Why The Great British Baking Show Is Ending Its National-Themed Episodes

Some controversial theme weeks are coming to an end for “The Great British Baking Show.” 

In a new interview with The Guardian, Kieran Smith, the producer of the famed cooking show, revealed that the show will no longer create country-themed challenges following feedback and backlash from fans. 

“We didn’t want to offend anyone, but the world has changed, and the joke fell flat,” Smith told The Guardian, specifically calling out Season 13’s “Mexican Week.” He added, “We’re not doing any national themes this year.”

The episode Smith is referring to aired in October 2022 and involved hosts Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding making crude jokes that reinforced harmful stereotypes. As Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu wrote about the episode for Food & Wine, “The food is mispronounced (‘glockymolo’ for guacamole) and misinterpreted (among other things, beans, a traditional side for tacos, are used as a taco topping). Jokes are made at the expense of Mexican identifiers, including names and history (Kevin calls his pyramid cake ‘Aztec,’ then uses ‘Mayan’ interchangeably, conflating two distinct empires).”

Kiu noted that there was little to no attempt by the show to truly appreciate and honor the culture or its foods throughout the entirety of the episode. 

"It is disappointing that we are still seeing content like this produced at this level," Jackson Flores, president of DishRoulette Kitchen, shared with Food & Wine at the time, adding, "But now we can have a healthy conversation about how to honor the Mexican identity without making it a punchline."

This also wasn’t the only episode to draw criticism for casual racism. The show also drew anger following its 2020 Japanese Week episode, which Twitter users called out for showing contestants conflate Chinese and Indian ingredients and traditions, with one Twitter user noting the show didn’t produce any “actual Japanese desserts.” 

However, it appears the message has finally been received by producers, who will no longer be including such harmful episodes. 

According to Smith, moving forward, the show will now be “very traditional” moving forward and focus on the art of crafting classic dishes like “Cakes, Biscuits, Bread, Patisserie, Chocolate, plus Party Cakes” as its themes. 

“We chose this year’s challenges very carefully to be approachable,” baker Paul Hollywood added. “In a way, we’ve returned to the philosophy of the first three series. There are some beautiful classic ones, and they’ve been a big success.”

We’ll all get to see for ourselves just how good these changes are when the new season premieres on Channel 4 and Netflix this fall.