Eater - The Rise and Fall of the Great British Bake Offhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52682/favicon-32x32.png2016-10-27T09:30:09-04:00http://www.eater.com/rss/stream/127927272016-10-27T09:30:09-04:002016-10-27T09:30:09-04:00'The Great British Bake Off' as You Know It Is Dead
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<p>The show’s final season on the BBC has come to an end</p> <p id="nuUBg9">The UK television phenom that is the <em>Great British Bake Off</em> is dead — at least, in its current form. Last night was the finale of season seven, and the baking competition series’ final episode on the BBC attracted a record high 14 million viewers. It will now move to Channel 4 in a £75 million deal, but beloved hosts<a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving"> Mel and Sue are leaving</a>, and<a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving"> so is judge Mary Berry</a>.</p>
<p id="K1uHnC">Uncertainty is swirling about show’s future: Without three-quarters of its beloved cast, will it ever be the same? (Only co-judge Paul Hollywood is staying on for the move to Channel 4, leaving fans to quip that C4 “paid £75M for Paul Hollywood and a tent.”) Its new network is known for the manufactured drama of reality shows like <em>Big Brother</em>, and many worry that <em>GBBO</em> will be stripped of its polite British charm. </p>
<p id="Uo82QU"><a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving">Berry herself said</a> she is “just sad for the audience who may not be ready for change.” Without its hosts and one-half of its judging panel, the new edition of the show may be only a shadow of its former self, and as fans take to Twitter to celebrate season 4 winner Candice Brown (and fan favorite/heartthrob Selasi Gbormittah) they’re also eulogizing a show that’s become a cultural sensation.</p>
<p id="oEoj5u">The purest outpourings of emotion can be found from fans on Twitter:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">This breaks my heart <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> <a href="https://t.co/wboPjO76m0">pic.twitter.com/wboPjO76m0</a></p>— iona ⭐️ (@ionabailey) <a href="https://twitter.com/ionabailey/status/791388416667742208">October 26, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">MY LOVES, MY LIFE<br>I WILL MISS YOU FOREVER<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/melandsue?src=hash">#melandsue</a> <a href="https://t.co/KXgBftkXZB">pic.twitter.com/KXgBftkXZB</a></p>— Em☆ (@emmaadix) <a href="https://twitter.com/emmaadix/status/791370243776057344">October 26, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">it's all over. NO MORE MEL AND SUE. NO MORE MARY BERRY. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> <a href="https://t.co/Jide4ekeCa">pic.twitter.com/Jide4ekeCa</a></p>— SWIFT. (@MilliCullen) <a href="https://twitter.com/MilliCullen/status/791368501827084288">October 26, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can we take a moment to realise what we've all lost <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBO?src=hash">#GBBO</a> <a href="https://t.co/L2557r8i21">pic.twitter.com/L2557r8i21</a></p>— spooky james (@jamescochranee) <a href="https://twitter.com/jamescochranee/status/791367547589361664">October 26, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bake Off fans: "Thank you Mary, Mel and Sue for a great series. We will miss you"<br><br>Paul: "What abou-"<br><br>Bake Off fans:<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> <a href="https://t.co/3AVccVnkes">pic.twitter.com/3AVccVnkes</a></p>— Curtis (@CurtisBebro) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisBebro/status/791367903874428929">October 26, 2016</a>
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<p id="bwKeIq">Some are also expressing doubt that the “new” <em>GBBO</em> will be able to match the big numbers put up by last night’s finale:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">On average <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a> had 14 millions viewers. Good luck getting those figures <a href="https://twitter.com/Channel4">@Channel4</a></p>— Mike DH (@Scottish1977) <a href="https://twitter.com/Scottish1977/status/791619104100745217">October 27, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ratings. 14 million watched the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GBBOFinal?src=hash">#GBBOFinal</a>. <br>Its biggest audience ever.<br>Not bad for a show that is apparently "getting stale."</p>— Ian Hyland (@HylandIan) <a href="https://twitter.com/HylandIan/status/791580078291443713">October 27, 2016</a>
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<p id="5URg6I">The end of <em>Bake Off </em>as we know it has also spawned think-pieces aplenty, </p>
<p id="17vMUS">Charlotte Higgins goes long <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/oct/06/genius-of-great-british-bake-off">for the <em>Guardian</em></a><em>:</em></p>
<blockquote><p id="F8kvrP">The show has shrugged off the bonds of mere TV, and garnered a cultural presence rarely seen since the shows of the 1970s – the so-called “golden age” of television. The Great British Bake Off is a fully fledged cultural phenomenon – and it may be the perfect show for Britain, now. We exist in a world where the difficult words “Great” and “British” cannot safely be applied to much. But they can be applied to a baking contest.</p></blockquote>
<p id="J80NvI"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/9/13/12903104/great-british-bake-off-sue-perkins-mel-giedroyc">Vox</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p id="HkAUBD">It’s a major loss for the BBC. <em>Bake-Off </em>was the most-watched show in Britain last year, averaging 13.4 million viewers a night. So this is more or less the equivalent to <em>American Idol</em><em><strong> </strong></em>abruptly leaving Fox right at its height — and leaving Ryan Seacrest behind.</p></blockquote>
<p id="jheMFd"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/sep/14/i-love-the-great-british-bake-off-not-mel-sue">Writing for the <em>Guardian</em></a>, American Spencer Ackerman said he wouldn’t miss Mel and Sue, but feared what might happen in Mary Berry’s absence:</p>
