'Think we made our little town proud': Kitchener, Ont. bakers win reality TV cooking show

Ont. bakers come out on top in TV competition Two Kitchener bakers took the top prize at Crime Scene Kitchen. Heather Senoran finds out what it was like for the friends to work together.

Lenore Johnson and Jessica Harrison aren’t just friends and entrepreneurs, they’re also the season three winners of Crime Scene Kitchen.

The reality baking show, airing on Fox and CTV, features teams of two from all over the globe.

Johnson owns LenJo Bakes and Harrison owns The Cake Box, both located in Kitchener, Ont.

Even though they have competing businesses, the pair worked together on the show to take the top prize of $100,000.

“It was a huge emotional roller coaster,” Harrison said. “[I was] feeling a bunch of different things all at once.”

They easily got used to working side-by-side.

“Jess and I are very much yin and yang,” Johnson said. “Her strengths are my weaknesses, and my strength are her weaknesses.”

Friendship was also a key ingredient.

“The best part was just being able to bake with my best friend and have a lot of fun together,” Harrison said.

On the show, what the contestants bake depends on what they discover inside the kitchen. Teams have to decode clues to guess the ingredients and replicate what they think was made.

“It was definitely tricky because they would try to put some clues that would try to either distract you, or lead you away from what was actually baked,” Harrison explained. “So really kind of honing in on our skills was super important.”

In the first of two rounds of the finale, the pair chose to make a creative choice that almost cost them the game – an ingredient that wasn’t in the mock crime scene kitchen, but one they believed would taste better.

“We knew exactly what we needed to be making, exactly what we needed to be doing” Johnson recalled. “But instead of having white chocolate, which we thought would taste super sweet – and we were not wrong about that – we made a choice to do dark chocolate instead.”

The duo said they still stand by their choice and believe it was the better tasting ingredient.

Johnson and Harrison were also the only team to nail the last bake, which was an orange semolina olive oil cake with orange curd with a mosaic tile décor. It ended up being almost identical to the mystery cake revealed at the end.

“The one thing that we wanted to do was to not embarrass ourselves and not embarrass Kitchener. I think we made our little town proud,” Johnson said.

The duo’s teamwork won’t end just because the show has.

“Living next door to each other for six weeks in a hotel, how can you not be even closer after that?” Johnson joked. “Now we do a podcast and see each other every week on Mondays to record.”

While excited to show off their skills on TV, both said they’re glad to be back home with their loved ones.

They’ve also learned a lot about themselves and each other, lessons they hope to use for the next challenge that comes their way.