One Year Ago, in a Tent Far, Far Away

Reflecting on the year since the Great American Baking Show aired.

A little more than one year ago, the most recent season of the Great American Baking Show aired on The Roku Channel. (Technically, it was the show's sixth season, but the first time on The Roku Channel, and the first without a holiday theme. Most previous seasons aired on ABC, and bakers brought their Yuletide cheer.) We bakers got yanked out of normal life, shipped to England, and plopped in front of cameras. The world watched Sarah, Stacie, Nirali, Jon, Sean, Susan, Dyana, Karis, and I bake for Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith while Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry interrupted us.

What has happened since last May?

Where do I start?!

Nirali, Me, and Sarah at our watch party last May

The #1 Best Thing that happened in the past year: remaining close to my fellow bakers. We still chat daily and see each other whenever possible. We share baking tips, recipes, and life lessons with each other. We're even having our second annual reunion very soon. These folks are the loveliest batch of people!

Bakers’ reunion in Chicago

Connecting and reconnecting with people brought me so much joy. I built as many relationships as possible, from folks who just started following me on Instagram to professional bakers to old friends. It's these person-to-person connections that make me the happiest. Thank you to everyone who has reached out over the past year!

I wrote a ton and loved every minute of it. My recipes were featured in the Chicago Tribune (here, here, and here), Chicago Magazine, Food & Wine, WBEZ Chicago, TRINK Magazine, Bake Magazine, my graduate school alumni magazine (page 24), and more. Publishing more than 40 newsletters (most of which included a recipe) brought me right into your inboxes. Expect much more writing from me here and elsewhere in the next year.

Getting featured on WGN-TV, was so much fun, especially the incredible segment with Sarah and Nirali. I did interviews on WBEZ (here, here, here, and here), in American Cake Decorating magazine, the Pastry Arts Podcast, and Toa Green's Crank & Boom Podcast. The Great Australian Bake Off’s Adam Miller had me on his fantastic Bakeology podcast.

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What's new?

A new season of the Great American Baking Show airs on The Roku Channel on May 24! You do not need a Roku device to watch; it's free to watch on TheRokuChannel.com. I'm giddy with excitement to see what Chris, Brad, Mackenzie, RJ, Nicole, Ruoyun, Victoria, and Jennifer bake up! In the meantime, you can watch (or re-watch) our season of the show.

Recreating lost recipes: I stopped by WBEZ to on Thursday to talk with Sasha-Ann Simons about recreating bakes from the past and my uncanny memory for everything I've ever eaten. We reference my recipes for The Swedish Bakery's Andersonville Coffee Cake and Dinkel's Stollen. Give it a listen!

Rhubarberkuchen rap: I hope all of you are familiar with the tongue-twister of a rap called “Barbaras Rhubarberbar” by Bodo Wartke featuring Marti Fischer. Yes, it's in German, but it's totally catchy and silly even if you do not know what they’re saying. I ate plenty of Rhubarberkuchen in Germany, so Food & Wine quoted me about the bake. (And yes, I'm working on a few recipes for Rhubarberkuchen.)

Baking as a metaphor for leadership: This week, I gave the keynote address at the annual gathering of the Kellogg Golub Capital Board Fellows. The Board Fellows program pairs MBA students at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management with local nonprofit organizations to serve on their board of directors. While in the program, they learn about nonprofit board service, governance, and much more. It's such an impactful program full of bright, creative, and hard-working students. My talk connected the lessons I learned baking in The Tent to insights for working with mission-driven organizations. It was an absolute honor to present to this room of leaders.

My favorite slide.

Happy Baking,
Martin