Local pastry chef heats up the kitchen on Food Network

A Barrie business owner caused a storm as a contestant on The Food Network’s competition reality show Summer baking championship.

Stephanie Tucci, owner of By Chefanie, has been selected as one of 10 bakers competing for the title of Summer Bake Champion and the $25,000 grand prize.

Although she has been running her business successfully for about a decade, the 36-year-old says she never expected to take her skills international.

Tucci says she was shocked when she received a message via Instagram from someone connected to the show’s second season.

“I thought it was fake, so I didn’t respond right away,” she said.

After realizing the message was legitimate, Tucci began communicating with producers and began the interview process.

The news that she has been cast as a cast member for the series, which was filmed in Los Angeles in February, Tucci admits is a bit of a blur.

“I just took it … and then when I read the email, I completely lost my mind,” she said. “It’s easy to get caught up in creating a career that’s easy to forget about and enjoy.”

So when the opportunity to be on the show came up, Tucci said he knew he couldn’t pass.

In 2009, she says she was thinking about going to culinary school.

“I didn’t until 2013, but I was obsessed with The Food Network and always dreamed of ‘what if’ one day I was on The Food Network … and now it’s happening? At that moment, I thought that whatever happened, if I went home first or made it to the end, at least I could say I did it.

“It felt very full circle to me.”

Filming the show was generally a positive experience, Tucci says, adding that as soon as she and her fellow cast members met, it quickly began to feel like “one big happy family,” despite the fact that everyone they were competing for victory.

“The energy was incredible. The enthusiasm from everyone was amazing and what I loved about this group as well is that as much as it was a competition, we were rooting for each other,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’re all professionals and it’s hard to make mistakes on TV. We all wanted to help each other.”

The challenges the contestants faced were difficult, Tucci said, because they were given items they wouldn’t do on a regular basis.

“You could see that they organized these challenges to … really force us to think outside the box, to be uncomfortable and to really push ourselves,” she said. “Someone like me who always wants to grow and learn new things, as hard as it was at those times, I’m grateful for those opportunities.”

Everyone on the show has bumped into each other at some point, including Tucci, but she says she’s proud of what she’s accomplished on the show.

“I was able to own what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at,” she said “I feel like I’m pushing myself outside of my norm.

“One big thing I’m known for is developing really unique flavor profiles,” added Tucci. “I’m not someone you come to for a basic vanilla cake. I’m someone you come to for a really cool flavor experience (and) I feel like I was able to share that there.”

Tucci has survived the cut so far and can be seen next week in episode three.

Summer Baking Championship Season 2 airs Mondays at 9pm on Food Network Canada and is streamed live and on demand on STACKTV.