‘We were feeling a tiny bit wobbly’: Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle talk GABO season 5

Great Australian Bake Off’s Mel Buttle and Claire Hooper talk Covid restrictions, hot chips and being in a group chat with Maggie Beer.

Hosting Great Australian Bake Off with fellow comedian Mel Buttle is Claire Hooper’s favourite job in the world, but there was one point late last year during the long hours of filming and weeks of being separated from her family that she thought she just couldn’t rise to the occasion.

In previous seasons of the Australian version of the much-loved reality baking show, she’d been free to travel back home to Melbourne on weekends from the Sydney-based shoot or her young family had accompanied her, but as Covid locked down Sydney last year, this wasn’t possible.

“The idea of not being able to go back home even if there was an emergency was just such an unusual feeling,” Hooper shares.

“It was strange for both Mel and I to be committed to being away from home that long – with a reasonable chance of getting back but enough of a question mark you know, will there be issues getting home?

“Even Mel – and she’s made of stone and doesn’t feel emotion – she felt it and we were leaning on each other more than usual because we were feeling a tiny bit wobbly from missing our homes.”

Mel Buttle and Claire Hooper on set for The Great Australian Bake Off. Picture: Supplied

Fortunately reuniting with judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran and the fabulous crew who have become like family meant it was all worthwhile. It had been a few years since the fantastic four had been whipping out the baking puns in the gorgeous Bake Off shed and the reunion was joyful.

“We’re all still in a little text group so we chat anyway – which is pretty mind-blowing to be in a text group with Maggie Beer and Matt Moran,” Buttle says.

“Every year Matt does a lunch at his house towards the end of shooting and Maggie and her husband Colin come. That’s our whole treat of the season, what is Matt going to cook for us this year?”

There was an even – perhaps – tastier, certainly saltier, treat this time around. Despite an abundance of baked goods at the end of every challenge each day, midway through each series, the pair has a hankering for hot chips.

“One of the very few problems on set is there is so much delicious sweet stuff – sometimes there’s bread and pies, great – but there is a point where we are non-stop talking about hot chips,” Hooper explains.

“Nobody ever takes the hint. So Mel and I brought $100 worth and had them delivered to set.

“Oh it was such a happy afternoon to be walking around and giving boxes of hot chips to everyone. Look, it’s not as high brow as the things we make in our shed. And I’m pretty sure Maggie Beer did not understand …”

Buttle adds: “I think she was in her trailer running her empire then.”

Hooper: “Yeah, so it just took five seasons for us to realise that we had to take the hot chip problem into our own hands.”

Starting this week over 10 episodes, a new batch of homebaking enthusiasts will take on 30 delicious challenges. From the Signature challenge, to the tricky technical bake, where the bakers must tackle a previously unseen recipe set by either Maggie or Matt.

And finally, the all-important showstopper, where bakers are challenged to make the most spectacular, mouth-watering creation they can possibly manage.

Claire Hooper, Maggie Beer and Matt Moran on The Great Australian Bake Off. Picture: Supplied

And by all accounts these bakers have gone next-level.

“I don’t know how much I can give away but there has been some big-scale, zany stuff,” Buttle hints. “So, what we’ve had to date is, ‘Oh my goodness, you’ve made a six-tier cake’. This season that is not even close to the most intense stuff – we had things hanging from the ceiling with some cakes.”

It certainly got very Heston Blumenthal-esque; just like the much-awarded chef – renowned for creating dishes which are not what they seem – such as his iconic “Meat Fruit”, a chicken liver and foie gras parfait encased inside a “peel” of mandarin orange jelly.

One contestant whipped up an array of desserts which looked like a breakfast-in-bed tray, complete with Weet-Bix and Froot Loops and other children’s brekkie specialties but every single element was a dessert.

They attribute this generation of uber bakers to the amount of time people have spent in their homes these past 24 months.

“One guy this year turns up with his own sourdough starter which he used in bread week,” Buttle laughs. “Something I think which is really positive that has come out of Covid is that everyone is making their own food.

“The bakers who turned up this year, they're starting with a few more skills – not that we’ve had shockers by any means before.

“There are two sets – the flavour-driven bakers and there’s the ‘I’m going to make a charcuterie board but it will look like my kids’ breakfast’.”

Great Australian Bake Off, Thursday, 8.30pm, Foxtel

Originally published as ‘We were feeling a tiny bit wobbly’: Claire Hooper and Mel Buttle talk GABO season 5