On today's episode, Bobby Finger welcomes writer and podcast host Kara Brown (@KaraRBrown) to talk about the sweetest show in all the land: The Great British Baking Show (aka The Great British Bake Off in its homeland of the UK). During their chat, Bobby and Kara chat about some of their favorite contestants (hello Rahul!), why they started watching (hello relaxation!), the great Mary vs. Prue debate (hello tie!), and how they feel about the show's recent transition into a weekly experience on Netflix (hello anxiety!) Kara, an amateur chef, also gets quizzed on her baking knowledge. Six full seasons of The Great British Baking Show are new streaming on Netflix, and new episodes of the latest season premiere weekly!
On today's episode, Bobby Finger welcomes writer and podcast host Kara Brown (@KaraRBrown) to talk about the sweetest show in all the land: The Great British Baking Show (aka The Great British Bake Off in its homeland of the UK). During their chat, Bobby and Kara chat about some of their favorite contestants (hello Rahul!), why they started watching (hello relaxation!), the great Mary vs. Prue debate (hello tie!), and how they feel about the show's recent transition into a weekly experience on Netflix (hello anxiety!) Kara, an amateur chef, also gets quizzed on her baking knowledge.
Six full seasons of The Great British Baking Show are new streaming on Netflix, and new episodes of the latest season premiere weekly!
[Music]
Bobby: Welcome to I’m Obsessed With This, the Netflix podcast about the shows and films viewers can not get enough of. Sort of like how Great British Baking Show contestants can’t get enough of their proofing drawers. Is that okay? That’s fine. I’m your host Bobby Finger and today I am joined by writer and podcast host Kara Brown. Hello, Kara.
Kara: Hello.
Bobby: You’re in the room with me.
Kara: I’m here.
Bobby: The last two episodes I did were over the phone.
Kara: Oh, no, I’m looking right at you.
Bobby: This is like wild. And whenever we work together, we were not in the room.
Kara: We were never in the same room.
Bobby: We only shared a Slack room.
Kara: Yeah. I Slacked alone in Los Angeles on my couch, while all my friends and co-workers typed next to each other.
Bobby: Yeah, that’s basically the same, being in a Slack room is like hell.
Kara: Yeah. I found the pressure to like, for your Slack thing to remain active.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Because you know if you like walked—if I walked away to like make a sandwich and it would kind of go inactive.
Bobby: It was like you were chained to your desk.
Kara: Yeah, here’s a tip for anyone who is trained to Slack, if you download the app you can leave and it seems like you’re still working. Like you could go to like a doctor’s appointment.
Bobby: Oh, leave the phone.
Kara: Yeah, you could like go to a doctor’s appointment but just stay in Slack on your phone.
Bobby: The biggest tell is people on Slack who like, you can tell they’re on their phone because everything’s capitalized.
Kara: Is capitalized. I know, I would—
Bobby: And you’re like, “I know you’re at like the bodega, like you’re not at work.
Kara: I would be very—I would pay attention and go back and make sure things were in lower case.
Bobby: I’d lower—you got to lower case it. And also, a tell is like no one said anything for a while but then someone will be like, “LMAO.”
Kara: Right.
Bobby: And it’s like, “You’re not at work.”
Kara: Right.
Bobby: “You’re not there.”
Kara: You just caught up on the—like everything everyone else has been talking about.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative], it’s been two hours and you said LMAO.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: You have—we talk about our stupid beverages. I have an iced coffee, you have a—what is that brand?
Kara: I’ve never seen it, Saratoga.
Bobby: Saratoga, yeah. They had that at the coffee shop?
Kara: Sparkling water. No, it’s—I got this—
Bobby: Is it good.
Kara: Yeah, it’s good. L.A. has made me a La Croix asshole.
Bobby: Oh, okay, what—and you said no coconut?
Kara: No, coconut’s awful.
Bobby: I kind of like coconut.
Kara: Do you like coconut?
Bobby: That’s gross, it’s good.
Kara: It’s just the crispness of a sparkling water with sort of the milkiness of coconut really doesn’t work for me.
Bobby: Like you need like a vita-coco.
Kara: Yeah, I need—and I need a refreshing fruit.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Like a passionfruit or a lemon or like the peach mango I like.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Like a refreshing fruit to go along with my refreshing sparkling water.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. And this is sort of on brand. Like we’re talking about Great British today.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: Because that’s what you chose.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: You’re a fan of it.
Kara: Big fan.
Bobby: But you’re also a chef, you’re Fancy Pasta Bitch. What happened to Fancy Pasta Bitch?
Kara: It’s still there. I was traveling a lot this year and so, I both would come back from a trip and not want to cook.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And then I was also trying to like—I was like, “Oh, I have to go be in a bathing suit. I can’t eat this pasta.” So, I kind of lapsed. But I have a post that I did a few weeks ago.
Bobby: What did you make?
Kara: What did I make? I think I made—oh, I made pesto with a Mafaldine pasta. And then I added—
Bobby: What’s that one?
Kara: It’s sort of like squiggly on the side, it sort of looks like fettucine but it’s like the sides are kind of squiggly.
Bobby: Yeah, okay, okay, okay.
Kara: And then, I just like dumped some burrata on top, which I do a lot.
Bobby: Just dump burrata on anything.
Kara: On anything, yeah.
Bobby: On a salad, on pasta, on a sandwich, pizza.
Kara: On a flatbread, pizza, yeah.
