A profile picture of Helen Vass, a GCU alumna and a pastry chef, in chef's uniform holding a selection of cakes in a cake stand.

Helen Vass

BA (Hons) Tourism International Travel Management

Winner of Bake Off: Crème de la Crème 2016

This talented Scottish pastry chef gained a lot of attention when she became a joint winner on Bake Off: Crème de la Crème in 2016 but she’s also a GCU graduate.

Opportunities opening doors to new passions

While studying Tourism International Travel Management, she was the recipient of a Moffat Scholarship and this funding allowed her to travel to Barcelona, Spain for two months to learn Spanish.

Helen said: “I got into cooking when I lived out in Spain. It started as a hobby but then it became something I thought I could dedicate myself to professionally.”

She was right as the pastry chef has also received a CIS Excellence Patisserie Chef of the Year and a Les Dames d’Escoffier Legacy Award – two prestigious achievements in her line of work.

In 2017, she returned to GCU to create desserts for 80 former students of GCU's founding bodies – The Queen’s College and The Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science. It was a delicious delight.

I absolutely loved my time at GCU, I learned so much.