Baking, it’s typically mentioned, is like chemistry. You collect the mandatory substances, you measure, you mix them on the appropriate occasions. In idea, a recipe must be endlessly replicable, producing constant and satisfying outcomes. However anybody who has donned an apron and dusted a piece floor is aware of that intently following a recipe can solely take you up to now. Within the transmutation of liquid and granules into golden-brown delights, there’s additionally a component of magic.
Within the occasion of The Nice British Bake Off—the low-stakes actuality tv competitors to seek out the UK’s “greatest beginner baker”—the recipe is straightforward but satisfying. Over the course of a number of weeks, an array of charming, common folks compete in challenges that check their abilities in numerous elements of baking, from easy loaves of bread to busts of celebrities fabricated from cake. Every episode is split into three elements. There’s a “signature bake,” the place the opponents are anticipated to carry aptitude and character to a fundamental baking task; the “technical problem,” the place the bakers should depend on their abilities to comply with a recipe with minimal directions; and the “showstopper,” the ultimate and most spectacular problem of the present, the place the bakers typically assemble elaborate edible buildings (which, in flip, typically collapse, with thrilling outcomes). The winner of every episode is topped “Star Baker”; the loser should go away, till solely the finalists are left. The last word prize? A title, a cake stand, and a bouquet of flowers.
For the reason that present first aired in 2010, it has not solely turn out to be one of many UK’s most watched sequence—attracting, at its top, 14 million viewers—but in addition impressed a sort of mania amongst its many followers. The occasions of every episode are usually dissected within the British press; one incident involving a baked Alaska that was unnoticed on the counter turned a nationwide scandal. There’s even a Nice British Bake Off musical. Whereas this stage of ardour for a actuality TV present about baking could appear absurd—and it’s—many Britons really feel that the present’s humour, gentleness, and the opponents’ power within the face of culinary adversity mirror the very best elements of the nationwide character. However, regardless of the inherent Britishness of all of it, the present has been a worldwide success, and its format has been exported far and extensive. Kenya has The Nice Kenyan Bake Off, France has Le Meilleur Patissier . . . and we’ve got The Nice Canadian Baking Present, which returned to the CBC this fall for a sixth season, slapping flabbily onto the display like a pile of moist dough.
The Nice Canadian Baking Present is among the broadcaster’s most beloved choices; its 2016 debut garnered greater than one million viewers every week, and the next seasons have been among the many most streamed exhibits on CBC Gem. Nevertheless, whereas it might have adopted the unique recipe, there was some level within the course of the place issues went mistaken. Like changing butter with margarine or sugar with stevia: the style is acquainted however the consequence feels synthetic and unsatisfying. As a baking present, it succeeds, delivering a certain quantity of consolation and smoothing the rumpled floor of our furrowed brains as a spatula spreads icing. However by affixing the adjectives “nice” and “Canadian” to it, it protests an excessive amount of—and in its makes an attempt to “Canadianize” the system with butter tarts and extreme kindness, it inadvertently exemplifies among the worst tendencies in Canadian tv and our nationwide character.
To perceive what makes the Canadian model so dangerous, one should first perceive what makes The Nice British Bake Off . . . nice. The primary ingredient is the contestants. Their range and likeability mirror a sort of aspirational imaginative and prescient of British society: that is what life could be like if everybody baked and have been good to at least one one other! Charming, humble contributors of all ages and walks of life are introduced collectively to compete, and in contrast to in lots of actuality TV exhibits, there aren’t any villains. Nick is a sixty-year-old bus driver from Wales who likes to carry muffins on his morning route! When he’s not busy gathering stamps or singing in his native choir, Rajit makes biscuits for his two daughters!
Some have argued that the present is the stage upon which trendy British identification is being created and contested: previous symbols and traditions (the gingham tablecloth, the village inexperienced) juxtaposed towards a various group of bakers who’re bringing their very own twists to traditional recipes. When Nadiya Hussain, who wears a hijab, received in 2015, it felt like a watershed second for inclusion; the previous season, which prominently featured two Europeans who dwell in Britain, appeared like a commentary on Brexit.
