Bristol's Giuseppe WINS Great British Bake Off

Twelve bakers entered the Bake Off bubble at the start of the competition, but only one could be crowned the winner of The Great British Bake Off 2021, and last night Giuseppe Dell'Anno, age 45 from Bristol celebrated his win in an amazing final episode.

The mechanical engineer puts his passion for cooking down to his father, who was a professional chef, and during the final, we saw an emotional video from the Italian's father congratulating him on his achievements.

Among those to have congratulated him online is Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees - who tweeted to say 'you've done our city proud!'

On hearing his magnificent win, Giuseppe said: ‘There are no words, I am speechless for once. All I can think of is the reaction from my mum and dad. The fact is that everything I have done to deserve this comes from his heritage, it’s the best thank you note I can possibly send him. He is going through a very bad time health wise, so I think this is going to be a great boost. I don’t say often or lightly that I am proud of what I do, but in this case I am really proud of what I have done. It’s unbelievable!

'This has certainly been my year'

Last night Giuseppe said: ‘I feel it’s been a great year for Italy. I truly can’t believe it or take it in, this has made me so incredibly happy to be a Britalian. Dell’Anno is my surname which translates in English to of the year – and I feel this has certainly has been my year.’

Paul said to Giuseppe: ‘You have won The Great British Bake Off, you are the first Italian to ever win it! And then added ‘The first time I walked into the tent and in the first signature I saw his mini rolls, I thought that looks like our winner, you could see the heart and soul going into his baking. He has done an incredible job!’

Prue said: ‘He is such a classic beautiful baker and he represents a long tradition of classic Italian baking he has done it brilliantly all the way through. I am going home to make much more Italian cakes because they really are good.’

The two runner ups wanted to congratulate him and Chigs said ‘I am over the moon that Giuseppe has won because I know how hard he has worked throughout this whole competition, it’s a euphoric moment!’

Crystelle added ‘I am so happy for Giuseppe I am getting quite emotional now, he is an incredible guy so genuine and an insane baker, and he really really deserves this win. His family are going to be so proud of him.’

The Great British Bake Off Winner 2021, here talks about his win: ‘Each of the finalists received two Hollywood Handshakes, and have been Star Baker twice, so I knew it was going to be a close race, and a very tight finish. I think we all saved the best till last and we all put our heart and soul into it. In the semi final it was a shock departure when Jurgen left and I think that made us all raise our game.

'Prue took one of my bakes home for lunch'

‘In the final episode, my showstopper was a dough filled with chocolate and hazelnut shaped in the form of a giant mushroom, to make a tear and share bread for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. I made mango and passion fruit drink me panna cottas, with orange and fig heart shaped muffins and asparagus and pea filled choux pastries shaped as the caterpillar. Prue and Paul said that they were delicious and had stunning flavours. Prue took one of the panna cottas for her lunch, so that was a big moment for me! When Prue steals one of your desserts it doesn’t get better than that.

‘On bread week, when I made my focaccia and Paul asked me for my recipe - well that just about made my year. I will eventually work up the courage to give it to him, and hope he uses it.

‘Going into the tent with Chigs and Crystelle for the last time was a very special moment. I think we were all so close technically as bakers, so it was more down to someone doing something wrong, rather than doing it right. This sounds corny but I would have been equally happy if either of those had won, they are phenomenal bakers and so clever. They really deserved to be finalists.

‘Matt and Noel were the biggest surprise in the tent for me, for obvious reasons. The Judges of course have to remain impartial, but Matt and Noel were so friendly and we hung out a lot together. They are charming gentlemen and they give showbusiness a really good name, they were so helpful and supportive.

‘When I called Noel Neil it was such a cringe moment but he took it in good humour, and hey listen if it makes good telly then I don’t mind, as long as Neil didn’t mind ha ha. There was some banter about my mispronounciations with Matt, but it was all good fun, no hassle.

'Strangely I went into the last episode quite relaxed!'

‘I felt a lot of pressure in preparation for the Final, we were developing recipes, but strangely I went into the last episode quite relaxed. I thought to myself, well I have been in the series throughout, I am happy being a Finalist, what can go wrong really? I had seen previous finals when bakers do have a meltdown. But the minute they say Bake you just put so much effort into it and don’t want to make a single mistake. You get a massive adrenaline rush, and it’s like a time warp as you are in the zone for 4 hours, and so focused on the task. I feel now if I had to recreate that again it might take me 4 days to do it!

‘Being the first Britalian winner is amazing, as I have had so much support from Bristol and Italy, I have had lots of local people getting in touch and thanking me for putting Bristol on the map. But equally Italians all over the UK, saying it’s great to be representing our culture in such a high profile show has been really heart warming. The Italian community in the UK is pretty massive, there are quite a few of us.

‘I watched the final at home with the family and friends and I made some bakes and of course they were Italian!

‘I will of course keep in touch with all my fellow bakers a 100% and we have had parties and barbecues throughout the summer. We reach out to each other on our What’s App group and it’s really nice to get daily updates and support when it’s needed.

‘Bake Off has helped me broaden my baking experience as it has been a massive learning exercise and I have learned more about presentation. With family life and having a busy job I previously have gone for something more practical in baking. But obviously that is not the Bake Off standard and finesse is required, so for the first time through Bake Off I have had the time and opportunity to practice those skills.

‘I would like to say thank you to my wife Laura – she is my first and foremost support. She gives me expert baking advice, but more importantly, she gave me the practical help and took over all the family chores that helped me make it to the Final, so I can never thank her enough.

'I'd love to honour my dad'

Giuseppe ends saying ‘I think and hope GBBO might just change my life, whether it does or not I genuinely don’t know, it’s all so new and scary for me. I don’t know what the expectations for the future are and if I can I live up to them. But the one thing I would love to do is to crystallise my dad and family’s heritage in a cookery book of Italian baking - and that would draw from my family and their love for baking, it runs through our blood. It would be good to know that there would be a cook book out there for posterity for the Dell’Anno family.’

This year's contestants

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Rayo app.

• GBBO
• Great British Bake Off
• giuseppe dell'anno
• bristol