Opening her own restaurant was a lifelong dream, realized.
Appearing on The Food Network became a lifelong desire … now realized.
Adesuwa Elaiho, a Paris- trained pastry chef and owner of Asukar restaurant in Fair Oaks Ranch, makes her television debut Monday on the Food Network’s “Halloween Baking Championship” ninth season.
After several years of managing in corporate food companies and years of drifting around the catering and event-planning world with her own business, Elaiho in 2020 hired a marketing company to help guide her path.
“I said, ‘I have all this education and I want to do a lot of cool things, what should I do?” she asked.
Their answer? Pastry.
“They said there was not really any pastry chefs in San Antonio that are doing high-end weddings. There’s not a lot of people in the wedding industry that are trained chefs. There are a lot of home bakers, but not this large field of trained chefs.”
After rebranding her restaurant to Asukar (“sugar”) in January of 2021, devotion to “her baby” has since garnered several international awards for cakes and pastry bars and catering.
Elaiho has closed her Asukar restaurant temporarily while she searches out a new location in the same area. “We’re negotiating a lease right now,” she added.
Her venture deeper into the culinary world led to her participation on the Food Network show. Understandably, Elaiho was unable to discuss particulars about the show, its run, her tryout, how well she did, and what she prepared during the season. But she cherished the opportunity to compete on the show.
“Being on Food Network is a childhood dream of mine,” she said. “When I was selected, this meant so much more to me, just being considered. When most kids were watching Cartoon Network, I was watching the Food Network.”
Once she was accepted onto the show, with its Halloween baking theme, she cherished the opportunity.
“I had no expectations, really. I went into the show not really knowing what to expect,” she said. “And every single moment of it was something new. I had a good time learning things that I just didn’t know.
“For me, getting there, it didn’t matter what the challenge was going to be,” she said. “I went there with the sheer gratitude … and for me, it was a big validation, like, ‘I cannot believe I am one of the 12 people that gets to be here.’” She said viewers of the show Monday “will see a lot of creative baking, in line with the typical Food Network baking championships ... with the carrnival and clown theme throughout.”
When the new Baking Championship season premiere airs Monday, Elaiho will be in Chicago with Visit San Antonio as a culinary storyteller, to promote the city to prospective meetings and convention groups in the Midwest.
“My sister is flying to Chicago and we are watching together,” she said, “a pajama party in my hotel in Chicago.”
The Halloween Baking Championship airs at 8 p.m. Central on the Food Network.
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