Bobby: Flatbreads seem like very L.A. to me. Like there’s something about like flatbread. Is it like fewer—it seems like healthier pizza?
Kara: It’s probably not healthier but you think it’s healthier.
Bobby: You think it is?
Kara: And you can—I think it’s easier to split because, you know, they’ll make it in like a rectangle.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. You just cut them.
Kara: So, we’d be like, “Oh, Bobby, let’s just like split a flatbread.” And so, we’re eating less than we would if it were a pizza.
Bobby: A burrata, arugula flatbread.
Kara: I hate arugula but yes.
Bobby: Okay.
Kara: I know.
Bobby: Well, not that one.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Do you bake?
Kara: You know, I baked sometimes.
Bobby: Okay.
Kara: Sometimes the mood will strike me.
Bobby: Okay.
Kara: I actually baked our friend Amina a cake this year.
Bobby: Oh, what kind of cake?
Kara: I made—it was a brown butter like vanilla situation.
Bobby: Was it a layer cake or just one cake?
Kara: It was a layer cake. And it—everyone said it was good.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And then everyone was like, “Oh, you’re like a baker.” And I’m like, “Guys, no. I just can follow a recipe.”
Bobby: Yeah. That’s kind of where I stand.
Kara: Yeah. Baking requires a lot of patience—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … and very little improve.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Like you can’t say like—when I make pasta, I’ll just add extra butter and you’re like, “This will be fine.”
Bobby: “This’ll be good.”
Kara: You can’t add extra butter to baking.
Bobby: No.
Kara: I’ve learned a lot. I mean, I haven’t actually put it into practice but I’ve learned a lot watching the show. Because, you know, there was a—actually, in the new season there was guy who was like, “I’m going to add some extra fruit to my cake.”
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And he was like, “It’ll be fine.” And it completely ruined his cake.
Bobby: That’s always bad. That’s the one thing I know you can’t do because it’s—there’s all the extra liquid.
Kara: There’s the liquid, yeah.
Bobby: When did you start watching it?
Kara: I started a few years ago. So, they did an awful American version.
Bobby: Terrible.
Kara: That was really bad.
Bobby: Paul Hollywood was still in it.
Kara: I think he was still in it.
Bobby: And then it was like Nia Vardalos.
Kara: It was weird and they did—I think they started with like a holiday themed one.
Bobby: It was like The Great Holiday Baking Show.
Kara: Yes, yes. It was not good. And so, I—but I did watch a few.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I was into the format and I think someone was like, “Oh, there’s a better way.” And then I started watching the original version.
Bobby: Oh, yeah. I watched them so quickly, I was trying to realize which ones I had watched yesterday or this morning. And I was like, “Have I caught up on them?” Because whenever I saw that the new season dropped, I was like—
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: … “Oh, God, I have to watch ten episodes.”
Kara: Right.
Bobby: But it’s weekly.
Kara: It is weekly.
Bobby: Which I kind of love.
Kara: I was mad at first but I will—I was mad at first but I do like—well, one, I think it was last season or this season before Prue like ruined the winner.
Bobby: Prue ruined it, yeah.
Kara: So, I don’t want it ruined so if this prevents that.
Bobby: It’s going to prevent that mostly. I think it’s like the day—like it’s easier to avoid.
Kara: Yes, yes.
Bobby: I looked—I was like looking through, you know how it has the red line under everything you’ve watched?
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And I was like, “Oh, I’ve watched all of them.”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: I was like, “I completely forgot that I’ve watched all of these.”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And I think the last two, it was a treat for me because it was like the—what was his name? Rahul series episode and Nadiya or Sophie?
Kara: Nadiya, oh, Nadiya? I love Nadiya.
Bobby: I watched them both back to back because they were two that I had missed.
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: And it was like, I watched them both in like three days.
Kara: Those are two of my favorites. Nadiya’s may be my favorite. Actually, contestant Liam was probably my favorite contestant.
Bobby: Liam, yeah.
Kara: He made a stack of pancakes—
Bobby: Yep.
Kara: … shaped—like a cake shaped like a stack of pancakes.
Bobby: Yep.
Kara: And it was so good and I was like, “Liam is a genius.” He was like 20 years old when he was on the show.
Bobby: Did you see the one—the cake that what’s his name—I don’t know their names yet.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And it’s also, I don’t want to learn their names until we’re later on because they’re just going to go away.
Kara: There’s too many now.
Bobby: I feel like you’re wasting time learning names this early in the show.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: I’ll know by episode five. Oh, there’s the—oh, look at this cake, I’m so—like there it is again. Look at it.
Kara: I mean, genius. It looks so much like a stack of pancakes.
Bobby: It’s really incredible. Did you see the one where it had the egg that had the worm in it, from the new episode?
Kara: Oh, that was weird, that was weird.
Bobby: I was like, you’re a genius.
Kara: I know, I know. With like the dragon-y one, right?
Bobby: Yes, the dragon.
Kara: Yeah, he was really—that guy was good. You know, I can do it a little bit by what they look like because the guy who got eliminated, he looks to me like Jonah from BoJack Horseman.
Bobby: At first, I thought he looked like one of the guys from The Chainsmokers and then I realized I was wrong. But then I was like, “He still looks like a Chainsmoker to me.”
Kara: But he looks like—yeah.
Bobby: You could just say he’s the third Chainsmoker and I’d be like, “Okay.”
