Existential Lessons Learned While Watching 8 Hours of The Great British Bake Off
EntertainmentOver the past few days, I’ve participated in two watershed cultural moments. First, I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a theater with reclining seats. Second, I watched eight straight hours of The Great British Bake Off. Guess which one has affected me more?
The Great British Bake Off (known to American viewers as The Great British Baking Show) is a British cooking competition that’s entirely devoted to baked goods (breads, pies, cakes, pastry, etc.). Its fifth season is currently up on Netflix. You should watch it because it happens to be the most calming and genteel competitive reality show of all time.
You don’t so much watch The Great British Bake Off so much as you let The Great British Bake Off wash over you. Relax and you will be rewarded. You will learn that to understand true patience, you must first watch the delicate dough of a kouign amann—a flaky cake from Breton—rise the appropriate amount before putting them in the oven. And—again! again!—you must wait as they turn a beautiful golden brown. Hurry and they will be ruined. Hurry and you will never be Star Baker.
Can you know true angst having never witnessed the anguish of a melted Baked Alaska?