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Inside the World of "The Great British Bake Off"

The show captures disastrous custard-making, quintessentially British faux-modesty, and the blistering hubris of bakers—including me.

Even Kylie Jenner is a fan—she posted a video of her watching “Bake Off” on her jet, calling it “my favorite show.” Consider the cultural tectonics involved in bringing the extended Kardashian empire into contact with Nelly Ghaffar, from Season 15, a flirtatious palliative-care assistant from Slovakia by way of Dorset. Paul Hollywood was presumably in his dressing room, putting on a crisp oxford shirt in a shade of blue meant to make his eyes pop—a vivid cerulean, a chilly Arctic sky, or, occasionally, a fuller, velvety navy just across the color wheel from his tan. When I was in the tent, I could imagine how the footage would be metabolized in the edit: there would be longer clips of the front-runners and the people at risk of going home; the rest of us would serve as the rhythm section, reading the recipes, putting things into the oven and taking them out, hitting the major beats of any particular challenge.

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