Meet the Bakers Competing on Season 2 of Great Chocolate Showdown

As a South Asian man, baking wasn’t Jujhar’s plan – he was expected to be a pilot or a doctor. Yet at a young age, he loved to draw, paint, cook, and bake. No one in his family baked, so he took it upon himself to learn. Although it was still a challenge for his family to support his love for baking, they came to realize that this is his true passion. Jujhar wants to challenge gender stereotypes and inspire other young Indian males to follow their dreams. In his baking, Jujhar loves fusion flavours. He draws on common flavours used in South Asian desserts and loves to showcase combinations that are close to his heart and home.

Abbey is a career-driven, new mother who has enough energy to power her entire home. As a retail operations specialist, she has been at the helm of important company restructures and has created management models that have been adopted by a variety of organizations. Her passion can be found in anything she does and is one of the reasons that she takes her baking so seriously. In fact, the only thing that Abbey might love more than baking is karaoke!

Atikah may be small, but her personality is larger than life! This talented baker and campus administrator used to live a lavish life in Singapore, but she eventually travelled the world looking for more depth. It is in these travels and self-exploration that she found her now-husband and traded her stilettos and martinis for hard work and a dove into baking. She prides herself in blending flavours that most people would shy away from. Atikah keeps her life interesting with creating new concoctions in the kitchen and playing (and breaking) her heavy metal drums into the late hours of the night!

Ginny is a dedicated civil servant nearing retirement. And soon she will be ready to settle down and do what she loves 24/7 – baking! Ginny started in the kitchen as a child with her Oma, and she now has more than 50 years of experience. She has lived in many countries, including eight years in Africa as a volunteer with an NGO, so she brings a breadth of knowledge to the kitchen. She enjoys baking with flavours like pandan, ube, saffron, and cardamom and she can’t wait to start her retirement plan: open her own bakery!

As a recent retiree, Richard left his 9 to 5 for a second chapter that involves a stick of butter and a cup of sugar! Richard credits his baking skills and love for flavours to his mother and The Galloping Gourmet. Richard takes pride in every dessert he makes and gets immense joy watching (and hearing) how much his friends and family enjoy his creations. For Richard, competition is everything. His friends joke that he is the only person that can turn a yoga class into a competition!

Standing at only 5 feet tall, Earnestine, or “Latice” as she’s known to her friends, is a fierce single mom. Latice and her family lost everything during Hurricane Katrina, but Latice’s sunny disposition always leaves her looking at the bright side. During the day she works as a dental office manager, but after work, she sings and dances in the kitchen with her daughter as they work on her side business, Sweet Tooth Baking. Latice sees her baking as anything sweet with a southern twist, because, she says, “we all know the South has the best food in the world!”

Sheldon is a man of many talents. By day, you can find him working as a rehabilitation assistant and by night, you can find him in the kitchen baking with his fiancé or bouncing at a nightclub. Sheldon loves science and medicine, but baking is his creative outlet. At 6 feet tall Sheldon also rides motorbikes but he can just as easily pipe beautiful buttercream flowers on a mini cupcake! He wants to inspire other home bakers who don’t fit the “traditional” look of a baker to break free of stereotypes and do whatever makes them happy.

With two children and a stressful job as a real estate appraiser, Tam is a busy mother on the go. However, Tam is ready to break out of her comfort zone and commit to the passion she developed a couple of years ago – baking. Drawing from her Vietnamese roots, Tam loves contrasting flavours by incorporating sweet with salty, or sweet with tang! She loves exotic fruits and ingredients more common in Asian desserts such as pandan, mango, red bean, and purple yam. Her dream is to one day make baking a full-time career, but until then, she sells celebration cakes for friends and family.