Kyle Davis had no intention of becoming a professional baker until he started working at a Springfield restaurant during college. He would regularly watch the bakers work their culinary magic while he washed dishes. What began as simple curiosity eventually became a passion.
“I realized this could be my calling,” Davis said, “and I kind of just followed it.”
For the next half decade or so, Davis learned the tricks of the pastry trade, eventually landing pastry chef jobs at high end restaurants, including Progress and the Order. He would also post photographs of his culinary confections on social media, and it was there that he got the attention of Food Network talent scouts.
“They reached out and said ‘Hey, we like the look of your stuff. We’re putting a show together. Would you be interested in it?’” Davis recounted. “Honestly, I thought it was a total scam, so I didn’t put much stock into it. They reached out again a week later, so I thought, maybe there is something to it.”
Before long, Davis was on a plane bound for Los Angeles, and the Food Network’s “Summer Baking Championship.”
The show is the latest in Food Network’s seasonal “Baking Championship” competition franchise, in which 10 professional bakers from across the country take on summer-themed baking challenges for a chance at winning $25,000.
Stirs of creativity
The morning after arrival, Davis got to meet his competition during breakfast, filling him with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
“Most of the other contestants were pastry chefs or really accomplished bakers,” Davis said. “It felt like I was with my people in the same field. Then I got, like, super nervous, because (this is) my competition. How am I gonna beat this guy or this woman? It was super fun and exciting to meet everyone, but also extremely nerve wracking.”
Every episode of “Summer Baking Championship” features two distinct segments. The first, the Preheat, has the bakers concoct a summer-themed dessert based on specific criteria. Following that is the Main Heat, in which the bakers must prepare something a bit more complex.
The challenges varied in size, scope and intensity. In one, bakers were tasked with preparing donuts that looked like pool floaties with a 3D decorative feature in randomly chosen flavors. Davis went with a goldfish design, drenched in orange buttercream and gelée (an edible jelly). When tasked with creating a cake incorporating gelatin that looked like a water fixture, Davis concocted a sweet corn cake with lime buttercream and watermelon gelatin. While he didn’t perform as well as he’d hoped in either of these challenges, Davis was in for a massive turnaround in the second episode, in which he swept the competition, scoring the wins in both events with his ice cream sandwiches featuring a lemon inlay and raspberry Swiss roll with snow cone syrup filling.
“I didn’t do super-hot in the first episode,” Davis said. “It took me time to find solid ground. In the second episode, I think I was able to showcase some of my talents, what I can do. For me to essentially win the whole episode, it was so cool. I never thought that would happen.”
‘You start looking over your shoulder'
A large challenge for the bakers competing on the show is striking a balance between working hard on their own desserts while also keeping an eye on their competitors.
“There’s a duality to it,” Davis said. “On one hand, you’re really trying to stay focused and do what you do to the best of your ability. On the other hand, you start looking over your shoulder, and you’re like, ‘This guy’s so far ahead of me!’ I was never into sports and I’m not a really competitive person, but I will say, being in that space really did kind of bring out some competitiveness in me once I got over the initial fear.”
In addition to being under a strict time limit to prepare their confections, bakers also have to deal with the occasional twist thrown in. For example, about halfway through the aforementioned cake with water fixture challenge, bakers were told that they needed to add edible “water balloons” around their dish.
“It was hard,” Davis said. “You’re so focused on the mission in front of you. To throw that curveball at you — you almost don’t know what to think for a bit. Just gotta keep moving. Lots of ebb and flow and trying to be in the moment and survive.”
The twists continued into the third episode, where bakers had to team up to prepare a s’mores-related dessert. This meant learning to work alongside other bakers whose work and baking style they knew little about.
“Generally, I work by myself or in a very small group,” Davis said. “It wasn’t too out of the ordinary, but here was this guy, John. I didn’t know him very well. I think I lucked out. John was such a great guy, such a good baker. He’s a pastry chef at a club in Philly. It was great to work with him. That was really the first time I started to feel like myself. I wasn’t so focused on the nerves and jitters.”
Self-made pastry chef
Despite a strong showing in the second set of challenges, Davis was sent home after the third episode. Still, making it onto a show alongside such talented bakers was an accomplishment in itself, and he took a lot away from the experience that he hopes to work into the dishes he prepares here in Springfield.
“I didn’t go to culinary school, so educating myself, I’ve had to do a lot of research on my own, try to figure stuff out,” Davis said. “It’s impossible to know everything, so it was really cool being on that show and seeing how everyone else worked.”
Even though the competition was heated, Davis had the chance to learn from some of the bakers he was going up against, and then bring home their ideas.
“Specifically, there was a contestant, Alyssa,” Davis said. “She’s super talented. She made a cake, and she made toasted Swiss merengue, something I never would have thought of to do, but it’s such a simple little thing that can create so much flavor. Little things like that might have been the best part of the show, being able to take those ideas and expand on them back home, incorporate some of those in the things that I make.”
Perhaps even more important than the confections themselves was the camaraderie.
“It was so cool to meet up with my peers, other people who understood the struggles of what that job is,” Davis said, “talk to them, relate to them, trade stories and become friends, work with them in the same kitchen and experience with them. There’s not a lot of pastry people in Springfield, so it’s just really neat to be around my people. I’ll never forget it.”
To any local aspiring pastry chefs who might feel inspired after having watched Davis on “Summer Baking Championship,” he offers this advice:
“You really have to be a self-inspired person. Be open to researching and figuring out things, to failing when it doesn’t work out right. Don’t become discouraged. You’re gonna have a lot of failures along the way, people who doubt you or don’t believe in you. You can do something a hundred times and fail at it, then do it that 101st time, and it comes out perfect. That’s the best feeling, to be able to grind away at something and glean all these techniques and knowledge from it, to be able to conquer it. Keep your eyes on the prize.”
How Davis incorporates what he learned from his time on “Summer Baking Championship” into his work in Springfield remains to be seen, but if one wants to find out for themselves, perhaps keep an eye on the pastry cases at Progress and the Order to see what creative new culinary delights he whips up next.
