On Your Marks, Get Set, Baaaaake! A Thread for Great British Baking Show / Bake Off & all of its sundry delights

it reminds me 20+ years ago on his first visit to Australia we were at some terrible sports bar for melbourne cup day & mr veg overheard a drunk girl order a “QUESTALADILLA” and died laughing and this whole episode has been that moment x 10

On one of our visits to Sydney, Mexican food was suddenly very trendy. We went to the opening of a bar my brother in law had helped build on the harbor and my wife and I were shocked by the let's say culturally questionable depiction of Mexico and Mexicans. Lotsa fake mustaches, bandoleers and sombreros.

look the only mexican restaurant i knew of for the first 20 years of my life was called TACO BILL

this commercial is from 2012 to give you an idea of what we were working with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-mwd0Q_mLQ

= basically the vibe of this ep

My friend was in Norway a few weeks ago. Here's what she posted:

https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/298013585_10225775579271073_2016522644360085404_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s1080x2048&_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=rsp7AKm2xPAAX_mxwVa&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AT_TgWveCbCvQePlX1SI7oDsv1MEVpf95qI8Ml0mgeIWbQ&oe=6347B524

Norwegian tacos made by a Colombian woman. She asked if we knew what pico de gallo was.
ETA for context: tacos are hugely popular here. "In Norway, 'fredagstaco' has become a cultural phenomenon. Fredagstaco was coined by the younger generation and translates to “Friday’s taco.” Tacofredag is another common name for it. As the week comes to a close, many Norwegians have tacos on their minds for Friday night dinner."

cool!

the worst thing with this ep was how everyone kept saying "taco" to refer to just the tortilla. "that's a well-baked taco, that is." also the many references to "tres leche" even when the terminal S was written out on the screen!

guest judges is a great idea, trishyb!

rebs always seemed kind of doomed
like a chaotic orchid
also those eyebrows lol

:D

It is a bit shit that nobody would stop and show Thorgy how to use the boiling water tap properly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/dining/great-british-bake-off-mexican-week.html

But over its 12 years on the air, the worst thing imaginable on Bake Off has gotten worse, again and again. Last week, the hosts, Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas, strolled up a grassy slope dressed in fringed serapes and straw sombreros to introduce “Mexican Week” with tired puns, saying they shouldn’t make “Mexican jokes” but proceeding to do just that. The show had hit rock bottom, revealing what it had managed to obscure in the past with a bit of charm.

The “Bake Off” clips were shared incredulously and angrily on Twitter, days before the episode even aired. The phrase “Mexican Week” quickly became shorthand for profound culinary blunder, presented with a sense of naïve triumph. An image of a cursed avocado, lopped away with a knife, became the episode’s unofficial mascot, as if a home cook unfamiliar with peeling an avocado should feel humiliated.

To me, it felt more like the episode had betrayed its own contestants, as well as its audience, with a lack of expertise among judges, and a lack of curiosity among hosts. Paul Hollywood explaining steak tacos with pico de gallo and refried beans to Prue Leith would be howlingly funny, if he weren’t positioned as an expert.

It was even worse than the clips implied — an hour of incompetent exposition, farcical bumbling and maracas-shaking. A distraction for an increasingly insular, self-referential show that’s run out of energy and expertise, and refuses to find it elsewhere.

To me, it felt more like the episode had betrayed its own contestants, as well as its audience, with a lack of expertise among judges, and a lack of curiosity among hosts. Paul Hollywood explaining steak tacos with pico de gallo and refried beans to Prue Leith would be howlingly funny, if he weren’t positioned as an expert.

i think this is perceptive. i don't agree w/ the following paragraph tho

I don't understand the "lack of curiosity" bit. Does this writer honestly think that the presenters and judges on Bake Off have never eaten Mexican food? Do they not understand that on television people often explain things to each other for the benefit of the audience?

From the perspective of a person who could be in Mexico in 15 minutes if the traffic is right: They all mostly did a slapdash, half-assed job at making Mexican food, and just laughed it off like: "eh, it's just Mexico...". It's not like its some exotic cuisine either. Maybe it's different in the UK? I mean, I'd struggle to make a steamed pudding or something like that, but I wouldn't really laugh it off.

custard week & the technical is fkn icecream cones? and please how is a mille fielle a cake?

this is some is a hotdog a sandwich nonsense & i think this show is trying to turn me into annie wilkes HAVE YOU ALL GOT AMNESIA!? HE DIDNT GET OUT OF THE COCKADOODIE CAR

meanwhile shabira is perfect and i want to eat that pinacolada cake so bad! how did she even make those flower decorations!?!?

*syabira

Yeah her cake looked INCREDIBLE, surely the most nommable thing that's appeared on screen this season.

did someone say they'd never had a vol au vent?

