For maybe the first time in human history, many of the food television world's slam-dunk titles — the ones that would usually serve as prime fodder for the antics of cuffing season or autumnal cozy streaming — haven't achieved their usual stranglehold on American social media discourses. We've tired of watching chef-bros wash their Porsches in Gladiator-style montages as they monologue over the women educators who inspired their professional cooking journeys. (Editor's note: This is a real scene from the first episode of Chef's Table: Noodles. I am hyperbolic, but not that egregious.) We're not so easily swayed by the old antics of the pettiest chefs competing to blindside their competitors, or by watching food footage that entices under the golden hue of coastal sunsets.
Instead, the long-reigning shows of yore are now being consistently challenged to raise their standards to meet the experience levels of their talent, all while new franchises pop up left and right to dethrone them. Previously, I wrote about how Netflix's new cooking competition Culinary Class Wars demonstrated the industry's larger shift into more exhaustively demonstrating their participants' full skill sets. But not to be outpaced, the latest crop of Great British Bake Off hazees are committed to bringing their earnest and enthusiastic humility to the tent, and that's drastically improved the show's quality this time around.
Sure, we all adore the sincere and comforting atmosphere of Fun Fair Positive Baking, but previous seasons have more closely resembled the vibe of a food-poisoned bachelorette party or any White Sox game ever. As buoyant as it feels to watch a procession of discouraged and self-disappointed bakers get ripped to shreds for making normal, human mistakes, the show is re-energized by the most recent cast's clear preparation and expertise.
There's teenager Sumayah, whose finesse and ingenuity have created some of the most stunning and ambitious desserts yet, including an illusion cake(!) resembling her pet duck(!), and a carrot cake filled with halwa(!). Then, there's Slovakian bread whisperer Nelly, whose ultra-bashful obsession with Noel Fielding (and the franchise at large) yields some of the most charming and heartwarming interactions. If you ever find yourself muttering, "Yoohoo! Big summer blowout!" to yourself from the movie Frozen, then you already have a sense of Nelly's Disney-character-brought-to-life allure.
Finally, we're still obviously finding our favorite himbos (respectfully) among the anxious and amicable contestants of the season, but it's even better to finally be able to root for hot people who are really nice and genuinely great at what they do… even if that doesn't include not falling off of things at random intervals.
Sure, we have yet to endure another "glockymolo" moment (not talking about Kamala Harris's). And sure, there are ample other sources of legitimately concerning drama, including numerous occurrences of illness and more contestants falling out than a Southern Baptist revival in the 1950s. But for now, I'm more than satisfied to watch a crop of earnest and humble people win. The world may not be the most comforting place right now, but for an hour or two every Friday, my TV screen can be. I'll take that over another show about a celebrity's unnecessary trip to Italy or a nepotism baby's meandering diatribe about pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (just don't ask where the casual millions of investor dollars are coming from).
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