I miss the historical segments. Though since them leaving inspired me to start my UA-cam channel, I guess I have to thank the producers for ditching them.
Same, I was like "What do you mean they should only focus on the tent?? Non-British viewers aren't going to know about half of these things they're making, so getting to see the history behind it was a welcome break in the pacing and a wonderful tidbit of information!"
I saw an interview where Mel and Sue said they fought in those first few episodes to create that soft, friendly format. After seeing a producer deliberately reduce a contestant to tears they realized that not only was it bad for the show but that they, personally, couldn’t do it.
As an American, Mexican week was shocking. So many people had never had a taco before. I was like, how is that possible? Oh right. They’re not next door to Mexico.
As someone who is Mexican Mexican week was such a huge miss because they chose such bad challenges and then didn't even properly know the ones they did. Tres Leches is supposed to be wet and most people don't consider it too dry if it doesn't have a little bit of milk pooling at the bottom. Claiming it needed to be not soaked as well as stacked was just such a horrible challenge. It was unfair to contestants because it made so sense and it was just such a horrible representation of the dish. Also tortillas require no baking, so tacos for a technical challenge just make no sense. Pan dulces like Conchas, breads like bolillos, cakes like chocoflan, all good standard Desserts that have interesting construction for people outside of the culture would have been good challenges. There's even "fancier" stuff like Mostachon which is similar to a daquois/pavlova could have been a good challenge. It felt so insulting because it looked so blatantly like no one did even a spec of research. We have so many delicious baked goods/dishes to choose from, it really wouldn't have been that difficult to find 3 online
I'm as English as they come, but even I know that Mexico and other Latin American countries have a plethora of renownedly celebrated pastries and desserts. I was shocked they aired these segments honestly.
I think everyone in the US South west was yelling at the TV when that episode happened. There are SO many books and creators showcasing wonderful Mexican baking. The only way to describe the whole episode is "willfully ignorant" @chicanoeats is my favourite. His book is gorgeous! www.youtube.com/@chicanoeats
@@SWIMMINGDOWN fr. As an American, I only recently learned that churros are originally Spanish not Latin American and so could understand it if they picked a Spanish pastry by accident that week, but tacos aren’t pastries by any metric whatsoever. How did they mess up that bad??
I would have accepted that it died when it moved channels and lost Mel & Sue but resurrected itself last season with Alison. Sandi and Noel never really gelled, and I fully agree that Matt and Noel were one note, but Alison and Noel have this "We're both 11 year olds at heart" dynamic that brings out the best in each other while still being different enough that things don't get boring. You can even feel Alison's lightheartedness spreading to Paul and Prue. Now they just need to make Nelly the new host of Bake-Off Juniors.
Alison is so genuine. The phrase "big hearted" is a cliche, but I can't think of a better description. She took Georgie aside when she was suffering from the pressure of the competition and TV cameras. Without Alison, she might not have made it to the end of the contest, never mind win. She said to Steve, "Do you want me to walk back with you?" when he felt unwell. That wasn't for the cameras. She was almost out of shot and said it very quietly. She's a credit to our region (she is from a town very close to mine)
I still haven’t gotten over their abysmal attempt at s’mores. They reprimanded the only contestant who managed to melt the chocolate and crisp the marshmallow. S’mores are supposed to be sloppy!! Only time I was actually screaming at the screen 😅
I'm only a few minutes into this video, but I remember RUNNING to the Internet this season when Paul said he'd never tried/heard of gochujang. Talk about screaming at the screen. Like, as a food guy, a food JUDGE, what rock has he been under? I'm white as a lily over here in the US South, with nary a Korean in sight, and still managed to hear about it years ago, pre-covid. It's now my go to and I love it more than siracha and tobasco. It's in basic grocery stores, not even specialty shops. Thankfully, other people online noticed that too and validated my shock lol. Like, just as wild as the Mexican episode. What kind of bubble are they in over there?
@@Hippotigris99 Gochujang isn't exactly well known here, but it is widely available. Korean food has been gaining popularity here since around 2017. In defence of Paul though, he's a trained pastry chef. There is a whole world and multiple lifetimes of knowledge to learn in patisserie, it is not surprising he isn't knowledgeable on savoury dishes. Indeed, at higher levels of training, it is more common for chefs to specialise in either savoury or patisserie than to do both.
Yeah, I was horrified at what they'd done to s'mores, turned them into some fine dining experience. (I think this was where I heard one of the contestants say, "I think 's'mores' just means melted marshmallow." Gah!
One thing i noticed with Noel & the other hosts since Mel&Sue is that there isn't thesame enthusiasm for the food. The new hosts aren't stealing scraps, licking the bowls, stuffing one of each pastry parcel in their pockets. The hosts eating, not as expert judges, but just as people, brought the audience into the tent. You remember that it's not just art, it's food.
Alison is always sneaking some tastes! Last episode I watched someone gave her a a ton of delicious but untempered chocolate. She grabbed it and was walking around eating it 😂😂😂😂
@MaeMills310 oh see that's nice. I had given up on the show. I'm glad they finally got another host that appreciates the food. Maybe I'll give the new season a try next time I have Netflix
that's part of why Sandi left, they're not really allowed to taste anything. she said it was torturous to just sit there and watch other people eat the delicious food and talk about how delicious it was and not be able to eat it. i don't think that's any of the presenters' faults.
@ oh they definitely do! they're just not technically allowed. they get away with it because they're cheeky and great and it's kind of part of being a presenter now
I couldn't find someone willing to make a vegan cake for my wedding in 2019. Ended up making the vegan lemon lavender cake from great British baking show myself. It was a huge hit and cemented lemon lavender as our "couple's flavor" like one would have a couple's song
I got really into Great Pottery Throwdown. Its from the same producers as Bake Off and is a similar concept but it has a lot of heart to it and i get really invested.
I'd forgotten about this show! I've recently gotten into the pottery side of yt, so will check out this series again. Thank you so much for mentioning it.
So the Mexican theme week was when the show died, and it REALLY died. And then they came back and corrected many of the mistakes they'd made in the previous 2-3 years. I, for one, am so glad! I love the sweetness of the show, especially now, and I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Very well done!
The Mexican Week pisses me off, not because of how awful the pronunciation of "pico de gallo" was, but because of how rich and diverse Mexican pastries are, and it would've been a great way to expose more people to our pastries which are overshadowed by European pastries in particular.
Particularly so in Europe for obvious reasons . I've not travelled to Mexico, but have met a few mid/ south Americans that moved to Europe and a few of them ran some excellent bakeries and food joints- would love to see it gaining some popularity and getting to try an even bigger range
I'm not saying you're wrong but idk how people are so mad about people with zero geographic or political ties to Mexico having little knowledge about Mexican food beyond what we get exposed to through media... like where are the French people upset about most non French only knowing croissants, macaron and baguettes? it seems like people are expecting way too much for no reason tbh.
@@headerahelix in the Internet age, and for a production that size, it would only take a bit of research to at least make sure pronunciation is correct, affording it the same respect as anything else they talk about on the show. Also before judging something , surely they should have tried the authentic version, or at least properly researched it themselves
@@RJ-wx3fh almost nobody in America is pronouncing French pastries correctly, or other European ones 🤷♀️ you guys either rename them (a Danish is wienerbrød in Denmark) or don't pronounce them correctly (same with pretty much all English speakers). don't even get me started on pronunciation of food from Asia and Africa. seems like a double standard to expect Brits specifically to do extra research into Mexican food when you guys don't do the same.
When my stepsons was little, he would cuddle with me on the couch and watch this show with me. Those are some really fond memories for me. It really helped us bond those first few years of being a newly blended family.
I was a caregiver for my Mom, and she had dementia. This show was fantastic, as it was calm, with happy people talking and very little drama. It was never about the food for us, it was another form of human contact for her during Covid. For that alone, I'll always love this show. I'm sure that's true for many who are housebound, or otherwise needing soft, friendly human voices.
