Pastry Wars Sault Ste. Marie (13 photos)

They’re referred to as ‘reality cooking competition shows’— you know, shows like Master Chef, Iron Chef, and Cupcake Wars.

Well, Sault Ste. Marie had its own version of those shows on Sunday with the 2017 Baking Showdown held at Grand Gardens North.

The basic idea: give competitors a set of recipes that they can practice making beforehand but then, at the actual competition, surprise them with 'secret ingredients' that they have to use in whatever they make.

When they're done, they have to stand in front of a panel of judges who evaluate their work and pick a winner.

The Juniors

The junior event started in the morning at 10:30 a.m. with nine competitors tasked to make crepes and muffins with the secret ingredient being dragon fruit.

The juniors could have one assistant with them — could be a parent, a friend, whoever — however, there was a strict rule that the assistant could only do the grunt work and wasn’t allowed to touch the food.

Only one person out of the entire group of bakers and assistants had heard of a dragon fruit, said event organizer and judge Erica Hogan.

The winner of the junior competition was Lennon Turco, age 10, of St. Mary’s French Immersion.

Hogan said one reason the judges picked him was because of the dragon fruit and apple compote he made for his crepes.

“That’s a mixture I would never have done but he did it and it worked out phenomenally. I wanted to keep eating the crepe,” said Hogan as her mouth watered just thinking about them several hours later.

The Seniors

At 1:30 p.m. the senior event started with four competitors.

Competitors had four hours to make a key lime pie, eclairs and cream puffs, and soft buns.

The secret ingredient was unveiled to be dried mango slices and apricots.

“At first, I had no idea what to do with it, but then I thought the apricots were kind of sweet and the lime would be kind of sour and so, if I put it in the key lime pie, the sweet and sour would be kind of nice,” said Dana Thomson, age 13, of St. Mary’s French Immersion.

Khrissa Down, 17, of Korah Collegiate and Vocational School said she took the strategy of first making the eclairs, then the pie, and while those were cooking, she tackled the buns.

Down’s eclairs kept coming out flat so she took the creative approach of using two of them like buns to make a sort of pastry sandwich with cream in the middle.

Violet Liepins, 17, of Superior Heights had success with her special home technique of flattening her soft buns but her eclairs were a different story.

Each time Liepins took them out of the oven, they were a soupy custard-like mess and it started taking up all her time as she tried to get them right.

“My Bistro teacher at Superior Heights has been telling me ‘it’s just a little mistake, you can do it, you still have more time’ and that’s what the judges kept reminding me. I just continued going even if I wanted to cry — and I did,” said Liepins, who at around halfway through the event was already tired and on her knees while making her third batch of eclairs.

On her fifth eclair attempt, Liepins had to pull them out of the oven early and rushed to get them on her table with only 30 seconds left in the competition — she did it but they were undercooked by perhaps a minute or two.

Liepins was tearful going into the final judging, but the judges gave her encouraging words and she felt noticeably better after.

“They told me that even though they are professionals, they always give up on eclairs as well. (Eclairs) are a bit tricky to handle,” said Liepins and Hogan also said they are a notoriously tricky pastry.

The winner of the senior competition was Sophia Martella, 15, of St. Mary’s College.

Martella said she was nervous going into the competition and found the four-hour time limit stressful.

Martella won because of the touch of butter she put on her buns and for her éclair puree which judges said gave new life to dry fruit.

“It actually tasted like she pureed a fresh mango and apricot, it was unbelievable,” said Hogan.

The first place winners in both divisions received a monetary prize in the form of a Registered Education Savings Plan which can be used towards any post-secondary education.

Martella said she’d like to use her prize to go towards her dietary school education and when she graduates from that she wants to open a healthy bakery she said.

The judges for Sunday event were Hogan, cake artist Jeanette Orazietti, Breakfast Pig owner Angela Caputo, Northern Twisted Pizza owner Jean Lemay, and in only the Junior division local entertainer Timothy Murphy.

The second-place junior winner was Miah Duplassie and the second place senior was Dana Thomson.