10 Reasons The Great British Bake Off Is A Slice Of British Brilliance
3. The Controversy
The Great British Bake Off has had its fair share of controversy and scandal over the past 6 seasons, just search #BinGate to see the worst of season 5. This season we had a few smaller bouts of scandal – remember this is British style scandal, think putting the milk in your tea at the same time as the tea bag – but none of the scandal made it to the tent.
The first shock of the season came in the first episode, when the usual colourful KitchenAids were replaced by *shock* Kenwood Kmix mixers. Viewers grumbled a bit because we're British and we don't like change, but we soon forgot about them when they made literally no difference to the bakes at all.
When contestants apply for the Bake Off they must be amateurs; they must not have had professional training for 10 years. Two contestants fell foul of training rumours this year – Marie and Ian. Marie had attended professional training at top Parisienne cookery school Ecole Escoffier. This 'scandal' calmed down when we realised that her 'training' lasted for about a week in 1984.
Ian's quirky flavour combinations caused rumours to focus on him, there were suggestions that he may have had some additional support from a close friend who's head of catering at Trinity College Cambridge. A show spokesperson later confirmed he was in the clear.