#173 - How Sport Helped Me Win The Great British Bake Off | Peter Sawkins

Great British Bake Off winner, cookbook author and lover of all things sport, Peter Sawkins joins Ben Sheppard on this week’s episode of The RunThrough Podcast for a conversation about the two passions that have shaped his life!

Peter reflects on growing up in a sports-mad family, discovering competitive badminton and why physical activity has always provided him with community, confidence and an escape from the pressures of everyday life. He also shares how running became another important part of his life, from completing his first parkrun as a child to experiencing the unique atmosphere of major running events! (He even recently WON a RunThrough 5K)

Of course, Ben and Peter also revisit his unforgettable journey on The Great British Bake Off. Peter opens up about watching the programme as a child, applying twice before earning his place in the tent and the mindset that helped him become the show’s youngest ever winner in 2020.

Together, they explore the similarities between sport and baking, from preparation and discipline to managing pressure, staying present and finding joy in the process, a brilliant conversation about competition, creativity and why sport remains the grounding force that allows Peter to keep doing what he loves.

Peter Sawkins - https://www.instagram.com/peter_bakes/?hl=en

Ben Sheppard - https://www.instagram.com/bensheppard93/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Run Through Podcast. It is Ben Shepherd here, and this week I am joined by a fantastic guest, great British Bake Off winner, cookbook author, and lifelong sport lover Peter Sawkins. Peter is best known for becoming the youngest ever winner of the Bake Off back in 2020, but long before he stepped inside the famous tent, sport was already one of his biggest passions in life. Growing up in a sports mad family, Peter competed in judo before discovering Babnington, the sport that would go on to provide him with community confidence and an escape from the pressures of everyday life. We talk about his lifelong love for competition in this conversation, why he wants to continue playing Babninton well into the masters categories, and how running has become another hugely important part of his life. In fact, just last weekend he won his first ever run-through race. Peter, of course, also takes us behind the scenes of his bake-off journey, from watching the programme as a child to applying for the show, dealing with the pressure in the tent and hearing his name announced as the winner. More than anything, it's a conversation this about the relationship between sport and creativity and why Peter believes he wouldn't have achieved what he has without sport to keep him grounded. Peter Sawkins is on the Run Through podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

My grandpa, my my dad's dad, he had a had a phrase that sport is the most important of the unimportant things in life, which I love and it kind of connects with me in quite a big way. So that was my life growing up. In the evenings, I was out playing sports, or I was in the kitchen trying a new style of baking, and that was just it sparked this energy. So it was such a privilege and such a blessing to be on the show and to be able to have that experience. It forms my community in a big way. At university, it was my main community through sport. It it gives me that peace, that grounding force, and a lot of confidence as well, which I take into other parts of my life. My name's Peter Salkins, and I am most known for winning the Great British Bake Off back in 2020. So I did that. I went on the show when I was 20 years old, and I was lucky enough to get on the show and then lucky enough to go on and win the show. And since that point, I've worked in the realm of recipe writing and food and baking. I've written a couple of cookbooks around baking. Um, but at the same time of doing that career of online media and food and baking, I've also worked in university sport at the same time, uh, working for our sports union at the university that I studied in and doing fundraising for that department as well. So I've kind of found a way to combine two of my biggest passions in the world of food and sport, and somehow I've turned it into that being my career and that being my work. Um and I'm very, very lucky to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Mate, it's it's such a cool split, this as well. And I was so excited when I when I found out we were going to have you on because of this, because obviously there's this huge moment in your life that happened back in back in 2020, but there's this massive passion as well that you've obviously loved for forever. And you can see that with the two Instagram accounts, right? You've got Peter Bakes and you've got Peter Peter Trains. And uh yeah, I I absolutely love the Instagram bio to Peter Trains, which is basically um things that I can't post on Peter Bakes because people are unfollow me, in essence. Um let's go all the way back. Obviously, we'll get onto the bake-off and all that sort of stuff, but taking it all the way back to to the passion for sport to start with, where did that start? Is that a family thing? Is this always is it always something you've had? Yeah, talk me through that journey.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I think sport's always been one of the biggest parts of my life, really. And my family are just we're kind of sports mad. And it it maybe my my parents are they they enjoy sport and physical activity. Like my dad, my both my parents love watching sport. They've got a real passion for watching sport. My dad loves watching the cricket, the golf, the rugby. My mum gets behind Scotland in absolutely everything in such a big way and and adores it. But they never played sport quite so much. Um, they played a little bit of school sport and now they're in, they've just retired, um, they're they're sort of around 60 years old, and being physically active is really important for them, more looking towards kind of the health side of things. Um, they get out, they do the runs, they do the old running event, they go down to the gym classes and try and stay fit and healthy. But for me, my brothers, playing sport has been like this massive thing all through our lives, and it almost kind of skipped a bit of a generation through my parents. Um, my grandpa, my my dad's dad was uh mad about sport. He was a competitive athlete. Um, he did the I think it was the 120-yard hurdles when he was doing it. Um but he competed for Blackheet Harriers. Um, absolutely adored that he was the school captain for his cricket team, this football team at school, but athletics was his real thing. And he had a had a phrase that sport is the most important of the unimportant things in life. That was his that was his thing. That was his phrase, which I love and it kind of connects with me in quite a big way. It's not your family, it's not your um you know the the roof over your head, it's not your faith or or your religion, but it I think the meaning to that is because sport can provide you with so many benefits, um, whether it be kind of the the physical, the mental health benefits that you get from it, the community that you have around it. When you're young, I think learning lots of pieces of discipline and um you know the the confidence it gives you as well when you're you you learn new skills and your body's able to do new things. Um so that was kind of the I suppose the inspiration really came from him and his love for it and his value that he placed on it as well. So then me and my brother growing up, we really were just like mad about it. We were lucky to grow up in a small suburb of Edinburgh where we could just go out to the park and just play about. We had amazing neighbors behind our back garden who when we we would stop playing when all the balls went over into their garden over the fence, and um and they were so kind to send things back, and even when we broke their greenhouse and stuff, they were absolutely like, no, no, no, you're kids, you should play, you should do that. Um so yeah, just playing, being active, being involved in sport. And I did, you know, school football, school basketball, um, all of that growing up. Um and we took on competitive sport quite early as well. So I first sport that I competed in was was judo, and I did competitive judo for eight, nine years when I was young. Um, my brother was a swimmer from quite young, that's what he competed in. And then when I was about 14, I kind of made the switch. I that was the stage where I went from playing loads of competitive sports, and then badminton. I started when I was 10, alongside everything else, and from the age about 14 onwards, that became my core focus, and that was my core sport at that stage when you you start to maybe specialize a little bit more, and you're you're training lots of times a week for certain things, you have to make those choices. Um, but really, it was just massive fun. I loved running about, I loved the competitive piece of it all. Um, and I met so many amazing people, and that was my community when I was younger, and that was the thing that I wanted to spend all my time doing. Um so it's always been of huge importance to to me and my brother all all through that time.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