Kara: Because it was like the bun and the beard. He was the one who added—so, it was dried fruit.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: But he was like, “I’m going to add more fruit.” Which, like why?
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: I don’t know why that—
Bobby: You should know by now.
Kara: Yeah, also there’s probably enough fruit in the cake.
Bobby: And they get to practice. Like—
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: … they know the categories going into it.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And they plan their showstoppers, they just don’t know when they appear in the timeline.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: Like it might be the biscuit one will be episode one or episode five or whatever.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: It’s not really improv.
Kara: No, it would also be, I’ve realized, much too difficult—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … if they didn’t—
Bobby: You have to prepare.
Kara: … go in with like a game plan.
Bobby: Because it’s not like they’re chefs. Like the whole point is that they’re home bakers.
Kara: Right. And I—when I first started watching, I don’t think I realized that they got that practice.
Bobby: Me either, yeah.
Kara: And I was like, “Man, how do they remember how to make that, like—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … you know, weird looking cake—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … just off the top of their heads?” And then it was much more reasonable when I learned.
[Recording]: 1: Now, for your first ever signature challenge, the judges would like you to bake a fruit cake. It can be any size, any shape.
2: But it must contain a significant amount of dried fruit.
1: Significant.
2: Yeah, more than one currant, I think.
Bobby: So, when you started watching it, there were already several seasons to choose from?
Kara: Yeah. Like I think I watched Nadiya’s season. Like I had to wait for that one.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: So that was maybe like three seasons ago.
Bobby: She was really timid, right?
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: There was—I love when the quite people win.
Kara: Right. And my other favorite thing about Nadiya, which they do with all of the non-white contestants, they’ll be like, “Ah, the flavors.” Because she’ll add—
Bobby: “Oh, flavors.” Yeah.
Kara: Right, she’ll add like—
Bobby: Cardamom.
Kara: Exactly.
Bobby: The moment they cardamom they’re like—Mary Berry’s like, “Oh, my God.”
Kara: The flavor—or they’re all like curry.
Bobby: Ginger, curry.
Kara: And curry yeah.
Bobby: What?
Kara: And they’re like, “An explosion of flavor.” And I’m like, “Oh, they just don’t eat flavorful food.”
Bobby: Yeah. Or it’s like a fruit that’s like not really that common in England.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: They’re like, “What a mango?”
Kara: Exactly.
Bobby: “Are you out of your mind?”
Kara: The tropical flavors.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: They lose their minds. And she did a lot of that.
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
Kara: She was like, “I’m cooking with like my home flavors.”
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And they would lose their minds, and with Rahul.
Bobby: Yeah, oh my God. And Rahul was also the quietist person on the planet.
Kara: And thought he was terrible.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: One of the things that I like that they do with the show is, they reveal the back stories kind of slowly.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: So, the longer someone sticks around—I mean, which I guess makes sense.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: But they really peel back the layers.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: So, there was a guy, I think it was Rahul’s season and he kind of looked like a pirate. And he had been doing kind of okay. Like he kept sort of—he kept advancing by the skin of his teeth.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And then he lost and then at the end he was like, “Yeah, so my wife died suddenly like seven months ago, this week.”
Bobby: Oh, I remember that.
Kara: You remember him?
Bobby: Oh my God, yes.
Kara: And he was like, “You know, this bake—” He’s like, “It’s been so therapeutic, it’s been so nice to be with people—
Bobby: What was his name?
Kara: … and make friends.” And I was sobbing, sobbing.
Bobby: It’s so nice.
Kara: I couldn’t stop crying. And it was just such a nice reveal.
Bobby: Terry.
Kara: Terry and it was both very sad because you didn’t get the reveal until he was leaving.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: I kind of like that they didn’t exploit it during his time there.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: You know what I mean?
Bobby: It’s a very well-made show.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: And it always kind of impresses me every season.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: That it’s like, how is this still working? It’s like because they found the perfect formula.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: But why do you think it is that the American one didn’t work?
Kara: I think—well, one of the main reasons, I think, is we’re not good bakers. I was in London twice this year.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I had been—I was talking to this guy, like a run of the mill straight guy—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … and he was telling me how he like has a special lemon cake that he makes.
Bobby: Okay.
Kara: Which is just something that—he doesn’t like—he’s not an especially good cook, he doesn’t cook a lot but like he knows how to make this lemon cake.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I think culturally, they all do baking like that.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: So, I think just culturally it’s something that people there do more. Which here, we’re not really doing that.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. What’s your favorite baked good generally? Not baked by yourself.
Kara: Oh, yeah.
Bobby: If you went to like a bakery that had everything, what would it be?
Kara: I mean I love—I could eat like an entire chocolate cake. I could do croissant.
Bobby: A croissant, like a chocolate croissant.
Kara: I do like a chocolate croissant.
Bobby: Do you like a layer? Like a devil’s food cake or like a pound cake or like a—
Kara: I don’t really love pound cake. Like I love like a devil—
Bobby: That’s my favorite.
Kara: Oh, do you like pound cake?
Bobby: Yeah, that’s my favorite.
Kara: Because, do you add stuff to it?
Bobby: No, I just like how buttery it is.
Kara: You like it plain?
Bobby: Just like so buttery and dense and—
Kara: You know, good pound cake is great.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Mediocre pound cake—
Bobby: Is bad.
Kara: … is bad.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: So, you’ve got to get the good stuff.