If the British present is a shiny mirror glaze that displays an idealized model of the nation again to itself, the Canadian model is an unfilled choux bun, hole and insubstantial. A part of this has to do with the truth that baking is just not as entwined with the founding myths of our nationwide identification. In accordance with a 2006 readers’ ballot carried out by the Nationwide Publish, Canada’s favorite dessert is the Nanaimo bar, a dish that was popularized solely within the Seventies and is ready with out baking in any respect. Early episodes of Bake Off dug into the historic origins of specific treats, tracing truffles again to early Celtic pagan festivities or pasties to the mines round Cornwall. Even with out the historical past classes, the bucolic village fete that gives the setting for the present—“England’s inexperienced and nice land”—is a robust signifier of identification and a significant venue through which to affirm and problem preconceptions of belonging.
In contrast, The Nice Canadian Baking Present is each abrasively “Canadian” and has nothing significant to say in regards to the nation. So as to differentiate itself from the British model, it typically reaches for kitsch. The primary season’s “Canada Week” was particularly egregious. When one of many hosts introduced the technical problem—maple cream sandwiched between two maple-leaf cookies—she declared that “the one factor extra Canadian than that’s if Céline Dion rode in on a moose ingesting a brewski!” However there’s, in truth, one factor extra Canadian than that, which the digicam instantly minimize to—a scathing well mannered chuckle. Whereas the contestants are typically likeable and numerous (though not geographically—50 p.c of the contestants have been from Ontario for the previous two seasons), many appear, just like the nation as a complete, as if the factor that unites them most strongly is the happenstance of being in the identical place. Moderately than exhibiting us what Canada is and what it may turn out to be, it reveals profound insecurities about what sticks us collectively moreover maple syrup.
The second ingredient to The Nice British Bake Off ’s success is its hosts: the 2 comedians—at present Noel Fielding and Matt Lucas—who distract, cajole, and infrequently consolation the contestants as they work. Fielding is among the creators of The Mighty Boosh, the anarchic TV present that includes characters akin to Outdated Gregg and Naboo the shaman, whereas Lucas is probably greatest identified for Little Britain, a sketch present that’s most likely too offensive to explain in right now’s political local weather. Earlier hosts have all been drawn from the identical fecund ecosystem of British tv: primarily sketch comedies and “panel exhibits,” the place comedians and celebrities take part in gladiatorial struggles of wit and appeal. The result’s a battle-hardened troupe of B-listers who’re all the time capable of suppose on their toes.
An uncharitable interpretation could be to say that the Canadian hosts are merely not as humorous. When the sequence first aired, Dan Levy—greatest identified for his main position within the CBC’s Schitt’s Creek—and Julia Chan—an actress on the International sequence Rookie Blue and on CTV’s Saving Hope—have been on the helm. They weren’t excellent, however that they had appeal. Two seasons later, the present employed two of the celebrities of the Baroness Von Sketch Present, the CBC’s profitable all-female comedy sequence (itself impressed by British exhibits akin to French and Saunders and Smack the Pony). Sadly, watching their painful awkwardness with the contestants, judges, and each other was extra harking back to one other British present: The Workplace. The Nice Canadian Baking Present is at present hosted by Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis, each alumni of the Second Metropolis comedy group in Toronto.
Whereas Pornel and Lewis are starting to develop into their roles, all of the hosts have struggled to seek out the steadiness between groan-inducing puns, hijinks, and real empathy for contestants that’s required to make the present work. Nevertheless, this may need extra to do with a scarcity of observe somewhat than a scarcity of expertise, since there are merely fewer alternatives to hone these kinds of abilities on Canadian tv. And when a celeb does display a sure stage of recognition and ability, as Dan Levy did, they transfer to the USA.