<blockquote><p id="rqJLOP">There is one immutable truth about the Great British Bake Off. Her name is Mary Berry. Everything the show tacitly argues about the compatibility of achievement and gentleness is embodied by Mary. Mary Berry is the show’s Beyoncé.</p></blockquote>
<p id="ZPzjh8">Former <em>Bake Off</em> contestant Richard P. Burr <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/i-was-on-the-great-british-bake-off-heres-what-well-lose-when-it-leaves-the-bbc/2016/09/15/39b5b222-7b3d-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html">for the <em>Washington Post</em></a></p>
<blockquote><p id="10QRJz">Of all the common languages we have in the UK, be it soccer, politics, music or the weather, “Bake Off” is the one that seems to span every walk of life...Ten Wednesdays each year, the country stops for a collective cup of tea and a warm televisual hug in the form of this lovely show. The current season is already attracting more than 10 million viewers. Yet this will be the last time we get to enjoy “The Great British Bake Off” as it is.</p></blockquote>
<p id="dUxteN">Jess Zimmerman, for <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off">Eater</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p id="KzSGB7"><em>Bake Off</em> can exist as a show without Mel and Sue, in the sense that a show can still exist in which British bakers cook in a tent and Mary says their cake has a lovely crumb. But the fact that the show feels like a family has always been an inextricable part of its charm, the core of the warmth and humanity that sets it above other reality shows. </p></blockquote>
<p id="mNERDa">Channel 4 has yet to announce who will replace Mary Berry and Mel and Sue on its version of <em>GBBO</em>, though the rumor mill has been <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927862/great-british-bake-off-mary-paul-leaving-jamie-oliver">working overtime</a> with <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/10/18/13320002/richard-ayoade-host-great-british-bake-off">speculation</a>. Among those rumors is one that the BBC is <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/23/13028036/mary-berry-great-british-bake-off-bbc">giving Mary Berry her own <em>Bake Off</em>-style series</a> — so maybe all’s not lost after all.</p>
<p id="Z888b1">• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/10/18/13320002/richard-ayoade-host-great-british-bake-off">Richard Ayoade Contends for Role as Host of <em>Great British Bake Off</em></a> [E]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving">RIP Great British Bake Off: Mary Berry Is Out</a> [E]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off">What We Lose When We Lose Mel And Sue</a> [E]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13015820/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-reactions-mourningWhitney FilloonVirginia Chamlee2016-09-23T09:17:34-04:002016-09-23T09:17:34-04:00Is the BBC Giving Mary Berry Her Own Bake Off-Style Series?
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<p>There could be a light at the end of the tunnel for fans</p> <p id="FtPO4P">As fans <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13015820/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-reactions-mourning">mourn the loss</a> of the <em>Great British Bake Off</em> as we know it, the rumor mill continues to swirl fast and furious around the future of the series and its (former) stars.</p>
<p id="JfLoTI"><a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2016%2F09%2F23%2Fmary-berry-to-lead-new-rival-to-the-great-british-bake-off-on-th%2F&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2016%2F9%2F23%2F13028036%2Fmary-berry-great-british-bake-off-bbc" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">According to the </a><em><a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2016%2F09%2F23%2Fmary-berry-to-lead-new-rival-to-the-great-british-bake-off-on-th%2F&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2016%2F9%2F23%2F13028036%2Fmary-berry-great-british-bake-off-bbc" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Telegraph</a></em><em>, </em>the BBC <em>“</em>is considering launching a rival to Bake Off with three of its original presenters” — judge Mary Berry and <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">departed co-hosts</a> Mel and Sue.</p>
<p id="JqMreW">After the show’s production company announced it would leave its home network the BBC for Channel 4 next season, the three stars swiftly announced their respective departures; only judge Paul Hollywood will follow <em>Bake Off</em> to its new channel.</p>
<p id="LrupdM"><a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving">Berry announced her departure</a> from <em>GBBO </em>in an official statement, saying, “My decision to stay with the BBC is out of loyalty to them, as they have nurtured me, and the show, that was a unique and brilliant format from day one. I am just sad for the audience who may not be ready for change, I hope they understand my decision.”</p>
<p id="efXYiW">While the BBC has yet to announce anything official, a spokesperson did say the network intended to “cook up more unmissable shows with [Berry] in the future,” per the <em>Telegraph</em>.</p>
<p id="qrgGiP">In the meantime, <em>Bake Off</em> is currently airing its seventh and final season on the BBC.</p>
<p id="7ITllh">• <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2016%2F09%2F23%2Fmary-berry-to-lead-new-rival-to-the-great-british-bake-off-on-th%2F&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2016%2F9%2F23%2F13028036%2Fmary-berry-great-british-bake-off-bbc" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Mary Berry 'to Lead New Rival' to the Great British Bake Off on the BBC</a> [Telegraph]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving">RIP Great British Bake Off: Mary Berry Is Out</a> [E]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off">What We Lose When We Lose Mel and Sue</a> [E]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/23/13028036/mary-berry-great-british-bake-off-bbcWhitney Filloon2016-09-22T09:38:38-04:002016-09-22T09:38:38-04:00RIP Great British Bake Off: Mary Berry Is Out
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<p>Abandon all hope for the UK’s beloved TV series</p> <p id="3hBWWr">The <em>Great British Bake Off</em> is dead and everything is terrible. The show is abandoning the BBC for Channel Four following its seventh season, leading to the <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">swift departure</a> of <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off">beloved co-hosts Mel and Sue</a>; now, judge Mary Berry has dropped the bomb that she too is leaving the show.</p>
