Rebel Bread is back with its second-annual Bake Fest on Oct. 5. The Denver bakery, specializing in sourdough, pastries and other baked goods, will host 100 competitors and a brigade of public taste-testers to determine winners in various categories.
“My background is in culinary anthropology and I've always loved the culture,storytelling and education around food,” said Zach Martinucci, Rebel Bread’s founder.
This mindset is the throughline in Martinucci’s work. In addition to serving as a bakery with a pickup window and a wholesaler, Rebel Bread hosts classes and events – including Bake Fest – that build skills and community.
Martinucci said he competed in his first baking competition in college, when he was just starting to play around with sourdough. “It pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and share this thing that I'd only been baking in my own apartment,” he recalled. During that first competition on the UCLA campus, he discovered “the great community feeling that you don't always get to experience as a home baker.” He also won the competition – though, he said, that’s not what mattered.
Six years later, he was able to facilitate a similar experience for other professional and amateur bakers, with Rebel Bread’s Bake Fest. Join him for the second annual event this October.
- Bake Fest takes place on Saturday, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot outside of Rebel Bread’s Production Lab, 675 S. Broadway
- Bakers enter the competition for free, tasters pay $1.25 per sample
- Registration for competitors ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 29, or when the roster reaches 100, whichever happens first
- Tasting tickets are available in advance, but can also be purchased day-of
- This year’s categories include: brownies, whole grain savory, quick breads, sandwich cookies and gluten-free cakes
Meet one of last year’s Bake Fest champions – and learn her secret recipe
Last year, 8-year-old Jade Speaks and her Auntie Kay won the kids category with their unique take on pumpkin pie.
Kayla Day Krug, aka “Auntie Kay,” found the recipe on a Pinterest board 10 years ago. It’s been her Thanksgiving go-to ever since. The pie features a gingersnap cookie crust and a swirl of Nutella.
Last year, when Jade and her mom moved to Colorado, Jade and Auntie Kay started baking together. Then, they learned about the 2023 Bake Fest and entered as co-bakers.
This year, Jade is competing solo – and she’s trying a new recipe. She’s making mini pancake kabobs (pancakes are technically quick breads – who knew!) and layering them with fruit and various sauces.
Although there is no kids-specific category in this year’s competition, Jade isn’t worried. “I think it's pretty cool,” she said of going head-to-head with adult competitors.
Jade Speaks cracks and egg into a bowl for a pumpkin and nutella pie, in her aunt's Golden home. Sept. 25, 2024. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Jade Speaks mixes filling for a pumpkin and nutella pie in her aunt's Golden home. Sept. 25, 2024. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
She remembers last year’s win, including the proof that told her that victory was almost fully baked. “My clue was that one of the judges came for seconds. So that was like, ‘I think I'm probably going to win.’ And then I did,” she recalled with a grin.
Jade said a good baker is someone who is “focused and having fun…and not stressed out.” “You got to keep your kitchen clean and you got to keep it organized,” she added, tidying up as she spoke. She also noted bakers should keep their hair up – though, luckily, she didn’t learn that lesson the hard way.
When asked about her favorite part of the pie-making process, she paused to consider. “Probably it would be…eating it!”
Here’s Jade’s award-winning pumpkin pie recipe.
Meet a new Bake Fest competitor
Margaret Restivo, owner of Miss Margaret Maker's Pumpkin Seed Brittle - a direct-to-consumer home brittle-making operation – will be entering a pumpkin brittle loaf in the quick breads category.
The recipe, and her brittle business, are an ode to her grandmother – who was also a Margaret.
“She's in so much of what I do,” Restivo said, reminiscing about her childhood in southern Illinois, just outside East St. Louis. “So much of what motivates me and my food and my flavors comes from those memories I have of eating Sunday supper with granny. Or when she would babysit us during the summers, there was always some baked good around, or coming out of the oven, or about to go in.”
She said her grandmother would wrangle her and her sisterr and teach them the ways of the kitchen. One of her fondest memories is of making French toast together.
“In the mornings after my mom would drop us off, Grandma would lay out a blanket in the middle of the living room. She had these little wicker serving trays and would make breakfast,” Restivo recalled. “That's my earliest food memory with Grandma, being able to dip the pieces of bread in the French toast custard before she put them in the pan and started frying them.”
Standing on that stepstool in Grandma’s kitchen, Restivo started her baking journey. Then, in her early twenties, she decided that cooking and baking would be her career.
At that age, she said, “I started to take it seriously, started to put myself in fine dining kitchens and worked in a traditional restaurant setting until the pandemic hit.” At that point, she started her business, Miss Margaret Maker's.
“When restaurants closed, Colorado has great cottage act laws in place, so I was able to make certain shelf-stable goods that I could sell direct-to-consumer out of my home kitchen,” she explained. “So I pivoted and just haven't looked back.”
When asked what makes a good baker, Restivo said, “I think resiliency is the big one.”
She said, “There are so many variables, there are so many things that can go wrong. So the ability to just be willing to try again when it doesn't go right the first time, or even when it comes out right,” is what leads to long-term success.
How to enter the competition – and how to get tickets to taste the goodies
Ready to wow the judges with your baked goods? Enter the competition here, free of charge.
This year’s categories include: brownies, whole grain savory, quick breads, sandwich cookies and gluten-free cakes. It’s a shift from last year’s competition where categories included bread, cake, pie, chocolate chip cookies, baker’s choice and a young baker’s competition for kids 12 and under.
Registration ends Sunday, Sept. 29 at 11:59 p.m., or when the competition reaches maximum capacity. Sign up as soon as possible if you’d like to compete.
If your skillset is more aligned with the eating side of the event, you can buy tasting tickets here. Each ticket is $1.25 and can be redeemed for one sample. Tasting tickets are available in advance, as well as day-of.
But beware – while the fest will have thousands of tastes available, there’s no guarantee you’ll get to try everything. So show up early to take advantage of the full selection.
Funds will benefit Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness. The organization’s mission is to support mental and physical wellness for folks working in the hospitality industry.
Rebel Bread Bake Fest begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 675 S. Broadway in the Denver Design District. Find a full schedule of events here.
