An avocado peeling technique used by a contestant during The Great British Bake Off’s controversial “Mexican Week” episode has gone viral, with viewers condemning the method.
On Tuesday, the bakers were tasked with creating Mexican staples including pan dulce, tacos, and a tres leches cake during an episode that has been widely criticised as offensive, “racist,” and “tacky” for its stereotypical depictions of Mexican culture, frequent mispronunciations, and “Juan” jokes.
The choice to assign tacos as the bakers’ technical challenge of the week also sparked criticism, as many viewers wondered why the judges chose to include the Mexican dish on a baking show.
Amid the ongoing backlash over the episode, contestant Carole found herself in the spotlight over the method she used to cut an avocado during the competition. She attempted to peel the fruit with a knife, similarly to the way one would peel a potato.
“Mexican week is worse than we thought…” author Dianna Anderson tweeted alongside a close-up of Carole’s attempt at removing the avocado skin while trying to make guacamole, which she incorrectly pronounced “glocky-molo”. As of 7 October, the tweet has been liked more than 76,000 times.
Anderson was not the only one to mock the technique. Many viewers took to social media to express both amusement and horror over the contestant’s method.
“I don’t even like avocado and I know this is WRONG,” one person tweeted in response to Anderson, while another wrote: “As much as I love Bake Off, this is so cringe. So. Incredibly. Cringe.”
“Yes, this is truly criminal behaviour,” someone else jokingly claimed.
Others questioned whether Carole knew that the fruit in her hand was an avocado and not a potato. “... it’s not a potato? They know it’s not a potato, right??” one person tweeted.
Another said: “Going to be thinking about Carole peeling an avocado like a potato for possibly the rest of my life.”
According to someone else, they were “absolutely haunted” by the episode, which they also claimed they are unlikely to forget. “I will never get the image of Carole peeling an avocado like a potato out of my head,” they wrote.
Following the criticism, Anderson came to Carole’s defence and claimed that the Bake Off contestant was “well prepared for the sweet challenges” but had been thrown by the “ridiculous savoury challenge”.
“I’m going to defend Carole a bit here! She was *clearly* well prepared for the sweet challenges and had done her research! But Paul threw them a ridiculous savoury challenge that was more cooking than baking and she was thrown. And the avocados were … clearly not ripe,” Anderson tweeted.
