The season finale of the hit competitors present “The Great British Bake Off” aired this week, capping off one other pleasant installment of beginner dwelling bakers displaying off their expertise and sweetness. Though the collection takes place within the U.Ok. and facilities on conventional sweets from throughout the pond, it has change into a favourite consolation look ahead to numerous American viewers as effectively.
Longtime “Bake Off” choose and restaurateur Prue Leith has some ideas on why U.S. audiences crave the comfy attraction of the beloved present.
“When I first started watching American television, I would watch competitive shows, and they were so aggressive. Everybody in them was really fighting for a prize, dissing their proponents and sabotaging them, and trying to hold the camera,” Leith informed HuffPost whereas selling her twelfth cookbook, “Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom.” “And of course, they’d be fighting for a big money prize. As soon as you put money into the equation, people do get very competitive.”
That, she says, is precisely what makes “Bake Off” so refreshing to the Individuals who’ve fallen for the collection.
Jeff J Mitchell by way of Getty Photos
“The thing about ‘Bake Off’ is your prize, if you win, is an apron or a sort of cake plate ― I mean, it’s sort of $15 from Walmart,” she laughed. “It’s not exactly a huge prize, but they’re there because they’re bakers who are absolutely passionate about baking.”
She emphasised that ability and fervour for baking are the driving ideas behind casting.
“The last thing we want is people who just want to be in telly,” Leith mentioned. “We want people who can bake.”
This real love for baking fosters an environment of kindness and heat — a welcome distinction to the cutthroat power and informal cruelty that dominate a lot of American popular culture and politics right now.
“I think many Americans who watch ‘The Great British Bake Off’ have absorbed the English vibe of being friendly and helping each other and not being nasty to each other,” Leith mentioned, pointing to the same really feel of the U.S. model of the present. “But it’s interesting that I’m often stopped in that street by Americans, and they tend to know me more from the British one.”
In fact, “The Great American Baking Show” has developed its personal persona as effectively.
“The American show has American presenters, and there’s a slightly different vibe ― less ironic, much more like a cheerleader. Bit louder, very friendly, very in your face,” Leith mentioned. “You often don’t understand a word our presenters are saying, and their jokes are so obscure you have no idea what Noel’s on about. But you do know that it’s really funny.”
“Americans like more sugar. When they put frosting on a cake, they sure as hell put frosting on the cake — there’s an inch of it on top!”
Throughout her interview with HuffPost, the “Bake Off” choose additionally opened up about her travels by the U.S., together with the very best and worst factor she’s eaten within the States.
“We were driving from L.A. to Pensacola,” Leith mentioned, recalling a “marvelous” two-week highway journey she took together with her husband John in 2022. “We stopped for lunch in Lubbock, Texas and saw one restaurant which had a huge queue outside it. So I thought, ‘Well, that must be good.’ When we got in, we looked at the food, and everything was deep-fried. I said to the waitress, ‘Have you got anything green?’ and she looked at me really puzzled.”
Leith proceeded to ask if the restaurant supplied any greens like broccoli or peas or any salad ― all of which have been met with a no. Lastly, she inquired about beans.
“She said, ‘Oh yes, we’ve got beans,‘” the restaurateur recalled. “And so we waited, and these beans arrived. And they were tinned beans in some kind of sweet syrup. God, they were disgusting.’ They were very, very sweet and brown, they’d been in the tin a long time. Tinned food has to be cooked.”
Nonetheless, not all was misplaced. She added that the very best factor she had on her journey was additionally on the identical institution.
“The restaurant was really good fun,” Leith mentioned. ”The pudding ― or what we name pudding, dessert ― the dessert was pancakes coated in syrup and vanilla ice cream. And it was completely scrumptious! Actually good. However discuss unhealthy.”
Her highway journey expertise encapsulates the American candy tooth ― a bit too decadent for her day-to-day liking.
“Americans like more sugar. When they put frosting on a cake, they sure as hell put frosting on the cake — there’s an inch of it on top!” Leith mentioned, noting that she enjoys the bread-themed week on “Bake-Off” as a result of there’s much less sugar concerned.
And when she’s careworn, the meals persona turns to pasta, not pastries.
“I don’t think there’s anything more comforting than pasta. Even something simple with just garlic, some butter and fresh sage leaves ― it’s absolutely delicious,” she famous.
Leith added that for English folks, true consolation typically means “a great slice of Yorkshire pudding with gravy, or bubble and squeak ― the stuff you were given as a child.”
As the vacation season approaches, stress ranges are already creeping up for a lot of households. The “Bake-Off” choose emphasised the significance of holding issues easy of their internet hosting.
“The more you complicate it, the more time you take and the more stressed you’ll get ― and the more time you’ll spend away from your guests as you’re in the kitchen trying to remember every single complicated bit of your dinner instead of talking to your friends,” Leith mentioned. “And you have to remember why your friends are there. They’re not Michelin-star judges coming here to give you stickers. They want to see you, and what they don’t want to see is you’re so flurried and harassed that you can’t listen to what they’re saying or be there.”
At the present time, she sees how stress and busyness have taken over so many individuals’s lives.
“We have not been able to stop the tide of people getting busier and busier,” Leith mentioned. “Social media ― which was supposed to save the world and give us lots more free time to spend with our families, have fun and follow our hobbies ― has actually just speeded up things up, so we’ve added more things to our agenda and do more work. It’s all crazy, so I feel a little depressed because I feel it’s all a losing battle.”
That’s why she hopes to encourage extra folks to decelerate and uncover the enjoyment of getting ready a meal.
“We still have to fight the good fight ― to just help some people enjoy the pleasures of cooking and lasting benefit of family meals, or sitting down with your children or cooking with them,” Leith declared. “That is a true delight.”
