'The Great British Baking Show's "Bread Week" Fries Wheat & Chaff

There is a slight irony to the way “Bread Week” has developed as part of The Great British Baking Show. Both “Cake Week” and “Bread Week” have been staples of the series since the very beginning. Biscuit Week now officially sits between them; however, there were several seasons where baking cookies bounced around the lineup. Cake and Bread have always been opening challenges, as the two basic things every baker should be able to make. They also provided an opportunity to highlight the judges: Mary Berry and her Cakes, and Paul Hollywood and his Bread.

Of course, the move to Channel 4 and Netflix upended what had been a well-balanced apple cart, and though Prue Leith has steadfastly shown up to judge every season of the main show, she never took on Cake Week as her own or chose to declare herself Biscuit Queen. The result has only added to what is already a bizarrely uneven division of judging, where Paul bullies everyone into eliminating the contestants he doesn’t like because he’s the “OG GBBO Judge.” Bread Week has become a strangely sacred experience in the tent, with a common belief that contestants can’t make the final unless they pass Paul’s Judgment of their Bread.

This is the second week running there’s been no cold open (or if there was one on Channel 4, Netflix declined to include it). Let’s stop loafing about and see whose breads rise to the occasion.