Holiday Baking Championship winner Charles Zimmerman reveals what helped him succeed on the show

Holiday Baking Championship winner Charles Zimmermann is rejoicing in his big moment. However, the winner revealed that figuring out the palates of the judges is what helped him succeed.

Zimmerman baked "beautiful desserts, often doing well in judging, but it was a struggle to get a first-place win." He said "figuring out the palates of the judges" is what helped him succeed, as Zimmermann further told CBS 19 News, 

"They have more of a Southern style of cooking and what they prefer. And I'm very European-French trained, and that's what I prefer.”

Holiday Baking Championship winner Charles Zimmerman opens up about the theme of the competition being the inspiration

Charles Zimmermann talked about how the dessert was inspired by the theme for that competition, which was "snow day activities and cutting out paper snowflakes." 

“I did a genoise vanilla sponge of vanilla creme, which is like a white chocolate kind of custard that's set with a little gelatin. That's all inside of vanilla mousse, and then it was on some of my white chocolate-coated Rice Krispies.”

Since returning to Farmington Country Club, the baker has done some dessert specials in the restaurant, which have been inspired by his creations on the show. 

“I've done chocolates that tie into the flavours I did on the show. So it's been a really fun experience to recreate things for the membership here at the club.”

The winner admitted that  filming the baking show was a lot of pressure, as Zimmerman pointed out,  

"You're cooking on a timer, and then there's also a camera in your face, and you're having to talk about what you're doing, talk about the story behind your dessert. You're multitasking and trying to think of a thousand things at once. But on the TV show, if I totally fail, I get eliminated, and I go home. But it's not ruining anybody's like event or special occasion."

Charles Zimmerman opens up about his time on the show

Charles celebrated his big win as the winner of the Holiday Baking Champion title with his Santa vs. Scrooge cake. As the winner said during the final moments of the finale, 

“I put everything I had into this cake, and I did it. I feel on top of the world, and I'm just thrilled that I got that win at the end. All of it was worth it."

Charles Zimmerman had earlier participated in other culinary shows as well, as the baker said that this baking competition was different from anything he had done in the past. The cast was divided into a naughty team and a nice team, but these contestants still baked individually. 

"The last one was big show pieces with a team of three. So, I had two teammates with me. This time I'm kind of on my own. There are no teammates to hide behind this time."

He was even on a different holiday baking show two years ago. But it isn’t easy to actually get into the kitchen.

"They have recruiting producers that reach out to chefs all over and send us the application when they think we're a good fit for different shows," Zimmerman said. "So, you fill out the application, you go through many interviews and do some actual like test bakes virtually to see your skill level, and then they select the cast from there."

Stay tuned for more updates.