I love that phrase from your granddad, and I'll take that with me as well after this conversation because it's so so true. The most the most important of the unimportant things. And you know, you mentioned kind of the lessons and the things that you learn through sport, and we now know that, right? Like as somebody that also has played sport my whole life. Looking back, we know that it's taught us those things, but I guess in the moment, you're just doing it because you're having fun, you're having a laugh, you're being with your mates, and you're not really thinking about it. And I think that's almost the special power of sport because it teaches you without actually being a teacher, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Completely, yeah. I 100% agree with that. It is just, and I I don't actually know what attracts us to it because it is just made up silly rules. You know, we've just made up silly rules and made this game that has no real consequence and no real meaning behind it, but for some reason we get incredibly passionate about it, we get really excited about it, and um it it gives you that sense of freedom when you're playing it. But I'm so glad that it is a thing that we have. Yeah, but even though I I connect so strongly with it, I don't I I just don't really know why I connect so strongly with it, and why so many of us do.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

It's so strange. Like, right, we're recording this um 20th of July, so it's the day after the World Cup final, and my partner, and I'm not a massive football fan, to be honest. I'm Welsh, um, so we weren't obviously in the World Cup, which was gut in for me. Um, you boys were. Uh I know you got knocked out earlier, but it was, yeah, it was still lovely to see the Scots there in the World Cup. But my partner had Spain in the sweepstake, right? So we were watching the game last night because she was she was invested in it, and she was asking all these questions about she said, why don't they just put it in the net? And I was like, I mean, like it is a little bit more complicated than that, and there's tactics and like formations and but then I was thinking to myself, I was like, yeah, I I mean, I guess for somebody that doesn't watch this very often and doesn't kind of understand it even to a um like a a lower level, this it is like that, isn't it? And like it's kind of the same as what you've just said. It's like it's just a silly game, like just puts the ball in the net, yet we're all sitting there invested in this thing. And I don't know what it is about sport, like you say, that that does that, but it is yeah, I think it's special and whatever sport you're into, and whatever you have chosen to be your thing, it becomes almost a personal affiliation, doesn't it? That's that becomes something that is connected to you. And I know you felt like that with with Babninton over the years, and you still pay competitively now. Um talk to me about Babninton. What was it about that that sport that kind of stuck?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Yeah, I think for me with Babington, it it really was just one of those things that that happened really out of convenience. My brother was a swimmer a Sunday night. He had you know swimming down at Drumbray Leisure Center in Edinburgh. I had to be there for childcare reasons. And at the same time, there was a bampton club that was on. So, you know, we just signed up and it was pretty cheap. And I rather than reading a book for two hours, I played bamington for an hour of it and then you know chilled out for for the second hour. So I just started then and I I really enjoyed it and I got I got better quite quickly. And for some reason, you know, from so from 10, I was just doing this one session a week at 12. I joined a couple of new clubs, and then I sort of saw myself begin to improve quite quickly. I had my school, there was quite a few good bamminton players, um, and then I sort of trialed for some squads that were in the area. There was a lot of good funding in the council for coaching in badminton, um, and it just found its way to fall into place and and it fit, and I enjoyed it massively. I had amazing coaches around me, great opportunities. I saw myself improving really quickly, and it just became the one that kind of stuck in more of a way. But I think it really just was that case of the the kind of luck of this was something that out of convenience I picked up, and then because of where I was and who I knew, the opportunities to engage in it at that sort of further level just opened themselves up to me, and then it it became the thing that that stuck. I do I do really think that whatever I played any sport, I would be I would love it. You know, I love playing all the different sports in PE. But I think there is something special about going a bit deeper into one of them and taking that to a slightly further level. Now I'm like, you know, compared to the pros, I'm mints, I'm absolute rubbish compared to that top level. But I'm pretty decent at the sport and I've played it for 16 years now going on um to a reasonably high level. I spent a lot of time on court, a lot of time learning about it and playing it. And there is something special about taking something to that slightly further level where for me now I watch it in such a different way to how I watch other sports. I love watching other sports, and there's an appreciation for the physicality, for the tactics, for the kind of storyline that's created in sport. But because I've because I have a good level of understanding and knowledge for badminton, I've played it, I've played it at quite a high level. My appreciation of what the pros do on the court is so much higher because I actually see all the intricacies of what they do. And I think that's something really special when you take an interest into something. And I kind of do it in baking as well, where like because I have a degree of knowledge and understanding, when I see someone who is really top of their game doing it, I can appreciate what's gone into it. So whatever sport it was, whatever kind of hobby or or piece it was, I think I would have been really happy in it. But just badminton is the one for me where I've got that level of knowledge and understanding where I can see a game, and to me, it's almost it's almost artistry, the way that they move, the decisions that they make at that very top level, and it's it's like pretty to watch really good badminton. It's almost like poetic and it's a dance. Um, so that's why now I love it so much and I'm kind of addicted to it because I I see so much more of it.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

