In his own words, 2019 Bake Off contestant Michael Chakraverty, 26, tells his story... My mum has always baked. She’s got this folder full of recipes that her mum and her mum’s mum all passed down.
So I baked a lot with her when I was a kid, and I fell in love with it – until I got to uni in Edinburgh, because you don’t bake in a sticky student kitchen.
I didn’t do it again for years. I was quite a chubby kid, and at uni I went through a tough time with my mental health, I couldn’t pull myself out of the slump.
The doctor said she could give me medication or I could try exercise. I promptly went out for a 5k run, got about 100 metres and felt like I as going to die, so I went back home and carried on being depressed.