Nine of America's elite professional bakers gather to begin the first in a series of 14 challenges designed to test the limits of their baking mastery. Host, Chef Scott Conant, tasks the bakers with baking perfect Petit Fours in the first Skills Challenge. In the Master Challenge, the bakers must create a mind-bending cake for fifty people using vanilla as the featured flavor. After deliberating with judges Marcela Valladolid, Jason Smith and guest judge Gemma Stafford, one baker is eliminated.
The remaining eight bakers are charged with making perfect wedding-themed mini mousse cakes in the Skills Challenge. In the Master Challenge, the bakers must create a croquembouche-inspired wedding tower that includes two types of pastry and uses champagne as the featured flavor. Pastry chef and dessert wizard Zac Young joins Marcela Valladolid and Jason Smith to judge the final round and send one baker packing.
The seven remaining bakers begin by making perfect strawberry shortcake in the Skills Challenge. In the Master Challenge, the bakers must create a "fire and ice" dessert that features one frozen element, one bruleed element and has mint as the featured flavor. Guest judge, acclaimed pastry chef Sherry Yard, joins Marcela Valladolid and Jason Smith to judge the final challenge and decide which baker is given his or her marching orders.