It's like it's interesting you related it to baking then, because as you were talking, I was like thinking to myself about you know, if you wanted to get deeper in a certain topic, like if you were a doctor and you wanted to specialise in part of um biology that led you to a certain part of your career and a specialist, uh a part of like what you wanted to specialise in, you'd read, wouldn't you? You'd learn, you'd go and do studies, and you'd um go and oversee operations and you'd see all these things and you'd get deeper and deeper and deeper. And I've never really thought about that when it comes to sport, but hearing you talk about it, it makes complete sense, right? The more time you spend on court, the more time you spend watching Babninton, the more time you spend um thinking about the sport or thinking about tactics or working out different ways of playing or shots, like the more you're going to appreciate the nuance that goes into it. I think with racket sports, it's it's it I find it even more interesting because they are the ones that do seemingly fall by the wayside as people get older and as people um you know move through careers and things like that. And maybe it is just a Tuesday night fiver-side football game that they stick to, and it's not going down and playing competitive sport or going to a tournament. Has it ever like have you ever almost stopped or has it ever like waned slightly or have you always had this passion for it?

SPEAKER_00 15:33

No, and actually I I it's very strange, but I think since even since I was maybe 16, um, I'm 26 now, but I think even since I was like 16 years old, I've I've been excited to go into the masters scene of Babinton, which starts at over 35 years old. Yeah. Um because I've never been like I knew I was never gonna be a professional and be at that level, and um but I just love I just love competing so much. I think there's there's almost that piece of like I think it's one of the most honest things in the world because I go into court, uh, I want to win, but my opponent also wants to win. And we're gonna play, there's rules so that we play fairly and that we follow the structure of it, but there's this kind of great simplicity and honesty to like I'm gonna play you in a game, we both have the same goal here, and whoever is better is gonna take the win at the end of it. And there's something really addictive about going to a competition, trying your very best, and most of the time I lose. Um but even when you lose, if you've played well or you've had like when you're in those really tight matches and those tight games where it's it's fine margins and you know you're really evenly matched, and the rallies are great, it just feels like you get into this flow state and you just feel really free, and it's an amazing feeling that's so addictive. So for me, even at that young age, I've been looking forward to like the senior, the vets part of Badminton in the future, where obviously like the standard is still incredibly high, but it's not people who are professional and full-time. Um, and I'm looking forward to that life. And actually, I'm I'm amazed, it's amazing that I've got a lot of great friends in the club that I'm in, are fantastic vets players who have played you know all the way through some people in the over 70 category, um, and and playing above that. And it's it's amazing because they keep that competitive drive within them. They they still exercise that that piece of going into battle on court and fighting for the win and the adrenaline that comes from that. Um, but also they keep these amazing friendships and develop these new stories and tales as they actually go from at my level, I'm mainly playing domestically within Scotland, within the UK. Um, but then they get to the point where in seniors you start to go to maybe European championships and you're off to Spain and you're competing in a team event um against other European nations and pieces like that. And the community that that has is amazing. So it's a real goal of mine to keep the love for it, keep the passion for it, and keep competing as long as I can into the future because that's the thing that I love doing. I love that competition, and there's so many opportunities to keep doing that into the future as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

It's a beautiful sport, right? Because um, and I I can I guess I I'm framing this. I I've never played Ballington, but I played quite a bit of squash growing up and framing it around the same sort of thought process. Um, there is the ability to do that, and a lot of sports don't have that ability, do they? Like, I also played a lot of rugby. I'm not gonna be a 45-year-old bloke playing rugby. Uh, I mean, I could be, but I'm gonna be very, very sore for about two weeks afterwards. And obviously, there's that element to all sports as you get older, they have to adapt. But you are with Babninton, you as you say, you're you've got the ability to build these memories and keep that love for it moving right through your life. And I think that's quite romantic, isn't it? Almost that it's like it's this thing that that you could have by your side, no matter how your life ebbs and flows throughout your whole life, you know that it's there for you. And I'm sure through tough times in your life it has been there for you, right? Sport in general, but Babninton too.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Yeah, certainly. I mean, I think it is we we talked about the value that sport brings, and one of the biggest pieces of value is that freedom and escapism that it takes. And when you are through those, you know, when life's stressful or when the anxiety creeps in or anything like that, that is the space where my head is cleared, and that is the space where I go to. And it can be sort of any physical activity. I think particularly something where um something that I like about bands is that it's it's a mental piece as well. You know, it's almost like you know, chat about playing chess because I'm moving, I'm I'm gonna play the shot into the right area to then build up this rally. So I'm thinking about it and I'm physically doing it. And there's that piece that none of the rest of my life can exist in my head when I'm in there, because this takes up my entire focus and my whole thing. And sometimes that's really the best thing that you need when there is that stress building up, anxiety about decisions that you've made or things on the list that you haven't got to. Uh, and sometimes just being able to take that step back, being in with friends and other people around you, getting a big sweat on, getting the endorphins going, uh, and and removing yourself. It it's such a valuable tool to have. And for me to be able to cope with life and stresses and everything, physical activity is is my number one tool in my locker for keeping positive and being able to deal with the stress and strains of life when they come.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

