Food Network
The cast of the new Food Network reality series Worst Bakers in America hope to not burn down the kitchen when the show debuts Oct. 2.
San Antonio resident Judy Welch admits she isn’t a very good cook. But that doesn’t mean a little heat is going to keep her out of the kitchen.
On Sunday, October 2, Welch and 11 other hopeless cooks will roll up their sleeves and put on their oven mitts as contestants on the new Food Network series Worst Bakers in America. Led by celebrity chefs Duff Goldman and Lorraine Pascale, the dismal dozen will compete in baking challenges for a grand prize of $25,000.
Welch, who has been a choir director for over 30 years, 14 of them at Taft High School where she currently teaches, describes herself as a “food addict” and serious Food Network fan, but never felt her place was in the kitchen. She likes to tell a story about when her daughter had her tonsils taken out years ago and she tried to make her Jell-O, but ended up burning it.
Food Network
Taft High School choir director Judy Welch is a contestant on the new Food Network reality series Worst Bakers in America, which debuts Oct. 2.
Another time, Welch burned biscuits, which her son turned into hockey pucks.
“They were these black charcoal things, so my son took them outside and threw them against the wall, but they didn’t break,” she said. “We lived in Minnesota at the time, so he got his hockey stick and started to play street hockey with them.”
On Worst Bakers in America, which Welch taped this past summer, her first challenge was to make a cupcake for her new grandchild who will be born this December.
“The cupcake had to have two different colors and I had to use fondant,” she said. “I didn’t even know what fondant was!”
Despite her lack of skill in the kitchen, however, Welch said she learned a lot, had fun, and even got a chance to sing on the show and write a song, which is reminiscent of Frank Sinatra's My Way.
“They really wanted me to learn,” she said. “I tried really hard and I laughed a lot. I can definitely make buttercream frosting now. Edible Christmas cookies could happen.”
Worst Bakers in America premieres Sunday, October 2 at 9pm CT on the Food Network.
They Say That I Can’t Cook
Music and lyrics by Judy Welch
They say that I can’t cook
Not even from a book
With recipes that show the way
They say I never learned
And that I only burn
Potatoes and steaks
But I want to change it all
And learn just how to do it
If the chef I get helps me through it
