Dylan Bachelet, the 20-year-old finalist on “The Great British Baking Show,” generated plenty of buzz for the season with his good looks and his baking talent. He drew comparisons to all sorts of fictional characters: Captain Jack Sparrow of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” anime characters, cartoon cats. When asked about how his style choices were leading to those comparisons, Cristina Spiridakis, a Hollywood costume designer, said “Maybe he’s just a Gen Z kid with good style.”
This turned out to be true, as Mr. Bachelet, self-described as “arty,” has always loved creative pursuits, including fashion and baking.
“Baking is a creative outlet for me,” he said in a phone interview during a day off from his job as a chef de partie, or line cook, at The Five Fields, a Michelin-starred restaurant in London. “In the same way I have a vision of something I want to wear looking quite cool, I’ll have a dish in mind. I just try and work my way to that goal and learn from it.”
He also discussed his fashion and his experiences on the show, the finale of which began streaming in the United States on Friday.
What were you were thinking about when getting dressed for the show: the weather, the baking, the cameras, the audience?
The main thing that’s running through my head is, I can’t wear black, white or anything branded, because they were the rules in the show. In the first episode, the orange shirt, I basically wear it all the time because orange is one of my favorite colors.
How would you characterize your style in general?
Comfy. I like wearing very oversized things. I don’t like tightfitting clothes because I just find them really uncomfortable.
Let’s talk about the sweater.
The blue knitted tunic kind of thing, my mum actually crocheted that for me. I was like, “Oh, I’ll wear it because my mum made it and it’ll be nice for her to see it on the TV.”
She had said, “I want to crochet something for you.” And I saw this really cool jumper thing in Korea, which it was vaguely based off. I asked if she could make it for me, with the big shoulders. I really like those sort of things, like Alexander McQueen suits.
And the bandanna?
It was a practical element. When you’re cooking, bandannas are really useful to wear. When I tie my hair up, it was fine. But you can’t take your hair up and down on the show for continuity reasons, so it was quite nice to just have the bandanna on and forget about it. It was just to keep my hair out of my baking.
Has your style changed at all over the years?
When I was younger, I would just buy cool stuff and wear it. When I was like 13, I got into cool streetwear because I would buy it and then try and sell it. Anything I couldn’t sell I would just be like, “Oh this is pretty cool. I’ll just keep it.”
Nowadays, I don’t care as much. I want to have some cool clothes. I have a big selection of jeans from when I went to Asia. I bought loads of trousers, because their jeans and trousers are amazing. And I’ll normally just throw one of those on and a nice T-shirt and that’s it.
I have to ask you about your eyebrow. Did you shave that in? Is that a scar?
Oh no, I put that in. I had basically went to my barber like, three, four years ago, and I got the haircut, and then he decided to just put a slit in my eyebrow. I went home and my mum was not happy with it. She said, “Why? Why have you done this?” And I just kept re-shaving it because it looked weird if it was half there. It’s grown back in now.
I think that’s what triggered a lot of the Jason Momoa references.
Yeah, I think so. But I think his is real. He got like hit in the head with a glass bottle or something, right? [It was a pint glass and it required 140 stitches, Momoa has said.]
Was it strange to watch the show and not be able to really comment? [The show doesn’t allow interviews with the contestants until after the finale airs.]
In some ways, yes. But in other ways, I didn’t really have a problem with the way they edited the show. So there was never a point where I wanted to step in and actually explain what happened. But you only see certain bits of someone.
What are some of the things about you that weren’t represented on the show?
I think a lot of my bakes, they obviously were portrayed in the show as like, “Dylan’s done very well.” But I’m not happy with a lot of my bakes. When I would practice them at home and I would be like, Wow, these are really good. And then I’d go in the tent and they weren’t exactly how I wanted them.
Did you wipe your social media before the show or were you just not a frequent poster?
No, I barely posted. I’d never really used Instagram or any social media, really. Like, I had like a few bits of mainly food.
How many followers did you have before the show started?
I think like 400. It’s now at 136,000. It’s gone up 10,000 since I last looked.
Do you feel a responsibility to maintain a relationship with the fans that you’ve gained?
I really do. I’ve been really lucky that people have taken a liking and want to see more of me in some way, shape or form. I do really want to try and, you know, deliver on that. But I’m finding it really hard to balance it, especially with work. I’m at work like 60 hours a week. I think I’ll try and strike that balance at some point.
Do you want to continue cooking in restaurants?
Cooking has always been my priority, and before I went on the show I knew I wanted to be a chef. And in all honesty, all the showdid was delay that. Not in a bad way. It’s a strict rule that you can’t be a professional before going on the show, so I waited throughout this whole audition process, which I started a year ago.
What did you do for work while you were in that holding pattern?
I dropped out of university and did some temporary agency work to make money while I was at home. I worked at a place in the U.K. called Bicester Village. It’s a famous outlet for these high-fashion places. My friend works there, so I was like, “OK, I’ll work with my friend.” But it wasn’t anything that I was planning to take further.
Is there anything else you want people to know about you?
It’s all experimental. With everything I do, whether it’s baking, style, fashion, whatever, it always starts off with an idea. And then I just like muck about with different things. It always builds on itself. And that’s part of the process, being open-minded and allowing yourself to change the plan.
The sentence he said was the following so we can edit it to messing about or muck about, I think: And then just like muck a lot of messing about with different things.
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