My husband and I use to watch GBBO religiously like everyone, especially during the worst of the pandemic. But we fell off after series 12 as it felt like they were ramping up the drama and the hosts' bits were getting more annoying, and then hearing about the car crash that was Mexican week we didn't feel like we missed much. I've recently went back and watched series 14-15 by myself and I 100% agree that they've made some changes in the right direction. Alison is a breath of fresh air and I love her bubbliness, and it feels like they're pulled back on making the challenges more and more extreme. You still have the ridiculously hard technicals and they somehow always seem to do chocolate week on the hottest week of the year, but it's overall felt more cozy again and I'm happy for it
Need to come back and rewatch this as I don't want to wake my partner but this current series has been excellent, Alison has revived the hosting dynamic and the bakes have been stronger than ever
I love the support between contestants. I usually can't watch reality shows because the fake drama stresses me out. Seeing everyone hugging and helping eachother makes me tear up ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I remember reading about the support and wholesome feel in article. That’s what sealed me into watching the show. Other cooking shows tend to be tense as it’s competitive. I could think of two other shows that’s light hearted, but GBBO is up there.
I agree that the challenges feel so hard and unfamiliar. For example, Doughnuts are familiar but are hard to make if you don't make a lot of doughnuts! I sometimes think they feel they can't repeat challenges from previous series, when I wish they would. I can't remember the individual bakes that well, I just remember the contestants, and the new contestants would bring their own twist to it anwyay so it'd be fresh. In defence of some of the national themed weeks, it was always going to be 'national bakes with a british/individual baker's influences twist' because that is what every single bake is in the tent, regardless of origin, so someone choosing to bring in indian flavours on a japaense dish is just how every bake is in the tent. However, they clearly just needed to hire a consultant that would advise on dishes that were actually japanese in origin, like bao buns being chinese. Honestly they already bring in foreign dishes for challenges anyway, especially technical challenges, so I think the national weeks feel redundant anyway since we already get national dishes represented in the series. I think weeks like vegan week work better as that's a scenario that is common in the baking world in Britain. Would love to see a full gluten free week or someting! That's a challenge to make food that's GF but close to the original bake.
I would love to see a week without the most common allergens. My grandson is allergic to eggs, soy, dairy, and nuts & legumes. Those are pretty common allergens. Often the substitutions for one item on that list, is another item on that list. Soy milk, almond milk, pea protein (legume), aqua faba (legume), and don't get me started on the egg substitutes that contain egg.
I think GF would be great for technical bakes, because it's not necessarily impossible, but it is different and involves different skills in making sure things rise right and stick together properly, like there's a lot of nuance and difficulty that wouldn't need to be manufactured
It’s honestly weird to me that they chose to do a Japanese week in the first place. Baking really isn’t that common in Japan. Most homes don’t have ovens and Japanese doesn’t even have a specific word for “to bake” (焼く yaku means both “to grill” and “to bake”). Most Japanese bakeries are modeled off of French bakeries and serve mostly French baked goods with a Japanese twist. Wagashi, traditional Japanese desserts, aren’t baked. There are some baked goods that were imported from the Portuguese so long ago that they can arguably be viewed as Japanese, like castella and melon pan, but overall Japanese cuisine doesn’t feature much baking. It was a very weird choice to me to include Japan in baking show and seemed to indicate a lack of research into Japanese cuisine on the producers’ part
Noel Fielding is such a treasure on this show. And I understand it saved his life. Before he discovered the glory of baked treats, he'd been on David Bowie's Thin White Duke diet of milk, hot peppers, and cocaine for twenty years.
The thing is they went from "two comedians who have worked with each other their whole careers and have decades of professional chemistry" with "two random comedians from different generations and backgrounds randomly smushed together". It didn't really work.
@@claclarolo1 He's certainly not for everyone. And I've never been the biggest fan, despite so many of my hipster friends being obsessed with Mighty Boosh. And yes, he absolutely does that. The guy really isn't that funny. But I think his appeal is less about being funny and more about being silly. That has its own charm.
Having watched every season since they started airing them on PBS way back in the day in the states, I will say that the pairing of Noel and Allison is the best we've seen from hosts on the show. I feel like they're two people who legitimately think the other is funny, and it really comes through in their interactions with each other and the contestants.
Yeah I think Alison is the best host on the show. She is just so funny but also has so much kindness in her heart. I just love her! But I also love how weird Noel is!
I agree. Allison brings great fresh energy to the show, while it's just really funny to see Noel just so past any pretense of professionalism. "Oh no, I overbaked my cake" - Noel: "Want me to go stab Paul Hollywood?"
@EntertainTheElk it is very endearing. If this means anything to you it's similar to RLM with Mike and Rich. On the surface Mike may appear mean to Rich. But, in reality, no one can make Mike laugh like Rich. Like if you watch enough, you realise, Mike has a specific laugh that he saves just for Rich. Low-key wholesome.
One thing that has always confused me- why go through the rigmarole of judging the technical blind? What difference does it make? It seems like such a gimmick for absolutely no reason. I know bakers have their own flaws and positive points, like being whacky with flavours, but not the extent I think that one round merits blind judging while the others don't...
the secondhand embarrassment I felt watching Japanese Week. Legit gave me the chills it was so bad. There’s so many different types of wagashi and other baked treats from Japan, but they can’t even be bothered to look into it and just go with a basic “Asian” theme and call it good enough.
The showstoppers are less over-the-top in recent season -- which make me think they should rename it back to the final challenge. I remember seasons where people trying to walk their showstoppers to the table without it falling to bits was part of the overall judging.
I appreciate that they've toned down the complicated showstoppers. To me a showstopper should be something you would see in a professional patisserie or bakery, some of the showstoppers are complicated for the sake of being complicated and aren't a bake you would ever see in a real bakery. I don't want the showstopper to be an engineering challenge, I want it to be a baking challenge.😊
@@DipsoidIt does need to be a bit of both. But yes, the idea that they have to both bake this wild thing, AND carry it themselves across the tent … that’s kind of unfair. True professional bakers take years to accomplish that balance, literally and figuratively!
Doing away with the country weeks was the best decision. My friends and I in San Antonio ranted for a While about all the things wrong with the Mexican week episode (you can't tier a tres leches cake unless it's too dry), but since they brought Alison on, it seems to be a lot like the older seasons in the best ways.
I think the technical challenges in the earlier series seemed like something folks would like to learn or want to know how to do... something very relevant to home bakers.
I genuinely don’t care if it’s a bit or not that jab at Mexico is INSULTING. Their food is a literal gift. Tres leches cake, the improvement on Flan, tacos, burritos. My family is having Mexican food for Christmas.
It really wasn't that bad. It was all well intentioned and fun. And how do you expect british people to know about that when they're not exposed to it like Americans are? It was a great way to expose more people to the gift that mexican food is.
Tres Leche case is gross, but if there was no European baking there would be no Mexican baking, 🙄. Native American we weren’t baking or had yeast or cows.
Bakeoff was a huge part of my childhood, my family would all sit down to watch it every week and root for our favourite bakers. We stopped watching as much when it left the bbc and the past few years stopped completely as it just didnt feel the same, but we decided to watch this new season together again and it really feels like theyve found the way to bring some of the magic back. The casting this year was absolutely amazing, the final few were all so different and I was rooting for every single one of them, and bringing in alison to present was an AMAZING idea. I really hope the 2025 series carries on the new trend!
'Champion of champions' like in Taskmaster. Great idea. I also liked the suggestion in the video of having guest judges from other countries (or even specialties) to add variety and for education.
@@EntertainTheElk I LOVE the holiday episodes - they are so funny because the stress of actually winning the show isn't nearly as high - it's just a good time had by all.
