Taahir Patel and Patrick McKenna join Bake Off The Professionals

Taahir Patel and Patrick McKenna of The Cellar Door in Durham have started appearing on bake off the professionals, giving the restaurant a national slot on a Channel 4 baking competition. The latest series began on Tuesday, May 26, and the pair said the first task was the hardest part of their run.

Patel and McKenna in Durham

Patel is 37 and McKenna is 31. They work together at The Cellar Door and have known each other for more than 14 years, with Patel describing them as like brothers who probably spend far too much time working and laughing together.

That relationship is the hook for Durham readers, but it is also the strain point in the story: both men are used to professional kitchens, yet the competition forced them to alter the habits that normally keep service tight. Patel said they had to adjust to the equipment, the time constraints and change their way of working.

From Saddler Street to television

Patel moved to Durham from London for university, originally planning a year in hospitality management before kitchen work took over. He said he was pulled into the kitchen to cover an absence, then it happened again, and again, until it quietly became the place I belonged.

He later found himself managing several businesses before taking on The Cellar Door on Saddler Street, and he applied for the Bake Off spin-off last year while on holiday in Italy. Patel said, “We’ve been receiving invitations to apply for a few years now and this time round it came through while I was in Italy with friends, who may or may not have goaded me into entering for a laugh.”

The first task pressure

Tuesday last week brought the first episode, and Patel said the opening challenge demanded a different style from the one they use at work. “We come from professional kitchens where we’ve always prioritised working tidy and clean, whereas with this we had to switch to maximising time with creation and not worrying about the mess.”

He said the appeal was the uncertainty of the format, adding, “It’s always fun to challenge yourself further and compete with some of the best out there.” For Durham, the practical takeaway is simple: a local restaurant team is now competing on a televised platform where speed, precision and adaptation matter as much as reputation.

Last minutes on the show

Patel said their best moment came in the final challenge, when the last few minutes turned chaotic but they still pulled it together. “Our best moment was probably the last few minutes of the final challenge where it was super chaotic but we still managed to pull it together at the very end.”

The series has already moved past its launch, so the interest now shifts to how the pair handle the format across the rest of the run. For readers in Durham, the bigger point is not nostalgia for a local name on screen; it is whether two cooks who know each other this well can turn that long partnership into a competitive edge under pressure.