ruby tandoh

British baker, author, journalist, and former model Ruby Tandoh has written four cookbooks and finished second in the fourth season of The Great British Bake Off on the BBC in 2013. Several best-of lists included her 2021 book Cook as You Are. Her occasionally vehement online arguments with a large portion of the UK culinary community have also garnered attention.

At age 20, Tandoh was the youngest contestant in the fourth season of The Great British Bake Off, which aired in 2013. Together with Frances Quinn and Kimberley Wilson, she advanced to the all-women final. Tandoh was seen as the favourite to win by London bookies prior to the final episode, but she garnered apparent hostility from some spectators, particularly online. These opponents said that she entered the final by sobbing, that she and judge Paul Hollywood were romantically attracted to one another, and that she was overly modest. In a defence of Tandoh in The Guardian, Sarah Ditum addressed the majority of these allegations.

In the final, the judges claimed Quinn’s three-tier wedding cake, which was inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “beat the other two guys hands down,” and Tandoh finished as one of the runners-up. Tandoh responded to the criticism she had received, calling it unexpected, personal, and misogynistic, in an essay that was widely read in The Guardian. She keeps up with her fans on Instagram @ruby.tandoh, where she boasts more than 100,000 followers.