The ultimate ingredient is the judges. They’re those who decide who will keep and who will go, and they’re additionally avatars for the viewers, who sadly are unable to style any of the bakers’ creations. The Nice British Bake Off is judged by Prue Leith, a South African–born chef and TV presenter, and Paul Hollywood (his actual identify), a silverback gorilla of a person with piercing blue eyes and an abiding ardour for bread. Collectively, they kind a sort of Freudian parental duo; with Paul, one will get the sense that contestants are vying at the very least partially for the approval of a withholding father. Sometimes, when one thing actually impresses him, he delivers certainly one of his well-known “Hollywood handshakes” (it’s only a handshake however from Paul Hollywood). When this occurs, contestants steadily turn out to be overwhelmed and even cry. These moments of triumph are thanks solely to the troughs of harsh however often honest criticism the bakers obtain elsewhere within the present.
Sadly, the judges of The Nice Canadian Baking Present fall prey to yet one more weak spot within the nationwide character: they’re too good. Bruno Feldeisen, a French chef who sounds precisely such as you’d think about a French chef would, is supposed to be the fiery yang to the yin of Kyla Kennaley, the Canadian pastry professional with form eyes. Whereas Paul Hollywood stalks the tent like a blue-eyed hyena, on the lookout for weak spot, Bruno putters round like a middle-school trainer who’s afraid that the youngsters are making enjoyable of him. Paul is daddy; Bruno is, maybe, an affable uncle. Both manner, I’m not petrified of him.
Narratively, this deprives us of the stress within the judging, as many of the critiques—constructive and unfavorable—are delivered in the identical register. Firstly of the fifth season, Bruno claims that “if folks thought final yr we have been arduous on our judging, this yr, Kyla and I, we’re going to carry it up a notch.” Later within the episode, he’s served a cake that’s largely raw and says “the elements which are baked correctly are fairly good.” It additionally calls into query how dependable the judges are as stand-ins for the viewer. On many actuality TV competitions, it’s apparent who has executed properly or executed badly: the one that can’t sing sounded dangerous, the one that can’t dance fell over. However, with baking, a lot depends on style and texture, and the judges want to clarify to us how the contestant succeeded—or failed. Are these trustworthy critiques or are they merely Canadians being well mannered?
After all, maybe essentially the most Canadian factor of all is what I’m doing now—taking one thing fashionable that Canadians made and attempting to disparage it. In a 1950 essay, the Australian author and critic A. A. Phillips coined the time period “cultural cringe” to explain the reflexive behavior of colonial societies to check their very own artwork to that of the international locations that colonized them and inevitably discover it wanting. He decried the “dismaying circumstance . . . that in any nation, there must be an assumption that the home cultural product will probably be worse than the imported article.” One may argue that that’s what is going on right here: Why, precisely, is it mistaken to rejoice the success of The Nice Canadian Baking Present and bestow upon it its maple-leaved laurels?
Besides: that isn’t what’s occurring right here. The true cringe is just not to find the Canadian model wanting; it’s in making a “Canadian” model of a British present within the first place, significantly on a topic that has such restricted roots within the nationwide tradition. Later in his essay, Phillips says that there “isn’t any short-cut to the gradual processes of nationwide progress” and notes his nation’s progress “within the artwork of being unselfconsciously ourselves.” That progress is not possible to attain if, somewhat than creating unique programming, Canadian tv suppliers create by-product exhibits and put the phrase “Canada” on them together with a beaver and a few references to lumberjacks. It’s a nationwide identification primarily based on the narcissism of minor variations.
Finally, The Nice Canadian Baking Present is neither nice nor—in a significant sense—Canadian. We’d like extra exhibits that talk particularly to the histories and identities that make up our nation—exhibits that assist us develop and retain expertise in our cultural industries and exhibits that minimize by the “aw-shucks” character we’ve cultivated for ourselves. Till that occurs, we’re doomed to take part in a self-reinforcing cycle of hole jingoism and maple cookies, listening to the diminishing echoes of our founding myths. The Nice Canadian Baking Present ’s issues are additionally Canada’s issues: simply because it reaches for the shrinking variety of unproblematic nationwide symbols as a stand-in for one thing significant, so too does our nation. Whereas this stage of ardour a few actuality TV present could appear absurd (and it nonetheless is), I can’t assist however really feel there’s something lacking on the core of this program, and ourselves, that every one the butter tarts on the earth can not fill.
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