In butter tarts, raisins or no raisins? "Yeah! Why not? I put raisins in everything."
Timothy Fu is a man with two passions: baking and the trombone.
"'The Great Canadian Tromboning Show' isn't likely to happen, so I thought I'd apply for the Great Canadian Baking Show," he says.
In fact, Timothy planned to apply last year. "I had my form filled out, I had my audition video and then I read the fine print," he says. "It said 'You have to be 19,' and I was like, 'Aw shucks, I'm only 18.'"
One year later, Timothy is finally old enough to be on the show.
"This is probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in my life," he says. "I hate to think I've peaked at 19...but I might have."
Timothy is a self-taught baker. He likes to incorporate traditional Chinese flavours and spices into his baking, particularly ginger. He's been passionate about baking from the moment it was introduced to him in home economics class.
"My first exposure to baking was in...Grade 7," he says. "It was most students' favourite rotation: we got to eat the desserts we baked. It was a no-brainer to start baking desserts at home too. I spent a lot of my free time learning the basics of baking, trying new recipe after new recipe. In high school, I started our school's baking club."
When he's not baking, Timothy is a full-time student, studying biology at the University of Alberta. He's also the first chair trombonist in the school's orchestra and volunteers at the campus food bank. He says that balancing school and his passion for baking can take some creativity.
"I'll have a cake in the oven and my physiology notes on the counter," he says. "When I started university, baking began to fall more into the background of my life as I had less free time. The Great Canadian Baking Show is the perfect chance to bring baking back to the forefront of my life. It's a great opportunity to execute the flavour and design ideas that have been floating around in my head."