Martin Sorge: Turning a Baking Obsession into a First-Place Win on The Great American Baking Show
Release Date: 04/07/2024
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Chef Susan Notter, C.E.P.C.: The Multi-faceted Career of a Pastry Icon
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Christophe Rull: An Executive Pastry Chef with a Flair for Showmanship
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En-Ming Hsu: From Pastry Trailblazer to Successful Entrepreneur
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World-renowned pastry chef En-Ming Hsu’s accomplishments are as numerous as they are impressive. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, En-Ming’s career began in the kitchens of the famed Lespinasse restaurant in New York City’s exclusive St. Regis Hotel and Patisserie Café Didier in Washington DC. From 1994 to 2004, En-Ming worked at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago Hotel, for most of that time as Executive Pastry Chef. Since then, she has been sharing her knowledge as an independent pastry chef and consultant. She has taught at leading culinary institutions worldwide, including King...
info_outlineMartin Sorge is a baker, recipe developer, and food writer based in Chicago, IL. A tried-and-true Midwestern native from Fort Wayne, IN, Martin’s passion for baking dates back to his early childhood when he accidentally set a microwave on fire while attempting to make a “biscuit” out of a few simple ingredients. Despite that setback, Martin forged ahead with his love of food to become a self-trained home baker, educating himself on the variety of baking techniques through cookbooks, blogs, friends, learning from mistakes, and lots of eating. He started by baking simple breads and cookies before incorporating more complex dishes to his repertoire, which quickly garnered interest from his friends, family, and community. Looking to share his love for baking with the world, Martin competed in his first-ever baking competition, The Great American Baking Show, and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith named him the winner in 2023.
Today, Martin takes his approachable Midwestern roots, his homebase of Chicago, and his not-too-serious (sometimes corny) personality and combines those with his nerdy technical knowledge to create accessible recipes for the home cook. When he’s not in the kitchen baking up a storm, Martin enjoys board games, jumping in lakes, exploring places near and far with his husband, and his newfound hobby—pottery. (Now he can make the cake and the cake plate.) Follow along with Martin’s baking adventures via Instagram @martinsorge, TikTok @martinsorge, Twitter @martinsorge, his website martinbakes.com, and his Substack newsletter: Great Bakes.
In this episode we discuss:
- How Martin’s food-centric Midwest family nurtured his love of cooking
- How determination, research and hard work turned Martin into a talented baker
- Martin’s career as a consultant in economic development for small businesses
- His top survive-and-thrive tips for owners of small food-related businesses
- Surviving the application process for The Great American Baking Show
- The dirty details: what it’s really like to compete on The Great American Baking Show
- Some of the things Martin's working on now, from recipe development to his Substack newsletter
- And much more!
Episode Sponsored by
Republica Del Cacao
This podcast is sponsored by Republica Del Cacao. Say hello to this authentic Latin American Chocolate! They are a local brand with a global impact! The value of their products begins in the hands of their allied farmers, whose raw materials reach their team. Through processes of excellence, they transform them to create fine origin chocolate enjoyed by Chefs and Chocolate enthusiasts in more than 20 countries, as a community and a brand, they are changing the world, one cacao bean at a time!