I love Bake Off. Alison is great, or 'bostin' as we say on her home turf. I love hearing the local accent, we hear it so rarely on British TV. Noel is a surreal genius, Prue has a dry and wicked sense of humour, and as a woman in her 80's is a great example to us oldies. Prue knew exactly what she was doing when she said "tell us about your beaver". She knew it would crack Paul up and embarrass him 😇
I took me a while to get used to Noel, but I find one of his best qualities is his easy rapport with the contestants. That's when he's at his spontaneous funniest.
I do think highlighting the diversity of pastry/food around the world is a great idea, so hopefully they'll take some time to rework it with experts from the cultures they're trying to represent and bring that back at some point. It seems like they might also need to have someone available to the contestants for working through their ideas a bit more.
They should soft launch the international week again with an American week featuring Ina Garten as the guest judge. She’s the perfect vibe for the show. Then, do the same for more international theme weeks with guests who can share the culture and lend expertise like suggested.
Do you remember when they tried to do American pie? No one knew how they’re supposed to be and a lot of them tried to take the pies out of the pan whole! It would be less racist but no more accurate.
My mom is a huge GBBO buff ever since I introduced it to her, and while I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for the show, it’s nice to see it’s still plugging along and improving itself again. And it’s still so heartwarming that it’s a competitive cooking show where the contestants genuinely seem to enjoy each others company and try to help each other out.
I used to watch this show with my mom, and we used to talk about it when we lived separated by half the country. It's hard to watch now that she's gone.
I love that they their lesson from the backlash for their racism was to not even try. I wish instead of worrying about offending others.. they’d be pay attention to what exactly was offensive about that episode. I’d LOVE to see bakes and desserts from other countries. Is it that hard to do a sincere job at it and not caricature them though? Because with that response, it feels like maybe caricaturing other countries was the point, that there was no real curiosity towards other cultures. :/
As a British person, I was extremely disappointed to see so many reactions of "How silly for people to get offended over sombreros!," making it very obvious that people were ignoring the fact that a programme about baking *hadn't even bothered to research Mexican baking. For Mexican Week.*
And don't forget the s'mores! They were all supposed to be neat and identical - which is exactly what S'mores are not! The guy who did the "worst" is actually the one who made the best s'mores. I do miss the history segments, but I still love the show so much.
@@Jabberwockybird oh no no I know for a fact that there’s plenty of scripting, I just found it somewhat dehumanizing in the way he used it. As I mentioned before, they aren’t fictional characters, they are people before they are characters.
I really enjoy the show mostly because it’s not a bunch of drama and staged nonsense. People yelling at each other fighting backstabbing bickering. It’s just a nice change of pace and I really enjoy that. I wish more shows would take this type of attitude.
It was so weird seeing Mexican culture represented like that, I feel like on of those educational segments w/ a Mexican baker would have helped a lot. Mexicans are everywhere, I have a Tia living in the Middle East. There are definitely restaurants to ask questions to, and about their own regions and maybe even childhood memories. But also once I saw the poncho and sombrero, (which at LEAST coordinate the colors, if you wanna be racist, do it in style at least /sarcasm ) I knew it was time to invite my mom and shit watch it. We haven’t had that much fun(in the making fun of bad representation) in a while lol. Since Rachael Rays “Pozole” lmaooo
If you csn come over here, get outside London, and find a Mexican, I'll shake your hand and buy you a pint. In eighteen years, I think I met one Mexican guy.
13:30 Hearing an American complain about 'butchered pronunciations', as a man who was born, raised, and lives in Worcestershire, is frankly hilarious 😂 Glad they're buying the sauce, but just call it Lea and Perrins and save my sensitive ears 👂
Man, i love bake off. Glad to see a video of it pop in my feed. Seeing a snippet of season 14 got me all kinds of excited as I haven't watched it yet. Thanks!
One thing to consider about the Technical challenges is that the bakers would often try and guess what was coming beforehand and try and prepare for the possibility, so going more crazy and extravagant was their best option for increasing difficulty
Okay so what was the day the Great British bake off died then??? Like I get it's a series but if the whole point of the video is " season 1 was a little bit different and better in some ways and worse in others", what the kind of video is that? That's how every single show is. I'm just confused.
Goodness I can't imagine the logistical production nightmare of having to move the tent and cast around each week. Anyway. Bake Off is the highlight of my year, and adding Noel to the show was the cherry on top!
I stopped watching after Mary left but I agree that the show just tries too hard to be funny. As a brit I liked that it was calm & everyone was kind, I didn't need presenters that tried too hard to be funny.
If you stopped watching EIGHT seasons ago, then you don't have a foot to stand on to make judgements about the cast. You've literally missed 3/4 of the content of the show. That would be like me going on about how much worse FIFA players and annoncers are now than when I watched a couple of world cups back in the 90s and haven't watched any since.
Yeah, it’s not intentional ignorance, most average British people are genuinely that clueless about other cultures. Here if you’re not wealthy or in an environment that encourages you to seek out food from other cultures, your culinary perspective revolves around whatever supermarkets and takeaways market as cultural food… which is usually something silly like katsu curry crisps or ‘Mexican’ wraps from Tesco
I don’t know. Post internet, it’s possible to learn a lot more. They could have given them more help if they cared, or picked bakers who have been to Japan. They didn’t care to get it right though.
I can't tell you how many times I wish the bakers would just be given an extra half hour for their bakes in recent seasons. I'd watch something else if I wanted time pressures, thanks.
i think it's neat that the price is a cake stand (well, and the fame of being "the winner"). it's a nice change from the american style of "big money to drive contestants crazy" bleah
Noel and Matt are both "weird" comedians. You don't need TWO weird comedians hosting. A lot of people watching this show (older people, women) often aren't into "weird" comedy at all. Noel and a "normie" makes more sense.
Having watched the show on and off since I was about 8 ten years ago, I actually think the shows gotten better. The humour and banter Noel and Alison have with the contestants is funny while still being very wholesome and genuine. And I’m not sure if this is because I’m a terrible baker, but I actually don’t mind the harder challenges. Most of the time the majority of the bakers are able to pull it off, and their bakes all look amazing. Paul’s an iconic judge and Prue has made her role her own, which is rlly impressive given she had to try fill Mary berry’s shoes. Still my go to comfort show.
This was interesting! I forgot how different it was in the beginning. It's the same as Masterchef, if you watch series 1, its completely different than the show we have now!
2:16 Really interesting analysis of the evolution of Bake Off! However, as a Brit, I’d be really interested to hear where in your research you found that the show was inspired by “the popular bake offs that take place in America”, please? In the UK, where the show was developed and filmed (primarily for a British audience) we have our own rich tradition of bake offs, spanning centuries. In fact filming is done in a marquee/tent for this exact reason. Across the UK at village fetes, in community halls, and during country fayres, baking competitions that look remarkably like this are hosted often in tents and marquees, although the baking tends to take place at home. I’d be very surprised if the BBC called it the British bake off and made it resemble a British tradition, but were actually inspired by America 🤔
As someone who only started watching around season 10, I for one like the technical challenges. Yes, they are often difficult but it’s fun seeing how talented bakers improvise and interpret a recipe they aren’t familiar with. I personally don’t see a huge difference between the Signature and Show-Stopper challenges, aside from the latter typically being longer and more involved. So having a challenge that’s totally different is entertaining. And at the end of the day, it is a reality TV competition, so you do need to push and challenge the contestants to identify those that are above the rest. I feel that the show accomplishes that while also remaining warm and respectful to everyone, unlike other reality TV shows.
I'm mexican, and I LOVED mexican week. It was fun to see things I actually knew about on the show and see people exposed to new things. I really dont understand the hate the country-themed weeks got.
So happy this has finally been released. From a production standpoint, I'd love to hear a version with Jex's vocals more upfront in the mix as they're buried here.
Germany has it's own version of The Great British Bake Off that's been running for 11 seasons. There's also two spinn-offs, one featuring tv famous people and one with professional bakers. The mood in all three shows is also more on the cosy side and every time they have a week themed on a country the bakers just have to bake recepies from that country. How did those themed weeks in British Bake Off even happen? Don't the contestants have time to do some rersearch on the country beforehand?
