Kurt Wait’s $1-Million Torte : California man’s diet-busting recipe makes Bake-Off history

Move over Pillsbury Doughboy, there’s another male in your kitchen. Kurt Wait, a 43-year-old business analyst from Redwood City, is the first man to win the grand prize at the Pillsbury Bake-Off. His calorie-rich macadamia fudge torte earned him a cool $1 million, the largest amount ever awarded in the competitive world of cooking contests. And he scrambled the tradition of women walking off with the blue ribbon in each of the first 47 years of the contest.

We’re proud of Wait. He not only made food history but his torte helps break down the stereotype of the body conscious, health nut Californian. So for all those males who used to make fun of home economic classes, eat your heart out--or or at least, should you get the chance, eat a slice of Wait’s award-winning concoction. It’s only 460 calories per serving.

Wait, a single father of an 8-year-old, was one of 10 men in the finals. Men are cooking more because of changing lifestyles and a growing male interest in cooking as a hobby. They, like women, find contests and the prizes challenging, enticing and fun. The Bay Area maestro, a self-taught cook, spent two years developing his torte, which uses devil’s-food cake mix, canned sliced pears, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and butterscotch-caramel fudge topping. Wait was picky about his ingredients and pans, and upset by the change in his entry’s name, originally dubbed “macadamia turtle torte” (officials were worried about potential copyright infringements on those gooey chocolate-caramel candies marketed as “Turtles”)

Note: We are aware, of course, of the tradition of male dominance of the culinary arts, for which you need look no further than most of Los Angeles’ finer restaurants and, of course, those of France. But times do change. Women are increasingly donning the toque of master artisans. When it comes to our yummies, we willingly give men and women equal time.