19 years ago, a single dad Kurt Wait took home the award of being the first and only man to win the Pillsbury Bake-off. He won $1 million as the contest prize.
The home cook's winning recipe is the decadent macadamia fudge torte recipe. During his fame, he autographed several cookbooks for his pals and slowly settled back in Redwood City, California.
And amidst his obscurity, a reporter gave him a call last week reporting about the musical play "Cake Off" by Sheri Wilner, Julia Jordan and Adam Gwon. The most interesting part is that the play was made based on Wait's win in Pillsbury Bake-off last 1996 and Wait really did not have any idea that the musical play does exists.
The play-writers never felt a need to consult Wait because they said the musical play isn't really the story of Kurt Wait.
In the play, Paul Hubbard is the name of Wait's character, a contestant of "Millberry Cake Off". He was a divorced dad who bakes with his son in order to connect with him after becoming emotionally distant because of marital split. During the show he keeps on worrying over his 12-year-old and break to check on him in the viewers even when he's should be baking. His contender was Rita, a mom of five and a three-time contestant.
In true life, Wait's son never attended the Bake-Off and his relationship with his boy and ex-wife was perfectly harmonious. And he hardly even talked to other contestants while baking.
According to Wait, the huge dissimilarities of the play and reality is that the play created the competition much more appealing than it really was.
In true life, he and other contestants only baked quietly with minimal drama. He even doesn't remember if any TV cameras were there. He also had enough time to bake three cakes.
