WHITMAN – Somewhere, Ruth Wakefield has been watching the Food Network this holiday season.
That might be because one contestant, Justine Rota, is a home baker from Whitman, hoping to bake her way past keen competition – and a lot of truly bad puns – as the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship 2023 rolls along. She’s also educating the world about the home of the chocolate chip cookie.
During the Monday, Dec. 4 block of broadcasts, she had survived a smash cake contest in which the baked item had to look impressive from all directions, including underneath through a window the cake was set on. She also dodged a problem with white chocolate that wasn’t setting well in a baked goods mosaic contest, in which she and a partner were supposed to create mini desserts that came together to form that design.
The Season 10 Week 5 challenge, aired Monday, Dec. 4, saw her baking close to her New England roots with a Sweet Potato Tartlet with maple creme in a Hanukkah latke-inspired dessert.
Through it all her South Shore accent stood out for fun by fellow contestants and judges alike.
“Your textures are spot-on and beautiful,” Judge Carla Hall said of the tartlet.
“Justine keep it up, you are on fire,” Nancy Fuller agreed.
Baker Duff Goldman was under the weather and unable to participate in the two episodes.
Representing Whitman’s status as the home of the chocolate chip cookie, Rota she is the proud owner of Sweet Standards, a home-based bakery.
The Episode 5 final bake called on them to turn a bar cookie into a letterboard.
“I’m making a raspberry oat bar with a white chocolate ganache,” she told host Jesse Palmer, deciding to switch it up to a white chocolate eggnog ganache with the challenge ingredient. “I’m making bars all the time for my family,” she said. But she had never made eggnog before.
That was key since Josh Juarez of Austin, Texas, winner of the latke prebake, was given the choice of eggnog or mulled wine, with his choice the surprise ingredient the contestants then had to incorporate in their bars.
“This bar is going to lift the judge’s spirits,” she said.
But, just before going to commercial, her raspberry filling ran over onto the bottom of the oven where it began to burn.
“It’s OK, you can do this,” competitor Thoa Nguyen of Englewood, Colo., reassured her after lending a helping hand as the timer ran down.
Then it was time for the judges to weigh in.
“I think that I like your little decorations around it,” Hall said. “I love your colors, that said, I don’t think it looks so much like a sign.”
Rota said during a contestant interview, spiced into the judging comments that she felt her bar looked “a little sad” but hoped the judges liked her flavors.
They did.
“You ‘shu-ah’ did this good,” Fuller quipped with her version of a Massachusetts accent after her eyes lit up on tasting Rota’s dessert. “I’ve got the crunch, I’ve got the brightness of the raspberries, I got the eggnog. You have the most special tasting holiday bar today.”
“This sign didn’t look good, but this is delicious,” Hall agreed.
Rota finished among the top two in the episode, bested for the top spot by Javier Trujillo of Chicago, but finished in second place, to continue in the competition’s semifinal. Juarez, unfortunately, was sent home.
Rota, a Johnson & Wales graduate, says her favorite part of the holidays is baking cookies with her family and then driving around together in search of the best Christmas lights, according to her contestant bio. She’s also a self-proclaimed shopaholic and lover of all that is pink and sparkly.
One more week of competition remains before the final three bakers compete in the year’s finale – “Gifts of Greatness.”
The semifinal airs on the Food Network at 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 11 and the final is being broadcast at 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 18.