Why Paul Hollywood Thinks The Coronation Prawn Tacos Are 'Revolting' - Exclusive

The coronation of King Charles III is happening on May 6, and people all over Britain will be celebrating with a festive Coronation Big Lunch. As Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith told us in an exclusive interview, the judges of "The Great American Baking Show" plan to join in on the fun. Prue will be serving sausage rolls and brownies to a gathering of 25 people at her house, while Paul intends to hang out at the green in the village where he lives.

While you can serve anything you'd like at a Big Lunch, the royal family has also commissioned several recipes to provide inspiration for the event, including an Asian-influenced lamb dish that makes use of the king's favorite meat. One of the recipes even has a "Baking Show" connection — the Coronation Aubergine (a riff on the classic Coronation Chicken) was whipped up by "The Great British Baking Show" Season 6 winner Nadiya Hussain. It uses grilled eggplant instead of the usual poached chicken and adds tang to the creamy curry sauce with Greek yogurt.

We asked the "Baking Show" judges how they felt about the coronation dishes, and they had a mix of positive and negative feedback. While Prue loved the official Coronation Quiche, Paul had nothing good to say about the Prawn Tacos with Pineapple Salsa cooked up by British television presenter Gregg Wallace.

In our interview, Paul Hollywood seemed to balk at the very idea of combining prawns (or shrimp, for U.S. readers) with pineapple: "Absolutely revolting. Prawn pineapple tacos? What the ... ? No. Out of bounds." He may have been exaggerating his revulsion a bit for entertainment value, but he was clearly not a fan.

While we think the shrimp-pineapple idea has potential (perhaps in a shrimp-based riff on tacos al pastor), we must concede that the official recipe does obviously come from a country that is very, very far from Mexico. The recipe says you can use canned fruit to make the pineapple salsa, which might be a bad idea — the canned pineapple would be very soft and sweet compared to crisp, bright fresh pineapple. The recipe also calls for using chile flakes to spice up the salsa rather than fresh chiles. Perhaps most bizarrely, the tacos are garnished with rocket (arugula) leaves, which we've never seen in a Mexican restaurant. Shredded cabbage or iceberg lettuce would be a lot easier to understand.

Although "Bake Off" has caused controversy in the past with how it has handled Mexican food and culture, Hollywood probably knows what he's talking about when it comes to tacos — he spent three weeks in Mexico studying local chefs and learning about regional Mexican cuisine.

"The Great American Baking Show" premieres May 5 on The Roku Channel.