For most of his adult life, Meeki Lad thought he was going to be a scientist researching brain tumors. That’s what he’s been doing, after all, for the past five years at UC San Francisco. But after competing on the American spinoff of “The Great British Bake Off” reality TV show, Lad might be considering a far sweeter future.
Lad, 29, who lives in the Lower Haight, will represent San Francisco on Season 4 of “The Great American Baking Show,” which premieres May 11 on the Roku Channel. Like its British counterpart, the popular show pits highly skilled home bakers against each other as they race against the clock to craft extravagant cakes in a tent setting. The cakes are then judged by celebrity chef Paul Hollywood, as well as restaurateur, chef and writer Prue Leith; each week, a different baker is sent home. Lad was one of the eight out of approximately 5,000 applicants to make it to London, where they filmed for six weeks straight, he said.
“Before you get to the tent, you’re kind of feeling overwhelmed by just how much work you’ve gone through to get here, and then all of a sudden, it’s roses and beautiful pastels,” Lad told SFGATE in an interview. “You see all of the cameras outside of the tent, which obviously you don’t normally see when you’re watching the episodes — it was just an illusory experience, I would say.”
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The cast of Season 4 of “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Roku
(Left to right) Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Casey Wilson and Andrew Rannells on the set of “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Roku
Lad was born and raised in New Jersey but moved to San Francisco in 2021 to work in a glioblastoma research lab at UCSF. He found the research stimulating because any discovery could be a breakthrough; glioblastomas are a common type of malignant brain tumor in adults. Although grim, Lad said there was a lot of appeal to researching something so challenging. Most people who receive the diagnosis die within 15 months, Lad said.
However, by 2024, many of his friends had left the program, and without a social base in San Francisco, Lad looked elsewhere to fill his free time. He turned to baking cakes — and not just the average kind. Lad taught himself entremet cakes, the multilayered sponge cakes with different flavors and textures of mousse. He learned by watching YouTube videos and social media reels of esteemed French pastry chef Bruno Albouze.
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“What I love about baking cakes is that you have an endless possibility of layers that you can make,” Lad told SFGATE in a phone interview. “And so that mixing and matching, I think, is really cool. Marrying different textures, different flavors, and, like, truly the sky is a limit.”
A profile of Meeki Lad holding a cake.
Courtesy of Meeki Lad
Two specialty cakes made by Meeki Lad, a brain tumor scientist in San Francisco who recently competed on “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Meeki Lad
He said there are similarities between lab research and cake recipe development.
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“I, like, make an Excel spreadsheet with all of the components of the cake down to the grams of each ingredient,” he said. “The equivalent in the lab is doing a comprehensive literature search before you actually plan and execute the experiment.”
Two specialty cakes made by Meeki Lad, a brain tumor scientist in San Francisco who recently competed on “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Meeki Lad
In just over six months, he got better and better, and his cakes got taller or more complex. Some have had up to eight components, he said, like roasted soybean powder-crusted honey butter brioche, pumpkin mascarpone mousse-filled choux, or a tiny snowman built from crystallized sugar. Lad also started filming himself and gained popularity on Instagram for his reels that showed his baking process. One video in particular really put him on the map — even though it was a major mishap.
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Last fall, he was getting ready to participate in a Cake Picnic, the now-global community baking affair. He was baking a 30-layer chai cake, when all of a sudden his cake started to slant like the leaning tower of Pisa. It toppled. Lad caught it mid-fall but had to add a ton of frosting to cover the damage. The moment went viral with over 90,000 likes on Instagram.
“I think [‘The Great American Baking Show’] has potentially similar dramatic moments,” Lad said, who was mum on most details of the show, per his contract. “I don’t want to say too much, but I may be doubling down on that reputation [of falling cakes].”
Lad never thought he would make it onto the show. His friend saw a casting call and said he would be good for it. At almost the exact same time, Lad was contacted by a casting agent for the show because they had seen his social media content. He called the moment “kismet,” a sign that he should pursue the opportunity.
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Soon after, he was on a plane to London and living in an apartment complex with seven fellow contestants. This, and the famous white tent from “The Great British Bake Off,” would be his new home for six weeks in the summer of 2025.
Two specialty cakes made by Meeki Lad, a brain tumor scientist in San Francisco who recently competed on “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Meeki Lad
While parts of the experience were grueling, Lad said that the camaraderie he built with his “opponents” was his favorite takeaway.
“Normally, when you’re in a group chat that’s active daily, you feel like you have to mute it at times,” Lad said. “But in ours, the feeling is so different because it’s a small group of people that have gone through the same trauma — this really unique experience of being in an adult summer camp for six weeks where you have no responsibilities except baking and the intense pressure to be at your best the whole time.”
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He also shouted out the deck crew, who often “crawled on all fours” replacing dirty dishes with clean ones so the contestants could stay on task.
“Working like that was a dream,” Lad said. “Going back to my dingy apartment afterwards and having to do all of my dishes myself was painful.”
There will be no spoilers in this article, but Lad is hosting a watch party for about 50 friends and family members on May 16 at Sunset Commons, an arts and crafts cafe at 1600 Irving St. His plan: to bake 10 cakes that he made during his time on the show, which he thinks is the first time any contestant has done this post-production. Lad will serve bites of each cake with the corresponding episode from noon to 6 p.m. Want to go? Check Lad’s Instagram for updates.
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Two specialty cakes made by Meeki Lad, a brain tumor scientist in San Francisco who recently competed on “The Great American Baking Show.”
Courtesy of Meeki Lad
Right now, Lad is unclear about his future. He has been leaning into the cake life substantially since he returned from London by producing more and more social media content. He’s thought about hosting pop-ups down the road and maybe even opening a brick-and-mortar shop someday. He’s already received emails from big companies hoping to collaborate.
One thing is for sure: “My [research] boss is definitely quaking in his boots right now,” Lad said, with a laugh. “Ultimately, baking is so left-brained and science is so right-brained, and to commit to just one feels like I’m not using my whole brain.”