The latest episode of Great British Baking Show, which aired on Tuesday in the UK and today (Friday) in the US, was focused on a Japanese theme.
There were three challenges for Japanese week – creating a batch of eight steamed buns (also known as nikuman), followed by making mille crepe cake for the technical challenge and Kawaii-inspired cakes for the showstopper.
This episode has been subject to criticism due to being culturally insensitive. One point raised is that nikuman are local to China, and some bakers used Chinese ingredients for the buns.
Fans were outraged when they saw Matt Lucas refer to Dave’s chicken katsu curry as ‘cat poo curry’, and Hermine making her buns look like pandas (also local to China).
Elsewhere, Noel described Peter’s bun filling as Chinese stir fry, so it’s pretty clear many of the bakers – and the hosts – were in the wrong location for this week’s show.
New episodes of the Great British Baking Show in the US drop on Netflix every Friday.
