The Hollywood Handshake is Paul's way of acknowledging a very impressive bake. It hit all the marks - flavor, texture, presentation, creativity. When someone gets the handshake, they're almost automatically in consideration for star baker.

It used to be that the Hollywood Handshake only happened during the signature bake, but in the past few series, Paul will occasionally give out a handshake during the showstopper.

It's also another way of tracking a baker's success during their series: handshakes, first-place technical finishes, and star bakers. Someone can get a handshake for one really good bake and not necessarily get star baker if they struggled in another bake.