Stittsville drama teacher becomes first plant-based baker on Great Canadian Baking Show

Andrew Arcello, a drama and music teacher from Stittsville at Elmwood School, is making history as the first plant-based baker to compete on the Great Canadian Baking Show.

Arcello, originally from southern New England, went vegan in his early 20s and has since become fluent in the mechanics of plant-based baking. His path to the show started in his grandmother's basement. She keeps a suitcase filled with hundreds of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines, organized in manila folders by category. "Something that we would do for fun was to go sit in the basement and thumb through recipes and see what was in there. And that really shaped how to make a meal for me," Arcello said. "And then I very quickly realized what I was really at the meal for was the sweet treat at the end."

When Arcello went vegan, he had to rethink baking entirely. "It's really the eggs that people get stuck on, and for me as well that's a really complicated piece. What I've learned to say is, 'Anything is an egg if you're brave enough,'" he said. He now uses applesauce, plant-based yogurts, and aquafaba—the liquid from canned chickpeas—as egg substitutes, along with plant-based butter and oat or soy milk to replace dairy. "What I tell people is if we stop using the term like egg, milk and butter and you start thinking about what their function is in a recipe … Is it a binder? Is it a leavener? Is it a thickener? Then, all of a sudden, there's a whole plethora of things that could replace that," he explained.

On the show, each episode consists of three challenges. The signature and showstopper challenges allow contestants to prepare recipes ahead of time, while the technical challenge is blind—contestants are given a recipe and must replicate it in a short timeframe. Arcello used omnivore ingredients only in the technical challenges, relying on his plant-based skills for the other two. During COVID, he taught weekly online cooking classes to Grade 5-6 students. At home, he creates birthday cakes for his daughters, Evelynne and Eleanor, based on their requests—themes have included wizarding unicorns and raccoons in trash cans.