Why Great British Baking Show Is Different This Year
As The Great British Baking Show airs this year, viewers will notice one key change, aside from new co-host, Alison Hammond: There will be no national theme weeks on the show.
Past seasons have featured such themes as "Mexican Week," "German Week," and "Japan Week," to varying degrees of success and backlash. Last year, after accusations of racism emerged around "Mexican Week," particularly with regard to co-hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas's jokes, and the fact they were dressed in sombreros and ponchos.
As Professor Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado told NPR at the time, "The use of cartoonish sarapes and sombreros as props and disguises, the misidentification of Mexican food with the stuff sold in Taco Bell, the borrowing of beloved dishes like tres leches to make versions that have little recognisability to Mexicans, this is something that we see every Cinco de Mayo and every Hispanic Heritage Month."
He added, "British viewers, from what I have seen online, appear to be puzzled by the fact of having a taco challenge, which in fact has nothing to do with baking. That is pure laziness. What if they have instead looked into wedding cookies? Or empanadas? Or made something with bolillos and teleras?"
Perhaps in reaction to last year, this season will have no nationally-themed weeks. "I hold my hands up to the cooking complaint and the theme weeks," executive producer Kieran Smith told The Guardian. "We didn’t want to offend anyone but the world has changed and the joke fell flat. We're not doing any national themes this year."
This season, Smith says, "We’re going very traditional. We're doing all the regular weeks: Cakes, Biscuits, Bread, Patisserie, Chocolate, plus Party Cakes is a new theme. No spoilers, but it features challenges I think viewers will love." Paul Hollywood adds, "We chose this year’s challenges very carefully to be approachable. In a way, we’ve returned to the philosophy of the first three series. There are some beautiful classic ones and they’ve been a big success."
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