Abdul. And then they all did that comical thing of "lol foreign words" like vol-au-vent was in fucking Klingon or something, before making spring rolls which is Not Baking. Then the technical of "can you make a pie? Well, make loads of them in one tiny oven then we'll sneer at you for the purposes of telly".

This series is a disaster. Crown Syabira queen of everything, lock the tent doors, and pretend this never happened. Then get back to the old days when at least one of the presenters was kind, the judges showed you how the technical things were made to show it could actually be done, and there was some educational and cultural explanation of the things you were making rather than this bollocks of picking a country and finding a random bit of its cuisine that can go in an oven and going "will this do?"

^nail this to the door of whoever makes this

I don't mind them making things in a fryer on a baking show, but totally agree with the rest of your point. If every single one of your quarter finalists is failing at a task, then that's the task's fault. And you haven't cast the show very well if your quarter finalists include at least one of person who doesn't know the name of the pastry that he's making, and nobody has ever seen mange tout before! The kids they get on Junior Bake Off have broader knowledge and skill than some of these guys. Ditch this show and just do Junior Bake Off from now on (with the rules ILE agreed on last year, where nobody gets eliminated and there's just a winner at the end).

For all Pru went on about water bubbles in the spring rolls, hers looked worse than some she criticised. Also I am not sure how many spring rolls I have eaten in my life with bubbles like hers.

Syabira has been getting a free ride through previous rounds imo, she should have gone last week for her ice cream soup and being second worst in the first challenge and only survived this week because of Maxy's meltdown(s).

I can't think of anyone this year I think is actually good. And I'm still annoyed about Sandro not being vetted properly.

What do you mean, not vetted properly??!

previous professional experience, i heard.

hers looked worse than some

I didn't realize until recently that people think the example ones are made by the judges.

Yeah he used to do it professionally, made birthday cakes for (at least) Stormzy and Perrie Edwards for real Instagram influencer attention. Not allowed according to the rules. He claims it's just what his IG account was called but there was a company registered at Companies House.

Sorry, 'hers' should have been in scare quotes about the ones Pru 'made'.

I didn't even realize those were conditions of eligibility--silly of me, I guess. If a person starts making cakes in their house and they get good at it and even accept money, Idk if I would say it's unfair? It would be unfair if they had, say, trained as a pastry chef and been taught professional skills. Every time a judge says "You could sell that in a shop" I'm like, have you literally never seen a bakery? They sell everything!

Yeah I think "self-taught" should be criterion, and having gone to culinary school or worked in bakeries (ie on-the-job training from pros) should disqualify you. No idea what Sandro's background is.

Btw we cancelled Netflix last month so won't get to see the last few eps for some time, can't say I'm too concerned about it.

Someone in a group I’m in got to the final round before choosing the onscreen contributors before LOVE discounted her for having done freelance TV production. She’d gone through a few months of auditions with the producers knowing what she did for a living, but they didn’t have a problem until there was a danger she might actually be chosen.

Weird, why would that matter?

Concern that it might get out that she works "in TV" and there might be suggestions of a fix?

Enjoying the contestants this year, Sandro included, but agree the challenges are somewhat lame and Noel seems to be genuinely harassing people at times

weeks like this i miss mary berry

failpies is what happens when you corner the contestants into making ten to twenty fucking pies. want good pies? allow for three to five, tops. and fuckkkkk offfff with that technical this isnt fucking top chef. its BAKE OFF. can we bake? enough with tacos or spring rolls. fuckin hot wings next? i mean christ. come the fuck on.

in other news the secret word is GLOOBY

I just don't think the baking was very good this year. I liked a lot of the bakers - Sandro had a lot of charm, Syabira was a great baker, Januscz produced some beautiful work. But the heart wasn't in it. I don't think Matt is very good, though I very much enjoy Noel - I think he's funny and impish in a way most of the bakers appreciate.

But I think the real problem with the show - beyond the stunt challenges, the challenges they don't have enough time to complete satisfyingly, the challenges where obscure knowledge (you must boil veggie gelatin) is the decider on whether a baker triumphs or fails - is the judges. Paul has just been a grumpy cunt all series. Pru is just, meh. Neither of them seem to have much understanding of global cuisine - a problem when a) the best bakers are from or have roots in other cultures and are drawing on them for their bakes, and b) when you're asking them to make Mexican food and pizza - and their tastes don't seem to connect with developments in food culture over the last decade or so. I was ready to throw a brick at the TV when Paul said the pizza crusts were too dark - ever heard of leopard spotting, motherfucker? (Also, don't expect people to make great pizza/bread if you're only giving them a handful of hours to bake them in).

