What Zach Cherry Had To Learn Before Hosting The Great American Baking Show - Exclusive

After a short few years of being off the air, "The Great American Baking Show" returned in May 2023 on a new platform and with two new hosts. Now streaming on The Roku Channel for free, the show was hosted by Zach Cherry and Ellie Kemper for the latest season, with judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith of "Great British Bake Off" returning.

If you missed the new season, you can still catch up, but if you're yearning for something new to watch, The Roku Channel has good news: "The Great American Baking Show" celebrity holiday special debuts Nov. 10. We recently spoke to Cherry in an exclusive Mashed interview to get a full rundown of his experience hosting the celebrity holiday special, alongside co-host Casey Wilson, as well as his general take on the show since he began hosting it earlier in the year. 

He said that hosting has been a great experience, noting, "I imagined that I would have a lot of fun, and it turned out I was 100% right. I am such a fan of the show. It always seems like they're having fun. You get to try great, tasty baked goods. I really nailed it on my prediction." However, he also noted that hosting came with a slight learning curve: He had to learn how to pronounce a bevy of baking lingo.

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.