Food Network Holiday Baking Champion Melissa Yanc to welcome new business, new baby

Bright dark eyes sparkle behind black-framed glasses and a huge smile flashes across her face, as the Food Network's 2019 Season 6 Holiday Baking Champion Melissa Yanc discusses both her baking plans and her pregnancy.

At a time when she's just days away from delivering her second son with partner and fiance Sean McGaughey, this whirlwind of a woman is also filled with plans for their soon-to-open bakery inside a café. In addition, they are planning a “crazy shotgun wedding in New York with a cool reception for friends here.”

The championship win came with a $25,000 prize, and an invitation to return for another competition this spring, though Yanc had to decline at this time because she will have just given birth.

Yanc was one of 10 competitors baking furiously during the 2½ weeks of filming at the end of July last summer. They cranked out the eight episodes that were shown in November and December on the Food Network. Each challenge came with a surprise that had been kept secret.

Though she was four months pregnant at the time, Yanc managed to navigate through the 10- to 15-hour production days. She credits the production staff with making the days easier for the competitors. Staff regularly reminded her to drink the water they kept supplied.

In the first episode, though, the championship outcome was anything but in the bag. During the first round, the competitors were told to make a kransekake (a Scandinavian wreath cake). Unfortunately, Yanc's cake layers were too small and soft, and the whole thing collapsed. At that point, she was one of two bakers singled out to be cut. Fortunately for Yanc, the other competitor was the one ousted from the show.

During the second episode, bad luck once again threatened her. While baking for an “advantage” in the next round, Yanc burned her praline mixture, one of the layers of her confection, and she had to start over.

In the end, though, that six-layer bar won an advantage which she used to snag another competitor's harvest item, plums. She left that competitor the ginger she didn't want to use. She baked those plums into a tower of pies.

It proved to be the winning dessert of episode two.

Yanc has nice things to say about her fellow competitors. They stayed friends through a tough competition, and while they came from as far away as Boston and Hawaii, they were supportive and kind to each other.

In particular, she mentions Sarah Wallace from Boston. “Sarah and I liked jumping into cold water,” Yanc said of their fearless competitiveness. Both the ebullient young women seemed to impress host Jesse Palmer, and judges Lorraine Pascale, Duff Goldman and Nancy Fuller.

The 10 competitors have stayed close since the filming ended, exchanging text messages daily. “They gave me a place of belonging, of validity,” offers Yanc, while they also affirmed that she's still a pastry chef.

In addition to winning the Season 6 baking championship, Yanc, along with McGaughey, held a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000 to help fund their new business.

Yanc, 29, is a Los Angeles native. She was an only child; her father is from Turkey, and her mother from the Philippines, where her grandmother was the owner of a bakery in Cebu. Yanc lived in the Philippines for three years, from 5 to 8 years old. She spent a great deal of her time baking with her grandmother.

She later worked at Gjusta in Venice in Southern California as a pastry chef. While she is successful at baking pastries, she is known for her naturally leavened sourdough breads. She co-owned a bakery in Denver, as well, after attending Johnson and Wales University in that city. Her partner bought out her share in the bakery.

For months, she has taken her bread on the road, so to speak, by attending farmers markets in Cloverdale and Windsor, until those markets ended for the season.

McGaughey is a chef at Single Thread, the upscale Michelin-starred Healdsburg restaurant, where Yanc has also worked. For a long time, the couple had a long-distance relationship, until McGaughey convinced Yanc to move to Healdsburg.

“I love it here,” she said, noting that Healdsburg is a great place to raise children. In addition, she is delighted with the area's farm to table movement and has a strong connection to local farmers, particularly Rebecca Bozzelli, owner of Lantern Farm in Cloverdale. She likes to use fresh fruits from local farms in her baking.

The couple are working in partnership with the founder of Black Oak Coffee Roasters, Jon Frech, to open in a brick-and-mortar building named Black Oak Café, with Quail and Condor Bakery a tenant of the cafe, in the late spring or early summer. The Kincade fire delayed their progress by at least a month.

They have decided to have four styles of naturally leavened breads available daily - olive, white, super seed and Danish rye. In addition, they will have a rotating fruit and nut bread, using seasonal produce. They will also have several styles of croissants, and be in charge of keeping the Black Oak Café's pastry case stocked.

When they open, the Black Oak Café and Quail and Condor Bakery will be located at 9 Mitchell Lane, formerly the site of Wildflowers Saloon, which closed in 2018.

For updates on opening information, visit quailandcondor.com.