Bobby: Yeah. But you like a frosted cake like a—
Kara: I love like a frosted cake. What else do I like? I love when they make those like buns. They make a lot of those biscuit-y things that I’ve never had—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … that look—that are very British.
Bobby: And they make a lot of rolls, they always make the rolls—
Kara: Oh, yeah, that I—
Bobby: … that I’ve never eaten before but I want them.
Kara: I’ve had like a Ho-Ho.
Bobby: The Little Debbie, like the Little Debbie—
Kara: Is that a roll? Or the little—yeah.
Bobby: I think it’s like a Little Debbie equivalent of like a classic British baked good.
Kara: Yes, yes.
Bobby: But it was like, “Oh no, but we’re just going to make them small and package them individually and then—”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: I’ve never—or like tea cakes they make a lot.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Which is, I’ve had them but it’s not a—we don’t eat that frequently.
Bobby: Does watching the show—it makes me want to bake.
Kara: It does.
Bobby: Every time I watch it, I’m like, “I need to bake.”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: But then I don’t. Like every once in a while, I’ll make a cake.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: But I also tell myself, like, oh, I’m like, “I have like a shitty New York oven, like it’s not calibrated, it’s not the right temperature, I don’t have a KitchenAid.”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Do you have a stand mixer?
Kara: I don’t.
Bobby: Have you wanted too?
Kara: I don’t.
Bobby: I feel like you need it.
Kara: You need that to do—because there have been things that I was like, “Oh, I want to go try to make that.”
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: And then you do kind of need the stand mixer.
Bobby: Because you need to be able to let it go and then do other things
Kara: And like add, pour things in while it’s mixing.
Bobby: Yeah, yes.
Kara: They love to do that. Here’s the other thing about baking, with cooking I can scale down a recipe.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Baking you kind of have to make the amount that they tell you.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: And so, I’m like, “What am I going to do with a cake? Like I live alone. Like what am I going to—I’m going to get diabetes.”
Bobby: You have to bring it to something; you have to bring it to people.
Kara: Yeah. And I don’t find myself in a situation often enough—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … where baked goods are requested of me.
Bobby: Yeah. I made it—the last time I made a cake was because I had people over.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And even then, there was half a cake left.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: And, I mean, we finished over the course of like a few days. But after it was done it was like I was kind of glad to be rid of it.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: Because every meal we were just having a slice of cake afterwards.
Kara: I think you need—like I remember Rahul worked in an office.
Bobby: He was like a scientist.
Kara: Yeah. But he was like, he brought his food there a lot.
Bobby: Oh, that’s right.
Kara: So, I think you need—like if I worked in more of a corporate environment and I was—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … bringing in treats all the time—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … I—or like it’s like The Office, you know? They’re like always eating cake on The Office, then I would maybe bake more.
Bobby: I understand that. Like because that’s sort of a joke on like a sitcom-y thing like that.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: And I really do understand the appeal—
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: … now that I think about it. It’s like—
Kara: Because people that’ll—they’ll eat it.
Bobby: Baking is a hobby but what do you do with it? You take it to work.
Kara: Yeah. And then, your co-workers, you know, look forward to it.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative], you make some friends.
Kara: Maybe they like you a little more.
Bobby: Oh, yeah. Because he was like, “I wanted to make friends.” That’s what it was.
Kara: Oh, my God, you’re right, when he had just moved from India.
Bobby: Because he had moved from India.
Kara: Oh, God, Rahul.
Bobby: He was literally like, “I need to make friends and I’m quiet and I’m like—I don’t like talking so, I’m going to make—” And it worked.
Kara: Oh, my God, you’re right. I want to give him a hug.
Bobby: That’s so nice.
Kara: Rahul, another thing I that I loved about the show was how nice they are to each other.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: Even though it’s a—
Bobby: They help out.
Kara: They help out even though it’s a competition.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I was like, “Oh, it’s because no one—they’re really doing it for the love of baking.”
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: No one’s doing it to like get rich—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … or really to get famous. And so, there’s something more pure about all of it.
Bobby: And it’s one of those reality shows where everyone’s good.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: You know? Where it’s like even if you lose you could still get something out of it.
Kara: Do you remember Ruby, like hot Ruby? She looks like a model. I feel like she was in college or university, whatever they call it there.
Bobby: Oh, there she is, yeah, hm-hmm [affirmative], hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: She’s beautiful.
Bobby: Yep.
Kara: And I—she didn’t win—
Bobby: The lipstick, yep.
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative], she didn’t win but she—
Bobby: She was like second place, right?
Kara: … she was like second or third runner up.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: But, she I think, parlayed that into something.
Bobby: Okay, well, good for her. So, you’ve watched all the seasons, you know where it all went, you know that originally it was Mary Berry—
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: … and you had Sue, Sue and Mel, “On your mark, get set, bake.”
Kara: “Bake.”
Bobby: “Bake.” And you had Mary Berry, like queen of England basically.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: Then they left. I remember being like, “I’m not going to watch this show anymore.”
Kara: Yep.
Bobby: And the moment I started the new season I was like, “I don’t care. I do not miss these people.” Because they are really great.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Like nothing against Sue and Mel and—like wasn’t Sue, didn’t she have like some horrible like brain tumor moment?
Kara: Oh, my God, I think—
Bobby: She had a brain tumor for like her whole life and then finally had it removed.
Kara: The blonde one or the—
Bobby: The brunette.
