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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/ToomintheEllimist on 2024-05-31 13:58:39+00:00.
The Background
Great British Bake Off (GBBO) is a cooking contest show that has been on BBC since 2010. It’s long been notable for its refusal to entertain petty drama: in a 2014 incident known as “bingate”, judges famously voted off contestant Iain because he “lost it” after his ice cream was accidentally removed from a refrigerator. The judges later praise (and favor?) contestants like Nadiya and Rahul who persist through similar mishaps to deliver imperfect-but-intact food. Many fans saw bingate as a declaration of identity, that GBBO is not an American high-drama competition between cutthroat cheaters “not here to make friends” — it’s a cozy apolitical show where contestants help one another, and the worst drama comes from a mix-up between custards quickly resolved with heartfelt apology.
GBBO is a show about food, not interpersonal drama. It’s about British food, but also about multicultural influences on British food. It’s about being polite and caring and utterly British, soldiering on through dropped ice-creams and elbow-smashed rolls. It’s not about corporate sponsorship, and it’s not about politics.
HOWEVER. Then came Series 13. The resultant backlash caused a restructuring of the show, an alleged firing of a host, and a classic series of corporate apologies.
The Blunder
To be clear: what made the Series 13 fuckup unique was NOT (merely) going beyond the judges’ and contestants’ expertise in ways that revealed the hidden imperialism of the show’s assumptions about “coziness," “lack of drama," and "apolitical food." What made the Series 13 fuckup unique was that the show did all that for North American food.
The Imperialism
Butchering foreign recipes, and blundering in describing non-Anglo food, isn’t actually new for GBBO. S1E2, judge Paul refers to challah as “plaited bread” and claims it’s “dying off,” leading Shira Feder to declare “GBBO has zero Jewish friends.” Throughout S10, judges Prue and Paul ask contestants of SE Asian descent (Michael, Priya) to “tone down the spice” and stop using “so many chiles.” Paul openly declares American pie disgusting. In a brownie challenge (S11E04), literally every contestant fails to make good or edible food. During “Japan” Week (scare quotes intended), the challenges include Chinese bao and a stir fry where most contestants use Indian flavors. Hosts mispronouncing non-Anglo food names (“schichttorte,” “babka”) for humorous effect is a running bit on the show.
These incidents were not without backlash, but (until S13) none of it rose to the interest of BBC.
S13E04: Mexican Week
GBBO has had national-themed weeks since S2, with what’s alternately referred to as “Patisserie” or “French Week.” In S11, it finally expanded beyond Europe with “’Japan’” Week. And in S13, in what was no doubt an effort to appeal to the simple majority of viewers who view the show through Netflix from North America, the producers gave us Mexican Week. Or “”Mexican”” Week. At least there were no bao this time?
This tweet of a butchered avocado foreboded everything wrong with the episode. Though the U.K. etc. largely consider avocado an exotic luxury (see: the avocado toast meme), in North America it’s been a staple for millennia, #1 produce item in Mexico and #6 in the U.S. last year. Contestant Carole’s attempts to cut the avocado… like an apple? I guess? result in food waste, and an inedible end product if pieces of the skin or toxic core are mixed in with the flesh. It calls into question the alleged expertise of the contestant bakers.
Then the episode aired. It opens with white hosts Noel and Matt in sombreros and sarapes (costume versions, not historical garb), Noel announcing “I don’t think we should make Mexican jokes; people will get upset.” Matt asks, “Not even Juan?” And Noel replies, “Not even Juan.” As NYT points out: both men have a history of blackface and brownface on other shows, so this is hardly out of the norm for them. It then goes into a montage sequence of the contestants proclaiming their lack of knowledge of Mexican food: “What do Mexicans even bake?”
Then contestant Janusz refers to “cactuses” and judge Prue interrupts him to say “cacti”; Janusz apologizes and corrects it to “cacti.” Cactuses is a correct plural. Then Noel’s voice-over complains about the “tongue-twisting title” of bella naranja. It just keeps coming. Paul and Prue go on to explain to the viewer that tacos typically contain “pico de GAL-low,” repeatedly saying “gallo” as if it is a singular of “gallows.” These are the people, let me remind you, who are being paid for their food expertise. The people who are about to judge food on the extent to which it is “authentically Mexican.” The people who can’t even say the name of the unofficial national sauce of Mexico. But in case you were worried that this buffoonery calls into question the whole premise of the show, fear not — Paul “recently visited Mexico”, and Prue “enjoy[s] a tres leces [sp] cake.”
Meanwhile in the tent, the poor contestants try to make tortillas… with the undersides of mixing bowls. Because there are no tortilla presses, and the show doesn’t appear to know what a tortilla press is. “Bleh!” one contestant announces, after trying cumin, “It’s burning my mouth… Well, it’s meant to be Mexican, isn’t it?” All of them speculate on what “pick-io day galliow” could be.
If I could soapbox for a second: it’s not so much that these fuckups happen. It’s that every single one makes the final edit. 10+ hours of baking, likely 20+ hours of testimonials, and an unknown number of reshoots got turned into a 60-minute episode… and no one bothered to look up the plural(s) of “cactus” or how to pronounce the Spanish word for “chicken.” GBBO has zero Hispanic friends. We all get the history of anglicizing words like “lieutenant” and “bangle.” But it’s not fucking ideal to be evoking that history so blatantly and clumsily, not when (an estimate since Netflix doesn’t do numbers) over 70% of your audience is syndicating this show from the Americas. To paraphrase Taika Waititi: the recent increase in performers of color is great… but behind the camera, most big shows are still whiter than a Willie Nelson concert.
S13E06: Halloween Week
This was the cherry on the shit sundae. Meant to be a North American week. Yes, Halloween originated in the British Isles, but it only became a major holiday in the U.S., and all the bakes were North American. It just added to the clusterfuck to see judges Paul and Prue deducting for contestants melting the marshmallow in their s’mores, presenting the piñata as Halloween décor, and otherwise anglicizing the hell out of bakes with North American names.
The Consequences
That avocado image went viral, as did the blatant incompetence about s’mo...
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