The Great British Baking Show has finally done away with its controversial Country Week once and for all. Although last year’s viral Mexican Week, in which bakers and hosts mangled pronunciations of basic Spanish words, was the final nail in the coffin, back in 2020, the series also made headlines for an insensitive Japan Week. It’s been time for the theme to end. In fact, it probably should’ve never existed in the first place.
In an interview with The Guardian, producer Kieran Smith announced that Country Weeks were no more. “We didn’t want to offend anyone but the world has changed and the joke fell flat,” Smith said. “We’re not doing any national themes this year.”
Although these themes were clearly never decided with malicious intent, someone’s nationality should never be treated as a “joke.” There was a way to do Country Week right, but The Great British Baking Show never took the time to really execute it in a thoughtful, sensitive, culturally appropriate manner.
If the beloved baking competition wanted to amend these themes, perhaps bringing in a guest judge from the relevant country would’ve allowed for proper background on each highlighted nation. This way, the guest judge could bring in their own recommendations for the three challenges.
A guest judge from Mexico could’ve taught the bakers how to properly say guacamole (it’s not “glocky-molo”), although they probably wouldn’t have had bakers making tacos in the first place. There are enough actual Mexican baked goods the contestants could have tried their hands at, as it is. When it comes to Japan Week, a guest judge might’ve advised bakers to avoid flavors like hoisin sauce, mango chutney, and oyster sauce, which are usually found in Chinese and Indian dishes, not Japanese.
There are other ways to thoughtfully spotlight different areas of the world. GBBS could simply feature a rotation of countries in Europe—again, a guest judge would be helpful here—like Germany, France, and Italy. These all have a standard batch of reliable baked goods that the Brits may be more familiar with.
Still, there’s no way to prevent bad pronunciations and the bakers’ misunderstanding of the cultural dishes. Someone’s always going to drop a “glocky-molo.” With that in mind, perhaps there was never a “right way” to do Country Week in Great Britain. So, why not focus on the country at hand? England has a plethora of history to mine.
Most of the baked goods on the show already come from British history; however, the Country Week could instead turn into History Week. Bakers could go back to the mid-1800s, baking delicacies invented by Maria Rundell, who penned the famous English cookbook Domestic Cookery. The contestants could unpack the history of pudding. Why not pair dishes with different types of tea? You get the gist. What would make this different than, say, Dessert Week is that the competitors would have to incorporate British history into their bakes.
Keeping with that history idea, why not spotlight GBBS history? For the signature, bakers could put a twist on one of the most famous challenges from season’s past. The technical challenge could see the contestants trying to perfectly recreate an iconic bake on the show. And the showstopper would allow bakers to come up with their own magical take on the history of the series.
While Country Week is now dead and gone, Smith added that the regular weeks—cakes, biscuits, bread, etc.—will all return for this upcoming season. A new challenge has also been announced: “party cakes.” I’m interested to see how GBBS will differentiate this theme from the preexisting Cake Week. “No spoilers,” Smith said, “but [this season] features challenges I think viewers will love.”
Let’s hope so. GBBS has already improved by replacing Matt Lucas with the irrepressible Alison Hammond, who will be the first person of color to host the show. With all these changes in mind, GBBS could be heading toward its best season in a long, long time.
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