Kara: The brunette, right.
Bobby: The like not—like British Rachel Maddow.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: She had like this like brain—like had all these like traumatizing events and then they left the show.
Kara: Oh, God.
Bobby: And then Mary Berry seemed like the anchor for the whole thing.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And I was like, “This is going to suck.” Prue, I like her.
Kara: I like Prue, but they’re not the appeal.
Bobby: They’re not, right.
Kara: They’re great.
Bobby: You realize they don’t matter.
Kara: No. And, honestly, and I hate to say it but Paul Hollywood maybe matters more then Mary and Prue.
Bobby: It’s almost easier to be nice.
Kara: Yes, yeah.
Bobby: You know?
Kara: And he’s the one who has to—he’s the one that points out like the technical stuff that’s only kind of interesting.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Like I would say every third assessment do I want to hear like, “It’s not baked through.”
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: You know? Like otherwise I don’t really care. But he’s the one that gives you that—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … more than the other ones do.
Bobby: She’s a little more forgiving.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: Prue, for a second I thought Prue was also going to be kind of mean. But then, she’s the nicer one.
Kara: She’s like not really—yeah.
Bobby: You have to be the nicer one.
Kara: Yeah. She’s means with like the—when they have to do the technical challenges.
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
Kara: She picks very hard things.
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
Kara: They seem harder than usual.
Bobby: And I feel like it’s up to—I mean, there’s probably no way to know this without, you know, calling up Great British Baking Show. Which is—it’s Great British Baking Show in the United States and Great British Bake Off in the UK.
Kara: Yes, yes.
Bobby: I wonder—there must be some weird copywrite thing.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: But—
Kara: I think it was a Pillsbury thing.
Bobby: Oh.
Kara: Like I think they—
Bobby: So, they couldn’t.
Kara; … I think Pillsbury owns—
Bobby: Off?
Kara: Like some bake—yeah, something like that because they did like a bake-off contest.
Bobby: Oh.
Kara: It’s Pillsbury or like Toll House, like one of them.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And so, they couldn’t call it that here.
Bobby: Okay. So, they just had to add show.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Whatever, it’s the same thing.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: I feel like—I notice that as well that the technical challenge, where they don’t put all the steps—
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: I think they’ve gotten harder since Prue took control.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Like I think Prue actually has control over this.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: What they see. Because it’s gotten ridiculous.
Kara: They’ve gotten very hard.
Bobby: What is your favorite challenge of every season?
Kara: I like the bread weeks.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Because it really shows the people who like practiced.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: I like the bread weeks and the bread stuff that they make is bonkers. Like when they have to build—I didn’t realize you could build sculptures out of bread. Was not—and every time they start—so, you know, when they’re talking about what they’re going to make—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … there’ll be a little like drawing.
Bobby: Yeah, I love the drawings.
Kara: Where they describe—I love the drawings. And you see the drawing and I’m like, “I can’t see it.” Like I hear what they’re—they’re like, “It’s going to be a boat made out of bread.”
Bobby: Nope.
Kara: And I’m like, “I don’t know, I can not visualize this at all.”
Bobby: Yeah. And there’s like an arrow that’s like, “This is like a pine nut thing.” And you’re like—
Kara: Yeah. Or they’ll be like, “This door will open and close.” And I’m like, “What?” And I can’t conceptualize it, even with the pictures. And then when I see it my mind—I’m like, “Oh, my God.”
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: “They built a boat out of bread.” I was like, “They really did it.”
Bobby: That’s what happened with the show stopper this week too. Because it was all these like—it was like children’s stuff.
Kara: Yes.
Bobby: So, everything was really intricate. And like a lot of the one’s this week were kind of disappointing.
Kara: They weren’t that good, yeah.
Bobby: But the drawings were insane.
Kara: The drawings are often the best part.
Bobby: Yeah. I want to meet that person who does that.
Kara: I know.
Bobby: That must be a really fun job.
Kara: I also—I mean, I know what happens to the food afterwards—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … because I’ve seen the crew eats it.
Bobby: Oh, wait, what happens? Oh, yeah, sure, yeah.
Kara: But I want to know more. Like that’s too much cake. I actually did—I was on an episode of Top Chef.
Bobby: I remember that. And you like—you were at one of those events like that?
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Like Catalina Island or something?
Kara: It might have been the first. It was like the first one because I remember there were a bunch of chefs.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I was a food writer.
Bobby: Not a lie.
Kara: It’s not a lie but also, they knew—like the people from Bravo knew that I was a big fan of the show.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And so, I went and had to eat all the food. But there, there were so many people.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: And so, even to the point where like people were running out of stuff.
Bobby: Oh, God.
Kara: So, it was like, I get that. But with—like they don’t brink in extra people.
Bobby: That’s like ten full size cakes.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: And ten dozen biscuits, you know?
Kara: Yeah, the one’s when they make them make so many—
Bobby: It’s like you have to make 36 and they have to be identical and they have to be displayed in a beautiful way. Biscuit day is, I think, my favorite. Everything is so delicate.
Kara: I like the people that they’ll be like, “Oh, yeah, I tried this at home and it didn’t work.” And then they just are making it anyway.
Bobby: “I did it once and it collapsed but like whatever.”
Kara: “We’ll see.”
Bobby: “I did it like a week ago.”
Kara: Yeah and they still do it.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: And then like, man that’s dumb but brave.
