Cooking Show’s First Vegan Contestant Isn’t Vegan

Just prior to the August 24 premiere episode of the Great British Bake Off’s seventh season, the BBC announced that a vegan baker would be competing for the first time in the show’s history. But it turns out that 28-year-old Rav Bansal is not a vegan baker in any sense of the term. While Bansal was vegan for approximately six months in 2014, he now eats a “predominantly plant-based diet”—a fact he shared with the show’s producers, who nevertheless chose to promote him as the program’s first vegan contestant. Plus, Bansal didn’t stick to vegan baking on his very first episode. Some vegan viewers vented their frustrations on social media. For instance, Spartan Goddess tweeted, “No mention of Rav being vegan and he seemed to be cooking with eggs and gelatine! Disappointed so far.”