<p id="F9O55w"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37437907">According to the BBC</a>, 81-year-old Berry is sticking with the BBC out of “loyalty,” and says she’s “just sad for the audience who may not be ready for change.” Per reports from the British gossip mill, Berry turned down an offer of £7 million (around $9 million) from Channel 4.</p>
<p id="MZHbAW">Co-judge Paul Hollywood will follow the show to its new C4 home, despite the BBC’s attempts to persuade him otherwise (Hollywood was apparently offered a role on the network’s long-running series <em>Top Gear</em> if he’d stick with the company).</p>
<p id="QvP9TC">Hollywood confirmed his decision to stick with the show in a tweet, thanking Berry and saying he’ll miss her:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm staying in the tent with the bakers where I belong. I want to thank Mary. I'll miss her but she has made the right decision for her.</p>— Paul Hollywood (@PaulHollywood) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulHollywood/status/778907656039854080">September 22, 2016</a>
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<p id="YAfhJM">In an informal online poll <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ftv%2F2016%2F09%2F22%2Fteam-paul-hollywood-v-team-mary-berry-twitter-reacts-to-gbbo-sho%2F&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2016%2F9%2F22%2F13014148%2Fgreat-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leaving" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">conducted by the <em>Telegraph</em></a>, 85 percent of respondents have said they will no longer watch <em>GBBO </em>following Berry’s departure. The dynamic of Mel and Sue’s cheeky, sexual innuendo-laced commentary versus the judges’ tough love was a large part of what kept viewers tuning in week after week, and with three of the <em>Bake Off’</em>s four stars out, it’s hard to say what the new Channel 4 version will look like.</p>
<p id="APl4tf">• <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37437907">Great British Bake Off: Mary Berry Leaves, Paul Hollywood Stays</a> [BBC]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927862/great-british-bake-off-mary-paul-leaving-jamie-oliver">Tracking Great British Bake Off Rumors: Mary and Paul Out, Jamie Oliver In?</a> [E]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">Mel and Sue Leave the Great British Bake Off: What Does It All Mean?</a> [E]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off">What We Lose When We Lose Mel and Sue</a> [E]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/22/13014148/great-british-bake-off-mary-berry-leavingWhitney Filloon2016-09-16T09:00:06-04:002016-09-16T09:00:06-04:00Why 'The Great British Bake Off' Needs Mel And Sue
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<p>A mighty wail of "Nooooo! Mel and Sue!" reverberated throughout social media feeds this week. If you're not a fan of the <em>The Great British Bake Off</em>, you might have wondered why so many otherwise reasonable people were mourning a casting change as if it were the death of a family member. Comedians Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins are the hosts of a reality show for British amateur bakers, and are not somehow related to all your friends simultaneously. But for Bake Off devotees, they do feel like kin.</p> <p dir="ltr"><span>On Monday, <i>Bake Off</i>'s producers revealed that </span><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37344292">the show would be moving</a><span> from the UK's BBC One, the public television station where it currently airs, to the commercial station Channel 4. And on Tuesday, Mel and Sue announced that, when the show moved on, </span><a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">they would not be joining it</a><span>. For American viewers, many of whom consume <i>Bake Off </i>on a multi-year delay under the name <i>The Great British Baking Show</i>, the nuances of the move to Channel 4 were largely lost. (Think of it as sort of the opposite of when <i>Project Runway</i> moved to Lifetime: Channel 4 has a younger audience and offered the production company more money, but the likely format changes could have potentially the same chilling effect on viewership.)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr">But the implications of Mel and Sue's departure were impossible to misunderstand. As hosts, they embodied the loving, light-hearted tone that drew so many to the show. And, except for the few <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/sep/14/i-love-the-great-british-bake-off-not-mel-sue">truly heartless</a> among us, their loss is impossible not to mourn.</p>
<div class="float-right hang-right"><q>A family does not require daffy aunts, but the <em>Bake Off</em> clan is a family with daffy aunts at its heart.</q></div>
<p>There's something inescapably domestic about a baking show, even one that mysteriously films in a tent outdoors. <i>Bake Off</i> nods to this domesticity with its opening credits, which show a woman putting the finishing touches on a cake while her toddler eats and plays with a loaf of bread. The contestants are amateur bakers, referred to often as explicitly "home bakers," and they call on skills that they honed cooking for and with their families. But it's not just this fictional mom from the credits, or the heirloom recipes, or the copious B-roll shots of the contestants baking for their actual children, that makes <i>Bake Off</i> feel particularly homey. It's the way that the chemistry of the show makes everyone involved feel like a family. The bakers' competition is a kind of sibling rivalry, driven primarily by approval—a genuine conflict, but never a vicious one. The judges, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, fill the role of demanding but supportive parents: loving disciplinarians who aren't mad, just disappointed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And then we have Mel and Sue. If Paul and Mary are the mom and dad of <i>Bake Off</i>, then Mel and Sue are its daffy aunts. They carom around the tent sticking their literal fingers in everyone's literal pie. Their slightly raunchy puns—like dad jokes just a little dirtier than ones your dad would actually make—are shameless and wholehearted, a veritable palace of corn. It's hard to make an off-color joke stand out in a competition where "soggy bottom" is a legitimate critique of a baked good, but Mel and Sue's efforts—"get those lady's fingers soggy," "it's time to grease your muffin tray and grab your jugs"—succeed.