Photographs: Courtesy of Tharsini Thanendra and Den Store Bagedyst
Earning the love and respect of a legion of fans, Danish born Tharsiny Thanendra baked her way into the finals of Den Store Bagedyst 2023 which is the Danish equivalent of hit UK TV series Bake Off. A graduate in Mechanical Engineering, Tharsiny currently works in the pharmaceutical industry as a project manager. Having initially worked as a mechanical engineer for a year Tharsiny questioned her career choice and while mulling over decided to try her hand at cooking and set herself as a challenge to join Bake Off. Week after week she emerged victorious and made her way to the finals where she vied for the title alongside two others. However victory eluded her and she had to settle for a runners up position. The thought of creating a cookery book has crossed her mind but for now she is mulling an idea of launching her own bakery. In this exclusive interview she charts her journey on Bake Off from start to finish.
What made you take part in Den Store Bagedyst 2023?
I had been working as a Mechanical Engineer for a year and started to doubt if this was my place to be. I would almost call it a minor crisis. I started to think a lot about what I love to do and one of those things are cooking. However, as an engineer there is no natural way to get into cooking, so I thought: Let me apply to a cooking show! I’m very confident in the savoury kitchen, but I wanted to get better in the dessert kitchen, and therefore I applied to Den Store Bagedyst 2023.
What do you enjoy most about baking?
I really love the whole process. From the drawing board, the ideation to the final product. I love to see the whole process of creating a cake. The cakes you can make today can almost be a piece of art. Furthermore, I LOVE to eat them and make friends/family happy with the cakes I make.
What did it feel like to actually be on the show?
It has been one of the most insane things I have ever done. I am a person that doesn’t think a lot before throwing myself into something. So, I did clearly not think it through, before joining the show. I have learned so much about baking, met a bunch of wonderful people and I have learned that you can really achieve a lot even though you start from the bottom.
When I got into the programme
I started practicing a lot. Half of 2023 have been baking cakes. With that said it has also been very tough and hard because the programmes are filmed very closely and in between you have to come up with 2 cakes and I also worked at my company. So, let me put it this way: the second half of 2023 has been used for sleeping haha!
Can you explain the selection process to get onto the show?
I applied in an e-mail with some text about myself. Then I was called in for the first casting where we needed to bring a cake and talk about ourselves in front of a big crowd and some people from the TV-team. Then around 10 people were selected to get into casting. Here we had to do a team building exercise and have a private talk with the caster and some people from the TV-team. A couple of weeks went by and then I got called in for the third and last casting. Here we had to do a hidden challenge (like in the programmes) and there were cameras, judges etc. So it would feel like a real TV-setting. I screwed up big time and my cake was so runny that the judge told me “At least this would have been good TV”. A week went by and then I got a call from the Editor of the programme, and he asked if I wanted to participate! And
I screamed yes!
How has Den Store Bagedyst’ 2023 changed your life since you were on the show?
It has changed my life in many ways. The most important takeaway is that I am a lot more confident, and I know if I want to learn something new I can (hopefully) always manage to achieve it. And then there is the obvious ones, that people recognize you a lot, which is a bit strange – however luckily, I have only positive and cheerful comments.
