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Remember the controversy that followed The Great British Baking Show’s “Mexican Week” episode? Judge Prue Leith has finally addressed the backlash in an interview with The New Yorker and stated that they didn’t mean to inflict any harm.
The episode, which aired October 4, 2022, was the fourth in the thirteenth season and followed the contestants as they made Mexican-inspired bakes. But, rather than being a huge hit, it received criticism for including offensive stereotypes and cringe-worthy jokes – on top of wildly incorrect pronunciations of cultural food staples.
“There would have been absolutely no intention to offend. That’s not the spirit of the show,” said Leith, who judges the show alongside Paul Hollywood. She went on to describe the show as “absolutely extraordinary.”
The judge continued, “This is rather a cliché thing to say, but I do think that it [the show] is a force for good, most of the time. Everything we do in life is a bit stressful—we are always short of time, we’re short of money, there are all sorts of horrible things happening all over the world.”
Leith referred to The Great British Baking Show, which has run for thirteen seasons and currently airs on Channel Four before streaming the next day on Netflix, as a “safe space”.
She added, “…the worst thing that can happen is somebody will drop their bake. And everybody will be sympathetic! Nobody will cheer, nobody will say, ‘Oh, good, you’re out of the way, and now I’m going to win.’ There’s none of that nastiness that you sometimes get in competitions.”
The Great British Baking Show is currently streaming on Netflix.