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Mel and Sue aren't just hosts who occasionally appear to announce something official; they're loving chaos demons, accidentally sticking an elbow in an English muffin here, knocking over a tower of biscuits there, yelling "get a ruddy grip!" at a contestant (but only, it should be noted, at her request). Even their more irritating tendencies are the product of enthusiasm, familial inside jokes gone too far. The "On your mark, get set, bake!" line that they use to kick off a challenge has evolved over the seasons into a sort of whoop-growl, like a yodeling werewolf, and it's awful, but what will we ever do without it?</p>
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<p dir="ltr">This, in a nutshell, is how <i>Bake Off</i> fans are reacting to the departure of Mel and Sue: What will we do without them? A family does not require daffy aunts, but the <i>Bake Off</i> clan is a family with daffy aunts at its heart; it can no more stand to lose them than the Addamses could lose Uncle Fester. (I do want to note that the aunt metaphor has one exception: You may remember the time that Sue and season 4 contestant Ruby flirted awkwardly about wedding cakes. Maybe, like me, you screamed, rewound, watched again, and screamed again. Sue is not Ruby's aunt.)</p>
<div class="float-left hang-left"><q>If Bake Off stands out for creating drama on the basis of skill instead of interpersonal agita, it is Mel and Sue who make it that way.</q></div>
<p dir="ltr"><i>Bake Off</i> can exist as a show without Mel and Sue, in the sense that a show can still exist in which British bakers cook in a tent and Mary says their cake has a lovely crumb. But the fact that the show feels like a family has always been an inextricable part of its charm, the core of the warmth and humanity that sets it above other reality shows. There are <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927862/great-british-bake-off-mary-paul-leaving-jamie-oliver">whispers</a> now that Mary and Paul may leave the show as well, at which point <i>Bake Off</i> would essentially be a smoking crater with the tattered remains of a tent and a bunch of ovens inside. Losing Mom and Dad (and maybe <a href="http://www.celebsnow.co.uk/celebrity-news/jamie-oliver-reveals-now-id-love-new-great-british-bake-off-judge-560274">replacing them with Jamie Oliver</a>, gag me) would certainly signal the end of the original <i>Bake Off</i> dynasty. Even Paul and Mary believe the show <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1778911/great-british-bake-off-line-up-crumbles-again-as-we-reveal-that-mary-berry-and-paul-hollywood-may-not-return-to-the-tent-and-viewers-may-not-see-the-hit-show-next-year/">can't work without Mel and Sue</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Here's something you might not know about Mel and Sue: they nearly quit once before. Last year, while promoting her memoir, Sue revealed that she and Mel walked off the set during <i>Bake Off</i>'s first season because the producers were trying to coax human-interest drama—and the inevitable tears—out of contestants. "We felt uncomfortable with it, and we said 'We don't think you've got the right presenters,'" Sue <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fculture%2Ftvandradio%2F11882666%2FBeing-a-gay-woman-doesnt-mean-you-cant-have-truly-loved-a-man.html&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2016%2F9%2F16%2F12935000%2Fmel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-off" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">told the Telegraph</a>. "I'm proud that we did that, because what we were saying was 'Let's try and do this a different way'—and no one ever cried again. Maybe they cry because their soufflé collapsed, but nobody's crying because someone's going 'Does this mean a lot about your grandmother?'" Bringing up dead relatives at stressful times is a time-honored technique for introducing tension into a television show, but it's no way to treat your family.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Here's another thing you might not know: When contestants do cry—out of frustration or disappointment, generally—Mel and Sue stand near them and use un-airable language so the embarrassing footage is tainted, and won't make it into the final edit. "If we see them crying or something," Sue <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/jul/20/bake-off-behind-the-scenes">told the Guardian</a>, "Mel and I will go over there and put our coats over them, or swear a lot because we know then that the film won't be able to be used."</p>
<p dir="ltr">If <i>Bake Off</i> stands out among reality shows for its gentleness, for creating genuine tension and drama purely on the basis of skill instead of interpersonal agita, it is Mel and Sue who make it that way. Paul and Mary may set the standards and choose who stays and who goes home, but Mel and Sue are the ones who look out for the contestants as human beings. They have spread mother-hen wings over their brood of bakers, and in the process, helped create a model for reality TV that protects, not exploits, people's mental health and emotional integrity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And this is the heart of <i>Bake Off</i>'s appeal: for a while, it lets you enter that protected space. Most people's families are disappointing sometimes, and even the happiest don't offer reliable and uncomplicated resolution. TV families have always existed to make up for this deficiency. They allow you to exist for half an hour or so as a Brady, or a Keaton, or a Banks, or a Belcher, a member of a tightly-knit clan that will always have your back. With scripted shows, the fantasy carries a formulaic and artificial tang, which suits some viewers. But I prefer the messier (but still idealized) family of <i>Bake Off</i>, with all its challenges, weird werewolf barks, and corny, corny jokes. A family that protects you from being exploited or manipulated, even when the water you swim in is competition and strife? That speaks to me.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And Mel and Sue, with their naughty puns, with their sisterly partnership born all the way back in college, are a cornerstone of that. They are inviting viewers into their very real, almost familial relationship. No wonder they <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37355065?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central">explained</a> their decision to leave the show as "we're not going with the dough"—this is just a job, to be sure, but it's one with emotional weight.</p>