I'll um I'll definitely stick the uh Peter Train's Instagram account in the description of this as well, because uh yeah, if you don't follow it, go and follow it. Um, I love the first post because it's like a very hard launch, right? You've got uh Babninton with a Scottish jersey on, you've got the London Marathon, you've got the CrossFit element with Matt Fraser, like multiple-time CrossFit games champion. Um, I think there was something else in there as well. But although you've got like an Olympic panel that you're hosting. I'm like, this is like this is a proper hard launch. This is a bloke that really, really loves sport, um, which is really cool, I think. Like to be like have all these different facets to your life. And it's not just even within the sporting space, it's not just Badminton, it's everything else as well. Um, when did when did running first become a thing? There's a photo of you doing the London Marathon there, but obviously to get to that point, there's a lot that needs to lead up to that point. Like, when did that first kind of enter enter your mind?

unknown 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

I'm trying to think when running's always been something that I've enjoyed massively, probably from around eight to ten. I think I maybe did my first park run around ten years old or so. Um and and and it and it was great. I I kind of loved running. I sort of ran to get a bit fitter for other sports, and um I just found out that I enjoyed it when I was maybe like 10 years old. And a couple of my friends at school were in the local athletics club and were kind of training and running properly. And I've I've never trained for running really, and but just kind of being around them, I started doing the odd park run, which was quite fun, the odd little race here and there, and and it just became a part of my life, and mainly kind of thinking about it to build fitness for the sports that I was doing, and but then also just to find fun in it and and enjoyment in it. And I've done the odd little bits of races here and then over time, but recently in the past, sort of uh I did my first marathon four years ago now, okay. Um, and then I've done a few half marathons, a few kind of like 5K races and pieces like this. And I've I've found that I really love the environment of a running race and and an event. And it is it's very different to me from my style of competition playing badminton. I'll I go to a hole, I'm inside all day, I'll play somewhere between one and ten matches that day, depending on how I do. I never quite know where I'm gonna when I'm gonna be on court. And sometimes you play an amazing game and you lose, sometimes you play terribly and you win. And it's very like subjective in terms of how you view your performance of the day. And I think there's something about going into a running race where, especially the big events where you've got you know, a couple thousand people, maybe tens of thousands of people, all starting the same race. There's an amazing sense of community in that, which I absolutely love. You're you know, it's it's a race, so in theory um you're competing against other people there, but in reality, you never are at the at the level that I am, not being okay at the front of the pack for the elites, they're always they're obviously competing against each other. But for the masses, you you're never competing against other people. There's an amazing sense of camaraderie and community when you're in these spaces and you're running alongside each other, and you maybe tag onto someone for a couple of miles, and then you know, then you run past people, and then someone runs past you, and the the only competition that you have is against yourself and kind of what your goal time was. And it's also measurable and objective, which I don't have in other sports in my life, because I can have an amazing Badminton game, but I can still lose it, and it looks like a poor result. Whereas running, I've got this objective time, and I go, How well did I run? How well did I do? Um and yeah, I found this real kind of like love for those environments and those places. And every time I've finished a race, I've always wanted to look for my next one. Um and it's it's quite addictive. Um, and you know, I I enjoy running's always been a part of my life. I I maybe run once a week on average, probably, and it's massively like a big head clearer, it gets it gets my brain away from things. It's that quiet time by myself, which is so useful, and ideas percolate quite often on those runs and everything. Um, so just as a thing in itself, running's great. But I do absolutely love the race environment of it as well, and I found that's a brilliant thing to be part of, even though I'm like I'm down the pack in terms of how I'm performing, but it's um it's this great sense of achievement and this amazing buzz that you get from the community of people around who are engaged in the same thing at the same time. So it's become a real high piece of enjoyment for me in terms of uh sport and physical activities, these these running races.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

I was gonna pull out that word actually, and you just said it again, community, because I think that's something that's really like important and something that is massive when it comes to the running environment, but also something you kind of spoke about with the Babnington side of things as well, like that community of the club with the the boys that are like playing vets 70 plus, like, and you'll be in that community hopefully moving forward for for the rest of the time you're playing in Bavinton. And it's the same with running. You see these old school running clubs with people that have stepped into vets categories and then coaching. And I think it's it's kind of a similar feel um with how you've described it there. There are these, there are these avenues that you can go down and it can be part of your life for as long as you want it to be part of your life. Um, and also like you were saying about get walking to like Babninton matches and getting that feeling of like, you know, I'm excited to do this. That's similar to walking to the start of a run-in event, isn't it? Like you get that feeling. There is nothing like that, I don't think. Whether it's uh a race or the finish, they're different feelings. But walking to the start of a race, I genuinely don't think there's anything like that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

