Who are the contestants on The Great British Bake Off? Meet the Londoners taking part in the new series

Four of the 12 amateur bakers who will compete in the Great British Bake Off are from London.

The hit Channel 4 show starts again tonight, when we will meet Amanda, Crystelle, George and Jairzeno from the capital.

They all love using their heritage to inspire their bakes.

George, 34, shared lives coordinator

Londoner George grew up in a close-knit Greek-Cypriot family where food was always a big part of family life.

Now married to his childhood sweetheart, he has three children and a house full of animals, including a dancing Japanese Spitz dog, called Eli.

George’s mum taught him to bake, a legacy he says he is now passing on to his own children.

He loves all the Greek classics, and his planning on bringing his culture to the Bake Off tent.

George says his flavours often include “home-grown herbs” and he likes to give his bakes a touch of class with a “shabby-chic, vintage vibe”.

The baker has a keen eye for detail, looking for perfection in the finished presentation.

When George isn’t baking, gardening or looking after his miniature zoo, he says he will be “in the great outdoors with his family, on bike rides and walks”.

Amanda, 56, police detective

Amanda was raised in London and has Greek-Cypriot heritage.

She studied graphic design at college and worked in advertising before moving to the Metropolitan Police to train as a detective.

As a child she baked with her mum, and she learned specifically about Greek baking from her paternal auntie.

Amanda says that her style is “generous and creative with Greek and Middle Eastern influences”.

The mum loves painting directly on to her cakes, often giving them a pretty, feminine aesthetic that’s inspired by her two daughters.

And whatever the season, Amanda loves to start her day with an outdoor swim– the colder, the better.

Crystelle, 26, client relationship manager

Quadrilingual Crystelle says she will use her wonderfully diverse heritage as inspiration with her baking in the tent.

She was born in northwest London to Kenyan born, Portuguese-Goan parents.

And Crystelle says she takes all of these flavours into her baking.

The youngest of three daughters, she explained she was also “the chief-taster” as she helped her mother prepare their family meals. When Crystelle travels with friends, she says it’s her job to make a list of the best restaurants and bakeries in the cities they visit.

The client relationship manager only began baking seriously three years ago and loves fusing spices from the places she’s visited into her bakes.

A fougasse infused with turmeric, curry powder and spring onion is a firm favourite.

Crystelle is also an enthusiastic singer, having kept herself busy over lockdown with her online choir.

Jairzeno, 51, head of finance

Trinidadian-born Jairzeno says that “baking is like breathing”.

He started baking in 2014, after becoming disillusioned with delicious-looking bakes that just didn’t deliver on flavour.

He says in his own baking, he obsesses over flavour combinations such as guava and chocolate - which “is a firm favourite”.

Jairzeno uses lots of Caribbean spices, and says he aims for the “perfect pâtissérie finish”.

He moved to London from Trinidad and Tobago 15 years ago.

The keen runner has completed multiple half marathons across Europe, and ran the London Marathon in 2012.

When he’s not baking or running, he and his partner can be found cooking up a storm in their kitchen, or on walks, looking for shapes in nature to inspire Jairzeno’s next bake.

Who are the other bakers?

Chigs, 40, from Leicestershire, is a sales manager who loves sky diving. With his baking, he likes to do intricate chocolate work..

Freya, 19, is a psychology student from North Yorkshire. She’s a vegan baker, and loves riding her horse Winnie.

Giuseppe, 45, is a chief engineer from Bristol. The dad-of-three loves cooking Italian-flavoured bakes for his sons.

Jürgen, 56, is a trombonist from the Black Forest, Germany, who moved to Sussex. He’s works in IT and takes that precision into his baking.

Lizzie, 28, is a car production operative from Liverpool with a criminology degree. She loves doing the samba, and experimenting with flavour in her bakes.

Maggie, 70, is a retired nurse and midwife from Dorset who loves the great outdoors. She loves making traditional bakes.

Rochica, 27, a junior business partner in HR from Birmingham. She’s been a dancer since the age of two, and loves using Jamaican flavours in her bakes.

Tom, 28, is a software developer from Kent who loves to sing and run. He loves to take the foundations of a recipe and make it his own.

When is the Great British Bake Off on this year?

The newest season of the Great British Bake Off will kick off on Tuesday 21 September.

It will air at 8pm on Channel 4, and will be available to watch on demand through All4 if you miss it live.

Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith are still the judges, and the show will be presented by Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas.

Who won last year?

The 11th series, which aired in late 2020, saw cast and crew move into Down Hall Hotel near Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, throughout the duration of filming, after being tested for the virus and self-isolating.

Peter Sawkins, an accounting and finance student from Edinburgh, was crowned the show’s youngest ever winner at 20.

He was also the first winner from Scotland in the show’s decade-long history.

The programme also saw its biggest-ever final on Channel 4, attracting a record average audience of 9.2 million viewers and a 39.7% share of the audience.