Bobby: They’re good.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Competition shows like this, Top Chef is a good example as well, where it’s like, you have to inherently be talented to just get on.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Where it’s not just idiots.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: You know? Like there are other—like I hate that Food Network show, The Worst Cooks in America.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: Like it’s not satisfying to me to watch people who are bad at something.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: You know?
Kara: Project Runway is another favorite of mine.
Bobby: Project Runway, yeah.
Kara: Because that’s like when you realize that those people have actual skills.
Bobby: Yeah. Do you think you would ever put in the work—
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: … to do something like this? If there were a pasta making show, would you do it?
Kara: Huh, huh.
Bobby: Like are you willing to be that vulnerable in front of people I guess is the question?
Kara: You know what? For me, with the pasta, the only reason to make pasta is to eat it.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: So, if I don’t get to eat it at the end. I guess if there were money, like I guess that would make up for not being able to eat it.
Bobby: Not being able to have any of the ravioli, yeah.
Kara: But if I don’t get to eat it, I don’t really know what I’m doing here.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative]. So, you—Paul and Prue get to eat it.
Kara: I’d watch them eat my pasta.
Bobby: And then you’d be depressed?
Kara: Yeah. I’d be like, “Oh, I wanted a taste.”
Bobby: Yeah. That’d be a good show though.
Kara: But you know what? If it were enough money. Because I also watch the glass blowing show.
Bobby: Oh, me too.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Blown Away.
Kara: Blown Away and I was like, “You know—” Especially if you just like it. Like I felt like a lot of the people on that show had a good perspective. That they were like, “I don’t know, I like doing this, like let’s see.”
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: As opposed—like on Top Chef they take it very seriously.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative], hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Which is different. And I think on The Great British Bake Off there is a little bit more casualness. Like they would love to win.
Bobby: And being, and the thing about Top Chef is that chefs are mean.
Kara: Right?
Bobby: Like no one on Top Chef is going to help out another contestant.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: Or when it happens it’s rare.
Kara: It’s rare, yeah.
Bobby: The chef environment is intense, it’s mean, it’s your career. Like home bakers was like in the house, you’re having a good time, you support everyone else.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: But like Top Chef winners are like assholes.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: That’s kind of what you want from a chef in a way.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: You want a baker to be friendly and loving and warm and like just want to make you happy with the food.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: And you want a chef to be like passionate and like a nightmare genius.
Kara: And I like having both of those shows.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: Like I like the intensity of Top Chef sometimes is necessary. But that’s what I love about just watching them bake.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And I’m like, “You know, I just want to watch some people be nice to each other and make some baked goods.”
Bobby: Do you find it relaxing?
Kara: I find it pretty relaxing.
Bobby: I know people who are like, “I just—it really like puts me in such a Zen state.” But last night when I was watching it, I hadn’t watched it in a while because it was a new season. And I was like, “It sucks to not be able to eat things.”
Kara: I mean, that was the biggest—like when I did the Top Chef thing like actually getting to eat the food.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: But the thing is, I only got to eat the food from one episode.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: Like I wanted—
Bobby: An early episode.
Kara: An early episode.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: And it wasn’t even—it’s not like we were sitting down, it was at like a fair thing. You know?
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: So, they were churning out food.
Bobby: A lot of people and it was like—
Kara: But I want to eat it every episode. So, as satisfying as it was to have it that one time. I mean, like I watched—I’ll watch the show and I’ll go look up a recipe. I’m like, “Oh my God, that bread seemed crazy.”
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: And then I will truly get to step four in this recipe and I’m like, “Oh, like I literally can’t do this.”
Bobby: Do you remember that one? The cake that has like a million layers that they were making—
Kara: Oh, yeah.
Bobby: … and I was like, “I want this—
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: … more than I’ve ever wanted a cake.” And I will never—I won’t even open the recipe because I know this is a nightmare. Never in my life will I do this.
Kara: And their recipes are much more difficult then even they make them seem.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Because I had looked up—when I had baked this cake earlier this year, I think she’s wanted sponge cake.
Bobby: Oh, okay.
Kara: So, I was like, “Oh, okay, let me see if I can make a sponge cake.” Sponge cake is like hard to make.
Bobby: I’ve never made a sponge cake.
Kara: And I was like, “She’s getting regular cake.” But they regularly make sponge cake on that show—
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: … like it’s nothing.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: Like they use it and they just chop it up to build like orb cakes.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: So, yeah, I was like, “I can’t do this.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: Do you think Paul and Prue have diabetes?
Bobby: Well, I always wonder—like they take teeny bites of everything.
Kara: They take very small bites. Well, the worst is—I mean, obviously in the beginning it’s so many people.
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: But when they do the technical challenges, that one seems like the worst. Because it’s just the same—
Bobby: Over and over and over.
Kara: What a waste of calories and sugar over and over again, you’re just eating the same thing.
Bobby: Also, it’s sort of like whenever you watch like a famous movie star in a movie eating something in a movie.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: You’re like, “I know you spit that out after every take.”
Kara: Right.
Bobby: So, maybe they’re spit—honestly, they could be spitting.
Kara: Oh, they could be spitting.
Bobby: I would be surprised if they’re spitting. Pay attention to any famous actor in a movie or a television show eating food, you usually don’t even see them—they’ll like run the fork over the plate.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: Or they’ll take a bite, you will never see them swallow.
Kara: That’s so true.
