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The Great British Baking Show

Reality cooking competition shows can get a bit…manic.

You know, Ted Allen is gleefully forcing chefs to make meals with pigs feet and speculoos on Chopped, Alton Brown is making chefs bake cobbler using only the tools a traditional shoe cobbler would use on Cutthroat Kitchen, and Gordan Ramsay is shouting at people until they cry. It can all be a bit unappetizing after a while. It’s almost as though we’re tuning in for the cruelty rather than the cooking. There is however one brilliant cooking competition show that is anything but these dreadful things: The Great British Baking Show.

The Great British Baking Show (or The Great British Bake Off, as it’s known to Brits) was created in 2010 and since then has become a monster reality success in its native Britain. The tone is civil, cordial, and absolutely charming. Yet, it’s still jam-packed — no pun intended! — with fascinating characters and real emotional drama. Everything about this show is classy and comforting. It is, in short, the Downton Abbey of reality cooking competitions.

Unlike a lot of shows in its genre, The Great British Baking Show doesn’t take place in a frightfully intimidating chef’s kitchen. Rather, it all goes down in a beautiful tent, replete with state-of-the art and pastel-colored kitchen supplies, in the middle of a gorgeous English garden. The competing bakers vary in age, background, and levels of experience, but they all love the art of baking. The contestants aren’t just here to win, they’re here, to, uh, actually make friends. You’ll see that after a few episodes, everyone’s bonded. Instead of the usual cutthroat backstabbing that we see on reality television, the contestants root for each other and pitch in when things go wrong.

Which is why the show’s biggest scandal to date took place during last season’s Baked Alaska challenge. Sweet elderly contestant Diana briefly took Iain’s homemade ice cream out of one overstuffed freezer to make room for her own. Rather than rallying when he saw that his dessert was melting, a distraught Iain chucked his work “in the bin,” leading to his ultimate disqualification. This was what the British public called “Bin-gate” and it tore viewers apart and made national headlines. I’m serious.

Ultimately, most of these amateur bakers enter the competition for a chance to learn more about their craft. The series is hosted by comediennes Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins who have kind of a British version of the sweet, breezy chemistry of Playing House’s Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham. Judges Mary Berry (who is like a more culinary Martha Stewart in the UK) and Paul Hollywood are harsh, but polite. There’s an emphasis on classic technique over flashy challenges, which means that you, the viewer, in turn are getting a culinary lesson. Don’t get us wrong: there are some crazy challenges, but they involve stretching the competitors’ imaginations and baking skills rather than sadistically throwing them into the crucible.

Last season of the The Great British Bake Off aired on PBS last year as season 1 of The Great British Baking Show and is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. The latest season is still in production in the UK, but the first episode premiered on PBS last week. That means now is the perfect time to get hip to this unabashedly square show. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. It’s the sweetest thing you’ll stream all week — okay, that pun was intended.

[Watch Season 1 of The Great British Baking Show on Amazon Prime]
[Watch Season 2 of The Great British Baking Show on PBS]

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