Editor’s note: The following story was submitted for the Shaler Area Student Section, a collaboration between TribLive and The Oracle, the student newspaper of Shaler Area High School.
Connor Bauer, a second-year baking student at A.W. Beattie Career Center, won a prestigious baking contest to advance to the national competition.
Bauer’s victory in the state competition was the result of years of hard work, dedication and perseverance. His first experience at Beattie was as part of a tour during his sophomore year, where he immediately fell in love with the Pastry Arts program.
“I went for a tour through Beattie with my first look at the Pastry Program and the second at the ECE, early childhood education program, which were both great, but I felt more in love with the Pastry Program, not just because they gave us food but more because of their instructors. They’re all great. They have taught baking for years. They know everything. And they teach really well,” the Shaler Area senior said.
By entering the program, Bauer also was following in his parents’ footsteps.
“My dad’s been in a kitchen his whole life, and my mom bakes pastries on the side, like cheesecakes and things like that,” Bauer said.
The competition Bauer participated in was sponsored by an organization called the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. Along with doing a variety of inspiring community service activities, the organization hosts a bunch of different competitions, including in areas such as early childhood education and the culinary arts. For the duration of the competition at Lackawanna College, Bauer stayed at the Kalahari Resort in the Pocono Mountains.
“We went there pretty early in the morning. I think 9 o’clock was my competition time. This was hectic. There was all this new stuff, and I went up against four or five other people in this smallish room to compete against them,” Bauer said.
Preparing for the competition wasn’t easy, he said.
“I’d like to say there’s a way to prepare yourself, but the only true way to prepare yourself is to do it yourself. Beattie, right before that, had their fish fries that they do. They were great; I guess service is the best way to prepare then. But through there, I was able to time myself to do everything within however many hours, close to two or three,” Bauer said. “If I hadn’t had time to practice it beforehand and do everything I needed to within that time, I would have probably failed. Other than that, it was just practicing recipes.”
Leading up to the competition, Bauer described the nerves that plagued him.
“I had all this fear going into it. … I was maybe a little fearful that I might mess something up or forget something, but I was probably the best I could be for having my first competition. I was more worried that someone else was gonna beat me, obviously.”
Despite his initial worries, Bauer garnered some confidence as he prepared to spend the next two or three hours in the kitchen under the judge’s watch, all while being judged against the performance of his competitors.
“But when I got to the competition, I felt great. … I crushed it. Not to flatter myself, but I did crush it.”
According to a Facebook post from A.W. Beattie, Bauer received a packet of recipes to practice before the competition. Then, on the day of the competition, he had to prepare and bake one type of quick bread, a choux pastry, a cookie and decorate a quarter-sheet cake in two hours and 45 minutes.
Bauer made cutout sugar cookies, éclairs, blueberry muffins and decorated a high school graduation cake with black, purple, yellow and white icing. After the chaos of baking and preparing all of the desserts, the competitors were evaluated for their performance off of a “point system” to determine the winner.
“Their scoring was weird. They do it off of a point system. So, I got first place, but I did not get gold. I scored around 88 points, but if I had gotten 90 or above, I would have gotten the gold. But I’ll take silver for getting first place. It was an amazing competition.”
Bauer’s win at the FCCLA earned him the Pennsylvania State Championship, and he advances to the national competition in July in Washington, D.C.
“Because I won, I have the chance to go to the national competition in July. So I’m doing that. It’s Monday to Friday, first or second week in July that I’m gonna be going to. I’m so excited.”
However, the national competition isn’t the only thing Bauer has to look forward to. In the fall, he plans to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
“I mean, I figured out the rest of my life pretty much,” Bauer said. “I’m going to one of the best culinary schools in America for pastry arts. And so if anyone were to truly feel lost, explore every option. Talk to your counselor … but, if you can, do Beattie. Beattie is amazing.”