@SmallMediumToebeans The regular series is called "Das Große Backen". The one with celebrities is "Das Große Promibacken". The one with professional bakers is called "Das Große Backen - Die Profis"
I was chatting to an American on a Discord server, and the topic of reality TV came up. He said that he and his wife were fans of GBBO, with me surprised to hear that they got the show over in The States. When I asked why he liked it, he said it was because it was a nice change of pace from those overly dramatic and competitive American reality shows. However, he was confused by the change in hosts and judges, not knowing about the behind-the-scenes. For those of you who don't know, GBBO used to air on the BBC until their competitor (Channel 4) bought it to air as a rival to BBC's Strictly Come Dancing (Or Dancing With the Stars to all you yanks). Love Productions (GBBO's production company) found Channel 4 to be a more profitable station since the BBC has different rules for its commercial activities (In the UK, TV owners pay a 'TV Licence'; a tax that funds the BBC to avoid advertising and influence from political parties. Channel 4 is the opposite, being public owned but funded by advertisements). With a change in station, hosts Sue & Mel left, with Mary Berry staying with the BBC out of "loyalty" (Though some speculate that it's because of a stereotype that Channel 4 is seen as the "hip and cool" station with the BBC seen as the more "sophisticated"). And I guess because of Netflix, the show has found a new audience in the States.
Every other person has used the correct t names for people's national origins. Why do you have to call us yanks? There isn't anybody here talking about Limies
i love this show, it's become a comfort watch for me. i'm actually re-watching old seasons on netflix right now, actually. i do wish i could see those early seasons. i started watching it when it would air on PBS with mary berry still on the show, but can't remember what season was my first - i know the tent was in it's current fixed space, though. but yeah, i do love noel and allison. always loved noel since finding the mighty boosh ages ago (ridiculous how many times i've rewatched that weirdness lol).
So to summarize, the negative changes are (1) the technical is harder, (2) the bakes in general are harder, and (3) they did a few poorly received theme weeks (and have now stopped). So really the only current criticism is that the bakes (including the technical) are harder?
Love the baking show. Don't get to watch it because of channel issues. I love watching the ones from South Africa and Canada and anywhere else they want to film something similar. Thanks for sharing.
That's not Noel, that's a mole, get it looked at! 😂😂😂 (I saw Noel as Old Gregg in high school, and it was looking him back up randomly during the pandemic that caused me to find a bunch of excellent British entertainment!)
one thing thats important to point out is that Matt Lucas has a history of racist comedy through Little Britain and Come Fly with me. it shows so much in the Japan, Mexico and German weeks. those episodes are unwatchable for me more because of the casual racism in the skit parts. Also, if you compare the way Matt and Noel interact with foreign contestants compared to Allison and Noel, its very different.
Great video. I think I disagree that the technical counts for nothing now -- I actually feel like it has too much weight. It's the Signature that seems to not matter. I swear I've seen someone absolutely nail a signature and then go home. But idk it probably varies. We can't taste any of it, after all, so just hearing a few sentences from the judges makes it hard to know how the bakes REALLY were.
my housemates gifted me the cookbook for my birthday and i’ve tried some of the recipes; they’re relatively easy to follow! takes a little bit to do the conversions from metric metric if i don’t have a scale, but that’s more of an inconvenience than anything and there’s a conversion chart included in the book. also had to show my salvadoran family the mexican week episode because if i had to witness that catastrophe, so did they lol
To be fair to the contestants on Japanese week, I'm pretty sure they were told that they could use whatever flavors they want and it didn't have to be Japanese flavors. The thing that made it "Japanese" was just the fact that they were making steamed buns.
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"Is Mexico a real place?"
Yes we do exist, thanks to the fact that didn't get imperialized.
I miss the historical segments. Though since them leaving inspired me to start my UA-cam channel, I guess I have to thank the producers for ditching them.
Same, I was like "What do you mean they should only focus on the tent?? Non-British viewers aren't going to know about half of these things they're making, so getting to see the history behind it was a welcome break in the pacing and a wonderful tidbit of information!"
Omg
TASTING HISTORY!!! i was not expecting to see you here hehe!
Ah sameeeee and now I watch tasting history hahah
Hey Max
❤❤❤
I saw an interview where Mel and Sue said they fought in those first few episodes to create that soft, friendly format. After seeing a producer deliberately reduce a contestant to tears they realized that not only was it bad for the show but that they, personally, couldn’t do it.
As an American, Mexican week was shocking. So many people had never had a taco before. I was like, how is that possible? Oh right. They’re not next door to Mexico.
yeah india is their mexico, they have indian food on every street corner. We're both lucky.
How they pronounced “taco” made me want to declare a second American Revolution.
haha
@@whimsicalhamster88 oh yeah they say TACKo.
Tacko on his backo.
@@whimsicalhamster88 as a brit, how should we pronounce it? 🤔
As someone who is Mexican Mexican week was such a huge miss because they chose such bad challenges and then didn't even properly know the ones they did. Tres Leches is supposed to be wet and most people don't consider it too dry if it doesn't have a little bit of milk pooling at the bottom. Claiming it needed to be not soaked as well as stacked was just such a horrible challenge. It was unfair to contestants because it made so sense and it was just such a horrible representation of the dish. Also tortillas require no baking, so tacos for a technical challenge just make no sense. Pan dulces like Conchas, breads like bolillos, cakes like chocoflan, all good standard Desserts that have interesting construction for people outside of the culture would have been good challenges. There's even "fancier" stuff like Mostachon which is similar to a daquois/pavlova could have been a good challenge. It felt so insulting because it looked so blatantly like no one did even a spec of research. We have so many delicious baked goods/dishes to choose from, it really wouldn't have been that difficult to find 3 online
I'm as English as they come, but even I know that Mexico and other Latin American countries have a plethora of renownedly celebrated pastries and desserts. I was shocked they aired these segments honestly.
The only way 😮
I think everyone in the US South west was yelling at the TV when that episode happened. There are SO many books and creators showcasing wonderful Mexican baking. The only way to describe the whole episode is "willfully ignorant"
@chicanoeats is my favourite. His book is gorgeous! www.youtube.com/@chicanoeats
@@SWIMMINGDOWN fr. As an American, I only recently learned that churros are originally Spanish not Latin American and so could understand it if they picked a Spanish pastry by accident that week, but tacos aren’t pastries by any metric whatsoever. How did they mess up that bad??
You think this was bad, don't Google Jamie oliver, lol
I would have accepted that it died when it moved channels and lost Mel & Sue but resurrected itself last season with Alison. Sandi and Noel never really gelled, and I fully agree that Matt and Noel were one note, but Alison and Noel have this "We're both 11 year olds at heart" dynamic that brings out the best in each other while still being different enough that things don't get boring. You can even feel Alison's lightheartedness spreading to Paul and Prue. Now they just need to make Nelly the new host of Bake-Off Juniors.
Oh my gosh making Nelly the new host of Bake Off Juniors is such a fantastic idea.
Alison Hammond is a national treasure
Alison is so genuine. The phrase "big hearted" is a cliche, but I can't think of a better description.
She took Georgie aside when she was suffering from the pressure of the competition and TV cameras. Without Alison, she might not have made it to the end of the contest, never mind win. She said to Steve, "Do you want me to walk back with you?" when he felt unwell. That wasn't for the cameras. She was almost out of shot and said it very quietly.
She's a credit to our region (she is from a town very close to mine)
@@kimberleywilliams7802Lovely lady, so genuine
totally agree! I was very "eh" on both Matt and Sandi, but Alison has the PERFECT chemistry with Noel, the bakers, and the whole atmosphere!
It is so refreshing to watch a cooking show that is not mean spirited. It's like watching Julia Child, just good vibes.
