CineTV Contest: Das große Promibacken 2018 (The Great Celebrity Bake Off)
Hey there, dear fans of cooking and baking shows!
To be honest, I wasn't sure if I should write a post about „favorite cooking shows“, as I don't have one and I'm not an expert on cooking or baking shows whatsoever.
Truth be told, I haven't had a TV for many years, so I’m not really up-to-date with the reality tv scene.
However, I thought I could contribute a little something to this week's contest, even though it comes from an unusual perspective.
My post is about the baking show „Das Große Promibacken 2018“ (The Great Celebrity Bake Off)
I had to do some research for the article, as I didn't remember much about the show except for a certain feeling that stuck with me and that I want to tell you about.
"The Great Bake Off" is a German baking competition originally from the UK, where it's called "The Great British Bake Off".
The concept involves multiple participants who have to complete a specific task in each show, usually creating elaborate cakes or desserts based on a certain theme.
As far as I understand, there are usually some guidelines that everyone has to follow, but there's often room for creativity and individuality.
The show started with regular chefs and bakers, but the format became so popular in Germany that from 2017 onwards, there were celebrity seasons every year.
In the second year of this celebrity special show - 2018 - I unexpectedly had the chance to see the show.
Until today, I didn't even know how many episodes had been broadcasted. There were a total of four, and it looks like I watched all four, even though I don't remember much.
All of the celebrities were unknown to me, except for a former Olympic speed skating champion.
Why did I start watching the show when I had no connection to the celebrities, the concept, or television in general?
In the winter of 2018 (mid-February), my mother became seriously ill within a short period of time. We didn't know what illness she had for several weeks. She started experiencing chills all over her body, severe body aches that turned into cramps at night, and she couldn't eat anything because anything warm that touched her body or mouth felt like fire, and anything cold chilled her like ice.
I had never heard my mother complain about anything in my entire life, and now she was reduced to whimpering and moaning, to inner screaming and never-ending pain.
We visited doctors almost every day during the first three weeks. First, we went to our family doctor, then to various specialists who all said she needed rest and that this condition would go away on its own. At first, we trusted the doctors (to be honest, we had no other choice) but the cramps and signs of paralysis got worse, and the pain was a constant companion.
Even the beginning was so severe that I temporarily moved into the guest room. I had to carry her down the stairs because after a few days, she could no longer stand, let alone walk.
Why am I telling this intimate story in such detail? Probably for therapeutic reasons ^^. Above all, to make it clear that we were desperate and that in these first three weeks, everything revolved around small distractions from the constant pain. When you can't stand, sit, or lie down without pain, when every movement burns and stings even more, you don't know what to do.
One evening, I turned on the TV in my mother's bedroom, sat down on the chair next to her bed, and flipped through the different channels.
I don't remember which channels we flipped through, but we got stuck on Sat1 (cable channel) when we saw colorful dresses and colorful cakes in the middle of an even more colorful movie set, hosted by a woman who must have just jumped into a bucket of paint.
Curious, we stayed tuned and watched the whole show. The pain didn't disappear, and I probably only saw half of the show because I kept running to the kitchen or bathroom to get things, warm them up, etc.
But for the first time in days (I can't give an exact timeline. These three or four weeks are like a single blob of time), I saw my mother smile a little and follow something with alert and interested eyes.
The celebrities scurried around the large television studio, which was set up like a big kitchen with around ten workstations, busily constructing their towering, multi-tiered cakes. Meanwhile, the host moved about with her two professional chefs/judges, offering advice and assistance.
Judges have to make a tough decision
Some of the cakes looked like true works of art. In the second week, some contestants had already been eliminated, and we were rooting for the remaining ones. Why, I don't know. That's just how competition shows work I guess.
I promised my mother that when she felt better, we would try to bake such cakes, even though I knew it would probably end in disaster. But it was something we could hold onto together. At this point, I didn’t know, if she would make it.
The third episode was the last one we could watch together. One night, her cramps were so bad that I loaded her into the car and drove her to the emergency room at the university hospital.
After many hours and several new tests, blood tests, etc., it turned out that she had a rare disease that can suddenly appear and, if left untreated, can lead to death, massive paralysis in the body, and many other terrible things that I don't want to think about today. The disease was called GBS (Guillain-Barré syndrome) and had to be treated quickly.
After the diagnosis, she stayed in the hospital, where she was given a cocktail of medicines (developed specifically for this disease) for several weeks. She was then sent to rehab for four weeks because the first three weeks, during which no doctor could figure out what was wrong with her, had caused significant (fortunately only short-term) damage to her motor function.
When I finally picked her up, there was a nice homemade cake waiting for her at home (unfortunately not as spectacular as those on the baking show), and the last episode of "The Great Celebrity Bake Off."
The show gave us a few hours of carefree entertainment during a difficult time. And even though I'm not a big fan of TV in general, during that time, I appreciated the value of being entertained without having to think too much.
Although I haven't watched any of the shows in the years since, my mother still calls me when the celebrity season of "The Great Bake Off" is on and occasionally tunes in. We laugh about how over-the-top the cakes were back then and how strained the contestants looked as they put the finishing touches on their cakes. But we both know that the show was a small lifeline for us back then.
