Paul Hollywood to 'almost stop' his Great British Bake Off handshakes

·Contributor

28 September 2018 at 7:30 am

Paul Hollywood is to pare back his now signature congratulatory handshakes on The Great British Bake Off, fearing that he’s given out too many.

This week’s episode saw a flurry of glad-handing, with three bakers getting Hollywood’s equivalent of a distinction for their work.

But now he’s said things have got out of, erm, hand.

“I’ve taken a bit of flack over that,” he told Jonathan Ross.

“The handshake came from when they looked very professional and they almost cross that line from being amateur to professional.

“It started in series two, I just shook someone’s hand and said, ‘Well done.’ It was a ‘Well done.’

“And every year the standard has got better and better and better and this year has been phenomenal. Some of the flavours they are bringing out. Rahul’s stuff has been incredible.”

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30-year-old Rahul Mandal, a research scientist, is the clear series favourite so far, and has been the recipient of several handshakes.

“You will see it happen [in a few weeks], the handshakes almost stop,” Hollywood went on.

“Because what I’ve done is I’ve realised they are all moving up in standard so I’ve got to move my barrier up, so that’s exactly what I do, I raise the bar and then no one gets over the top of it.”

The show returns on Tuesday for pastry week.

The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday at 10.05pm on ITV.