<p><span>In her memoir, Sue tried to put into words the fundamentally inexpressible affinity she and Mel share: "Sometimes when we're drunk we'll try and articulate all that stuff—the awkward stuff that sits at the margins of love and friendship," she writes. "But mainly we leave it alone, leave it all unsaid and carry on regardless in a thoroughly British fashion. What I do know is that this kinship will always remain. It is constant. It is a love that cannot be weathered, not by time, not by circumstance."</span></p>
<p class="end">It's also a love we, the <i>Bake Off</i> audience, temporarily got to feel part of, a kinship that expanded to cover twelve flustered amateurs and a patrician but motherly cookery writer and an exacting paternal baker and a viewing audience of millions. A love that anchored one of television's warmest families. A family that will never be the same again.</p>
<p class="credit"><a href="https://twitter.com/j_zimms">Jess Zimmerman</a> is a writer and editor who lives with a dog and a human in Brooklyn. She has written for Hazlitt, the New Republic, the Guardian, the Hairpin, Catapult, and others, and identifies as Chaotic Good.</p>
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<h2>More Great British Bake Off</h2>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">Mel and Sue Leave the Great British Baking Show: What Does It All Mean?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927862/great-british-bake-off-mary-paul-leaving-jamie-oliver">Tracking Great British Bake Off Rumors: Mary and Paul Out, Jamie Oliver In?</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/11/12/9709350/highly-recommended-the-great-british-bake-off">Highly Recommended: The Great British Bake Off</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/7/2/12071722/great-british-bake-off-baking-show-premiere-recap">‘Great British Baking Show’ Premiere Recap: We’re Not on ‘Top Chef’ Anymore</a> </li>
<li> <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/8/12/12439448/great-british-baking-show-bake-off-quiz">The ‘Great British Baking Show’ Great British Vocabulary Quiz</a> </li>
</ul>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/16/12935000/mel-sue-leaving-great-british-bake-offJess Zimmerman2016-09-15T11:01:36-04:002016-09-15T11:01:36-04:00Tracking Great British Bake Off Rumors: Mary and Paul Out, Jamie Oliver In?
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<p>The future of the beloved show is uncertain</p> <p id="hx302b">As if Brexit wasn’t bad enough, the UK is now suffering through a major shakeup of one of its <a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/11/12/9709350/highly-recommended-the-great-british-bake-off">most cherished television shows</a>. </p>
<p id="6cd7Zh">Following this week’s news that the <em>Great British Bake Off</em> will abandon the BBC next season for Channel 4 in pursuit of a bigger payday, things quickly began to fall apart: Yesterday, co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, who have been with <em>GBBO </em>since the beginning, announced <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">they won’t be following the show to its new home</a>.</p>
<p id="Fsuqsm">Now, the gossip mill is churning fast and furious as fans try to cope: <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1778911/great-british-bake-off-line-up-crumbles-again-as-we-reveal-that-mary-berry-and-paul-hollywood-may-not-return-to-the-tent-and-viewers-may-not-see-the-hit-show-next-year/">According to </a><em><a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1778911/great-british-bake-off-line-up-crumbles-again-as-we-reveal-that-mary-berry-and-paul-hollywood-may-not-return-to-the-tent-and-viewers-may-not-see-the-hit-show-next-year/">The Sun</a></em>, judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood may also be exiting stage left. The paper says Berry and Hollywood credit much of the show’s success to Mel and Sue and could be “on the verge of quitting the show” following the co-hosts’ exit.</p>
<p id="sGHbOc">Adding insult to injury, TV chef and <a href="http://www.eater.com/2014/12/29/7460265/jamie-oliver-the-hobbit">sometimes-Hobbit</a> Jamie Oliver has stepped up to say he’d love to be a judge on the new <em>GBBO</em>. <a href="http://www.celebsnow.co.uk/celebrity-news/jamie-oliver-reveals-now-id-love-new-great-british-bake-off-judge-560274">He tells celebrity gossip mag </a><em><a href="http://www.celebsnow.co.uk/celebrity-news/jamie-oliver-reveals-now-id-love-new-great-british-bake-off-judge-560274">Now</a></em> he was previously asked to be a judge on the U.S. version (which ran for just one season) and regrettably had to turn down the opportunity. Please, no.</p>
<p id="YCvKLg">• <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1778911/great-british-bake-off-line-up-crumbles-again-as-we-reveal-that-mary-berry-and-paul-hollywood-may-not-return-to-the-tent-and-viewers-may-not-see-the-hit-show-next-year/">Is This the End of Bake Off?</a> [The Sun]<br>• <a href="http://www.celebsnow.co.uk/celebrity-news/jamie-oliver-reveals-now-id-love-new-great-british-bake-off-judge-560274">Jamie Oliver: ‘I’d Love to Be the New Great British Bake Off Judge!’</a> [Now]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leaving">Mel and Sue Leave the Great British Bake Off: What Does It All Mean?</a> [E]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/15/12927862/great-british-bake-off-mary-paul-leaving-jamie-oliverWhitney Filloon2016-09-13T13:09:30-04:002016-09-13T13:09:30-04:00Mel and Sue Leave the Great British Baking Show: What Does It All Mean?