It's it's really cool, actually. And it is a really different thing to the you know, the bamboo and that sport that I do because in a bampton match, they're changing the scoring, but typically it's best of three to 21 points. So even if you lose every point, you have 42 resets. You know, there's there's a minimum of 42 points where every time you can reset, you start and you've got a chance to go again. Whereas running, there's one gun and that's it, and the race has started, and there's one race. And obviously, when it's a long race, you know, you kind of you you build into it and lots of things can happen through that time. You know, maybe like a 5k is a is a short a race as I've actually no. I did I did the Edinburgh School's running champs one year when I was at school. Okay, I did the 800 meters, which was my only ever track race that I did. Um, there was two of us in that race that weren't wearing spikes. I had never I'd never run a track race before. Two of us that weren't wearing spikes, uh I was one of them, and I came second last and I beat the other guy who was not wearing spikes. Separ racist, but yeah, separate racist. Yeah, yeah. So I was like, I won the non-spikes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um so but but mainly like since then, the the shortest race I've done is 5k. And there's it's it's like there's an adrenaline on the start line because you're going, I don't quite know how this is gonna go. Yeah and you know, you've got this target and this time, and that kind of bubbling energy and excitement and nerves is it it's kind of scary in one sense, but it makes you feel alive, and yeah, definitely it's really fun, and you know that everyone else around you is feeling a similar thing. So again, because you're kind of sharing that, it's it's really quite fun. But I think that difference of having one chance versus having so many chances, the normal sport that I play, it brings a different element to the nerves, the anticipation, the excitement. And it's nice to experience both of them in in different ways.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

And sometimes as well, like standing on the start of a race, you'll be the fittest you've ever been, and you'll think, I'm ready for this, and it'll go terribly. And then there'll be other times where you're standing on the start of the race and you're thinking, I am not where I want to be, and it'll go really well. So even if you've prepared or yeah, you haven't prepared in some instances, you still don't really know where it's gonna go, which I think is like, yeah, it's another element to the excitement because it's like until I'm actually in this thing, like I'm not entirely sure whether it's gonna go well or if it's or if it's not gonna go well. Again, we're coming off the weekend that um Josh Kerr just just broke the mile world record, and I think he's probably one person that uh would be able to speak on this more than anybody right now. Like putting that pressure on yourself and then going to perform at the highest level is yeah, it's that sometimes is the most impressive thing. Like that was absolutely ludicrous over the weekend, and as a Scottish uh Scottish man yourself, Peter, I'm sure, yeah, quite a proud moment for you as well. Yeah, I mean, absolutely, it's just absolute insanity.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

I can't get my head around it. I think also that's that's one of the amazing things about running actually as a sport, is you know, we spoke a bit about the the different levels that exist and how you're you're able to sit sport in any anything that you do, you can find the level that's right for you, and um you can find like where you're able to compete at, where you're able to play with with people in the same realm as you, which makes it really exciting and fun and and brings that competitive edge to it. And running is amazing because there's so many like basically every running event has people who are you know at the bottom end, they're just trying to finish the race, and that's the A goal is to finish the race in whatever time, beat the sweeper bus is the goal. And you've got people at the top end who are running ludicrously fast times and everything, but everyone does have a time for the same race, so you can really appreciate how elite the top people are, yeah, and you and the normal person who doesn't I've not got this great knowledge of of running where I can you know look at technique and efficiencies and go, that's that's a fantastic style, or or they've really paced that well. I don't have that level of intricacy and nuance to understand that, but I can look at the raw time and I can understand how much faster than me they were going. And I understand how tired I was when I did it in this time, and they've done it, you know. I would have had in a 5k race, I would have had a kilometer and a half to finish before the you know, and they were done the race. Uh and I think that's that's really fun where you can actually like because you've got those those cold hard metrics, you can measure yourself against them and you can understand the insanity that they're able to do. And yeah, what was I mean, what was the time at the weekend?

SPEAKER_01 32:11

It was three forty something, three forty-two something. Like I like for a month. I just I mate, I cannot get my head round it. I keep we we uh we've uh we've got uh a sister brand of ours trackster, and and they were they did a podcast with him yesterday, actually. And um, yeah, he he was just he was just sitting there, chill, like just having looked like he's done absolutely nothing the day before. And you're like, mate, you've just run the fastest mile in history. I cannot get my head round how fast it was. It literally makes no sense to me. But like you say, that's the beautiful thing of it, and it's not just the raw data, it's you understanding how you felt or however that specific person felt going that specific pace. Your red line is going to be very different to anyone else's red line, but you know what the red line feels like, and you're like, how ha ha I don't understand, like I don't get it, it doesn't make sense. Um, we've talked about like obviously the competitive nature of sport as well, and the the babblington piece and obviously the running piece and how they differ a little bit, but there is always this element of competition, whether it's with yourself, whether it's with somebody you're playing, um, and that's obviously something that's gone right through your sporting career. Going back to 2020, um, when you did uh get on the bake-off and then end up winning the bake off, was that competitive nature something that you had to pull back on a little bit, do you think? Or do you think it helped in the uh in the competition itself?