Totally!
I miss Julia Child! 😢
Iron Chef and Chopped come close. Watching this was very refreshing at the time.
@@lynxthewise7233the Great American Recipe is like that but without the toxicity between contestants it’s on PBS
I still haven’t gotten over their abysmal attempt at s’mores. They reprimanded the only contestant who managed to melt the chocolate and crisp the marshmallow. S’mores are supposed to be sloppy!!
Only time I was actually screaming at the screen 😅
I'm only a few minutes into this video, but I remember RUNNING to the Internet this season when Paul said he'd never tried/heard of gochujang. Talk about screaming at the screen.
Like, as a food guy, a food JUDGE, what rock has he been under? I'm white as a lily over here in the US South, with nary a Korean in sight, and still managed to hear about it years ago, pre-covid. It's now my go to and I love it more than siracha and tobasco. It's in basic grocery stores, not even specialty shops.
Thankfully, other people online noticed that too and validated my shock lol. Like, just as wild as the Mexican episode. What kind of bubble are they in over there?
Those smores haunt my nightmares !!!
@@Hippotigris99 Gochujang isn't exactly well known here, but it is widely available. Korean food has been gaining popularity here since around 2017.
In defence of Paul though, he's a trained pastry chef. There is a whole world and multiple lifetimes of knowledge to learn in patisserie, it is not surprising he isn't knowledgeable on savoury dishes. Indeed, at higher levels of training, it is more common for chefs to specialise in either savoury or patisserie than to do both.
Yeah, I was horrified at what they'd done to s'mores, turned them into some fine dining experience. (I think this was where I heard one of the contestants say, "I think 's'mores' just means melted marshmallow." Gah!
but you're forgetting that smores are not really a thing in the uk. we only know of them because of american media. the average brit has never had one
One thing i noticed with Noel & the other hosts since Mel&Sue is that there isn't thesame enthusiasm for the food. The new hosts aren't stealing scraps, licking the bowls, stuffing one of each pastry parcel in their pockets. The hosts eating, not as expert judges, but just as people, brought the audience into the tent. You remember that it's not just art, it's food.
Alison is always sneaking some tastes! Last episode I watched someone gave her a a ton of delicious but untempered chocolate. She grabbed it and was walking around eating it 😂😂😂😂
@MaeMills310 oh see that's nice. I had given up on the show. I'm glad they finally got another host that appreciates the food. Maybe I'll give the new season a try next time I have Netflix
that's part of why Sandi left, they're not really allowed to taste anything. she said it was torturous to just sit there and watch other people eat the delicious food and talk about how delicious it was and not be able to eat it. i don't think that's any of the presenters' faults.
@@eliasbreaux105 I've seen both contestants and the comedians eating stuff.
@ oh they definitely do! they're just not technically allowed. they get away with it because they're cheeky and great and it's kind of part of being a presenter now
I couldn't find someone willing to make a vegan cake for my wedding in 2019. Ended up making the vegan lemon lavender cake from great British baking show myself. It was a huge hit and cemented lemon lavender as our "couple's flavor" like one would have a couple's song
That's adorable, I'm so happy it worked out that way.
that sounds delicious
I got really into Great Pottery Throwdown. Its from the same producers as Bake Off and is a similar concept but it has a lot of heart to it and i get really invested.
I'd forgotten about this show! I've recently gotten into the pottery side of yt, so will check out this series again. Thank you so much for mentioning it.
I feel like the Great British Sewing Bee is also similar. Loved Joe Lycett as a presenter
Wish I could find it in US. I’ve seen one or two series but can’t find a service that carries it heee😊
@sandradelvecchio6894 when I watched it there was 5 series on Max but I'm not sure if they're still there
So the Mexican theme week was when the show died, and it REALLY died. And then they came back and corrected many of the mistakes they'd made in the previous 2-3 years. I, for one, am so glad! I love the sweetness of the show, especially now, and I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Very well done!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the vid.
The Mexican Week pisses me off, not because of how awful the pronunciation of "pico de gallo" was, but because of how rich and diverse Mexican pastries are, and it would've been a great way to expose more people to our pastries which are overshadowed by European pastries in particular.
Particularly so in Europe for obvious reasons .
I've not travelled to Mexico, but have met a few mid/ south Americans that moved to Europe and a few of them ran some excellent bakeries and food joints- would love to see it gaining some popularity and getting to try an even bigger range
I'm not saying you're wrong but idk how people are so mad about people with zero geographic or political ties to Mexico having little knowledge about Mexican food beyond what we get exposed to through media... like where are the French people upset about most non French only knowing croissants, macaron and baguettes? it seems like people are expecting way too much for no reason tbh.
@@headerahelix in the Internet age, and for a production that size, it would only take a bit of research to at least make sure pronunciation is correct, affording it the same respect as anything else they talk about on the show. Also before judging something , surely they should have tried the authentic version, or at least properly researched it themselves
@@RJ-wx3fh almost nobody in America is pronouncing French pastries correctly, or other European ones 🤷♀️ you guys either rename them (a Danish is wienerbrød in Denmark) or don't pronounce them correctly (same with pretty much all English speakers). don't even get me started on pronunciation of food from Asia and Africa. seems like a double standard to expect Brits specifically to do extra research into Mexican food when you guys don't do the same.
@@headerahelix I am a brit
When my stepsons was little, he would cuddle with me on the couch and watch this show with me. Those are some really fond memories for me. It really helped us bond those first few years of being a newly blended family.
I was a caregiver for my Mom, and she had dementia. This show was fantastic, as it was calm, with happy people talking and very little drama. It was never about the food for us, it was another form of human contact for her during Covid. For that alone, I'll always love this show. I'm sure that's true for many who are housebound, or otherwise needing soft, friendly human voices.
🥹💙
My husband and I use to watch GBBO religiously like everyone, especially during the worst of the pandemic. But we fell off after series 12 as it felt like they were ramping up the drama and the hosts' bits were getting more annoying, and then hearing about the car crash that was Mexican week we didn't feel like we missed much. I've recently went back and watched series 14-15 by myself and I 100% agree that they've made some changes in the right direction. Alison is a breath of fresh air and I love her bubbliness, and it feels like they're pulled back on making the challenges more and more extreme. You still have the ridiculously hard technicals and they somehow always seem to do chocolate week on the hottest week of the year, but it's overall felt more cozy again and I'm happy for it
Need to come back and rewatch this as I don't want to wake my partner but this current series has been excellent, Alison has revived the hosting dynamic and the bakes have been stronger than ever
Wake your partner up and tell them that Elk is talking about Bake Off! :)
To be fair I can't imagine anything more japanese than a green tea flavoured french pastry 😂
I love the support between contestants. I usually can't watch reality shows because the fake drama stresses me out. Seeing everyone hugging and helping eachother makes me tear up ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I remember reading about the support and wholesome feel in article. That’s what sealed me into watching the show. Other cooking shows tend to be tense as it’s competitive. I could think of two other shows that’s light hearted, but GBBO is up there.
I agree that the challenges feel so hard and unfamiliar. For example, Doughnuts are familiar but are hard to make if you don't make a lot of doughnuts! I sometimes think they feel they can't repeat challenges from previous series, when I wish they would. I can't remember the individual bakes that well, I just remember the contestants, and the new contestants would bring their own twist to it anwyay so it'd be fresh.
In defence of some of the national themed weeks, it was always going to be 'national bakes with a british/individual baker's influences twist' because that is what every single bake is in the tent, regardless of origin, so someone choosing to bring in indian flavours on a japaense dish is just how every bake is in the tent. However, they clearly just needed to hire a consultant that would advise on dishes that were actually japanese in origin, like bao buns being chinese. Honestly they already bring in foreign dishes for challenges anyway, especially technical challenges, so I think the national weeks feel redundant anyway since we already get national dishes represented in the series.