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<p>Fans are reeling as the beloved show prepares to switch networks</p> <p id="9a0Csq">Beloved UK television series <em>The Great British Bake Off</em> has met a grim fate: After seven seasons, the reality competition show chronicling the trials and tribulations of amateur bakers is on the verge of falling apart. </p>
<p id="FAyPfT">The BBC, which has aired the <em>GBBO</em> since it premiered in 2010, has <a href="http://site.people.com/food/">lost broadcast rights to the show</a>; going forward it will be shown on Channel 4, which <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37349837">reportedly outbid the BBC</a> by offering the show’s production company £10 million more per year. (Channel 4 is known for airing somewhat more salacious reality series, such as the original <em>Big Brother.)</em></p>
<p id="28McES">What exactly a shift to a new network could mean for the show was not immediately clear, but the fallout was swift: On the heels of the Channel 4 news came the announcement that co-hosts Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37355065?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central">would not be following the show</a> to its new home.</p>
<p id="jpytN7">Giedroyc and Perkins — or Mel and Sue, as viewers know them — have hosted the series since it began, alongside judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. Besides providing witty banter, Mel and Sue also serve as compassionate and genuinely sweet support beams for the contestants, in comparison to the judges who can be vicious.</p>
<p id="g8hjlh">Mel and Sue said in a joint statement, “We were very shocked and saddened to learn yesterday evening that Bake Off will be moving from its home. We made no secret of our desire for the show to remain where it was.”</p>
<p id="1T5lXk">Now, <em>GBBO </em>fans are left to wonder what will become of the show once all the dust settles:</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">WHAT THE FUCK IS THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF WITHOUT MEL AND SUE</p>— FiveNightsAtSoo's (@TheGhostOfNini) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheGhostOfNini/status/775735046229614596">September 13, 2016</a>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Glad I'm leaving the UK soon. I imagine the fallout from this will be worse than Brexit.<a href="https://t.co/TcZafI3RKN">https://t.co/TcZafI3RKN</a></p>— Katie O'Neill (@_Katie__ONeill) <a href="https://twitter.com/_Katie__ONeill/status/775734706767822848">September 13, 2016</a>
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<p id="MiQwhs">Some are worried that a shift to a new network will destroy what sets it apart from all those other reality shows: A Buzzfeed commenter <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/scottybryan/the-great-british-bake-off-likely-wont-air-on-the-bbc-after?utm_term=.pd89YkLG3#.ffAV1vkNX">wrote</a>, “I think the whole show is very twee, everyone is so nice to each other and that fits with the BBC. Channel 4 will probably make them go into a diary room and dish the dirt on each other or put some sort of jeopardy into it where they pit the contestants against each other.”</p>
<p id="nwMC15">As <em>GBBO</em> fans furiously Google to find out what will become of their show, here’s what you need to know in a nutshell:</p>
<p id="hwNnj0"><strong>Who owns the Great British Bake Off?</strong></p>
<p id="JCd9Aj">Not the BBC, as many fans are just now learning. The show’s creator, Love Productions, grants the broadcast rights to whoever it wishes — and starting next year, that’s Channel 4.</p>
<p id="pvPDVT"><strong>Why is GBBO moving?</strong></p>
<p id="IkbxCq">In a word, money. Channel 4 reportedly outbid the BBC for broadcasting rights by £10 million per year. A move to Channel 4 means commercial breaks, which means advertising dollars and bigger checks for the show’s creators (and presumably, its stars).</p>
<p id="Ok6QEp"><strong>Who will host the Bake Off?</strong></p>
<p id="c2HtZP">That much is currently unknown, but tragically it will not be Mel and Sue. We will update this post as that information becomes available.</p>
<p id="LsxpC1">• <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37355065?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central">Great British Bake Off: Mel and Sue to Quit as Hosts</a> [BBC]<br>• <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37344292">Great British Bake Off: BBC Loses Rights to Channel 4</a> [BBC]<br>• <a href="http://www.eater.com/2015/11/12/9709350/highly-recommended-the-great-british-bake-off">Highly Recommended: The Great British Bake Off</a> [E]</p>
https://www.eater.com/2016/9/13/12903170/great-british-baking-show-channel-4-mel-sue-leavingWhitney Filloon2015-11-12T12:11:25-05:002015-11-12T12:11:25-05:00Highly Recommended: The Great British Bake Off
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<p>It's a bake off, and it's great, but most of all, it's very, very British</p> <p>I first started watching the Great British Bake Off because of my friend Catriona's accent. Catriona is from Northern Ireland by way of Glasgow, so everything she says sounds charming; as it happens, pretty much everything she says <em>is</em> charming, but it would sound that way even if it weren't. When I met up with her and some other American friends in London a few years ago, she suggested that if we really wanted a taste of the local culture we needed to tune into a reality show about the UK's best amateur baker. </p>
<p>"Last week was cake week, and the entire country went mental," she told us. "We were fixated on the screen like" — and here you'll need to imagine an adorable Irish woman leaning forward and making a comically wide-eyed face — "<em>will the chocolate shavings adhere?!</em>"</p>
