Great British Bake-Off Mexican Week

Overview

Great British Bake Off Mexican Week refers to the controversy surrounding the October 7th, 2022 episode of the Netflix program The Great British Bake Off, centered around Mexican cuisine. Throughout the episode, commentators felt the show did little to celebrate Mexican cuisine and instead highlighted the contestants' and hosts' unfamiliarity with Mexican food. The episode found people struggling to pronounce basic Spanish words and mishandle the preparation of basic Mexican ingredients, leading to criticism and jokes online.

Background

Collection ten of the The Great British Bake-Off, had already generated controversy for its "Japanese Week" episode in 2020, which was criticized for many of the same reasons.^[1] Promotional materials for the show, such as this one posted on October 4th, 2022 by the official Twitter^[7] account of the show ahead of the episode, were widely mocked.

Developments

Viewers immediately seized on particular events within the Mexican Week episode that struck them as ill-informed and funny. Many noticed the mispronunciations of Spanish words (such as Paul Hollywood saying "pico de gallo" as "pick-o de gal-o") as well as the absence of actual Mexican pastries and baked goods in favor of tacos and cakes. On October 7th, 2022, Twitter user @sam_ettwein^[2] jokingly supported the idea of Mexico declaring war on Britain (with the support of the United States) over the episode, receiving over 16,000 likes in two weeks.

In particular, a section of the episode in which an avocado is peeled as if it were a potato startled and unsettled many online, including Twitter's^[3] @PleaseBeGneiss (below left) who posted about the peeling on October 8th, 2022, earning over 64,000 likes in less than a day. Others, like Twitter's^[4] @cargillscharm (below right) on October 4th, 2022, posted about how Mexican people might respond to the avocado peeling, receiving over 1,000 likes in a week.

Overall, many called out Mexican Week as an episode that challenged the image of the Great British Bake Off as a highly wholesome television program. Some, however, were not surprised, such as @sensiblyhuman96 on Twitter,^[5] who posted on October 6th, 2022 about what they perceived as the racism of the hosts and received almost 53,000 likes in three days. @ProbablyRealJB used Mexican Week as evidence for claims of a changing trend in racism among British people, earning over 5,000 likes over the course of three days on October 6th, 2022.^[6]

Search Interest

External References