.
Never mind, consolation came in the shape of Alexandra, whom he met when she was a diving instructor on the island. Perhaps inevitably, he wooed her with food.

The phrases uttered by Hollywood became so popular that a new game called Bake Off Bingo started taking place on social networking sites

‘I used to bake Danish pastries for her. Her favourite one had champagne ganache and orange in the middle.’
Today, he has his own artisanal bakery in Kent, which employs four bakers and supplies clients such as Harrods and Waitrose with fancy breads. He still loves his bread, but he is not a loaf snob. His favourite sandwich is a bacon butty (‘Warburtons sliced bread, crispy smoked back bacon, bit of butter, end of’) and he still loves his mum’s baking. ‘Yesterday I had 16 of her ginger biscuits.’
He used to play rugby and do weight training, but the constant sampling on GBBO means that it is a struggle to keep his weight down.
‘I am big anyway. I am solid. But this year, have you noticed, I have been taking smaller slices?’
In person, Hollywood is built like a battering ram, with great, big baker’s shoulders, a 44 in chest and nimble little legs.
Apparently, it comes with the baking territory. ‘You spend years hauling big flourbags around. And then nine hours a day going like this,’ he says, making powerful kneading movements with his arms and hands.
He says that he spent his youth baking while his friends were all dancing in clubs, but that his days of baking through the nightshift are gone. Almost.
‘Shall I tell you a dirty secret?’ he says. ‘I love going into my bakery on a Friday night when the lads have gone. I open up, fire up, make a dough. Then I will make an apricot tart to take home for my wife because she loves it — it is her favourite.
‘Then I make us a load of baguettes. It takes me about six hours, but I love it when the baguettes come out of the oven, all crispy.
‘I wrap them all up, buy a load of cheese on the way home, and some pickles and tapenade, some great wine, some local apples and strawberries. For me, that is the greatest meal ever.’
That’s what I really like about him. He may be the new George Clooney of baking, but he still sees the deep romance in the magic of bread. No wonder everyone drools.