<p>If you imagine the face and the accent well enough, you'll understand why that pitch was impossible to ignore. In the spirit of experimentation, we parked our jetlagged butts in front of a rerun of <em>Great British Bake Off</em> that very day. (It was season 4, featuring the luminous Ruby Tandoh and Kimberley Wilson with her thousand-watt smile — an excellent introduction, especially if you're on a ladies' vacation and feeling inclined to think warm thoughts about dazzling women.) By the end of the trip, we were feverishly rushing to Marks & Spencer to get a small Victoria sponge before the newest episode came on.</p>
<p> </p>
<div class="float-right hang-right"><q>Never has watching people crouch down to peer into ovens felt so fraught.</q></div>
<p>The basic idea of the show is this: twelve amateur bakers from all around Britain meet once a week in a tent on the grounds of a mansion. In the first season, the tent traveled around Britain, but in subsequent seasons it's stayed put. Within the tent, each weekend, three challenges occur.</p>
<p>The first is a "signature challenge," the contestants' personal variation on a specific kind of baked good — tarts, say, or biscotti — which they've been able to practice at home for the previous week. The next is a blind-judged technical challenge, in which the bakers must navigate an unfamiliar and often devilishly vague recipe. And the third is a "showstopper," which is similar in form to the signature (including the fact that they get to practice), but it has to look and taste especially impressive. Each week, one person is named Star Baker, and one person goes home. At the end of the season, a winner is chosen and awarded the massive prize of ... an engraved cake stand. That's it. There's no money at stake here, and no lifetime supplies of anything — except admiration.</p>
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<p><em>The</em> <em>Great British Bake Off</em> is a bake-off, and it is great, but most of all, it is very, very British. It's British in the sense that, as Catriona explained, it has stolen the UK's collective heart; even my friend Tim, a gruff (if delightful) Marxist from Bristol, softens and grins like a baby when someone mentions the show. It's British in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBOX1JBcjQ">bawdy-1970s-hospital</a> humor of its hosts, Mel Giedroyc and the flawlessly charming Sue Perkins, and in the perfect poise of judge Mary Berry, whose brightly colored jackets are only a notch less formal than the Queen's.</p>
<p>But it's also very British in its to-a-fault politeness and decorum, leavened with nothing more than a few "soggy bottom" puns. Unlike an American reality competition, <em>Bake Off </em>takes place on the weekends, with contestants going home to their families during the week. Absent are the wrenching theatricals of the coveted phone call home; absent are the entertaining blunders engendered by contestants' exhaustion, loneliness, and cabin fever. The competition is tough, but it is not sadistic. And — perhaps most novel, to a U.S. viewer — the bakers often help, support, and often seem to genuinely like their compatriots. The way they talk about each other rarely rises to the level of mild opprobrium, let alone American-style shit-talking. Nobody gangs up. Nobody forms alliances, or breaks them. Nobody backstabs. Nobody even visibly rolls their eyes when some tall poppy wins Star Baker five fucking times.</p>
<p>This is not to say that <em>Bake Off</em> isn't exciting. It's riveting, actually. You're likely to wind up on the edge of your seat, wondering if those dang chocolate shavings will adhere or not. The question of whether the chocolate shavings are going to adhere becomes <em>crucial; </em>when I've watched <em>Bake Off </em>with friends, we've frequently howled in distress when someone's crème patissiere curdled or their mousse didn't set. Never has watching people crouch down to peer into ovens felt so fraught. It will be tempting to lay into baked goods for your <em>Bake Off</em> watching, because the show will make you fiend desperately for buttercream, but I can't recommend it. There's too much potential to wind up stress-shoveling cake into your mouth, eyes glued to the screen, waiting to see what happens when the springform pan un-springs.</p>
<div class="float-right hang-right"><p><q>You're likely to wind up on the edge of your seat, wondering if those dang chocolate shavings will adhere or not.</q></p></div>
<p>The real brilliance of the show, though, is the way it balances that nail-biting tension with an ability to make you feel that there is good in the world after all. It can be easy to overdose on the pettiness and lack of empathy humans display towards each other. (If you're a big social media user, it's nearly impossible not to.) But <em>Bake Off </em>cuts through that cloying despair like sharp citrus cutting through the sugar in lemon curd.</p>
<p>Outside the tent, the <em>Daily Mail</em> might <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/04/daily-mail-columnist-amanda-platell-chocolate-mosque_n_8239810.html">complain</a> that the season six finalists represent a "Muslim mum," a "gay doctor," and a "New Man," and make nasty jabs about "chocolate mosques." But inside the tent, Muslim mums, gay doctors, and New Men (whatever they are) support, hug, celebrate, joke around with, and root for each other. Though the contestants skew white, like Britain's population, it's a more diverse crowd than you usually see on TV in terms of ethnicity, gender, country of origin, age, and class; in fact, the main common thread, besides baking, seems to be that the contestants are overwhelmingly good-natured, funny, endearing, and well-disposed towards their fellow bakers.</p>
