‘The Great British Baking Show’ Throws a “Free-From” Party

I appreciate the impulse behind The Great British Baking Show’s decision to dedicate a week to people with debilitating food allergies. While that sort of specialized need is, nowadays, something Food Network shows routinely acknowledge, it was extremely rare for cooking competitions – especially those with non-professional participants – to do so two decades ago when the series originally debuted. It helped set Baking Show apart, feeding into its “kinder, gentler” reputation when the first “Alternative Ingredients Weeks” aired in Seasons 4 and 6.

(It also helped that the American out-of-order airing brought the two seasons the BBC included Alternative Ingredients as a theme back-to-back – Season 4 aired as Season 2 on PBS and Season 6 followed as Season 3.)

That being said, every time this theme week comes up, I feel slightly ill. Paul Hollywood clearly hates this theme; he does it because he knows he’s supposed to, but his dislike colored the vibe of the tent last time the production included it, so they shelved it for a while. You can also see it in the show renaming the challenge – sometimes it’s “Vegan Week” (Season 9) and sometimes (like this year) it’s the more generalized “Free-From Week,” which means the show adds gluten-free to the plant-based/dairy-free lineup inherent in Vegan Week.

However, it is a new era, and Nigella Lawson is here. She takes food allergies – especially in children – with grave seriousness, and the challenges within this year’s theme reflect that perspective in a way we haven’t seen the show do before. Last time we had “Free-From,” the Signature was dairy-free, the Technical vegan, and the Showstopper gluten-free; this time, the challenges come at the theme from a much more sensible “you have to bake for a mess of (smol) people, some of whom have allergies” angle.