Lights, camera, bake!

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Lights, camera, bake!

Elise Sammis

Age: 11.

Hometown: Chapin.

Claim to fame: Contestant on Season 8 of Food Network’s Kids Baking Championship.

Favorite chef: Adriano Zumbo from the Netflix series Zumbo’s Just Desserts.

Future career: Culinary producer.

Worst baking moment: When she and a friend were making Christmas cookies, they added four cups of oil when the recipe called for ¼ cup. “We spilled it everywhere, and we had to make about five million cookies because the oil proportions were all off.”

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If not for a hurricane, Elise Sammis might never have made it into reality television baking fame.

In September of 2018, with her school closed because of Hurricane Michael, Elise was at home watching the Kids Baking Championship on television. She was hooked and made an audition tape. Six months later, show executives called. That started a process of interviews and baking challenges that led to her being selected as one of 15 kids to fly to Los Angeles.

“They told us 15 would fly out, and 12 would make it on the show,” says Elise. “We packed our bags with a lot of clothes because we didn’t know if we were going to be there for two days or a long time.”

A day after the interview, she got the good news—she was on the show and would compete for a $25,000 prize. Filming started immediately.

For Elise, the first two challenges were a piece of cake. But the third was not her charm. In that challenge, she had to make a dessert that looked like a sandwich—banh mi—a Vietnamese baguette filled with meats and veggies. “I had never heard of it,” says Elise. “I had never tasted it. I didn’t know what was in it, so I had no idea what to do.”

And with that, her time on national TV was over. She didn’t win the top prize, but she says she did win over her fellow contestants—and they’ve all become good friends.

“I stay in touch with them just about every day,” she says. “We talk about life—and of course, baking.”

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Let’s make crepes—Cook along with Elise Sammis as she whips up breakfast in this exclusive video.