The Secret Ingredient

Kelly McIntyre is the owner/operator of the Cake Factory, a bricks and mortar and online bakery in her small hometown of Bailey's Fork, North Carolina. One of her regular clients is the Main Street Cafe across the street from the bakery, the cafe owned by her parents and the place she learned how to bake alongside her childhood friend and ex-fiance Andrew York. While she remains self-taught in the baking arts and sciences, Andrew ended up going to culinary school in Paris, where he remained due to opportunities that presented themselves after he graduated. He is now the executive pastry chef working for renowned executive chef, Francois Dumont. His move to Paris, in which she was not willing to follow in needing to eke out her own life, is the reason they broke up. Coinciding with Andrew's first trip back to Bailey's Fork since moving, it being a short stop-over before he heads to New York to help a friend with a restaurant opening, Kelly learns that she has been selected among those nominated to take part in a special Valentine's baking edition of her favorite internationally-televised competition cooking show, Four Square Cooking hosted by celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan in New York City. It will be a four person, three round elimination. Among the rules of the show are that she can only let one person know she has been chosen, that person, her assistant Sara, to handle all affairs back home; that she cannot divulge the results before they air the finale on Valentine's Day; that they will not divulge to her who her nominee is until she is eliminated or crowned the winner; and that she and the other contestants will not know who the others are until they are eliminated or have reached the final judgment at the finale. In that vein, what she does not know is that Andrew's story about New York is just that, a story, and that he is one of the other contestants. In running into each other in New York City, they allow themselves to get reacquainted and realize that there are still romantic sparks between them. If there is a happily-ever-after for them, they will have the existing obstacle of their differing career and thus life paths to overcome, which may be made all the more expansive as an obstacle with the results of the show in which the winner will receive $100,000 prize money.