Martha Stewart to announce this year’s Pillsbury Bake-Off winner
February 01, 2012
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General Mills Corporate Communications |
The Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest is joinng forces with culinary powerhouse and tastemaker Martha Stewart. With a $1 million grand prize and a 62-year history, Stewart refers to the iconic event as the "World Series" of cooks.
Various celebrities have announced the winners over the years, including Art Linkletter, Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthur Godfrey, Bob Barker, Alex Trebek, Marie Osmond and, most recently, Oprah Winfrey.
What's different about this event from the Bake-Off two years ago is that Stewart will be onsite in Orlando walking the contest floor. In addition, she'll speak at a special dinner for food editors.
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| Martha Stewart |
In addition, “The Martha Stewart Show” will feature “The Road to the Bake-Off Contest,” a series of segments chronicling the stories of talented home cooks vying for the grand prize. On March 27, Stewart will reveal the winner live on her Emmy Award-winning show on the Hallmark channel.
A classic
“This is a classic American event that celebrates creativity, showcases innovation, and honors the art and science of cooking and baking," Stewart says. "The contest is also a recipe for truly engaging television – I think of it as the World Series of cooks – and I’m looking forward to sharing it with our audience.”
Stewart visited General Mills in September and spoke of her admiration for the Betty Crocker and Pillsbury brands, hinting that working together in the future could be a possibility.
During her visit, she tasted several of the Bake-Off finalists’ recipes, but it wasn’t until the Pillsbury team met with her producers in New York City that a live award announcement on her show started to take shape.
Bake-Off history
The Bake-Off began in 1949 in honor of The Pillsbury Company’s 80th anniversary. The enthusiastic and enormous response from homemakers who shared their recipes made it clear to the company that this should become an annual event.
More than 4,000 finalists have participated in the contest since it began. In the early decades, the grand prize was $50,000, eventually increasing to $1 million. The prize was awarded to a man just once, in 1996.
The 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest is sponsored by General Mills, The J.M. Smucker Company, GE Appliances & Lighting, Fisher Nuts, The Hershey Company, Land O’Lakes and McCormick & Company.
