The Great British Baking Show Continues

"So why is GBBO asking bakers to steam an originally Chinese bun and fill it with Chinese or Indian ingredients during Japan Week?" (eater)

I have enjoyed many seasons of the Great British Baking Show. I've watched it through several changes of judges and comedy hosts, through the earlier mainly British choices of baked goods with later expansions into other cuisines, and through a variety of contestants, both fairly and (maybe) unfairly eliminated from competition. Of course there's the permanent problem that when you watch a cooking show you have only the judges' word for how the food tastes; you can only guess in your mind's taste buds how it would seem to you. This is more of a problem when the judges seem rather narrow in their view of flavors and flavor combinations -- a situation that seems more noticeable this year.

The two most recent themed weeks have seemed to me a bit over done, making the this season's episodes a little less engaging. Around a week ago was Japanese Week. I found it a bit ridiculous, as did a number of professional critics, whose often-snarky reviews I really enjoyed reading. The connection with Japanese cuisine was tenuous at best, and also a bit silly. The "Showstopper" pineapple cake in the picture, for example, was flavored with pineapple and citrus, and was made in sort of a pineapple shape. It was supposed to represent the theme of "Kawaii" or cuteness. It's hard to see how it had much to do with Japan or with anything Japanese at all. 

Just one more thing about "kawaii" -- it's really a thing in Japan, and maybe the cakes were Japanese-cute, but all over the internet people were observing that "kawaii" was repeatedly mispronounced as "kowaii," which means "scary" instead of cute. Just another one of those cultural things, I guess. (source)

Paul and Prue's reactions generally seem to be oriented to what they like and how they view flavors; this became even more apparent during Japanese week. All food on the show seems expected to follow British stereotypes of whatever cuisine is on the table. Sometimes one suspects that they like the version they've had in London restaurants and take-outs. Some of the steamed buns of Japanese Week were filled with things like curry, while two contestants created steamed buns with a filling of hamburgers with catsup and pickles, which Paul Hollywood hates and made them leave out in HIS portion. Other buns were decorated to look like animals, such as a panda, the emblematic Chinese animal. Somehow Japan got lost in all this.

Paul Hollywood offers his commitment during: "80's Week"

Another observation from New York Magazine's Vulture: "Paul Hollywood’s attitude... is smug and superior and never, under any circumstances, incorrect; why would the tent exist, Paul Hollywood wonders, if not to please Paul Hollywood?" (source) This was a problem for Japanese week, a big one. But it continued the next week when the theme was 80s week. Paul and Prue, who invent and then judge the challenges, definitely knew what foods were in and out in the 80s, and they had strong opinions on how it should look and taste.

Prue's response.

The first 80's baking assignment was quiche. Anyone who lived through 80s food -- which some contestants were too young to have experienced -- could never forget the quiche craze! It's a wonder that the judges and hosts didn't cite the totally 80's book Real Men Don't Eat Quiche. This challenge was a good one, though the flavors suggested were to be more "modern" not just using ingredients like the bacon and cheese of quiche Lorraine, which Prue seemed to recall fondly. 

Long-term fans of this show could easily have warned the contestants that Paul and Prue hate fiery hot foods. They also turn out to hate baked beans -- so quiches including these ingredients elicited an automatic turned-up-nose on the part of the judges. Not to mention the full-English Breakfast quiches which sounded very weird. Black pudding?  Baked beans? Scrambled eggs in egg custard? I suspect that the judges were right about these choices! But still, despite their protestations, they were expressing their prejudices. 

A melty ice-cream cake on a hot day. Looks good. 

I wasn't so sure about the other two supposedly 1980's challenges, which were ice cream cakes and "finger donuts" -- that is, large donuts in a long shape not a donut shape. These must have been British not American fads, as I can't connect them particularly to the 80's, especially not the donuts which seem to me to have always been a fixture in donut shops. 

Was an ice cream cake typical of the 1980's, at dinner parties all the time, as Prue said? Not here in the US as I remember it, though I do remember that ice cream machines were popular. We had one that used ice and salt, though technology has evolved -- the contestants had incredible refrigerated ice cream makers.

The horrifying thing about the ice cream challenge was that it was filmed some time last summer during a record-breaking heat wave and the temperature in the non air-conditioned tent was something like 95º F. So it was almost impossible to keep the ice cream at a temperature that would keep a cake together. Thus the fun was watching the contestants try to rescue melting cakes to display them for judging.

The most amazingly decorated ice cream cake was this -- also judged tasty by Paul and Prue. 
Evidently, it didn't have any ingredients that they disliked. 
What would Mary Berry, the greatest expert on British baking, say? We must never ever ask this question.

Blog post © 2020 mae sander, screen shots from the Great British Baking Show on Netflix.