I think weeks like vegan week work better as that's a scenario that is common in the baking world in Britain. Would love to see a full gluten free week or someting! That's a challenge to make food that's GF but close to the original bake.
I would love to see a week without the most common allergens. My grandson is allergic to eggs, soy, dairy, and nuts & legumes. Those are pretty common allergens. Often the substitutions for one item on that list, is another item on that list. Soy milk, almond milk, pea protein (legume), aqua faba (legume), and don't get me started on the egg substitutes that contain egg.
I think GF would be great for technical bakes, because it's not necessarily impossible, but it is different and involves different skills in making sure things rise right and stick together properly, like there's a lot of nuance and difficulty that wouldn't need to be manufactured
It’s honestly weird to me that they chose to do a Japanese week in the first place. Baking really isn’t that common in Japan. Most homes don’t have ovens and Japanese doesn’t even have a specific word for “to bake” (焼く yaku means both “to grill” and “to bake”). Most Japanese bakeries are modeled off of French bakeries and serve mostly French baked goods with a Japanese twist. Wagashi, traditional Japanese desserts, aren’t baked. There are some baked goods that were imported from the Portuguese so long ago that they can arguably be viewed as Japanese, like castella and melon pan, but overall Japanese cuisine doesn’t feature much baking. It was a very weird choice to me to include Japan in baking show and seemed to indicate a lack of research into Japanese cuisine on the producers’ part
Noel Fielding is such a treasure on this show. And I understand it saved his life. Before he discovered the glory of baked treats, he'd been on David Bowie's Thin White Duke diet of milk, hot peppers, and cocaine for twenty years.
Noel is the best.
The thing is they went from "two comedians who have worked with each other their whole careers and have decades of professional chemistry" with "two random comedians from different generations and backgrounds randomly smushed together". It didn't really work.
stongly disagree, hes so annoying. I dont find him funny and forces a joke until the contestant laughs just to get him to go away
@@claclarolo1 He's certainly not for everyone. And I've never been the biggest fan, despite so many of my hipster friends being obsessed with Mighty Boosh. And yes, he absolutely does that. The guy really isn't that funny. But I think his appeal is less about being funny and more about being silly. That has its own charm.
Where did you find out about that? I never heard that Noel was that messed up, or for that long. Did he do an interview about it or something?
Having watched every season since they started airing them on PBS way back in the day in the states, I will say that the pairing of Noel and Allison is the best we've seen from hosts on the show. I feel like they're two people who legitimately think the other is funny, and it really comes through in their interactions with each other and the contestants.
You're totally right. Seeing them crack each other up feels very genuine.
Yeah I think Alison is the best host on the show. She is just so funny but also has so much kindness in her heart. I just love her! But I also love how weird Noel is!
I agree. Allison brings great fresh energy to the show, while it's just really funny to see Noel just so past any pretense of professionalism. "Oh no, I overbaked my cake" - Noel: "Want me to go stab Paul Hollywood?"
@EntertainTheElk it is very endearing. If this means anything to you it's similar to RLM with Mike and Rich. On the surface Mike may appear mean to Rich. But, in reality, no one can make Mike laugh like Rich. Like if you watch enough, you realise, Mike has a specific laugh that he saves just for Rich. Low-key wholesome.
One thing that has always confused me- why go through the rigmarole of judging the technical blind? What difference does it make? It seems like such a gimmick for absolutely no reason. I know bakers have their own flaws and positive points, like being whacky with flavours, but not the extent I think that one round merits blind judging while the others don't...
the secondhand embarrassment I felt watching Japanese Week. Legit gave me the chills it was so bad. There’s so many different types of wagashi and other baked treats from Japan, but they can’t even be bothered to look into it and just go with a basic “Asian” theme and call it good enough.
The showstoppers are less over-the-top in recent season -- which make me think they should rename it back to the final challenge. I remember seasons where people trying to walk their showstoppers to the table without it falling to bits was part of the overall judging.
Yeah, like the bread chandelier or something like that.
I appreciate that they've toned down the complicated showstoppers. To me a showstopper should be something you would see in a professional patisserie or bakery, some of the showstoppers are complicated for the sake of being complicated and aren't a bake you would ever see in a real bakery. I don't want the showstopper to be an engineering challenge, I want it to be a baking challenge.😊
@@DipsoidIt does need to be a bit of both. But yes, the idea that they have to both bake this wild thing, AND carry it themselves across the tent … that’s kind of unfair. True professional bakers take years to accomplish that balance, literally and figuratively!
Doing away with the country weeks was the best decision. My friends and I in San Antonio ranted for a While about all the things wrong with the Mexican week episode (you can't tier a tres leches cake unless it's too dry), but since they brought Alison on, it seems to be a lot like the older seasons in the best ways.
Mel and Sue were a comedy double act which is why they worked so well together; I don't know why they didn't get Julian Barratt alongside Noel
I miss the camaraderie between the bakers AFTER the show ended. Talk about heartwarming!
I think the technical challenges in the earlier series seemed like something folks would like to learn or want to know how to do... something very relevant to home bakers.
I genuinely don’t care if it’s a bit or not that jab at Mexico is INSULTING. Their food is a literal gift. Tres leches cake, the improvement on Flan, tacos, burritos. My family is having Mexican food for Christmas.
I am very jealous ❤
Props for the reminder. I keep forgetting to try tres leches cake. The name alone sounds delicious. 🥛🥛🥛🍰
Isn’t tres leches from different latin american countries and not only from Mexico?
It really wasn't that bad. It was all well intentioned and fun. And how do you expect british people to know about that when they're not exposed to it like Americans are? It was a great way to expose more people to the gift that mexican food is.
Tres Leche case is gross, but if there was no European baking there would be no Mexican baking, 🙄. Native American we weren’t baking or had yeast or cows.
the phrase “the great British baking show” is so weird to me, “bake off” is so iconic!
Bakeoff was a huge part of my childhood, my family would all sit down to watch it every week and root for our favourite bakers. We stopped watching as much when it left the bbc and the past few years stopped completely as it just didnt feel the same, but we decided to watch this new season together again and it really feels like theyve found the way to bring some of the magic back. The casting this year was absolutely amazing, the final few were all so different and I was rooting for every single one of them, and bringing in alison to present was an AMAZING idea. I really hope the 2025 series carries on the new trend!
They need to have a season where they bring back all past winners.
They kind of do this in the holiday episodes. They bring back some of the past contestants. But yeah, having all the past winners would be really fun.
'Champion of champions' like in Taskmaster.
Great idea.
I also liked the suggestion in the video of having guest judges from other countries (or even specialties) to add variety and for education.
@@EntertainTheElk I LOVE the holiday episodes - they are so funny because the stress of actually winning the show isn't nearly as high - it's just a good time had by all.
Still trying to figure out what part of making tacos has anything to do with baking.
Save the pedantry for QI. 😂😂😂😂😂
Um …. The tortilla press? That’s kinda baking, right?
I love Bake Off. Alison is great, or 'bostin' as we say on her home turf. I love hearing the local accent, we hear it so rarely on British TV. Noel is a surreal genius, Prue has a dry and wicked sense of humour, and as a woman in her 80's is a great example to us oldies. Prue knew exactly what she was doing when she said "tell us about your beaver". She knew it would crack Paul up and embarrass him 😇
I think this current season was the best season I’ve seen in a long time. Dylan and Georgie were the best bakers I think I’ve ever seen
I took me a while to get used to Noel, but I find one of his best qualities is his easy rapport with the contestants. That's when he's at his spontaneous funniest.
Sorry I missed it...when did it die?
Having watched a lot of Bake Off, I don't think it died, it just got repetitive and samey.
I think it's a bit of a click-bait title, but not in an inexcusable way. It's just worth noting that the show runs up against certain limits.
Didn't die for me. Highlighted some low points, but I still think the show is alive and well.