<p><em>Bake Off </em>is a competition, but it's also a messy ad hoc family, and seeing people react to stress by drawing closer instead of attacking each other is a balm. They love each other, and that's soothing to see, and you love them all too, and that's soothing to feel. While a sticky film of annoyance occasionally adheres to one or two contestants (season five's Jordan is a popular target of ire), for the most part, you celebrate every win and mourn, but totally understand, every loss. Evaluating the three finalists of season six, which wrapped up last month, I realized that no matter the winner, my only possible responses were "fine," "happy," and "ecstatic." (I was, in the end, ecstatic.)</p>
<div class="float-left hang-left"><p><q>The show balances nail-biting tension with an ability to make you feel that there is good in the world after all. </q></p></div>
<p>The judges maintain this heady mixture of kindliness and drama. Mary Berry is your ideal grandma, elegant and gentle, expecting great things but loving you unconditionally if you fail. She wants nothing more than to tell you something is "scrummy," or if it is not she wants only to help you improve. Co-judge Paul Hollywood is more intimidating; his favorite trick is to fix a baker with his icy blue eyes for a silent beat after the bake is presented, as if waiting for an apology. (Even this, by far the cruelest move on the show, is usually a fake-out. Unless the bake is an obvious disaster, the Hollywood terror-gaze is usually a prelude to a grinning <em>I love it.</em>)</p>
<p>Of course, even with all this positivity, the tent is not a utopia. There have been three major scandals in the six seasons so far. In season four, Deborah accidentally stole Howard's custard and put it in her trifle. In season five, currently available on Netflix as "The Great British Baking Show," Diana moved Iain's ice cream out of the freezer and it melted, whereupon a frustrated Iain threw his entire baked Alaska in the trash. And in season two, the finale featured a brief shot of a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2011/oct/05/great-british-bake-off-squirrel">squirrel with enormous testicles</a>.</p>
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<p>But even dramatic moments like Custardgate and Bingate (as fans refer to them, in semi-seriousness) are handled in a polite, respectful, eminently British way. When she realized her custard error, a distressed Deborah ran around fetching things for Howard, trying to make the blunder right. In a later <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516589&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fculture%2Ftvandradio%2F10286872%2FThe-Great-British-Bake-Off-Howard-My-custard-trauma.html&referrer=eater.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eater.com%2F2015%2F11%2F12%2F9709350%2Fhighly-recommended-the-great-british-bake-off" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">interview</a> about his "custard trauma," Howard said, "Watching it, I just felt so sorry for Deborah all over again. She was mortified." The judges gamely analyzed the custard quality separate from the dessert as a whole; the chyron read "Deborah's trifle with Howard's custard."</p>
<p>Bingate, which was partly an error of decorum, was a bit more far-reaching in its effects; at the end of the episode, an abashed Iain acknowledged that he probably let frustration get the better of him, but afterwards he couldn't quite let go of the assertion that it was mainly Diana's fault. Fans were irate, and tweets got heated enough to melt a baked Alaska. Still, Sue Perkins' <a href="https://twitter.com/sueperkins/status/504727459741581313">analysis</a> on Twitter — "This is a show about CAKES. Please, let's save the ire for the real stuff" — pretty much won the day. Even Iain finally <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/aug/28/great-british-bake-off-ian-watters-speaks-diana-beard">told the</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/aug/28/great-british-bake-off-ian-watters-speaks-diana-beard"><em>Guardian</em></a>, "In the end, it's only a reality show about baking."</p>
<p class="end">It is that, but it's also much more. It's an oasis of positivity, a triumph of excitement without anxiety, and the home of reality television's premiere small mammal scrotum. And it's a place for all of us — builders and homemakers, students and doctors, teens and retirees, of all genders and races and backgrounds, even New Men — to clasp each other's hands in anticipation, lean in towards the television screen, and ask with one voice, "<em>Will the chocolate shavings adhere?"</em></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.eater.com/tags/highly-recommended"><em>Highly Recommended</em></a><em> is Eater's periodic column of endorsement for things we and our contributors love, and that we think you might want to love, too. These are opinions; if you disagree with them, that's cool.</em></p>
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<p class="credit"><a href="http://www.twitter.com/j_zimms">Jess Zimmerman</a> is a writer, editor, and smartass who lives with a dog in Brooklyn. She has written for the Guardian, Hazlitt, the Hairpin, the Toast, Atlas Obscura, Aeon, and others, and identifies as Chaotic Good.<br> <a href="http://www.kitmalls.com/">Kit Mills</a> is an illustrator, designer, and graveyard enthusiast based in NYC</p>
https://www.eater.com/2015/11/12/9709350/highly-recommended-the-great-british-bake-offJess Zimmerman