As an American, The Great British Baking Show Was Hard to Watch This Season
Sad tacos and over-sized s'mores don't do the Bake-Off any favors.
The most recent season of The Great British Baking Show has…not been the best. It feels like the series is scraping the bottom of the pie pan to come up with bakes they haven’t done yet–those sandwich cakes in Episode 3: “Bread Week” looked downright nasty–and judge Paul Hollywood, although known for being stern, seemed to be in a perpetually bad mood–there were fewer handshakes than usual this season. Not that there weren’t plenty of things to love about season 13 of the Bake-Off; it gets huge points for crowning Syabira, a clear frontrunner in the tent all season long, the rightful winner in the finale this past Friday. But still, the season has felt off in many different ways, less like its wholesome and heartwarming self, and for American viewers, at least, this may be because they have felt the show has been personally offending them.
For me, it started with a thread on Twitter. “Mexican Week” was coming up and someone posted all sorts of clips of sad looking tacos–refried beans should not look like unappetizing grey mush–as well as various contestants and judges (you heard me) mispronouncing words like “taco,” “guacamole,” and “pico de gallo.” Before I knew it, I was down the rabbit hole of American outrage. Since Mexico borders the USA, it’s no surprise that Mexican food is enormously popular here, but apparently the cuisine is less present across the pond. But these judges are experts, they should know what they’re doing, right???
Well, despite Paul’s smug retort to one contestant that he “just came back from Mexico,” which I guess is supposed to me mean that he’s now the authority on all foods Mexican, the blue-eyed judge has been wrong before. Just check out his recipe for challah (or as he spells it, chollah loaf) in one of his cookbooks where he claims that the braided bread is traditionally eaten on Passover, a holiday where Jews don’t eat bread for eight days. We also all remember the disaster that was “Japanese Week” in season 11.
As the judges chowed down on overfilled tacos with un-mashed guacamole (if we can even call it that) it was a peek behind the curtain for American viewers that Paul and Prue maybe don’t always know what they’re doing. Add to that off-color jokes about Mexicans, and the fact that making a tortilla is not, in my opinion, enough to count as a baking challenge, the episode put a bad taste in viewers’ mouths.
It would be easily ignorable if it were just one week that this happened, but two episodes later, “Halloween Week” once again inspired American Bake-Off fans to take to Twitter with their disgruntled reactions. Such a theme should’ve been perfectly suited to get back into viewers’ good graces again as everyone got into the spooky season spirit, but like “Mexican Week,” the technical challenge was ill received. The chosen bake? An American classic: S’mores.
The challenge seemed to fundamentally misunderstand what people love about s’mores. For one thing, it’s a summer dessert! How the show decided to label it a Halloween treat is baffling. It’s also not something you would typically make from scratch. Cheep store-bought ingredients assembled in front of a bonfire and stuffed quickly in one’s mouth while it’s still all melty is what makes s’mores so appealing. Who wants an elevated s’more? The judges do. They request digestive biscuits, ridiculously large marshmallows that are only lightly toasted, and chocolate ganache, all made from scratch. Never mind that s’mores should have graham crackers, not digestive biscuits, though I’m told the crackers are also not a thing in the UK, and Hershey’s chocolate bars (or another chocolate bar at least), certainly not ganache.
The reimagined s’mores sit getting cold in front of the judges. One contestant, Abdul, is criticized for burning his marshmallow, and for the gelatinized structure losing it’s shape. Don’t worry Abdul, you did it right. The marshmallows are supposed to get all burned, making them crispy on the outside and thoroughly melted on the inside. Personally, I prefer my marshmallows on fire. Doesn’t this show bother to do its research when choosing bakes from other people’s cultures? Apparently not. S’mores also, once again, do not feel like baking.
It’s not the first time the series has insulted traditional American desserts. An early season of the show saw Paul claim that he doesn’t really like American pies because they’re “far too sweet.” (I’m also still astonished that in a challenge to bake American pies, nobody chose apple.) The recent season’s semi-final once again evoked some side-eye from American fans, as Syabira’s decision to pair together the flavors of berries with peanut butter for her cheesecake mini charlottes was labeled by the judges an unusual flavor combination. In fact, they couldn’t stop coming back to just how strange they thought these flavors are!
Again, it seems to come down to the fact that PB&J sandwiches are apparently not the staple in the UK that they are here in the states, where the flavor combo is downright cliché. Of course, Syabira’s mini charlottes taste delicious, and the judges are surprised by how much they like them. Cue Americans who were watching the episode tearing their hair out and yelling “duh” at the screen.
If I’m noticing all of these culinary faux pas now, I can only imagine how many there have been with other cultures being represented falsely by the Bake-Off. I don’t expect people to know everything about every cuisine, even, I suppose, proclaimed experts like our judges. But a tip for the Great British Bake-Off producers, a little research in the future wouldn’t hurt!