SPEAKER_00 33:39

I I think it helped massively that I'm competitive in going on the bake-off because I was quite aware going into the show that I wasn't my you know, running races, people chat about A-goals, B goals, all this sort of stuff. And my A goal was not to win. My A goal was to have a great time and enjoy the experience because I knew it's one of those very rare experiences that now you know it's 16 seasons in now, but still there's only less than 200 people have ever been a part of this experience in 16 years, and for me, it was such a massive inspiration to me growing up, where that really is the show that inspired me to get involved in baking. It came on the sh on the TV when I was 10 years old, and I just got hooked on it. So that was my life growing up in the evenings. I was out playing sports, or I was in the kitchen trying a new style of baking, and that was just it sparked this energy. So it was such a privilege and such a blessing to be on the show and to be able to have that experience. So my A goal really was to have a fantastic time, be very present in it, and just enjoy that very unique period of eight weeks in this bubbled up in this hotel down in Essex through the middle of COVID, where I would spend two days at a time in a tent with 10 cameras around me making cakes for Paul Hollywood and Pru Lee. I mean, it's like silly and strange and weird. So the goal was just to enjoy that and really appreciate the experience. But then I'm incredibly competitive and I want to win in kind of anything I do. And even at like school and university, I was like competitive, you know, with myself on like grades. I want to get good grades because I kind of just I just want to get the highest number that I could in a test score. I want to get the best result that I could in a in a bouncing competition, in a running race, all that stuff. So I am competitive, and that did come through. So I wanted to do very well each week and I was quite focused on it. Um so it definitely helped because it meant that I was able to stay quite focused and quite present. And the A-goal being enjoying it was amazing because when you enjoy something, you actually put in your best work. So that is the primary piece to it. Uh, but then I did want to work hard. So when you kind of had to knuckle down a little bit, or you had to be quite focused to make sure you even got enough sleep and enough rest and um get sort of recipe ideas down on paper and do enough reading to make sure that you've kind of built your recipes well and you've thought through different ideas, because I had that competitive drive, I was able to do the hard work and the hard graph that went into it as well. Um, and I think I found a good balance with it all. And it worked out pretty well in the end, actually. It it was it was fairly successful in the end.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Yeah, just fairly. Um, I think before we get on to the the fairly successful part of this, when it when it when it comes to like getting picked in the first instance, like you say, 200 people to this point or around that number, like that is that's actually wild. What's that process of actually getting to the point, like getting into the tent in the first instance?

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Yeah, it's it's a really long process to get into the tent. And I think in the year that I was on, about 15,000 people applied for the show, and then 12 got into the tent. So like the London Marathon ballot, but worse. Yeah, the uh the chances were pretty low in getting in. Um, and it was actually the second time that I'd applied. I applied in my final year of high school, which was the first year I was able to apply for the show. And I got down to about the last 60, 70 people, but I didn't get on that year, which is one of those things where you go, I think that was definitely a blessing in decise at the time. And then I had my first year at university, I didn't apply for it, but then in my second year I went, okay, this is probably it's my last year where in Scotland we do two years of non-honours university and two years of honours. So I was like, these exams don't count towards my final grade. This is probably my last chance of doing it until you know it would be probably I would be fairly secure in a career before I'd give myself that time to apply again, probably. So I went for it a second time and I was lucky enough to get on. But the process is starts off with this very long CV that you write about everything you you've baked before, your experience of baking, what you love about baking. Um I probably wrote about 2,000 words and you add pictures to go like, oh, I do this, this, this. Then they do some phone interviews, they ask you kind of these like um these baking questions that like give you a sort of short baking quiz on the phone to really check that you can actually you actually know what you're doing, and you didn't just submit someone else's work. Um and then it's a series you you kind of bake a couple things, take them down, food producers try what you've made, they do a little screen test, then you get more phone calls, they kind of check that there's no skeletons in your closet or that are gonna come out in the media and the press, um, or at least sort of like to see how they can sort them out. Um, and then you you go down for a final time where you you actually have cameras in front of you and they give you a technical challenge, which is the the blind challenge where they give you a recipe that you've never seen before, and then you have to bake that with cameras in your face, and they're really seeing how do you interact, how do you deal with the stress, how do you interact with the camera, and and then you find out whether you've made it on the show. And for me, that took about three months that process from start to finish. Okay, so it's a long old time. But I do always say it's it's one of those things that I try to think about, and people ask me all the time, what advice have you got for applying for the show or getting on the show? And I always do say just enjoy each part of the process as its own experience because actually, if you're someone who loves baking, who's passionate about it, that application process, you're just like kind of really delving into your connection to baking, you're kind of filling in some holes in your baking to show that you can do stuff, so you're learning new techniques through that way, and then you meet loads of people who also share this weird level of obsession with this topic as you. So, actually, as a process itself, it's quite an enjoyable experience and it's its own experience, and so that's always what I I take say to people if they are going for it, just enjoy that as its own process, and then if you're lucky enough to get on the show, it's incredible. But if not, you've become a better baker through that, and you've met people and you've got a fun story to tell as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

It's kind of like when you're speaking about it there, it's almost like training, isn't it? Like that three months is training to the big dance. If you get to that point, like it's like you're it's like you're in training for a race, I guess, and it's like trying to enjoy every facet of it because um yeah, you're trying to get to that end goal. If um, if sport came from your granddad, where did baking come from?

