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H eadlines
E! Area Pastry Chef
Competes on Food
Network Show
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NOVEMBER 11, 2021
Pet Friendly
JEWISH EXPONENT
WHEN PHILADELPHIA-
based pastry chef Neomie
Eliezer received an Instagram
message last February asking
her to participate in Food
Network’s “Holiday Baking
Championship,” she thought it
was a spam message.
Four months later, Eliezer,
who lives in Cherry Hill, New
Jersey, had another pinch-me
moment: After months of
back-and-forths with producers,
she finally walked on the set
of the show in Knoxville,
Tennessee, where the series was
filmed through July.
And finally, after nearly
a year of waiting, Eliezer can
share her experience competing
as one of 12 bakers from
around the country on “Holiday
Baking Championship”, which
premiered on Nov. 1.
The cooking competition
show, hosted by Jesse Palmer
and judged by Food Network
veterans Nancy Fuller, Duff
Goldman and Carla Hall,
features two challenges per
episode around a particular
theme, with the weakest contes-
tant eliminated at the end of the
episode. With two episodes having
aired, Eliezer has already
received an outpouring of
community attention.
“It’s really interesting; it’s
surprising,” Eliezer said. “I’m
like, maybe this local celebrity,
but I’m really not.”
Eliezer, 38, is not only
representing the Philadelphia
community, but the Jewish one
as well.
“Really, that was a stressful
part for me because with
Chanukah, we’ve got the dreidels
and menorah, but that’s it,” she
said. “The holiday, Christmas
stuff — it doesn’t come easy to
me, and I didn’t want to just
throw red and green jimmies all
over the place, you know?”
Eliezer was born to Turkish
parents; her mother’s family
relocated to Israel and her father’s
to France. Visiting her father’s
family every other summer and
every winter growing up, Eliezer
was steeped in the French
culinary world of pastry.
“As soon as we’d land, we’d
go get warm croissants and
warm baguettes from the bakery
and bring them to my grand-
parents’ house and just stuff our
faces,” she said.
Her grandmother was an
exceptional cook, according
to Eliezer, who loved making
sweets, and Eliezer’s experiences
with Jewish culture were shaped
by her Sephardic heritage and
cuisine. Eliezer’s
non-Ashkenazi background made it stressful for
her to be the only Jewish person
on the show, she said.
Growing up, when she
was asked about her Jewish
upbringing, she wouldn’t
give the same answers as her
Ashkenazi peers. Being raised by
an Israeli mother, she knew her
experience as a Jew in America
was different than most others.
“There was pressure because
I wasn’t doing the stereotypical
Jewish things,” Eliezer said.
But as a pastry chef, being a
Sephardic Jew has also created
new opportunities for Eliezer
to broaden the horizons of
those with Ashkenormative, or
Ashkenazi-exclusive, thinking
about what Judaism is.
“The food side is just so
different ... it’s just like a whole
different palette,” Eliezer said.
“In that regard, in that respect,
it’s definitely opened people up
to different flavors and different
things.” But just as with many reality
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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Neomie Eliezer competes on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking
Championship.” Courtesy of Allied Global Marketing
television shows, impressing the
masses isn’t as easy as it seems.
On the first episode, contes-
tants were tasked with making
donuts, a task Eliezer was confi-
dent in, having made sufganiyot
every year for Chanukah.
“I thought I had it in the bag,
but it didn’t really turn out as I
planned,” Eliezer said, admit-
ting to having trouble initially
finding her sea legs.
However, Eliezer saved herself
later in the episode, riffing on
the French classic of a tarte
tatin, topping a sable crust with
caramelized apples and a white
chocolate and Gouda ganache.
Eliezer had filled her
Instagram feed @neobakes with
pictures of her confections since
beginning her first job as a pastry
chef at Rittenhouse Square
restaurant Parc in 2013, slowly
amassing a local following and
handful of clients who she bakes
for from her home kitchen.
After working as the
bakeware manager at Fante’s
Kitchenware Shop and pastry
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM chef at Dulce in Collingswood,
New Jersey, she began as pastry
chef at Feast Your Eyes Catering
in Philadelphia, where she’s
worked since 2018.
But after competing in
“Holiday Baking Championship,”
Eliezer is thinking about making
a change.
Participating on the show
reinvigorated Eliezer, reawak-
ening her passion for baking that
had waned as she focused on
getting married and raising her
son. Now, she’s thinking about
becoming a pastry chef at a hotel
or opening up her own storefront.
“I’m not sure what’s next,”
Eliezer said. “I definitely want
to grow more, and I want more
experience in some avenue, but
I’m not sure which one yet.”
Episode three of “Holiday
Baking Championship” airs on
the Food Network at 8 p.m. on
Nov. 15 and can be streamed
on Discovery+. l
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