I think the Junior Bake-Off is a triumph not least because the judges are great - they're fun, supportive, but also they have a broader and younger sense of palate. Swap out Paul and Pru, and get Nadiya Hussein in - she's an ocean of charm, she's warm, she's a great cook and she understand world cuisine. And she's Bake-Off family.

Total agreement with all that. The fact that they shoot it all in a big tent in the summer in the south of England also means they're working in uncomfortably hot conditions all the time, which must wear on everyone's nerves after a while.

I like the Bake-Off idea that the presenters are not judges, and can therefore be 100% sympathetic with all struggles, but that doesn't mean the judges have to be so unhelpful and miserable. One of the things I like about modern Masterchef is the constant tips and tricks that they're being taught as they go along, so they keep getting better. There has to be more than "are you sure you want to do that?" and then walking away without giving an answer, so the baker has to worry about whether their method is right or not. And I really hate how they don't give any leeway if someone is struggling with their oven or an unfamiliar process (like boiling stupid gelatin). Surely the whole point of Bake-Off is to help and support and celebrate, not to try to catch people out. I'd like it to be more like the Pottery Throw-Down, where there's one presenter and one extremely helpful judge and they bring in guest judges for different specialities.

Like, if Marcus Wareing was standing beside one of the chefs and noticed something was starting to burn, or the ring wasn't on when it was meant to be on, he'd tell the chef rather than have them look like an idiot. Why can't they do that on Bake-Off?

I've always felt Paul's sourness a weird tone for a show which is generally so affectionate, and generally the antithesis of all that macho Gordon Ramsay bollocks.

I really like Paul and think he’s key to the show, but agree he’s been a sourpuss this season and that challenges that rely on esoteric knowledge are bullshit. The joy of this show is watching people succeed (or fail on a level playing field) not breakdown because of artificial reality show complications.

Also I don’t like watching Sandro being sad. Those producers are jerks.

Also agree Prue is meh but this season she seemed to be consciously countering Paul’s grumpiness, which was needed.

Glad to see Noel disappear for a while and Matt made an actual funny joke (Nick Berry!) but still get slight “Hank Kingsley on Larry’s day off vibes from Matt”

The baking was definitely worse this year but some year’s it’s *too* good so I dunno

They were never given enough time to complete the challenges, and the actual challenges were not as clever as in previous years. Apparently the person responsible for setting previous challenges died of cancer over the summer, and whoever replaced her wasn’t great.

Nadiya Hussein would never leave the BBC, because of the breadth of programmes she can make there. Someone who might make a good judge? Felicity Cloake (she has the Head Girl energy of a younger Mary Berry).

but agree he’s been a sourpuss this season

Am guessing he's recently been kicked to the kerb by another 20something.

Also agree Prue is meh but this season she seemed to be consciously countering Paul’s grumpiness, which was needed.

Yeah, I generally don't like her, because politics, but she was definitely a leavening presence. But still, so often she's like "Garlic and coriander? Weird exotic flavours!!"

I really, really like Noel, and find him very funny, and feel that he seems so at ease with himself that on some level, even when it seems he's distracting the bakers, he's actually calming them. I may be in the minority there though.

Ah, my partner thought that about Nadiya, too. Never seen Felicity on telly but love her columns and books. And what about some other Bake-Off alumni? Tamal?

I like him and he has proven much better than I feared.

I’ve never watched this show before but I watched three episodes with my sister - a regular viewer - including the finale, and that vegetarian gelatin thing was such bullshit!

They (the judges) kept saying “needed more time to bake/set” etc and it seemed obvious that in lieu of corralling people into fighting on what is obviously this very Nice Show that they clearly take time off to create conflict.

The tight timings on the challenges are such bullshit.

I don't watch this show to see people fuck up because they don't have time for their bakes to prove, etc. That is not entertainment.

It also seems like the show is more rigidly storylined, whereas before it just seemed like you were hanging out with the contestants. But it’s the same missing coziness

what i did think last night was that a taskmaster-style champion of champions series would be good, with the last 5 or 6 winners in it.

Netflix airs the finale this Friday in the U.S. Not as invested this season (tacos being the nadir), though all the contestants are pleasant. Presenter-wise, Noel's outfits have been fun.

There’s an Insta account that posts the clothes he wears plus where to get them, and it’s all Yohji Yamamoto, Bella Freud (the jumpers, mainly) and other respectable design choices.

i saw him with his kid at a saturday morning football club and he was wearing exactly what he'd been wearing that week on bake-off - smiley face jumper, big furry tiger-stripe coat

I loved his blue and yellow jumper this week. He seemed whacked out - my partner reckoned he might have missed the first two rounds due to a vomiting bug, because he looked like he was just holding it together.