#bakeoff

I mean, as far as I'm concerned they can have it, but Sci really did think that bit up (as far as I recall) so it's her call :D

I have to admit I'm loving the horrified reactions to the GBBO s'mores. In part because I dislike Bakeoff intensely, so people being mad at them delights me. But in much larger part because the entire thing plays into a conversation about gentrification and elevation that so many people are so clearly unready to enter into.

It has been very common in the last ten, fifteen years, in America and I think also in the UK, for a white chef to open a restaurant that "elevates" a certain kind of ethnic food. "Elevate" generally means removing strength of flavor or "unpalatable" elements like organ meats, and is hugely insulting to the culture the food derives from. Occasionally you will get chefs from nonwhite cultures making particularly gourmet or modern takes on their culture's food, but even if they aren't calling it elevated, food critics often condescendingly will. Or white patrons will get upset when asked to pay Michelin-star prices for foods they're used to seeing as "2am drunk food" or at best "cheap eats". (More on that here.)