@@EntertainTheElk Maybe state that a bit more clearly like you have in other videos where the subject matter hasn't died yet
Then don't do clickbaity title cards and episode titles. @@EntertainTheElk
@@BrynneMuir I feel the same way. I find the comedy/humor in the later seasons to be so cringe and unnecessary. They're basically unwatchable to me.
I do think highlighting the diversity of pastry/food around the world is a great idea, so hopefully they'll take some time to rework it with experts from the cultures they're trying to represent and bring that back at some point. It seems like they might also need to have someone available to the contestants for working through their ideas a bit more.
They should soft launch the international week again with an American week featuring Ina Garten as the guest judge. She’s the perfect vibe for the show. Then, do the same for more international theme weeks with guests who can share the culture and lend expertise like suggested.
Do you remember when they tried to do American pie? No one knew how they’re supposed to be and a lot of them tried to take the pies out of the pan whole! It would be less racist but no more accurate.
Until watching this video, I hadn't realized just how much the show has changed. I still love it though, although Sandy was my favorite presenter.
Yeah, I still love it too!
Alison and Noel are MAGIC together
My mom is a huge GBBO buff ever since I introduced it to her, and while I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for the show, it’s nice to see it’s still plugging along and improving itself again. And it’s still so heartwarming that it’s a competitive cooking show where the contestants genuinely seem to enjoy each others company and try to help each other out.
I used to watch this show with my mom, and we used to talk about it when we lived separated by half the country. It's hard to watch now that she's gone.
I love that they their lesson from the backlash for their racism was to not even try. I wish instead of worrying about offending others.. they’d be pay attention to what exactly was offensive about that episode. I’d LOVE to see bakes and desserts from other countries. Is it that hard to do a sincere job at it and not caricature them though? Because with that response, it feels like maybe caricaturing other countries was the point, that there was no real curiosity towards other cultures. :/
Yep, nailed it; that's Britain. The British never change.
@@OSheaDean Okay, bigot. 🙄
As a British person, I was extremely disappointed to see so many reactions of "How silly for people to get offended over sombreros!," making it very obvious that people were ignoring the fact that a programme about baking *hadn't even bothered to research Mexican baking. For Mexican Week.*
@@OSheaDean Okay, bigot. 😉
@@OSheaDeanUnfortunately they do.
And don't forget the s'mores! They were all supposed to be neat and identical - which is exactly what S'mores are not! The guy who did the "worst" is actually the one who made the best s'mores. I do miss the history segments, but I still love the show so much.
The way you constantly called the people inside the tent “characters” really made me feel uncomfortable. They aren’t just characters, they’re people.
Perhaps there is a level of scripting that he is alluding to.
If you think reality tv is always real, I have a ridge for sale for you.
@@Jabberwockybird oh no no I know for a fact that there’s plenty of scripting, I just found it somewhat dehumanizing in the way he used it.
As I mentioned before, they aren’t fictional characters, they are people before they are characters.
I am convinced Mexican week was cooked up by the producers and not the judges because Prue can really cook!
I really enjoy the show mostly because it’s not a bunch of drama and staged nonsense. People yelling at each other fighting backstabbing bickering. It’s just a nice change of pace and I really enjoy that. I wish more shows would take this type of attitude.
Its been Americanized, which as an American, is a culture that isn't all that great at the moment. Miss the Mel & Sue days.
Yes I stopped watching after the first 5 or seasons because it started to feel like dumb shows that air here.
It was so weird seeing Mexican culture represented like that, I feel like on of those educational segments w/ a Mexican baker would have helped a lot. Mexicans are everywhere, I have a Tia living in the Middle East. There are definitely restaurants to ask questions to, and about their own regions and maybe even childhood memories.
But also once I saw the poncho and sombrero, (which at LEAST coordinate the colors, if you wanna be racist, do it in style at least /sarcasm ) I knew it was time to invite my mom and shit watch it. We haven’t had that much fun(in the making fun of bad representation) in a while lol. Since Rachael Rays “Pozole” lmaooo
If you csn come over here, get outside London, and find a Mexican, I'll shake your hand and buy you a pint. In eighteen years, I think I met one Mexican guy.
sombreros were a white mexican thing, bro.. racist to white people now?
Alison is what the show needed
13:30 Hearing an American complain about 'butchered pronunciations', as a man who was born, raised, and lives in Worcestershire, is frankly hilarious 😂
Glad they're buying the sauce, but just call it Lea and Perrins and save my sensitive ears 👂
As someone who is from Torquay, I know exactly what you mean.
Man, i love bake off. Glad to see a video of it pop in my feed. Seeing a snippet of season 14 got me all kinds of excited as I haven't watched it yet. Thanks!
Yay. Enjoy the new season.
One thing to consider about the Technical challenges is that the bakers would often try and guess what was coming beforehand and try and prepare for the possibility, so going more crazy and extravagant was their best option for increasing difficulty
Okay so what was the day the Great British bake off died then??? Like I get it's a series but if the whole point of the video is " season 1 was a little bit different and better in some ways and worse in others", what the kind of video is that? That's how every single show is. I'm just confused.
'WHAT THE KIND OF VIDEO IS THAT?'
Sorry mate but i think your Italian is poking out a bit
Just highlighting the changes and evolution of the show over the years.
What are you talking about? That is standard Grammer and sentence construction.
The problem is that your geographic bigotry is showing.
@@RobinTrabueHandy hint: if asserting that someone's *grammar* is correct, at least know how to spell the word.
Thank you for this analysis. Watching the most recent season felt like Bake Off was going back to basics a bit and was glad for it ❤
I miss Mary Berry.
You forgot the Squirrel With The Nuts!
Goodness I can't imagine the logistical production nightmare of having to move the tent and cast around each week.
Anyway. Bake Off is the highlight of my year, and adding Noel to the show was the cherry on top!
I really enjoyed this overview. The GBBO is one of my all-time favourite shows, ever.
I stopped watching after Mary left but I agree that the show just tries too hard to be funny. As a brit I liked that it was calm & everyone was kind, I didn't need presenters that tried too hard to be funny.
Calm and Kind. That's what I love about it.
If you stopped watching EIGHT seasons ago, then you don't have a foot to stand on to make judgements about the cast. You've literally missed 3/4 of the content of the show.
That would be like me going on about how much worse FIFA players and annoncers are now than when I watched a couple of world cups back in the 90s and haven't watched any since.
The mean brit's is really just an American trope. Our reality shows are less aggressive than yours have historically been
I’ve lived in Japan. That episode was about as good as I could hope from people who likely have never been. Painful, but understandable.
Yeah, it’s not intentional ignorance, most average British people are genuinely that clueless about other cultures. Here if you’re not wealthy or in an environment that encourages you to seek out food from other cultures, your culinary perspective revolves around whatever supermarkets and takeaways market as cultural food… which is usually something silly like katsu curry crisps or ‘Mexican’ wraps from Tesco
I get what you mean and it still sounds like poetry ❤. I need to learn that syntax and word choice🥰
I don’t know. Post internet, it’s possible to learn a lot more. They could have given them more help if they cared, or picked bakers who have been to Japan. They didn’t care to get it right though.
I can't tell you how many times I wish the bakers would just be given an extra half hour for their bakes in recent seasons. I'd watch something else if I wanted time pressures, thanks.
i think it's neat that the price is a cake stand (well, and the fame of being "the winner"). it's a nice change from the american style of "big money to drive contestants crazy" bleah
Noel and Matt are both "weird" comedians. You don't need TWO weird comedians hosting. A lot of people watching this show (older people, women) often aren't into "weird" comedy at all.
Noel and a "normie" makes more sense.
How homophobic of you to imply that a tranvestite is "weird" /s
Noel and Matt was the best combo the show has had.
@@Zectifin I understand that some people would love them. I just don't think MOST people would love them.
thumbnail went crazyyy
Wooooooooo new elk video. Happy Friday, indeed. 😅😅
Hope you enjoy it!
