Bánh & Butter Bakery Café owner Thoa Nguyen is one of 12 contestants competing on Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship season 10. The show’s finale airs on Dec. 18. Photo courtesy of Food Network

It was an Instagram post showing a Yule log that got the attention of the team behind Food Network’s 2023 “Holiday Baking Championship.” They called Bánh & Butter Bakery Café on East Colfax to ask who the baker was behind the classic and ambitious holiday dessert. Thoa Nguyen, the baker and owner of the shop serving Asian-French inspired pastries, sandwiches, coffee, milk teas and other specialty drinks, answered the phone but was skeptical when they offered her the chance to be a contestant on the show.

A couple years prior, Nguyen had the opportunity to be on another competitive cooking show. “Out of nowhere, they sent me home after flying me out and gave me no reason as to why they were sending me home without getting to compete,” says Nguyen. “That was very heartbreaking. I didn’t even get a chance to show myself, so I had my guard up.”

When the team told her that this appearance was a sure thing, Nguyen allowed herself to let the excitement sink in.

Bánh & Butter Bakery Café offers various holiday treats, including yule log cakes (left) for Christmas and a rainbow crepe cake (right) for Pride Month. Photos courtesy of Bánh & Butter Bakery Café

The season of “Holiday Baking Championship” started airing on Nov. 8 and runs through mid-December. As of press time, the results weren’t known and Nguyen couldn’t say a word despite the series being filmed and completed last spring. Even with that timing, Nguyen says it wasn’t hard to get in the right mindset because the show’s set was decorated for the holiday season. When she was not in the kitchen competing, there were frequent interviews filmed with each contestant. The purpose of the interviews was to let the viewers learn about the contestants and become engaged with the show, but Nguyen says that the interviews were tiring and time-consuming.

“That was an everyday step—you do the interview, you compete, you continue to do interviews as you’re baking. And then you do more interviews of how you felt about the competition,” she says. “They want to tell your storyline of why you made what you did, why you picked the flavors, and why you chose to bake with that style.”

Nguyen describes the overall experience as being fun, but says things got stressful when time was counting down and contestants weren’t sure they’d complete the project. Under normal circumstances, Nguyen says she can plan flavor profiles and baking designs well in advance. But during the competition, she had to think on the fly, which she describes as “terrifying.”

Some everyday offerings from Bánh & Butter Bakery Café include sandwiches like the smoked salmon on everything croissant (left), and varoius crufffins such as this pistachio raspberry option (right). Photos courtesy of Bánh & Butter Bakery Café

“You don’t want to be the first to be sent home, or to be sent home at all, and you really want to show people what you can do and that you’re in it to win,” she says. “It’s $25,000 on the line, and for me that’s life-changing. The pressure is real going into this.”

Nguyen says it was helpful that she and her fellow contestants became good friends and were supportive of each other. They would help each other get refocused by remembering why they were there.

“You get back into a mode of knowing you’ve done this for years—you can do this. So then you get a little bit of confidence and you start to have fun,” she says.

The contestants’ shared interest in baking also helped them bond during the competition. That, and spending all their time together while being away from family and friends.

After Holiday Baking Championship was completed, Nguyen was happy to return home and back to work at Bánh & Butter, which she opened in 2022. There, she’s able to combine her Vietnamese heritage with her culinary training in France by baking foods in an Asian-French style.

Nguyen says that her work as a baker has benefited from her appearance on the show, including the confidence she gained during the competition. “I’m constantly feeling innovative, and every time an idea comes, I try to execute it,” says Nguyen. “But the show has really impacted my way of trying to not go overboard. Sometimes simple is better.”

The experience has also helped Nguyen continue pursuing her dreams, which entail being the owner for Bánh & Butter while also being a chef consultant for other businesses. She especially wants to keep supporting the growth and development of the East Colfax neighborhood.

“Because of how community-oriented I am, I put myself in a situation to be vulnerable in front of a national television audience, and to be able to help improve this community,” says Nguyen. “The ultimate goal for doing all this was to have a successful business so that my team can have a secure job and livelihood.”

Bánh & Butter Bakery Café is located at 9935 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora. The website is: www.banhandbutter.com.