When it comes to sharing her cooking confections, Chehalis baker Megan Knudsvig is no stranger to putting herself out there. But while running the Instagram account and food blog The White Whisk has given her plenty of opportunities to share her delectable passion, she’d always been interested in taking part in a competition show.
Knudsvig has now gotten her chance as part of Season 11 of Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” where she and 11 other bakers from across the country try to wow judges with their most mouthwatering holiday creations for the chance to win $25,000.
It’s a high-stakes affair and something Knudsvig said she was initially a little intimidated by.
“(It’s intimidating) being in a different kitchen, with new equipment and on a very tight time crunch with all the challenges and thinking on your feet,” Knudsvig said. “But I also am very competitive, so I was very drawn to the idea of just having the challenge behind it.”
Having watched it over the years, Knudsvig was familiar with the show — airing Monday evenings on the network — and understood she’d be expected to make a wide variety of desserts. So she worked to expand her normal repertoire.
“I have my niche of cakes, macarons and cookies, so I knew I needed to branch out a little bit and start rounding out my skills and brushing up on old skills,” Knudsvig said, expressing how the high volume and wide variety expected was also a new muscle for her. Imagine a training montage of her practicing a bunch of new styles of baking to prepare for the main event, but with her kids serving as the first taste testers (sometimes even before the baking was complete, Knudsvig recounts with a laugh).
However, while this preparation was important, Knudsvig was also drawing upon years of experience. Long a lover of art, she was first drawn to the culinary arts in high school when watching programming like the various cake decorating shows on Food Network. It was this “creativity through baking” that spoke to her and made it something she wanted to turn into her profession, starting out making event cakes for loved ones before going to South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, where she completed a baking and pastry arts program.
“It was there that I really felt like I gained an appreciation for the flavors and the textures and the science behind baking. I got to try a wide variety of different things, because up until that point I had mostly done cakes and was focused on just the visual and art side of it,” Knudsvig recalled. “That experience in baking school really helped round me out as a baker.”
Knudsvig took that educational experience with her to the show, but she still had to figure out how to navigate this new environment as a competitor.
“It was a new experience traveling and going to a new kitchen that I’ve only seen on TV. I knew that would be an adjustment having to figure out where all the ingredients are and adjusting to all the equipment,” Knudsvig said. “It was all ready for us there and I didn’t bring any of my own supplies, or anything like that — just myself.”
As for what she learned from her first experience on a competition show, which she must remain secretive about until viewers can see who wins it all?
“The biggest thing I gained throughout it was more confidence in branching out and getting out of my comfort zone. This was very much out of my comfort zone, but I knew it would be something that I’d kick myself for forever if I didn’t try,” Knudsvig said. “My encouragement for anyone else is, even if something is scary, is just go for it and do your best and be surprised at what happens.”