'Great British Baking Show' Hosts Slammed Over Mexican Week: 'It's a Shame'

The notoriously wholesome Great British Baking Show is facing backlash regarding this week's Mexican-themed episode, which critics have slammed as both half-baked and culturally insensitive.

Amateur bakers compete against each other on the show—called the Great British Bake Off in the U.K.—and work to wow the series' judges, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. NPR noted that the "Mexican week" episode hasn't yet hit the States, but that the contestants were tasked with creating dishes like tacos, pan dulce and tres leches cake.

Some say the show went wrong pretty much from the jump: Hosts Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas opened the episode wearing serapes and sombreros.

"I don't feel like we should make Mexican jokes, because people will get upset," Fielding tells his co-host.

"What, not even Juan?" Lucas replies.

Snippets from the Mexican week episode have already started to circulate on social media. Some clips depict the hosts and competitors butchering the names of food items, such as enunciating the silent "L"s in "pico de gallo" and pronouncing guacamole "guac-E-molo."

At one point, Lucas starts to shake maracas as participants attempt to concentrate.

This isn't the first time that the show has generated controversy over its representation of "ethnic" foods. For "Japanese week" in 2020, it introduced a Chinese baking challenge, and Jewish viewers are repeatedly let down over the hosts' handling of Jewish baked goods.

Cultural appropriation means to borrow or steal from another culture, usually from a marginalized group, and not give them credit, said Mia Moody-Ramirez, professor and chair of Baylor University's Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media. The "Mexican week" episode is the "textbook definition" of that term, especially since its creators are profiting off the episode.

"It's a shame that something like this happened in 2022 because we think that people are becoming more educated about cultural appropriation," she told Newsweek. "And you would think that people would know that this is not right."

The Baking Show didn't do enough research for this week's episode, either, Moody-Ramirez said. Some viewers noted that tacos aren't baked; they're fried.

The episode also leaned heavily into damaging stereotypes that could make people from Mexican, Hispanic or Latino culture feel bad, she added.

"Also, it's the idea of: People are able to dress up like this, and then when the show is over, they're able to take off those sombreros and serapes and go on about their everyday lives," said Moody-Ramirez, who holds a doctorate in journalism. "Versus people who are actually from those groups, they're always going to be a part of that race or ethnicity."

Moody-Ramirez said it's nice that the show is recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month, which lasts from September 15 to October 15. But, she added, "it needs to be done in a positive manner. It's not a good thing when you acknowledge it but then you appropriate the culture, because then it becomes a huge joke."

When the cuisine of misrepresented and underrepresented communities is reduced to a caricature, it works to undermine those groups' cultural identity, Susan Scafidi, founder and director of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham, wrote to Newsweek. It also hinders community members from being able to profit from their authentic cuisine.

When done right, cooking different cultures' food can be enjoyable and educational, she said. But to natives, it may also become the "bland commercialized equivalent of Taco Bell, Olive Garden or Panda Express at the food court in the mall."

There were better ways to address this topic on the show, she said. A Mexican guest judge could have been brought on to talk about authentic cuisine, for instance.

Creators also could have "cut back on its resident comedians' use of cultural artifacts as props," Scafidi continued. "Instead, the episode left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans."

Newsweek has reached out to the Great British Bake Off, Leith and representatives for Hollywood, Fielding and Lucas for comment.