By Brian Ruth
The Scene staff
Forest Park graduate Lia Weber and her teammate, Al Baker, are the only Midwesterners on TLC’s reality show “The Next Great Baker” this season.
Weber also has become a local star. She has been interviewed on “Fox 2 News,” KMOV’s “Great Day St. Louis” and KSDK’s “Show Me St. Louis.”
“I learned a lot about cooking (and baking) growing up, but I never thought that I’d be doing what I am today,” said Weber, 24, who works as head pastry chef at Hendel’s Restaurant in Florissant.
“The Next Great Baker” is an extension of TLC star Buddy Valastro’s “Cake Boss” series. Team competition is new for Season 4.
Ten teams are vying for a $100,000 grand prize and a chance to work for Valastro at Carlo’s Bakery at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. Weber and Davis are competing as “Team Blue.”
Episodes are being broadcast on Tuesday nights this summer, but they were filmed in February.
The network prohibits Weber from revealing the outcome. She has been attending “watch parties” at Hendel’s with co-workers, friends and family.
“(The parties are) open to everyone,” said Head Chef Nathan Bennett, 34, who also is Weber’s brother-in-law. “We’ve had several hundred people come out over the last two weeks.”
Weber is following in the footsteps of Casey Shiller, Forest Park baking and pastry arts coordinator. He’s a two-time winner on the Food Network’s “Cupcake Wars.”
Shiller taught Weber for two semesters. He sees her success as a reflection on the quality of the Forest Park program.
Shiller is familiar with challenges on the set of a reality TV show.
“Taping these shows is very stressful,” he said. “The producers know your strategy and if you are trash-talking other contestants. It’s interesting to see how the reality gets shifted during editing.”
Shiller was able to speak to Weber only briefly before she left to tape “The Next Great Baker.”
“Basically, I said, ‘Be yourself and show the judges the skill that you have developed,’” he said. “She is so charismatic. Her smile is infectious. I knew that Lia was going to represent St. Louis well no matter the outcome of the show.”
In high school, Weber was torn between baking and playing piano.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fontbonne University in St. Louis and an associate’s in baking and pastry arts at Forest Park in 2011.
“I knew I wanted to do something creatively, but no one from my family was in the (cooking) profession,” she said.
While in college, Weber worked as a server at Hendel’s. She also was a cake decorator at Wedding Wonderland Cake Shop in Florissant, alongside Baker, a job she still holds.
Weber used her graduation money to study at The Culinary Institute of Florence, Italy, for a summer. She got first-hand experience running a “pasticceria” (bakery) called Fedora.
“It was more for fun,” she said. “But it opened my eyes even further. I knew what I wanted to be.”
Weber landed the job of head pastry chef at Hendel’s in 2012 and now lives in an apartment above the restaurant. She also squeezes in work at North County Technical High School, where she’s an adviser who conducts baking demonstrations.
To become a contestant on “The Next Great Baker,” people must fill out an application with 40 questions and send a resume and video.
Three episodes have been broadcast this season, and Team Blue has won all of its challenges.
For example, Episode 2 required teams to make cakes using 100 pounds of candy. Teams Blue, Brown and Tan worked together on a candy mountain with a water slide and motorized turntable.
Buttercream jammed the turntable, but the team still won after hauling the 300-pound cake up stairs at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York City.
“We were freaking out the whole time because we didn’t want a mechanical malfunction to cost us the competition,” Weber said. “But we won the judges’ and the kids’ vote. It was an awesome feeling to do a clean sweep.”
Weber’s long-term goal is to open her own bakery, called “Made. by Lia.” Her Facebook page has more than 1,100 “likes.”
Weber hopes her appearance on “The Next Great Baker” will help get her business up and running.
“(Shiller) has allowed me under his wing a bit by letting me use the kitchens at Forest Park,” she said. “It’s like a research and development center where I can get a lot of my recipes perfected.”
Next week’s challenge on the reality show involves hamburger- and hot dog-themed cakes. Tune in at 8 p.m. Tuesday on TLC to see if Team Blue survives. Fans also can follow the team on social media at #blueNGB.