Martin Sorge: Turning a Baking Obsession into a First-Place Win on The Great American Baking Show

Martin Sorge is a baker, recipe developer, and food writer based in Chicago, IL. A tried-and-true Midwestern native from Fort Wayne, IN, Martin’s passion for baking dates back to his early childhood when he accidentally set a microwave on fire while attempting to make a “biscuit” out of a few simple ingredients. Despite that setback, Martin forged ahead with his love of food to become a self-trained home baker, educating himself on the variety of baking techniques through cookbooks, blogs, friends, learning from mistakes, and lots of eating. He started by baking simple breads and cookies before incorporating more complex dishes to his repertoire, which quickly garnered interest from his friends, family, and community. Looking to share his love for baking with the world, Martin competed in his first-ever baking competition, The Great American Baking Show, and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith named him the winner in 2023.

Today, Martin takes his approachable Midwestern roots, his homebase of Chicago, and his not-too-serious (sometimes corny) personality and combines those with his nerdy technical knowledge to create accessible recipes for the home cook. When he’s not in the kitchen baking up a storm, Martin enjoys board games, jumping in lakes, exploring places near and far with his husband, and his newfound hobby—pottery. (Now he can make the cake and the cake plate.) Follow along with Martin’s baking adventures via Instagram @martinsorge, TikTok @martinsorge, Twitter @martinsorge, his website martinbakes.com, and his Substack newsletter: Great Bakes.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Martin’s food-centric Midwest family nurtured his love of cooking
• How determination, research and hard work turned Martin into a talented baker
• Martin’s career as a consultant in economic development for small businesses
• His top survive-and-thrive tips for owners of small food-related businesses
• Surviving the application process for The Great American Baking Show
  
• The dirty details: what it’s really like to compete on The Great American Baking Show
• Some of the things Martin's working on now, from recipe development to his Substack newsletter
• And much more!

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Episode Sponsored by
Republica Del Cacao

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