Paula Vázquez ('Celebrity Bake Off'): "I didn't expect a relationship as cool as that between Esperanza Aguirre and Esty Quesada"

You embark on 'Celebrity Bake off Spain' on Prime Video. I imagine it is a very sweet project.

Yes. It is a very sweet project. It's been a really fun experience because I thought it was going to be a serious dessert show, and it's not that we aren't, but that comedy has gotten a little out of hand. It's more than that, it's like what our director said at the Vitoria Festival: We were going to do a cooking show and a comedy came out.

Some of us have noticed a special shine with this new format. Have you felt something that you haven't felt in a while on television?

'Celebrity Bake Off' has restored my confidence. Doing so it was all so peaceful. I'm used to live things. For example, 'Fame a Dancing' has always been done live daily. And if we add the pressure to that, in the end, everything is stress that accumulates and takes its toll when the program ends. On this occasion, everything has been so pleasant that if it were a course I would sign up for it. I have a great time at work.

What has it been like to redo a format in which the contestants are famous after several years?

It was also very cool because they are people who know the language of the cloth and there are things that you do not have to explain. Maybe they don't have the spontaneity of someone anonymous, but, in addition to being fresh, they have that more professional edge and everything flows a little faster, really.

Beyond the comedy, you have also had a very heterogeneous but very united casting and they have gotten along very well.

Yes. There will be everything. In the end, the best man wins the show and they ended up picking each other and taking it very seriously, but the casting has been brilliant. For example, Chenoa or Pablo Rivero are going to be a discovery for many people because they are so funny. Once they are at their thing and you see them as they are, you can see a wonderful comic sight. With Iturralde you also wonder if he has been a referee because it seems that he has done television all his life. The same is due to the fact that with the pandemic we have had to live in the hotel, but I have the feeling of having been part of a camp. The only common topic of conversation was the recipes. Any time. Their thing was obsessive.

Did you even dream of recipes?

Well, almost certainly. And to take away their sleep too, to rehearse the weekend before coming…. I remember that we had dinner and, normally before 9:00 p.m., they would leave because they had to study because they had to learn the recipe by heart. Even if they have the indications in front of them, there are things that you have to memorize, such as the seconds ... Baking is very delicate. It is pure mathematics. You cannot fail in a few grams of sugar or in a few degrees of temperature. That created a lot of tension, something that allowed us to get to know them. Synergies have been generated between them that I have hallucinated.

In addition, I am still discovering things because being there you are not aware of everything that is happening to each one. He talks about it the other day with Brays. By watching the program, we are discovering things that had gone unnoticed for us and then if they had an impact on the contest.

But it has not gotten to produce bad vibes by that tension by the competition, right?

They have not been stung so seriously to create a bad atmosphere between them, but you can see the bites that there are. In the end, it is a competition and the level went up a lot. From the first moment, we believed that they came to have fun, that things would come out, but that the least thing would be the final result, and it was the opposite. They entered surprising themselves that they could make things as delicate as a chocolate in 4 hours.

Have you been surprised that the show has been able to bring together profiles of very different celebrities from all walks of life?

Yes, I think we were all surprised when they told us the full casting. Perhaps especially for Esperanza Aguirre because I did not imagine it in a television contest, but it has worked very well, really.

Precisely, from what has been seen in the previews, Esperanza Aguirre and Esty Quesada have had a fairly good and curious connection.

They are both two very smart women. The two of them cooked very closely. Perhaps I was not expecting a relationship as cool as the one that existed, but I was sure that neither of us was going to get on badly with anyone. They have had a great time doing this show. Neither of them imagined enjoying it as they have.

After this experience, do you think the contestants have already caught the cooking bug?

I have spoken with some and most have done a little something. That was very intense. For example, one who surprises me a lot by what I see on his social networks is James Rhodes. He is a very enriching character. Within the program, it has been a lot of fun too, but he also talked about Soraya or Andrés Velencoso. We are going to discover a very human side of everyone. We knew his side as presenters, singers, musicians or actors, but here he will be seen in a facet in which many of us would like them to be in our homes.

Having such good vibes in the casting and in the team, I imagine that the most bitter and sad thing were the expulsions, right?

Well yes. We have been excited in more than one. When you are there, you feel ashamed as if a friend of yours were changed schools. It will no longer be the same. I know he will do well in life, but we are more orphans. In addition, in the coexistence it was also noticeable.

You present 'Celebrity Bake off' with Brays Efe. How do you complement each other?

He brings me and complements me a lot. It is this situation of someone who fills you because, before we met, I was very good at it. Now after I've worked with him, I recognize that he is much better than that. He is a very intelligent man and has a culture of television and internet entertainment. That freshness has helped me a lot, even in interviews. I miss him now because he is so fast and brilliant. I am very comfortable with him. He is very generous, affectionate and has many details.

Will your complicity go beyond the screen?

I believe that complicity is going to be noticed and transmitted. There have been days when I myself wondered how we could have such good vibes if we knew each other for a week. For me, it is essential.

And then you have two high-level judges such as Clara Villalón and Frédéric Bau

The two judges are the icing on this cake. Frédéric is a French master pastry chef who has received many awards and has his own patented chocolate. He is fabulously fun and loving. And then there is Clara, who is also spectacular.

I imagine that that feeling of good vibes in the team also carries over to the team's work, right?

There is such good vibes in the team. There is a calm control, the things they tell you through earpieces are calm ... I don't know, it's a sweet program. It is true that it is a pleasure to work with them.

Are you afraid that people will compare 'Celebrity Bake Off' to 'Masterchef Celebrity' a lot?

I would be very surprised if it is compared because it has nothing to do with it. I haven't seen 'Masterchef either, but from the videos I've seen on social media, the tone has nothing to do with it. They are another type of cook.