Pastry Chef Stephanie Boswell Transforms Failing Bakeries on Food Network’s New Series ‘Bake or Break’
Food Network has an irresistible new series, Bake or Break, that takes flailing bakeries and shakes off their excess flour and shakes them up with star chef Stephanie Boswell.
And really, few words elicit such a positive feeling and build of anticipatory glee as the word “pastry.” You are drooling right now as you read this.
What is it about flour, sugar, cream fillings, or fruit and crispy, flaky crusts that make us stop what we are doing to contemplate forgoing a meal to have a nice pastry? We have all done that pastry math. If I eat this cream horn, I can skip lunch and half of dinner. Or maybe do an extra hour of cardio at the gym.
It’s a universal epicurean siren, and every nation seems to hold pastry very dear to its culinary identity. So France is a croissant, Portugal is a Pastais de Nata, America is apple pie, and Britain is a scone. And they are all delicious.
About Bake or Break
Award-winning pastry chef Stephanie Boswell is on the scene helping failing bakery owners to help save real struggling businesses on the new series Bake or Break, premiering on Food Network and discovery+ on Monday, April 11.
There are four one-hour-long episodes where Stephanie and her team focus on one sinking bakery and figure out how to makeover their business.
The hemorrhaging of dough in these pastry shops must end as she freshens up tired recipes and revamps stale storefronts. Boswell enlists HGTV designers Lauren Makk and Breegan Jane to get customers back in the door.
According to Food Network:
Stephanie does not sugarcoat the truth from the bakery owners as she diagnoses their problems. But with her sharp eyes, razor wit and loving compassion, Stephanie can transform these battered pastry shops and burnt-out bakeries to gleaming showrooms filled with delicious sweets and vibrant, eye-popping desserts.
“Emotions run high as there is so much on the line both personally and professionally for the bakery owners. I see the potential in these struggling bakeries, and encouragement is the ingredient these owners need to believe in themselves so they can turn their businesses around. With hard work and some guidance, we freshen up their menus, add flavor, and fill counters with bounties of colorful baked goods to make each shop fun, vibrant, and inviting, so customers pour in,” said Boswell in a press release to TV Shows Ace.
“This year, Food Network is broadening our ever-popular baking genre. Bake or Brake busts out of the studio into real-life bakeries all over the country. Stephanie Boswell is smart, funny, warm, amazingly skilled, and experienced. Watching her overhaul and elevate these sweets businesses to the next level is such fun, colorful and compelling television,” said Courtney White, President, Food Network and Streaming Food Content, Discovery Inc., in the same press statement.
What happens in the series?
At first, Boswell heads to Flint, MI, to The Cookie Jar.
Owner Teressa Morris is out of dough and struggling to keep the lights on. Her Million Dollar Cookies are delicious, but one-hit menu items cannot cover all the bills. Stephanie teaches Teressa how to use that signature cookie to expand her menu and generate new revenue streams. In addition, Stephanie teaches her how to market and reach people in new ways to draw a bigger crowd at the register.
Later on, the Los Angeles third-generation family-owned bakery, 27th Street Bakery, is helped. It is owned by Olympic gold medalist Jeanette Bolden Pickens and along with her family, they have been making tasty pies for nearly 100 years. Still, for the bakery to rise, she needs to revamp, rework the menu and entice new walk-in customers.
Stephanie also helps out a crumbling Greek bakery owned by a molecular geneticist losing significant money and a cake shop whose wild celebrity cake orders are insufficient to sustain a business.
Bake or Break premieres on Food Network and discovery+ on Monday, April 11 at 10 pm ET/PT.
