Batavia pediatrician who baked for ‘Ted Lasso’ to appear on Food Network’s ‘Christmas Cookie Challenge’

If all you knew about Priscilla Sarmiento-Gupana of Batavia is that Ted Lasso “freaked out” about cookies she made, that would be pretty impressive.

Oh, and she’s also a pediatrician. And next week the hobbyist cookie artist will appear on Food Network’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge.” For the second time.

That’s a diverse and formidable resume.

“I call myself a doctor by day and baker by night,” she said. “It’s really fun to come home at the end of the day and do something that’s completely different.”

Gupana said she’s baked since she was a child, but really started focusing on the decorative aspect about a dozen years ago, just after she and her husband lost their firstborn son Maxwell at childbirth.

“It was really terrible,” she said. “I started using baking then as a form of therapy. Baking is comforting. It’s very measured, it’s scientific. And there’s comfort in knowing that there’s something that’s going to be produced at the end that will be enjoyed by everybody.”

It was the sharing and brightening the day of others that turned her focus to the elaborately decorated cookies she’s doing now.

“I liked to make things beautiful,” she said. “Make it beautiful for other people, but make it also beautiful for me because it gave me some joy.”

Since then she’s used her hobby as a fun way to deal with the daily stress of being a doctor.

“I don’t know how it snowballed into what it is now,” she said. “It’s sort of a hobby on steroids.”

That hobby has garnered nearly 35,000 Instagram followers for @sarmiesistersweets and a second appearance on the Food Network show that will air Thursday, Nov. 9.

She first appeared on season five in 2021.

“I didn’t win, unfortunately, but I came pretty close,” she said. “They loved my flavors and actually had nothing bad to say. It just wasn’t my day, and that was OK.”

It was OK then, but she’s happy to get a second shot now.

“I was pretty hungry to go back and get a chance to redeem myself because I’m competitive by nature and really wanted to win,” she said. “But also, I just like being able to show that you don’t have to be a professional baker. I’m a doctor. This is not what I normally do. But how cool is it that a doctor can also kick total (butt) in the kitchen against professionals who do this every day.”

Her episode of the show, which is hosted by Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson, will be the second of the season and features four other returning contestants like Gupana who came up just short in previous seasons.

New episodes air at 8 p.m. Thursdays on Food Network and can be streamed on Max and Discovery+.

Gupana describes her style as eclectic, whimsical and fun. Her cookie themes tend to be based in realism.

She’s made cookies reflecting social issues, such as one based on the iconic image of a Uvalde shooting victim’s green shoes and others that reflect her Filipino heritage. She’s even infused a little bit of her professional career with cookies she called “The Not So Gross Anatomy Series” with cookies that looked like real human organs.

“I believe that because cookies are so fun and approachable that you get a wide audience,” she said. “So you’re able to bring out messages that might not go to these particular audiences.”

But just how did Jason Sudeikis and the creators of “Ted Lasso” end up with her cookies?

Gupana was a big fan of the show and made some “Ted Lasso”-influenced cookies that she posted on her Instagram. An editor from the show saw them and asked her if she could make some for the show’s wrap party in June.

She later got a text with a video of show stars and creators Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt holding the cookies and “freaking out over them” at the party.

“I was floored. I couldn’t believe it because I’m such a huge fan,” she said. “I couldn’t even wrap my head around the fact that they were touching things that I created and enjoying them.”

“Christmas Cookie Challenge”

Airs at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, on Food Network and can be streamed on Max and Discovery+

https://www.dailyherald.com/entlife/20231105/batavia-pediatrician-who-baked-for-ted-lasso-to-appear-on-food-networks-christmas-cookie-challenge