SPEAKER_00 40:44

Baking probably would have come from uh my my grandmother, who I didn't who didn't know. Um my my sporty granddad's wife, uh my dad's mum, was a home ed teacher. I didn't know I didn't know her in my life, but she was a home ed teacher. So I like to think that the sport came through from the blood there and the baking skills came through there. Um, but my mum as well was a fantastic baker, and her mum, her, my my gran, who I did know is a brilliant baker as well. Um, and my mum sort of taught me the basics of baking when I was young. In Edinburgh, we've got an amazing thing where on a Friday afternoon the schools are let out at 12 o'clock. So you've got Friday afternoons free, uh, which is amazing for the kids. I think for the parents it's a bit more of a pain to get child care and everything sorted. Uh, but we would often you know bake little gentle things at home, uh cupcakes, your flapjacks, shortbread, simple things, packet cupcake mixes as well, which some people are horrified to hear that I would have used, but we got baking in the kitchen, had fun. And then bake off came on the TV when I was 10, and that just lit a spark in me. Particularly the third series of the show really lit a spark for me, which is when there were two young lads, John Waite and James Morton. They were at university at the time, and they got to through to the final. And I think for me, it was two young men who were kind of unapologetically passionate about baking. And for me, as a 12-year-old boy, this hobby, which I think before bake-off would have been seen as more of a feminine housewife kind of activity, I think would would not be unfair to say. Um, it almost gave me that excuse and it gave me that um ability to just become passionate about it because they had you know shown that I can do that and and I can be there. So that's I really credit them quite a lot for giving me the confidence to really go into it and become a nerd about it and become obsessed about it. Um, so from that point onwards, I really kind of took off myself and I would endlessly watch food TV. I got a million cookbooks and I just made a mess of the kitchen, and my parents were the most supportive people, allowing me to um play about in the kitchen, make a mess, and create often terrible things at first, but then some pretty good things as well at some point.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

It must be mad. Like, you know, you will talk about this all the time, and people will ask you questions about it all the time, of course. But to to think back to kind of those formative moments of like watching Bacoff as a 12-year-old lad, like, and then getting to the point where you're winning the show, like that is a that is a bit of a it's a Cinderella story, right? It's uh it's something that people would dream of doing. People will watch sport on the TV and think, I'd love to play for that team, and maybe one day they will. And this is the same sort of thing. Um, what's it like going from that moment, you know, thinking about it, to then actually standing in the tent, like filming your first episode, being there with the competitors that have been chosen as well? Did it feel a bit out of body? Yeah, what's that moment like? I mean, primarily it was terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Yeah, I can imagine. It was completely terrifying. Terrifying the first day of filming, and I got zero sleep that night. Absolutely zero, maybe maybe two hours at most, because I was just my heart was pounding. There's this realization that you're gonna be in this tent, you you've never baked in there before, as well. So it's all foreign equipment. You're gonna have 12 cameras in your face the whole time. You're gonna meet Paul and Prue for the first time. Um and and it's just very overwhelming. And you know as well that 10 million people are gonna be watching this at the end of the day. That's absolutely wild, isn't it? I think that was that was the first time where the numbers sort of made sense to me, or I went like a lot of people are gonna see this. Yeah. And ideally, I mean it would have been funny if it all went really wrong. I'm sure it would have been quite a laugh with my mates, but I was like, ideally, I don't have an absolute nightmare of a tie and like show and and people think that he absolutely cannot do this, he cannot bake, he cannot do any of this. So I was terrified. And actually, the it was in 2020 when the Tokyo Olympics got got delayed, but the BBC put on this like highlights package of Olympic moments, um, and like kind of they they did like this amazing kind of compilation of Olympics. So the night before um before the first day's challenge, I just I couldn't sleep, so I just turned on Olympic highlights that the BBC were running. And it was just like took my mind off it, um, was able to get like excited by the stuff I was seeing on the screen and took my mind away from what I was what I was actually doing in the tent. But then, you know, humans are really adaptable, and once I did my first challenge and it went well, which I was really glad that that one went well, it became remarkably normal remarkably quickly. And and that just became my life. That I would just wake up very early, I'd walk along to a tent in the middle of a field, I would chat to a home economist to make sure I had all my ingredients out on a bench. Uh Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas would start a challenge, and then I would bake a cake for two to four hours, uh, and I'd I'd chat to a camera for like most of the time. Uh, and just tell them what I was doing, and it just became this rhythm, and it was like that was my life. And probably honestly, after like the first day, it just felt normal and like this is what I do, and I know how to do it. And that that was probably the most strange thing that it became so normal so quickly. Um, but it was hugely enjoyable, and then from that point, I was so tired the whole time that I had no issues sleeping for the rest of the uh the eight weeks that I was there.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

Yeah, no more, no more Olympic highlights, or probably Olympic highlights, but just at good hours. Um it's like it's it's dead interesting thinking about it and relating it to sport, right? Because when you're playing a Badwinter tournament, I imagine you'll go there. You've always got in your head like it'd be cool to win. Like that's always going to be a thing. And I'm sure that was the case going to the bake-off as well. Like, it'd be cool to win. But you're probably not actually thinking about winning until a certain point, and it's probably the same with the tournament as well. Like, probably until you're, you know, quarters, semis, final, you're probably not thinking, oh, actually, like this could be a thing. I could actually win this. Was there a point in the competition um itself that you were like, hey Peter, like actually this could go really well for you here?