Bobby: And I always assume they’re spitting out which is gross to imagine. But also, like if you’re doing all of your takes.
Kara: Yeah, it’s a lot of that.
Bobby: It makes sense.
Kara: Yeah. I feel like, I don’t know if I read it in an interview but I heard that Padma—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … for Top Chef, she basically, like during the filming of the season—
Bobby: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Kara: … she just lets herself—like she has to eat the food.
Bobby: Oh, yeah.
Kara: So, she just like eats everything.
Bobby: She’s like everyday is cheat day within that.
Kara: Yeah. And then, in between—because you know there’s like a lapse between the finale—like the end of the season and the finale?
Bobby: Oh, then she diets?
Kara: Because they go—yeah, they like go to Hawaii.
Bobby: Oh my God.
Kara: And so, she loses the weight in between and then comes to the finale.
Bobby: I mean, it still sounds like a nice lifestyle, I’m just saying.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: That sounds great.
Kara: I mean there are worse things.
Bobby: Yeah. Let’s play a game, it should be really easy but I don’t want to jinx it. Okay. Where did I get this? I want to credit the—I had to get terms from this website. Oh, Extra Crispy is where I got these terms. Thank you Extra Crispy. And then I turned them into a quiz. Okay. The most complex of all meringues, this is used to frost cakes. It involves beating the whites, then drizzling 240 sugar syrup into the whites and continuing to beat until satiny and cool. Is this Italian meringue, Swiss meringue, Frenchy meringue or Echo Park meringue?
Kara: Swiss meringue?
Bobby: [Buzzer sounds] It’s Italian meringue.
Kara: Italian, dammit.
Bobby: Sorry, it’s like—I was like what’s also—what’s an L.A. neighborhood? Silver Lake meringue.
Kara: Is Swiss meringue a thing?
Bobby: All of them are real except the last one, which was a theme on this quiz.
Kara: Okay, got it.
Bobby: Italian meringue.
Kara: I almost wanted to say Italian too.
Bobby: Swiss is real. Would you like to know what Swiss is?
Kara: Yeah, what’s Swiss?
Bobby: Swiss is, it tends to be silkier and denser and involves beating the egg whites and sugar in a bowl over boiling water.
Kara: Oh, okay.
Bobby: And then French meringue you do it and then bake it. So, I guess that’s more of like a Pavlova thing.
Kara: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
Bobby: Whatever, okay. Next question, also known as a German buttercream, this is a pastry cream whipped with butter. Crème patissiere, crème mousseline, crème anglaise, crème decurisaux?
Kara: Mousseline?
Bobby: [Bell dings] that’s that, yeah, all right. What is another word for crème patissiere?
They say it a lot in the show. French crème, crème pat, franco crème, crème de Patricia Clarkson?
Kara: A or [bell dings] crème—
Bobby: Crème pat.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Crème pat. This spreadable cream is made by enriching an almond paste with sugar, butter and eggs? Frangipane, marzipan, crème fraiche or Duncan Hines funfetti in a tub?
Kara: I believe it’s marzipan.
Bobby: [Buzzer sounds] it’s frangipane.
Kara: What the hell?
Bobby: That was a trick question. Yeah.
Kara: Oh my gosh.
Bobby: It’ a different thing.
Kara: How is it different?
Bobby: I don’t know it said, “Not to be confused with marzipan. This sponge cake is almond flavored and made with whole eggs rather than the whites and yolks being beaten separately like other sponges.” So, you don’t have to separate, you leave it all together. Is this an angel food sponge, Genoa sponge, Joconde sponge or Scotch-Brite sponge?
Kara: I’m just going to say Genoa because they talk about it all the time.
Bobby: [Buzzer sounds] it’s Joconde.
Kara: My God, these are hard.
Bobby: Okay, I’m sorry. The next one’s easy. This sponge is named after a famous royal. Elizabeth, George, Victoria, Meghan Markle?
Kara: Victoria.
Bobby: [Bell dings] Victoria, all right. See this is fine.
Kara: What if Meghan Markle gets a—
Bobby: She’ll get one.
Kara: … cake named after her?
Bobby: If she wants one, she’ll get one.
Kara: She’ll get one.
Bobby: She’ll like make some weird version of another thing.
Kara: Right.
Bobby: And it’ll be like the Meghan Markle sponge.
Kara: Got it.
Bobby: You know?
Kara: Yeah, yeah.
Bobby: With like extra egg yolks or something. Like it’s going to have like one little adjustment.
Kara: It’s going to be very different.
Bobby: Less sugar, like you know, some other thing. What makes a dough a short crust? It’s made with hot water? It doesn’t have a leavening agent? It’s rolled extra thin? Genetics?
Kara: I think the hot water.
Bobby: [Buzzer sounds] leavening agent.
Kara: Which is the one with the hot water.
Bobby: Wait I just—the reason I said that is because it was another one. It is—it’s just called a hot water crust.
Kara: Damn.
Bobby: It’s a stiff, sturdy pastry mixed together with piping hot water.
Kara: You know, there are so many—I find this—I’m not even embarrassed because—
Bobby: No, you can’t be.
Kara: … they make so many things that I’m like—
Bobby: They never run out of things.
Kara: … how, yeah, how have they not run out of things yet?
Bobby: They never run out. Every time there’s a new technical I’m like, “How did we not do this before?”
Kara: How are there that many meringues? Like—
John What were people doing in like 16th century England that like they had the time to come up with a million different baking methods? Because, number one, all that stuff was expensive.
