'The Great British Baking Show' Season 8, Episode 6 Recap: "Japanese Week"

A significant shift happened in The Great British Baking Show Series 5, which was the American Season 1, and I'm not just talking about the show's move to broadcasting on PBS. It was the first season where the show introduced theme weeks beyond the traditional "Pastry," "Pâtisserie," and "Pie & Tarts." The theme that year was "European Cakes." That week's success led to other experiments that yielded memorable episodes, such as Victorian Week, which spawned historical themes ever since. "European Cakes" also brought about themes like "Italian Week" and "Danish Week."

But even so, the series remained anchored in the euro-centric Western tradition. That ends now, with the show's 100th episode, as the Baking Show branches out for the first time into Asian bakes with "Japanese Week." (The show reveals this was Paul's idea since he was in Japan just before the coronavirus shutdowns began.) The series has had its share of South Asian bakes over the years, as contestants like Nadiya and Ruby paid homage to their upbringing in their work. But this is the first time the show has officially broadened its horizons. It's high time, too, considering that cooking grains over heat to produce carbs is a staple of food across all cultures. It also promises to be a challenging week since none of the contestants are likely to have made these delicacies at home.

Thankfully, the series is over the halfway point, with seven contestants left, so hopefully, this experiment in cross-cultural baking will not lead to bust-style trainwrecks. As it is, the Signature looks plenty tricky, as the contestants must make eight matching steamed buns. (Bao are more associated with Chinese food, but there are also Japanese versions known as Nikuman.) Traditionally steamed buns are filled with meat, but these can be any flavor they like. As always, the Signature is judged on a pass/fail metric.