Having watched the show on and off since I was about 8 ten years ago, I actually think the shows gotten better. The humour and banter Noel and Alison have with the contestants is funny while still being very wholesome and genuine. And I’m not sure if this is because I’m a terrible baker, but I actually don’t mind the harder challenges. Most of the time the majority of the bakers are able to pull it off, and their bakes all look amazing. Paul’s an iconic judge and Prue has made her role her own, which is rlly impressive given she had to try fill Mary berry’s shoes. Still my go to comfort show.
This was interesting! I forgot how different it was in the beginning. It's the same as Masterchef, if you watch series 1, its completely different than the show we have now!
Really enjoyed this video. I can't believe it''s been 15 years.
2:16 Really interesting analysis of the evolution of Bake Off! However, as a Brit, I’d be really interested to hear where in your research you found that the show was inspired by “the popular bake offs that take place in America”, please? In the UK, where the show was developed and filmed (primarily for a British audience) we have our own rich tradition of bake offs, spanning centuries. In fact filming is done in a marquee/tent for this exact reason. Across the UK at village fetes, in community halls, and during country fayres, baking competitions that look remarkably like this are hosted often in tents and marquees, although the baking tends to take place at home. I’d be very surprised if the BBC called it the British bake off and made it resemble a British tradition, but were actually inspired by America 🤔
As someone who only started watching around season 10, I for one like the technical challenges. Yes, they are often difficult but it’s fun seeing how talented bakers improvise and interpret a recipe they aren’t familiar with. I personally don’t see a huge difference between the Signature and Show-Stopper challenges, aside from the latter typically being longer and more involved. So having a challenge that’s totally different is entertaining. And at the end of the day, it is a reality TV competition, so you do need to push and challenge the contestants to identify those that are above the rest. I feel that the show accomplishes that while also remaining warm and respectful to everyone, unlike other reality TV shows.
I love this show so much. Noel and Allison have a great dynamic and the last season was awesome. Love it. Great video
I didnt watch this years series and you've made me really want to watch it now. It is such a lovely program.
I'm mexican, and I LOVED mexican week. It was fun to see things I actually knew about on the show and see people exposed to new things. I really dont understand the hate the country-themed weeks got.
So happy this has finally been released. From a production standpoint, I'd love to hear a version with Jex's vocals more upfront in the mix as they're buried here.
Germany has it's own version of The Great British Bake Off that's been running for 11 seasons. There's also two spinn-offs, one featuring tv famous people and one with professional bakers.
The mood in all three shows is also more on the cosy side and every time they have a week themed on a country the bakers just have to bake recepies from that country.
How did those themed weeks in British Bake Off even happen? Don't the contestants have time to do some rersearch on the country beforehand?
They tell the bakers the week before and they spend the whole week researching and experimenting.
Could you share the German title? I might need to pirate that once my Bake Off rewatch is over!
@SmallMediumToebeans The regular series is called "Das Große Backen".
The one with celebrities is "Das Große Promibacken".
The one with professional bakers is called "Das Große Backen - Die Profis"
I was chatting to an American on a Discord server, and the topic of reality TV came up. He said that he and his wife were fans of GBBO, with me surprised to hear that they got the show over in The States. When I asked why he liked it, he said it was because it was a nice change of pace from those overly dramatic and competitive American reality shows. However, he was confused by the change in hosts and judges, not knowing about the behind-the-scenes.
For those of you who don't know, GBBO used to air on the BBC until their competitor (Channel 4) bought it to air as a rival to BBC's Strictly Come Dancing (Or Dancing With the Stars to all you yanks). Love Productions (GBBO's production company) found Channel 4 to be a more profitable station since the BBC has different rules for its commercial activities (In the UK, TV owners pay a 'TV Licence'; a tax that funds the BBC to avoid advertising and influence from political parties. Channel 4 is the opposite, being public owned but funded by advertisements).
With a change in station, hosts Sue & Mel left, with Mary Berry staying with the BBC out of "loyalty" (Though some speculate that it's because of a stereotype that Channel 4 is seen as the "hip and cool" station with the BBC seen as the more "sophisticated"). And I guess because of Netflix, the show has found a new audience in the States.
Thanks for the info!
Every other person has used the correct t names for people's national origins.
Why do you have to call us yanks? There isn't anybody here talking about Limies
i love this show, it's become a comfort watch for me. i'm actually re-watching old seasons on netflix right now, actually. i do wish i could see those early seasons. i started watching it when it would air on PBS with mary berry still on the show, but can't remember what season was my first - i know the tent was in it's current fixed space, though. but yeah, i do love noel and allison. always loved noel since finding the mighty boosh ages ago (ridiculous how many times i've rewatched that weirdness lol).
The first 8 seasons are on Roku if you can get access to one
Hearing Paul butcher the pronunciation of "Pico de Gallo" and "Taco" felt like a stab in the chest
Excellent analysis! You put it into words very well
So to summarize, the negative changes are (1) the technical is harder, (2) the bakes in general are harder, and (3) they did a few poorly received theme weeks (and have now stopped). So really the only current criticism is that the bakes (including the technical) are harder?
the japanese week was... interesting. opting for a "kawaii cake" and steamed buns instead of like, melon pan or mochi donuts was an interesting choice
Love the baking show. Don't get to watch it because of channel issues. I love watching the ones from South Africa and Canada and anywhere else they want to film something similar. Thanks for sharing.
I almost stopped watching after Mel and Sue left, but Noel grew on me.
That's not Noel, that's a mole, get it looked at!
😂😂😂 (I saw Noel as Old Gregg in high school, and it was looking him back up randomly during the pandemic that caused me to find a bunch of excellent British entertainment!)
I actually didn't know it had a different name in America and Canada 😅
one thing thats important to point out is that Matt Lucas has a history of racist comedy through Little Britain and Come Fly with me. it shows so much in the Japan, Mexico and German weeks. those episodes are unwatchable for me more because of the casual racism in the skit parts. Also, if you compare the way Matt and Noel interact with foreign contestants compared to Allison and Noel, its very different.
how did they used to interact?
thanks for doing a british show, my wee heart swells
:)
I really enjoyed your thoughts on the show! Thank you for the good video
Thank you! :)
Great video. I think I disagree that the technical counts for nothing now -- I actually feel like it has too much weight. It's the Signature that seems to not matter. I swear I've seen someone absolutely nail a signature and then go home. But idk it probably varies. We can't taste any of it, after all, so just hearing a few sentences from the judges makes it hard to know how the bakes REALLY were.
my housemates gifted me the cookbook for my birthday and i’ve tried some of the recipes; they’re relatively easy to follow! takes a little bit to do the conversions from metric metric if i don’t have a scale, but that’s more of an inconvenience than anything and there’s a conversion chart included in the book. also had to show my salvadoran family the mexican week episode because if i had to witness that catastrophe, so did they lol
Thanks for the kind and uplifting video essay. Our family loves GBBO.
Yay! Glad you liked it.
Yeah even for people who don’t live next-door to Mexico, everybody handled that really poorly
I can’t help but think that 90% of the backlash against Mexican week came from the US. “Glockymolo” is just an alternative pronunciation in the UK 😂
Probably because many of us actually speak Spanish and/or or have been to Mexico
No. No, it isn't "an alternate pronunciation." It's a mispronunciation.
To be fair to the contestants on Japanese week, I'm pretty sure they were told that they could use whatever flavors they want and it didn't have to be Japanese flavors. The thing that made it "Japanese" was just the fact that they were making steamed buns.
Jo Brand and Tom Allen on Extra Slice are excellent
Why did Mary at the end make my eyes rain?
The bagel challenge had me actually screaming. It was so bad but so entertaining.
I liked the country episodes, but having a guest judge from the country is a really good idea!
This season is brutal. Where'd they find these folks.
I lot of my favorite personalities got kicked off in the early weeks.
I don't know, I love myself some cozy chaos lol (excluding the episodes we pretend didn't happen).