Sweet Empire: Winter Wars: Meet the hosts and judges of Food Network’s newest show

Sweet Empire is a baking competition series featuring 14 of the country’s most talented dessert makers inside the Yuletide Lodge, which premiered on November 9, 2025, at 9:00 pm ET/PT on Food Network.

The series is hosted by Wells Adams, and judged by baking chef Yolanda Gampp and renowned pastry chef and chocolatier Jacques Torres, welcoming the experienced dessert bakers competing to win the title of the winner of Sweet Empire, along with a prize of $50,000.

In each episode of Sweet Empire, contestants would bake artistically pleasing desserts and masterpieces inspired by holiday traditions, pop culture, and pure imagination while navigating challenges each week and avoiding elimination.

The Food Network officially describes it as:

Fourteen of the most competitive and talented sweets makers are invited to the Yuletide Lodge for a competition unlike any other. While the competitors enter as individuals, their goal will be to get on– and stay on– the strongest team by any means necessary, because in this game the bakers must create incredible edible works of art to grow their teams and avoid elimination. In the end, teams will crumble until only the strongest will be left standing to become the Sweet Empire.

More details on the host, contestants, and judges of Sweet Empire: Winter Wars explored

Sweet Empire: Winter Wars is the Food Network’s latest holiday baking competition, which welcomed 14 talented participants across the nation and viewers into a festive world combining sugar, creativity, and strategy, marking its winter premiere on Sunday.

Fourteen top dessert makers are welcomed in the beautiful Yuletide Lodge, competing not only to create edible pieces of art but also to secure a spot on the strongest team.

Sweet Empire starts with competitors baking solo who must work hard to get into strong groups and battle to stay in the competition, while handling new challenges, unexpected alliances, and breathtaking displays of confectionery in each episode.

The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise star Wells Adams has taken the hosting duties of Sweet Empire season 1, which is known for his sharp wit and charm that perfectly balance the tension of the kitchen.

Pastry legend Jacques Torres and cake artist Yolanda Gampp, who are two of the most famous confectionery artists, are sitting on the judges' table, bringing decades of experience to the panel.

Yolanda Gampp, who is famously known as the Beyoncé of Cakes, is a self-taught cake artist with more than 20 years of experience in the baking industry.

She has co-founded a platform, How to Cake It on YouTube, which has millions of fans and subscribers worldwide, along with writing two best-selling books teaching people how to turn baking into fun. 

Apart from her YouTube channel, Yolanda has appeared as a judge on several major baking shows, including Cake Wars, Best Baker in America, Nailed It, and Crime Scene Kitchen. 

Jacques Torres, who is famously referred to as Mr. Chocolate, is a world-famous pastry chef with a career spanning decades of culinary excellence.

Originally from the South of France, he began his pastry journey at a young age and went on to become the youngest in history to earn the prestigious M.O.F. (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) medal in Pastry at 26 years old.

Torres became a famous figure in the pastry world, serving as Executive Pastry Chef at New York’s iconic Le Cirque, later opening his first chocolate store and factory, Jacques Torres Chocolate, in Brooklyn, New York.

Apart from his bakery achievements, he has hosted and judged multiple reality television programs, including Netflix’s Nailed It!, which received three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Competition Program.  

Season 1 of Sweet Empire features a powerhouse lineup of talented bakers, including:

1. Aaron Davis

2. Cami SanRomani

3. Cory Jong

4. Dana Herbert

5. Elizabeth Rowe

6.) Francois Paille

7. Hollie Fraser

8. Jonathan Elias

9. Liu Mei-Antonio

10. Nils Rowland

11. Renu Mathew

12. Sarah Myers

13. Tatiana Kovalenko

14. Yaya Graham

Stay tuned for more updates.