You might remember the craze that was Great British Bakeoff in its heyday. There was discussion around the water cooler at work about each episode, parodies at SNL, and several spinoff series. While I personally feel that the hype has died down somewhat over the years as it’s been going for over 10 years.
While watching the most recent season, I noticed something interesting. There were three finalists and they were all incredible bakers in their own right. Great British Bakeoff (now abbreviated as GBB) prides itself on having amateur bakers as contestants. Forgive me earlier winners, but I don’t remember the bakers in earlier seasons being as good. The difference between the finalists of the season 1 (2010) and the season 12 (2021) are stark in terms of quality and presentation. I’ll have to take the judges word for it that they taste good as well.
I think it is not too far of a stretch to say that the contestants of twelfth season are able to produce much better looking results than the first season.
Is this because the show has become more popular and more people apply?
Or is it because the show has become such a cultural icon that more people are baking and it has raised the quality of the average baker in Britain?
It could be a combination of both or some other factor. It’s interesting to think of a thing becoming so popular that it affects itself.