This Is The Meanest Series Of Bake Off Yet And Thats A Good Thing

Series seven of The Great British Bake Off has seen plenty of raw emotion and raw dough, and it’s only episode 3. But Food Editor Andrew Webb thinks it’s all part of a cunning plan.
Blimey Bake Off’s gone brutal this season. In the past we’ve seen things ‘under baked’ or ‘under proved’ but seldom has so much raw dough been seen as in series seven’s third episode: bread week.

And it’s not just a one off, three weeks in and there have been some real hard challenges and disasters. Remember at the start of this current run they talked about getting back to basics? Well that wasn’t just for the first episode, I think it’s for the whole series.

But here’s why this is a good thing. It stops the grandstanding. In recent years bakes have got bigger, better and higher. It was only a matter of time before someone made a life sized Taj Mahal out of naans or the pie from Joffrey’s wedding featuring live doves. The bakes were edging towards being more about theatre, story, size, and what in French call Pièce montée.
Val’s version of Noah’s Ark seems to be missing some key elements of the story. 🐘🐦 #GBBO pic.twitter.com/xTc0cIbJ2J
— BBC One (@BBCOne) September 7, 2016
What Love Productions have done is hit the reset button, cutting the time bakers have to make their bakes means that they have to scale it back to something simpler, something potentially achievable for the rest of us at home. Witness the mess of gingerbread week last week. Of course the other reason for doing this, is it makes for great car crash telly.
BREADXIT! #GBBO pic.twitter.com/UDw9ggud1D — British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) 7 September 2016

Sue described Paul Hollywood as ‘the silverback of sourdough’

Bread week was always going to be a tough week with the #SilverbackOfSourdough prowling the tent, but I don’t think it’s a one off. This seems to be the toughest series yet in terms of time and what they have to do. Paul had five hours for his famous lion showstopper, this year, they only had four. Of course there is another theory, maybe that the class of 2016 just aren’t a vintage year? What do you think? Tell us in the comments below. Bring on batter week…

About the author

Andrew Webb

Food & Drink Editor

Born in the Midlands and raised in the North West of England, Andrew came to London to attend St Martin's College of Art. After ten years working for the BBC and Channel 4, he set off on an eight month food tour of Britain, which led him to write his award-winning book, Food Britannia. He was previously the Editor of Lovefood.com and also produced and hosted delicious magazine's podcast. Responsible for the Culture Trip's food and drink content, he is interested in hearing about food events, product launches and potential interviews with chefs and food producers. He's also judged the British Pie Awards, reviewed restaurants, and spoken at food festivals, and so knows a good plate of food when he sees it. He can be found tweeting here @foodjournalist