There was nothing half-baked about Jude Somers’s achievements during her lengthy career as an animator and media producer.
It’s safe to assume the Oak Bay retiree won’t break her unblemished record when she appears as a contestant on The Great Canadian Baking Show, which debuts on CBC tonight at 8.
Somers was selected as one of 10 amateur bakers from across Canada who will compete in a series of themed culinary challenges in the Canuck version of The Great British Bake Off.
“Being on this show is the best 60th birthday present ever,” said Somers, who started baking in high school, her love and passion for it inspired by her two grandmothers.
One made amazing bread, the other made incredible pastry, said Somers, explaining how she learned “to be tough with bread, and light with pastry.”
Somers said it’s because she and her husband, Gord More, the veteran local director, cinematographer and editor, are such fans of the British show, that she applied for a spot on the Canadian version.
She applied “for a lark” after seeing a casting notice online, then the outgoing gardening and baking buff created an audition video. It so impressed producers that she was invited to Vancouver to audition in person.
That took place at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts on Granville Island, where would-be contestants were instructed to show up with their “signature bake” that would reflect their personality.
“They’d surprise us with a recipe, and then we’d have to bake it,” recalled Somers, who was amused to learn it was for a scone.
“We were all saying that if you couldn’t make scones, then you certainly should not be there for an audition.”
A month later, while Somers was splitting dahlias in her basement, she got a phone call inviting her to go to North York, Ont. to tape the show in a park next to the Canadian Film Centre. The cast was sequestered and sworn to secrecy until Oct. 2.
“People would say: ‘So, what have you been doing all summer?’ and I’d say: ‘Oh, nothing much,’ ” she recalled with a laugh. “If someone said: ‘Have you been travelling?’ I’d say: ‘Oh, a bit.”
Hosted by actor and writer Daniel Levy and actor Julia Chan, The Great Canadian Baking Show also features pastry chefs Bruno Feldeisen and Rochelle Adonis as its judges.
The other contestants who, over the course of eight episodes, will “whip, whisk, ice and knead their way into your hearts” are a colourful bunch whose baking reflects the diversity of the Canadian landscape.
The group includes Halifax contractor Julian D’Entremont, 45; Montreal graphic designer Sabrina Degni, 25; Richmond physics professor James Hoyland, 45; Regina chief financial officer Vandana Jain, 36; High River, Alta., payroll supervisor Linda Longson, 63; Pierre Morin, 56, a retired dentist and musician from Cantley, Que; Toronto human rights lawyer Corey Shefman, 31; London, Ont. optometrist Sinclair Shuit, 44; and Terri Thompson, 36, a domestic engineer from Sherwood Park, Alta.
Each week, the bakers will compete in three challenges, bringing their own style and diverse backgrounds into focus through their creation.
Each episode features a signature bake, a technical bake and a show-stopper. The judges then decide who the week’s star baker is, and who will be sent home.
In the final episode, only three bakers remain to vie for the title of Canada’s best amateur baker.
“I represent West Coast boomers without kids who are a little bit eccentric,” Somers said with a laugh.
She will watch tonight’s première at home with 30 friends, all wearing aprons.
Somers’s creations will be fun and whimsical, drawing on her background animating educational projects. “Clay-animation was my original love,” she said, adding it helped to inspire her love of decorating baked creations.
“I did stuff that was mostly about taking complex ideas and explaining them in a fun, easy-to- access way.”
Being born in the 1950s, Somers came to baking naturally and regards it also as “a fun thing to do socially.”
When she arrived on set, Somers said, she couldn’t wait to tell Levy about her past experience with his famous father, Eugene Levy, in the late 1970s in Edmonton, when he was shooting the SCTV comedy series.
“My first animation gig was making little Mr. Earl dolls,” she said. “I said to Dan: ‘I worked with your dad on one of his shows.” He was so much fun about it.”
While Somers has often worked behind-the-scenes, she found it an eye-opener being in front of the camera. “There were seven cameras going, including one on a crane circling above your head all the time,” she said, crediting a crew member she describes as “our kitchen ninja” with keeping the set pristine and photogenic.
“Someone was always taking the dirty dishes away. You’d finish with a bowl, put it down and then it was gone. You never see the dirty dishes on camera, but they’re there.”
To learn more about The Great Canadian Baking Show from Somers’s perspective, you can check out her Facebook page.
