Mariana Báez watched Food Network’s annual “Christmas Cookie Challenge” for years before casting producers recruited her to join this year’s competition.
“It was always like a very faraway dream,” says Báez, who lives in Redmond and sells her cookies by preorder at cookienomad.com. “I was born and raised in Mexico. I moved to the US in 2016. So that and the language barrier and I’m actually kind of shy; I don’t like having a lot of attention on me.”
When “Christmas Cookie Challenge” producers reached out to Báez via email and her vanilla sugar cookie-filled Instagram account, the baker decided to engage in the process required to get on the show. After many interviews and a practice round in her home, Báez, 33, was chosen to be part of an episode that filmed in June in Los Angeles and will premiere at 9 pm Dec. 7 on Food Network.
She’s vying for the $10,000 prize and a golden ornament.
The time constraints of baking during “Christmas Cookie Challenge” are nerve-wracking, but doing it all while on camera creates its own unexpected moments.
“I’m running around and there’s a lot of cameras and you’re supposed to be talking to the camera all the time,” says Báez, who’s accustomed to designing specific sets of sugar cookies with texture and fine detail for clients who provide her with inspirational pictures, a color palette, a mood board or an overall style they’d like to see. “In the studio, there’s people on the floor that are walking around shouting, ‘Talk to the camera and explain what you’re doing. Why are you using what you’re using? Why are you doing that?’ And you’re like, ‘I just want to work!’ ”
It wasn’t the baking that proved to be the most challenging part of the experience. It was the interviews.
“They’re exhausting. You need to repeat everything 1,000 times,” Báez says of interview sessions that take place before and after the competition gets filmed. In post-interviews, contestants are asked to answer questions in past, present and future tense.
“For me not being a native English speaker, that was very, very difficult,” Báez says. “My head was spinning and I got a headache. And they’re like two-and-a-half hour interviews.”
Despite all that, Báez says she enjoyed the experience.
“I was on a high,” she says. “They tell you 100 times, ‘Yes, this is a challenge, this is going to be difficult, but have fun. Remember, you’re doing this because you love this!’ They want you to produce good things and they want you to enjoy it. It’s very stressful. But yeah, I would love to go back.”