Food Community
Newnan cookie artist, Meredyth Rotlisberger, competes on the Foodstuff Network’s Christmas Cookie Problem on Sunday at 8 p.m.
By Laura Camper
Newnan cookie artist, Meredyth Rotlisberger, has been trying to keep a magic formula. In March, she was one of the contestants on an episode of the Foodstuff Network’s Xmas Cookie Challenge. Her episode will air on Sunday.
That is a extended time to continue to keep a secret, Rotlisberger said.
She was at CookieCon — a cookie conference that was held in Reno, Nevada, in early March 2022 — when she discovered a skipped get in touch with from the Foods Network.
“I walked out of the class, and I termed them again,” Rotlisberger said. “They reported, ‘Just wanted to enable you know that you are on the clearly show.’ And I couldn’t inform any of my 900 cookie pals.”
Rotlisberger competed towards 4 other cookie bakers later on that month for a $10,000 prize and a golden ornament, but she hasn’t been able to convey to everyone. She said only about 5 people today in her fast family realized that she was filming the show. She and the other contestants have been eventually authorized to announce that they experienced been on the exhibit just this thirty day period, she reported.
“It was form of weird to let it last but not least like, blurt out,” Rotlisberger stated.
Rotlisberger, who has lived in Newnan for 7 years, has been baking her full lifestyle, she explained. In 2018, she formally went into the cookie baking business as Sweet Sugar Laine. She started an Instagram site to market her business enterprise, and it speedily began to improve. Rotlisberger’s site now has more than 24,000 followers, and attracted the attention of talent scouts from the Food items Community.
She was contacted a pair of years back, went by means of the first interview but was not invited on the clearly show at that time, Rotlisberger mentioned.
“I was hesitant, too,” she stated, incorporating she was so new to the enterprise that “I did not feel rather as proficient.”
But she was contacted once again in December 2021. This time, she sailed as a result of all the interviews. The last interviews with the food stuff producers of the clearly show had been in February, Rotlisberger said. The filming was 3 times in March at the Discovery Studios in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“It’s a minor bit tricky drumming up Xmas earrings and things in March,” Rotlisberger claimed. “My shoes ended up currently being very a matter, since I was the 1st at any time contestant to hand paint my footwear. That was rather a strike for absolutely sure.”
She uploaded a reel on Instagram about the sneakers on Tuesday, but she’s not even absolutely sure if they created it in the episode. She has not viewed it but.
Every single episode includes two problems — 1 90-minute and one particular 150-moment challenge. The bakers’ creations are judged each on the presentation and the flavor by Ree Drummond, of “The Pioneer Woman,” and Eddie Jackson, a former professional football player, food truck operator, private chef and own trainer who has worked with the Food Community on a selection of reveals.
For Rotlisberger’s episode, “Crafty Xmas,” she baked sugar cookies, her specialty. She has been baking her grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe, a quite uncomplicated, aged fashioned recipe, her total lifetime, Rotlisberger stated. But she learned her first time interviewing that was a difficulty.
“I understood if I at any time wanted to do it, I was genuinely going to have to up my flavors,” Rotlisberger stated. “So which is what I practiced the past couple years.”
She’s come up with versions on her unique recipe. Her favourite flavoring right now is the maple pecan, Rotlisberger stated. Despite the fact that she nevertheless enjoys to bake her initial sugar cookie recipe.
“It just reminds me of my childhood,” she mentioned. “It still reminds me of my grandma.”
She can’t discuss about the specifics of the episode, but a single detail she can say is that the other four “cookiers” are now her fast good friends.
“It didn’t come to feel like we had been in competitiveness in opposition to each and every other,” Rotlisberger claimed. “We even now chat each day, and correct now, simply because we’re finding so close to the episode, we chat hundreds of occasions a day. I assume that was the complete finest element, mainly because I made 4 definitely good cookie buddies.”
If you want to watch: Christmas Cookie Challenge on the Foodstuff Community on Sunday at 8 p.m. It can also be streamed on Discovery+.