SPEAKER_00 47:36

I think actually, to be fair, I'm probably a it's a bit of a a mistake of mine going into a bamington tournament where I normally will look at the draw, and it's not typically it's not a good thing to look at the draw. And then you look at the matches and you go, Well, this is this should be a straightforward match. Then the second one's probably gonna be really hard, but then if we win the second one, then we've actually got a good route to get to the semi or something, or uh and that's typically not a good way of doing it, and actually, some of the best tournaments I have has been when I, you know, mainly just from the fact that I've been busy at work and I haven't had time to really like log on. I just knew when my first match was. You just rock up and you go, I have no idea who I'm playing. That's actually kind of when I play my best. And that's actually sort of what I did in in Bake Off. My my brothers would study maths and be like a bit of stats and stuff. And we were like, if we reframe what this is, instead of it being I've got a one in twelve chance of winning the show, we just said you only have to get through to the next week each week. And that means you just don't you just have to be not the worst. So in week one, it was like um in week one, I had a 11 in 12 chance of getting through. So my odds of getting through to the next week were really good, and even up until the semi-final, when there were four people in the tent, I still had a 75% chance of getting through to the final that week on its own. So I went every week, I've got a really good chance of getting through to the next week, and then it was only in the final where to win it, you had less of a chance, and every week you have more of a chance to get through to the next than you do of losing. And then in the final, that's the only week where to win you have less of a chance than to come second or third. So I think I just took it week by week and I just wanted to get through each week where I could. There was one week where I was very shaky and I almost got kicked out, and I very much was I was fortunate that I just didn't have the the biggest mistake that week. Um, but the rest of the weeks I was fairly comfy and made my way through. And then it yeah, it was only really in the final where I went, well, now there are only three of us, and I can I can win this because it's just how how well do we do on the day? Um, and it was pretty tight, and maybe that kind of pressure, I had a few more mistakes in the final than I had most of the weeks because I think I was getting a bit more worked up. I was a bit more, oh, there's there's a a result goal here, which is I need to win rather than I just need to kind of do the process and get through it. Um, so I think the pressure may be built. But actually, yeah, I I think that mindset probably helped me massively. It de-risked every individual week, it de-risked every individual challenge, and probably I should be taking that into my into my sport, and I might be playing better if I have that kind of mindset in it.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

What what's it like when they say say your name, you have that moment, and they say you are the winner of the bake-off? Like, that is I mean, that's what you've been dreaming about, right? Since 12 years old, watching that show at the start, and then it happens. It was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

Yeah. I know it was uh yeah, it was it's one of those when they film, when they film the challenges, you just run through the challenges and you're just baking away and they just film it straight. Um but when they film an intro or a a linking segment, they'll often have quite a few takes and they'll they'll run through things again just to pick up lines and make sure they've got it clean. But when they announce the winner, because they need to get the authentic reaction, uh, they need to make sure that all the cameras are properly set and everything's really clean. Uh so when you know they do these dramatic pauses on TV for like, and the winner is, and however long it was on TV in person, it was actually like four times longer.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

Because Noel wasn't able to say who the winner was until he got you know a word from a producer to say now you can say it because the cameras needed to make sure that they got these sweeping shots of all three of the finalists. How are they looking before it? Make sure that they're in focus, in line with everyone. So it was this like incredibly long wait, and um, and then my name was announced, and I I've seen it back on the on the TV, and just this huge grin comes over my face. It's just like this uncontrollable grin. I watched it before this, it's amazing, and uh and yeah, it was just kind of like uncontrollable um joy and and excitement, and it wasn't some people say like relief in some of these things, it wasn't relief, it was just excitement and and joy, and then there was a bit of a moment where I kind of realized how it is is that piece of like realizing how cool that is for your younger self as well, and and that was probably one of the first things that I thought of. And when they kind of interview me after it on the show, I think I I chat about how you know, like 12-year-old me watching series three of the show, being inspired by it, would just be kind of bamboozled by this being a moment now. So it was it was really, really special, and I think that's where my head went. I think sometimes when you see athletes who are doing things on the top stages, it's quite often where their head goes. If they've been passionate about this for a long time, their head often goes to what would my younger self see of this and um how special would that be for them. Um because I suppose that kind of puts it into context what it means for you when you think about where where you've come from and where your inspiration came from. So um, yeah, it was it was very special and it was very exciting. Um and I just had a very, very big smile on my face for the whole evening.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

To be fair, man. Like just talking about it, that smile comes back as well. You can tell, like it's so lovely recounting it. Um we'll wrap with this, man, because I think it's a nice, a nice place to end where where you know, at the start of the conversation, I was talking about the two Instagram accounts, the Peter Bakes and the Pika Peter Trains, both accounts in the description to go and follow. Um, it's quite cool, like as a as a visual representation of those two things running concurrently, right? And that has happened throughout your life, like literally your whole life, pretty much. You've had these two things that are running side by side. Do you think without the sporting part of your personality and your granddad and the love that he had for sport and how he like gave that to you, do you think you would have been as successful in the baking capacity if you didn't have that?

SPEAKER_00 54:27

No, I I don't think I would be as successful without sport in my life because I think that is for me, uh, really is my grounding piece. It's the thing that kind of keeps me it's the thing that keeps me sane. It's the thing that um keeps me able to go back to work and put in effort and and put in that piece and and find a huge amount of joy. And I do sometimes get asked the question, like, if you had to give up sport or if you had to give up like baking, what would you do? And I of course I wouldn't want to give up either. But like sport for me actually in a day-to-day basis is more important, and um I would find another artistic creative outlet, but uh for me it's it's it's really central to me being able to do what I do. I have to get that in, and it forms my community really on in a big way. At university, it was my main community was through sport. It it gives me that peace, that grounding force, and and a lot of confidence as well, which I take into other parts of my life through you know, developing my body, developing the skills that I can have, learning new things. Um so yeah, I think it's it's centrally important to everything that I've done, not just in the baking world. Um and I'm it's and I really do put a lot of effort and work into keeping it as a central pillar. And um as busy as I ever get, I have to fit that in. And if that falls off too often during a week, I really have to refocus and reframe because that's the thing that allows me to do what I do and allows me to keep being me really f it's it's so important.