'Phenomenal Experience': Miami Pastry Chef Lorenzo Delgado Competes For $25K On Food Network's Holiday Baking Championship

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The hugely popular show "Holiday Baking Championship" is back on The Food Network this month, and one of the contestants competing to win the $25,000 prize is a young Miami-based pastry chef.

Lorenzo Delgado, only 23 years old, submitted a home video to The Food Network for a chance to be on the 7th season of the hit show, and it worked.

"My mom thought it was a scam, she was like 'don't reply.' You know how moms are," said Delgado laughing. "So I was like 'No, I'm going to go for it and it ended up being legit. I flew out to California and just did the show and it's been such a great experience."

Delgado, who is an assistant pastry chef at the Faena Hotel Miami Beach, describes the competition.

"So it's a competition with 12 bakers this year. They throw in some surprises, crazy dessert ideas that we have to make on the spot and then we have to bake it and present it in front of the judges. Seeing them on TV is one thing, but then seeing them in person, your hands start shaking and you get super clammy. But it's been such a phenomenal experience," he explained.

Delgado can't reveal if he wins or not but we do know he's made it through the first several episodes and is back next Monday night for another bake-off.

"It still doesn't feel real, it really doesn't," he said. "I'm just so grateful for everything that's happened so far I feel like I'm just scratching the surface."

Delgado gave CBS4's Lisa Petrillo a quick and easy holiday baking idea on their Zoom call; mini macaroons filled with pumpkin spice buttercream.

"Anybody can do this at home. You can do this with peanut butter, or hazelnut spread or anything.  If you don't feel like making homemade macaroons, you can buy them at the store and cheat. Trust me, I have those days too," he said.

Delgado squeezed a good size amount of the buttercream onto one cookie before sandwiching it between two.

"Do you see the size of that? That's what you wanna do. You want to feel like you're getting everything in. You want to get that crunch, the cream in it and everything that goes with a macaroon."

Then he drew on a face.

"You can do any face. You can do a sad face, you could do a happy face, whatever is your feeling and vibe. Just make sure you use edible marker, do not use permanent marker."

He says being a pastry chef is fun because "you can get as creative as you want to, there's no rules."

You can catch Lorenzo on The Holiday Baking Championship next Monday at 9pm on The Food Network.

Macaroons Pumpkin Spice Buttercream Filling Recipe: (Can be used for macaroons, pie filling or cake layers.)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup white chocolate
• 1/2 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/2 teaspoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• splash of dark rum

Instructions:

• Cook all ingredients on medium heat and bring to a boil (Stirring constantly)
• Continue stirring and for 2minutes
• Take off heat pour & into container
• Cover the top of the filling with plastic wrap (plastic touching the filling) so a skin doesn't form.
• Cool down