* Even though it's aired in the US as The Great British Baking Show, I like to refer to it by it's original branding. It just sounds better.
** The first 3 seasons of the Great British Bake-Off remain unaired in the US, so the numbering of the US seasons is totally different. It's wacky and confusing, so for some attempt at clarity I'll refer to both versions where possible.
When I was a kid I watched my Mum melt the bottom out of a jug making toffee in the
microwave.
I invented ‘gravel loaf’ by accidentally putting bulgur (cracked wheat) into a multigrain loaf instead of
wheatgerm (it was inedible).
I burned
my first Thanksgiving pumpkin pie so badly that
the crust was actual charcoal and the bottom half of the filling was
black. We had to eat the pie out of the tin with a spoon.
In home-baking, perfection is an outlier. We strive for it, we imagine it, we see pictures of it in books and we hear stories of it, but there’s a
thousand variables that stand in the way: self-inflicted
wrong-turns like accidentally using salt when the recipe calls for
sugar, or forgetting to turn on the oven; technique
slip-ups like over-mixing, or over-kneading; environmental obstacles
like hot days that wreak havoc on butter and chocolate; or
the universe randomly deciding to fuck with you because you used “stale”
eggs or because you walked in front of the oven at
the wrong time. These endless, confounding variables and failure at seemingly every turn is why many
shy away from baking;
but the joys that lie within the struggle for perfection is why so many more of us
worship at the altar.
The struggle between perfection and failure is a
huge reason why I’m obsessed with the Great British Bake Off (or GBBO for short). (Another
reason is because it’s delightful.) The show embraces the
unpredictability of home-baking and allows room for acceptable
failure, even abject failure, in a way that reality cooking shows
usually don’t. Even though the ultimate goal is the perfect bake, GBBO
doesn’t frame failure as a spectacle or an aberration to be shamed. Here in the pleasant surrounds of the GBBO tent,
the unspoken subtext of the show and the contest itself is that failure
is a natural part of baking. Each week there may only be a handful of
contestants who actually create picture-perfect bakes; the majority of
bakers present bakes that are imperfect and far-from
perfect; and others still contribute a few outright disasters.
Each week contestants enter the tent aiming for
perfection: this in and of itself is a crazy goal. The judges delight in setting the bar high, and
ascertaining perfection is the point of the Bake Off;
but the judges are experienced bakers and are well-aware of the
difficulty of what they’re asking. To an outsider, setting the bar so incredibly
high for these amateur home-bakers seems like cruelty; surely the show is
setting them up to fail. But the beauty of the GBBO tent
is that it provides a safe space to try. Through a rigorous audition process, these bakers have earned
the chance to show what they can do, and the
tent is a place where perfection is believed to
be
possible. No-one is going to laugh these amateur bakers off the
show for attempting to bake 36 petit fours. Go ahead! You want to make a dozen sourdough bagels in 4 hours? Have at it! The show is their opportunity to
try, and try they do. There’s no abject humiliation meted out by the judges; even the
harshest critiques are balanced with positive
reinforcement and kindness.
The show is a symphony of emotional highs and lows. The highs are thrilling, there’s no
question: seeing a home-baker achieve perfection or something close to
it is truly exciting. The constant fight against
failure is what makes winning
The Great British Bake Off, or even just winning a challenge, such a feat for these amateur
bakers. But the secret strength of this show is in the lows. Cakes
are dropped. Caramel is burned…repeatedly.
Sponges fall flat, or turn to rubber. Ovens are put on the wrong
setting. Or time simply runs out. We see these failures and we see ourselves...but I think in our hearts, we give these very human bakers more leeway than we give ourselves. After seeing a baker reduced to tears over a 'creative' lattice topping on a treacle pie, it doesn't feel quite like the end of the world when your cake doesn't turn out quite right. And in watching so many tearful flops and catastrophes, we also know that it doesn't always mean the end. There's always a chance. The beauty of the GBBO is that the glimmer of possibility remains right up until the final judgement. (Unless of course you do your block and throw your melted Baked Alaska in the bin. Poor Iain.)
Watching the bakers struggle against failure and
push for perfection becomes even more fascinating for me personally when
it’s combined with a baker’s struggle against low self-esteem.
This "war on two fronts" makes for some of the show’s
richest moments, in my opinion.
Take lovely Jo (un-aired in the US/Bake Off Season 2). A Mum from
Essex married at 17 who lived her life solely for her three now-almost
grown boys. The Baking Show is Jo finally ‘doing something for
herself’. Jo is bubbly but beneath her smile is tangible
self-doubt. She’s not sure she belongs in the tent, mutters to herself
when she screws up, her eyes fill with tears over a failure she’s sure
will send her home. Each failure seems to confirm what she feels is the
truth, as though the universe is telling her
‘you should never have come here’. But oh how the compliments make her
brighten, as though an invisible hand reaches down and lifts her chin
slightly. Fellow baker MaryAnne muses that hopefully Jo’s will see that she's as good as they keep telling her she is.
There’s Ruby (Baking Show Season 2/Bake Off Season
4). A young baker, a mere 20 years old, wide-eyed and crippled with
self-doubt from the off, certain that she will be called out for a fraud
and sent home after the first round. A failed creme patissiere in the first challenge sends her into a heartbreaking flood of
panicked tears, and throughout the episode she seems on the verge of
apologizing for her very existence and/or bolting from the tent never
to be seen again. But as the season progresses,
it’s clear to us, and the judges, that she can bake. The
tension, and ultimate joy, comes as wait for Ruby to realize it too. When that moment finally comes, when she beams and stands tall with dazed, giddy pride, is a beautiful moment
of television.
And of course, there’s my favorite, Nadiya (Baking
Show Season 3/ Bake Off Season 6). Her face would contort with worry
over every challenge, but her creativity repeatedly delighted the
judges. Failing at the technical challenges weighed
her down, and she constantly feared going home, as though the technical
was somehow a confirmation that she wasn’t ‘good enough’. The
self-doubt was palpable in those moments. But soon, there came a
sea-change. Her genuine delight over her first technical
win should be bottled and sold, it’s so magical to watch. Watching her
transform into a force pushing back
against failure is still one of my favorite things to watch on the show. The judges knew that she had the potential within
her; but it took Nadiya to realize it herself.
I think part of my fascination with this aspect of GBBO stems from my former life as a
teacher-in-training; Jo, Ruby, and Nadiya and so many of the struggling
bakers in GBBO call to mind the thing I loved about teaching: giving someone room to find their potential. Find their wings, so to speak. Seeing someone's face when they discover they can fly, after a lifetime of believing they barely deserved to walk, it's a beautiful thing.
GBBO is a place that encourages home-bakers
from many backgrounds to seek perfection.
Some may never have even conceived that such a
thing was possible for them; others may have wished for it but never
had the tools to try; others may have tried but been cut short before
their dreams were realized. There’s so many ways that these bakers come
to this tent.
Ultimately what I love about GBBO is the joy of watching a group of people learn how to fly. Some try and fail, some try and land with a bump, some soar. All of them exceed their own expectations just by trying. And there's nothing else like it on TV.
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