Zach Cherry told us, “I had a little bit of baking knowledge. Let’s say I dabble. I can do a pie. I can do some basic brownies — nothing like anything that the contestants do on the show. There was a learning curve in terms of pronouncing French words. That was a legit major learning curve. I had to learn a lot of new things, like ‘coulis’ and ‘choux’ and all sorts of baking-specific terms.”
For longtime fans, these terms are nothing new, even if they don’t exactly know how to make a coulis or choux pastry at home. However, for those who’ve not spent years binging the “Great American Baking Show” predecessor “The Great British Bake Off,” a coulis (pronounced like “cool-ee”) is a thin sauce made from strained pureed fruit and minimal other ingredients. Meanwhile, choux pastry (pronounced like “shoe”) is made when you combine milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan, then add flour, cooking the dough for a few minutes further. Then, you beat the mixture and add eggs. Choux pastry is commonly used in making cream puffs.
“The Great American Baking Show: Celebrity Holiday” is available to stream for free on The Roku Channel starting Nov. 10.