Kara: Right. Could they have been wasting eggs like that too? Like I had to believe an egg was harder to come by.
Bobby: I would assume.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: I don’t know. It must have just been like very rich people who like had all the time in the world and were like, “This is miserable.” A few more left.
Kara: Okay.
Bobby: What is a Mille-Feuille? Was that terrible French?
Kara: I don’t even—I mean, I’m not going to get it.
Bobby: Trying to bring my French lessons back. Okay. A small, multi-layered mousse-based cake? A 17th century favorite, small round pastry made with puff pastry and filled with currants? A rectangular French pastry made up of alternating layers of thin, flaky puff pastry and piped crème patissiere? Or what Marion Cotillard screams when she realizes her desk is a mess?
Kara: The C the French [bell dings] one, yeah.
Bobby: That’s it, you got it right. Wow, oh wow, oh wow. What is crucial to be folded into puff pasty dough that makes it so flaky? Butter? Shortening? Lard? Or corn flakes?
Kara: Butter.
Bobby: [Bell dings] butter, got it right, all right. See this is getting easier.
Kara: I do like—I like puff pastry week.
Bobby: Also, puff pastry is one of those things where on every other cooking show it’s like, “Never make puff pastry.”
Kara: Right, right.
Bobby: “Always buy it.” And meanwhile they’re like, “All I do is make puff pastries.”
Kara: They do a week where they have to make it over and over again.
Bobby: That’s good, that’s all I did. And that tent, that’s always hot. They’re like, “It’s too hot.”
Kara: But even when it’s winter, somehow the day of puff pastry day, it’s so hot.
Bobby: They’re like, “It’s so hot.” I have to put it—like my proofing drawer, like, uh—and then the freezer, they never have enough freezers or fridges.
Kara: Why don’t they have enough freezers?
Bobby: I think they just want to fuck with—it’s like the one like devious thing they can do.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Just put another freezer in there.
Kara: Yeah, because they often have to share them and they’re like—
Bobby: And they run out of space.
Kara: … “Keep the door closed.”
Bobby: That’s the angriest they get on that show.
Kara: That’s as mad as they get, you’re right.
Bobby: It’ll be like, “Keep the door closed, dammit.” And then someone else will do something and they’re like, “Okay, I’ll help you.”
Kara: It’s okay.
Bobby: “Like I don’t have time to help you but I’m going to help you.” Okay. What is another term for a checkered cake? A game cake? A plaid cake? A Battenberg cake? A Gutenberg cake?
Kara: Is it Battenberg?
Bobby: It’s Battenberg, [bell dings] that’s right. Yeah.
Kara: Yeah. I do remember because you know what I remember of the checkered cakes is when they introduced them, I was like, “How the hell are they going to make those things?”
Bobby: Every time they make a checkered cake and I feel like they do it every season.
Kara: They do.
Bobby: I’m like fascinated.
Kara: I still don’t understand how they do it.
Bobby: The like geometry of it.
Kara: Yeah, it doesn’t add up.
Bobby: I’m like, “How do you see it?”
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Because they have to like—
Kara: Yeah and they get it so even. I’m like, “How are they doing this?”
Bobby: They’re amazing people. They’re just amazing people. Which of these is not a Mary Berry Cookbook name? Fast Cakes? Mary Berry’s Family Sunday Lunches? Mary Berry Cooks the Perfect…? The Devil in the White City.
Kara: I’m going to go with the last one.
Bobby: [Bell dings]. Yeah, yeah.
Kara: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby: And then the last one, what is everyone on Great British Baking Show always trying to avoid? A watery lower half? A juicy down under? An oozy southern hemisphere? Or a soggy bottom?
Kara: I think it’s the soggy bottom.
Bobby: It’s the soggy bottom [bell dings]. Okay, and I think with that we’ve done enough of this. Thank you for coming in to talk about the show.
Kara: Of course.
Bobby: It was fun to just like talk about a show that’s fun.
Kara: You know fun things are fun.
Bobby: I’ve had mixed feelings about this weekly thing.
Kara: You know, I do like—one thing I will say, which is that it forces us, again, to like have the conversation.
Bobby: Yeah.
Kara: Like every week, we get to have a new conversation.
Bobby: I like that, yeah, I like that.
Kara: Which, you know?
Bobby: But I’m so used to watching them all in like a number of days—like three days in a row.
Kara: You know, I wonder if maybe I’ll just skip it for a few weeks and then—
Bobby: And then catch up.
Kara: … and then like—
Bobby: That’s what I do with like HBO shows.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Like I usually wait until the season’s over and then I just—
Kara: Go through it.
Bobby: … do it.
Kara: But I don’t know, I’m too excited.
Bobby: I got to see what happens.
Kara: Yeah.
Bobby: Also, it’s time to learn the names, it’s getting tough.
Kara: I think episode three is when—
Bobby: It counts.
Kara: … you’ve got to start learning their names.
Bobby: Yeah. I’ll let you know when I watch the next episode and we can catch up over it.
Kara: Please do.
Bobby: Thank you for coming. Enjoy Los Angeles, bye Kara.
Kara: Bye.
Bobby: Thank you Kara Brown for coming by and thank you at home for listening to another episode of I Am Obsessed with This. New episodes of Great British Baking Show drop weekly on Netflix and you can catch up with all the other seasons right now on Netflix as well. See you next week.