‘Great British Bake Off’ Has Zero Jewish Friends
Mary Berry, former judge of the Great British Bake Off
The Great British Bake Off is a great love of mine. From the mythology of the show (rumor has it Sue protects bakers from crying on camera by stepping in front of them and cursing) to the gentle pastel-y set that melts into the frontal cortex like a Xanax, GBBO is a soothing antidote to the American cooking-as-competition ethos that assails our TV sets.
Yet when early episodes of GBBO made their way to Netflix US recently, it turned out that not a single participant in Season 1’s Episode 2 had heard of challah bread.
Watching an old GBBO episode where the technical challenge is clearly challah, but everyone is calling it “plaited bread,” and Paul Hollywood says braiding breads “a skill which is dying off.”
Is it possible no one on this show has even one Jewish friend pic.twitter.com/UkD7g7l2ZR
— Dara Very Rude Elevator Screamers Kaye (@DaraKaye) November 12, 2018
Paul Hollywood called it a skill “that is dying off.” Mary Berry declared it “a great thing to make for a sort of festive occasion.”
Now, there are many types of plaited bread, but challah might be the only type that isn’t dying off. Just about any bakery in the modern world is capable of managing your standard challah recipe.
Since the Middle Ages, Jews have been making challah on the weekly. Whole Foods has shelves full of challah. On Amazon, searching challah brings up a thousand results, from challah-themed shirts, cookbook and gluten-free options. It’s been some time since the original episode aired in 2010. Hopefully Paul Hollywood, Mary Berry and their cohorts have made some Jewish friends since then.
Shira Feder is a writer. She’s at [email protected] and @shirafeder
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Fast Forward Citing post-Holocaust doctrine, Germany seeks to deport 4 pro-Palestinian protesters, including one American
-
Fast Forward Trump administration freezes research funding to Princeton amid antisemitism investigations
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.