![\"Teacher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ottawa_citizen_articles_747\/5662da67fbf16396442b6c4e9ab5c276.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nWhile eggs, milk and butter may be traditional baking staples in many households and recipes, what if a cake could be put together without these ingredients and taste just as, if not even more, delicious?<\/p>\n
It’s something Stittsville local Andrew Arcello hopes to prove is more than possible as he becomes the first-ever plant-based baker to compete in the Great Canadian Baking Show.<\/p>\n
For Arcello, a music and drama teacher at Elmwood School, life has revolved around food and the way it brings people together from a very young age.<\/p>\n
He recalls gravitating toward an old canvas suitcase his grandmother kept in the corner of her 1960s-styled basement containing hundreds of recipes clipped out of old newspapers and magazines, meticulously organized by category in manila folders.<\/p>\n
“Something that we would do for fun was to go sit in the basement and thumb through recipes and see what was in there,” he said. “And that really shaped how to make a meal for me.”<\/p>\n
Amid frequent visits to his grandmother’s house, conveniently located right next door to his childhood home, he developed an appreciation for everything that went into a meal and in the power of food in bringing people together.<\/p>\n
“And then I very quickly realized what I was really at the meal for was the sweet treat at the end,” he said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
After going vegan in his early 20s, Arcello started experimenting with different ways he could enjoy those same sweet treats he looked forward to as a kid \u2014 only without using ingredients like eggs, butter and milk.<\/p>\n
Some dairy products can be easily swapped out of traditional recipes with things like plant-based butter and oat or soy milk. Others, he said, require a bit more creativity.<\/p>\n
“It’s really the eggs that people get stuck on, and for me as well that’s a really complicated piece,” he said. “What I’ve learned to say is, ‘Anything is an egg if you’re brave enough.'”<\/p>\n
The first step, he said, is taking a step back and thinking about the role each ingredient plays in a recipe. Anything from applesauce, plant-based yogurts and aquafaba \u2014 the liquid from a can of chickpeas \u2014 could play that same role.<\/p>\n
“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 \u2026 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.”<\/p>\n
Entering the Great Canadian Baking Show tent, he knew he was likely to encounter different setbacks when squaring off against his competitors. The way an egg cooks, for example, can be completely different from how aquafaba from a chickpea can cooks.<\/p>\n
“So then you’re like a double scientist trying to get the timing and the texture right, so it was fun,” he said. “There were a lot of moments where I thought, ‘I’ll make it this far, then call it quits.’ But then I kept at it, and I think I developed some really great recipes.”<\/p>\n
Each episode of the Great Canadian Baking Show consists of three different challenges. In the signature and showstopper challenges, contestants can prepare ideas and recipes ahead of time, adding their signature flair to a specific theme. For Arcello, that often meant putting a plant-based spin on traditional desserts.<\/p>\n
The technical, however, is completely blind as contestants are given a recipe they have to replicate within a short time frame. It was only in this challenge that Arcello used the “omnivore ingredients” to complete each week.<\/p>\n
And, if the challenges look chaotic on TV as bakers scurry around to complete their desserts within the time limit, Arcello promises it’s somehow even more chaotic behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
“When you’re shooting in a tent at the beginning with 10 bakers in an unfamiliar location, some days it’s hotter than I’d ever want it to be and others were colder than I’d ever want it to be. Add in nine cameras and four producers while on a time crunch, it’s bananas,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Teacher Andrew Arcello, the first plant-based baker to compete on The Great Canadian Baking Show, in his kitchen on Saturday, Oct. 10.<\/p>\n
And with the filming of the show now complete, his two daughters, 10-year-old Evelynne and eight-year-old Eleanor, get to watch their dad bake on their living room TV.<\/p>\n
For Arcello, it’s all part of raising his kids around the kitchen island, teaching them kitchen terms many adults may not even have in their vocabulary and igniting the same passion for food that his family once instilled in him.<\/p>\n
“I think they’re pretty proud that I did what I did, and I hope this whole thing has been a great lesson for them as well,” he said. “I hope they look back and see how I persevered after being told ‘no’ so many times, how I kept on trying. I practised. I refined. I worked harder.”<\/p>\n
The Great Canadian Baking Show’s 10th season premiered on Oct. 4. It airs on CBC on Sundays at 8 p.m. and streams on CBC Gem.<\/p>\n
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