Chef Adalberto Diaz knows firsthand the pressure that comes with taking part in a baking competition show — the stresses of the time limits, the struggle that can come with thinking up recipes on the spot, and the juggling act of navigating it all under the bright camera lights.
But none of that has ever stopped the Utah baker from returning to the spotlight.
Since competing on “Holiday Baking Championship” in 2015, the baker behind Fillings & Emulsions in Salt Lake City has become a Food Network regular. He’s competed on a number of shows, including “Best Baker in America” in 2017; and “Bake You Rich” in 2019 — which he won.
“Going on the shows created a lot of visibility and also allowed me to meet a bunch of other people in the industry that are also very talented, and I still have friendships with them now,” Diaz told the Deseret News in an interview last year.
Now, the James Beard-nominated chef is returning to his TV home for a new Food Network series. “The Ultimate Baking Championship,” which premieres Monday, has 16 top pastry chefs from across the country competing for a $50,000 grand prize.
Adalberto Diaz competes on ‘The Ultimate Baking Championship’
Diaz is adding another food competition show to his resume — one that features pastry chefs who are “the best of the best,” Betsy Ayala, head of content for food at Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a news release shared with the Deseret News.
“They are true artists whose desserts are mind-blowingly beautiful and delicious,” she said.
Diaz, whose colorful macarons and fruit desserts are on display at Fillings & Emulsions — which the chef has described as an “eclectic Latin bakery with a French flair” — will show off his skills on “The Ultimate Baking Championship.”
“I try to … bring some of the things that I’ve learned and the things that my customers in Utah like,” Diaz previously told the Deseret News when he competed on “Best Baker in America.” “I thought it was a good opportunity to showcase my abilities as a pastry chef and as a baker, and also an opportunity to show the world the kind of things that we do here in Salt Lake.”
Upcoming episodes of the new show include a science-inspired dessert battle and a 3D chocolate sculptural challenge, according to the news release. The episodes will be available for streaming the following day on HBO Max and Discovery+.
Who is Adalberto Diaz?
Diaz’s passion for baking developed while growing up in Cuba. He learned from his two grandmothers, and baked his first cake using a pressure cooker when he was 9 years old, per the Deseret News.
“I didn’t have an oven until I was like 23,” Diaz told the Deseret News in 2019. “I baked everything in a pressure cooker. I made my cakes in a pressure cooker, eclairs in a pressure cooker, everything inside a pressure cooker. All those things got me to be creative and resourceful. So I don’t take no for an answer.”
Diaz emigrated from Cuba in 2000 and made a home in Utah, where he quickly began working in the food industry. He worked at a few places around Salt Lake City over the next decade, and earned the American Culinary Federation’s title of Pastry Chef of the Year in 2012. He opened Fillings & Emulsions the following year.
He’s also learned from chefs at Utah Valley University and taught his own culinary courses at the school for a few years.
“I understood that the only way I’ll make it here is if I actually understood what this place was about,” he previously told the Deseret News. “That’s why I didn’t open a business right away. It took 13 years for me to feel like it was time to open.”
Diaz’s appearance on “The Ultimate Baking Championship” comes on the heels of being nominated as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard award for outstanding pastry chef or baker.
He’ll represent Utah in a top-tier competition that showcases bakers spanning from Washington, D.C., to California.
“I am part of this community and this community has welcomed me to be part of it, and even bigger, this country welcomed me when I came here, and gave me an opportunity to be more where I am today,” Diaz told the Deseret News last year after his James Beard nomination. “And I wish that opportunity was given to more people because you don’t know how they would change the world.”