The Great Canadian Baking Show:
Vincent Chan on keeping his cool in the kitchen and tent

29. Oct 2021 -

Production photos by Geoff George
Promotional portraits by Steve Carty

"This year in particular the competition was extremely fierce," says Vincent Chan of his time on The Great Canadian Baking Show season 5. "The talent pool is very deep. As are the challenges. It's the Baking Show on steroids."

Like millions of other discerning television consumers around the globe, Chan and his partner Phil were fans of The Great British Baking Show and all of its progeny. So when the Canadian version was announced, Chan was cautiously optimistic. "We said, 'Let's watch the first year and see.'" The first season stayed true to its roots and avoided the pitfalls and shrillness of most reality TV, so Chan applied for the second season. "And the third. And the fourth." Chan laughs, "The producers kept saying that I was 'always in the conversation' but that I wasn't ready." So Chan kept baking and honing his skills. "I could do stuff but there were lots of things that I didn't know how to do yet. There was something different every year." He cites puff pastry and breads as particular areas that needed work.

Chan's love of kitchen creativity was inspired by his uncle's bakery where every item was a work of art, tempered by a youth spent working in family restaurants. "My parents, my aunts and uncles all owned restaurants and I put together lots of 'number 92 with broccoli.' That's where I first learned that it had to taste good and look good. For the past five or six years I've been trying to find my way a little. Not a mid-life crisis, I'm way past that, but finding my passion. Baking has brought that passion back." And he saw The Great Canadian Baking Show as a chance to "see if I'm good enough. Getting the show was a big deal but I just about had a nervous breakdown looking at the recipes." Phil, his 'hugely supportive" partner of almost 25 years, "had to talk me off the ledge. A few times."

Before filming began, Chan spent all his time preparing. "Baking is expensive, personally and financially, I think I kept the egg industry afloat. I kept practicing new things until Phil said, 'You have to stop.'" I ask how they avoided ballooning to 500 pounds and Chan laughs. "We both gained a little weight . . . But in gay weight 10 pounds equals 40 pounds." The solution was two-fold, Chan is the president of BADinTO, the LGBTQ badminton league so they were always active, and he began distributing his creations. "Our neighbours have also grown a little wider."

On the first day of shooting, Chan was "crazy nervous. You don't know where most things are and you need something right that second but spend five minutes looking for it. I was looking forward to the technicals. That didn't work out. Not just the time constraints and not being in your own kitchen, it's the only time you're ranked. With the signature bakes and the showstoppers you get critiques. With the technicals you're fifth out of 10 or whatever." However, judging from the two episodes that have aired so far, Chan found his bliss in the showstoppers. "I'm a graphic designer so the visual aspect is important to me. Beauty is clean, pristine and tight lines." But, harking back to his restaurant roots, "Taste is huge on my radar. In the tent, as in life, it has to look good and taste good." Friends would see Chan's creations and exclaim that they were "so beautiful" and then be surprised when they tasted amazing. "I would work on that," says Chan.

According to Chan, the camaraderie in the tent is a real thing. "I used to hear on television, 'We're such good friends.' I thought yeah, yeah, whatever. But without exaggerating we've been in communication daily since, just chatting back and forth. We all appreciated each others bakes. We all helped each other. The ovens are completely different and every episode you switch stations. We'd ask the last person to use the station, 'What was your oven like?' We all want all our stuff to be successful. The only way you know you are top baker is if the others are doing their best." Chan declines to state on record who he felt was his top competition though he does say that "Aimee is a phenom and the youngest," and "Steve is Mr Flavour, outrageously good. My main competition is myself. I know that sounds saccharine and stupid but I'm my own worst critic. My Chinese family always strove to do better, 'It's nice but you can do better.' All I hear is the flaws, that I could've done better. That one little nick in the icing is glaring, it's taunting me."

Chan was not just competing with himself but also with the added pressure of being filmed on a hectic schedule. "Bakes that would normally take two to three days had to be done in four hours. Most bakes would have been perfectly fine if they had time to cool, but there are certain days in the tent that were hot and sweaty, well over 40. You say, 'I'm melting, I am going to die,' but you press on. Ten bakers in a car in a parking lot with 10 ovens running . . . You have to learn how to manage the time. Instead of a four inch sponge, bake a three. You have to be very strategic to bake in the tent. You want to talk stressful . . ." While Chan seems to look back at that stress fondly, the new stress is "friends and colleagues asking 'You won right?' I have zero problems keeping secrets. I tell them, 'You have to tune in to find out.'"