Lauren Klein was making caramel in her Freehold Township candy kitchen when her phone rang.
It was a casting director from the Food Network, wondering if Klein, a pastry chef, chocolatier and owner of candy company Handcrafted Chocolate, would like to compete on “Spring Baking Championship.” Her answer, of course, was yes.
Klein is one of 13 bakers featured on the 11th season of the show, which premieres Monday, March 10. Contestants bake for judges Duff Goldman, Nancy Fuller and Kardea Brown in hopes of winning $25,000 and a feature in Food Network Magazine.
Another New Jersey baker — Stacy Flores, executive pastry chef at Battello in Jersey City — also is competing.
‘I always really loved cooking’
Hand-painted bonbons from Handcrafted Chocolate, a Shore-based chocolate company owned by Lauren Klein.
Klein, 31, learned to cook by making scrambled eggs in her grandmother’s kitchen, taking cooking classes at the local rec center with her mother, and watching Chef Emeril Lagasse on Food Network with her father.
“From a very young age, it was ‘Lauren’s going to be a chef,’ ” Klein said. “I always really loved cooking.”
She attended the culinary program at Freehold High School, where she fell in love with pastry. A summer internship at Jean-Georges in New York City came next, followed by culinary school at Johnson & Wales, and jobs in the New York City kitchens of Danny Meyer and Mario Batali.
The pandemic brought Klein back home to Freehold Township, and she worked at Broad Street Dough Co., Pascal & Sabine, and Heirloom at the St. Laurent in Asbury Park.
In between, she launched Handcrafted Chocolate, which offers hand-painted bon bons in more than a dozen flavors (seasonal ones include Irish coffee, whiskey caramel and pretzel, and mint cookie). Klein sells her chocolates, which also include peanut butter cups, caramels and candy bars, online and at pop-up markets.
“Hopefully, the next goal is to be in my own space by this summer or the end of the year,” said Klein, who currently makes her candies in the kitchen of Tatchen’s in Freehold Township after the restaurant closes for the day.
Flower power
In the first episode of “Spring Baking Championship,” the bakers will be “challenged to use flavor, texture and design to craft a flower-themed dessert that reflects their unique personalities,” according to Food Network.
“Throughout the competition, they take on enchanting challenges, including ‘squared off’ fruit entremets celebrating the blocky, adventurous world of ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ intricate butterfly-shaped napoleons, ice-cream-filled cake bombs with a glow-in-the-dark twist, three-layer cakes inspired by Marie Antoinette’s iconic gravity-defying hairdo and more,” reads foodnetwork.com.
Being on the show, Klein said, was “definitely different from what I expected,” she said. “It was quite the experience, and a wild ride. I definitely was nervous — I think being outside of your element a little will do that to you — but I think I was pretty confident as well.”
“Spring Baking Championship” airs at 8 p.m. Mondays on Food Network, Max and discovery+.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to sgriesemer@gannettnj.com, follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to her weekly newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore chocolatier to compete on Food Network baking show
