An Olympian, a rancher, and a YouTube celebrity walk into a kitchen, who makes the best pizza?
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Join Five Valleys and Biga Pizza's Bob Marshall for an evening of fun, community, and delicious pizza supporting conservation in western Montana. This year, local celebrity contestants will go head-to-head in a "bake off" to make the best pizza. Our contestants will be judged by local chefs and the event will be emceed by MTCX founder and Five Valleys Board member Shaun Radley. Get your tickets today for our tastiest event of the year! Stay tuned, as we reveal our contestants and judges later this week.
Who: Take a look at our awesome judges and contestants below!
Judges
What would a cooking competition be without judges? That's why we've enlisted some of Montana's top cooking talent to help decide "The Great Biga Bake Off" 2021 Champion.
Ana Willenbrock
Ana was born in Brazil, but honed her culinary skills at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. After graduation, Ana developed her passion and techniques for the creation of gorgeous sweets and delectable pastries in Spain. Ana finally found her way to Montana by way of the Triple Creek Ranch as the Pastry Chef and in 2005, in partnership with her husband, Jason, debuted Posh Chocolat.
Raz Schneider
Raz is the chef and owner of Second Set Bistro. Originally from Hollywood, California, Raz found his way to Montana in 1994 and hasn’t left since. Among his list of biggest achievements: marrying his wife Maddie in 2016, owning The Miners Saloon in Cooke City MT (2004-2021), being head of the Cooke City School board (2006-2008), being the former Mayor of Cooke City (1995-2000), and has attendee of over 60 Grateful Dead shows (with Jerry). When not in the kitchen, Raz can be found fishing, staying at luxury hotels, smoking brisket, and hanging out with Maddie and their trusty bulldog Marvin, while rewatching episodes of The Office.
Jason McMackin
Jason McMackin is the CEO and “recovering baker” at Burns St. Bistro. Jason is equally at home on the single track trails of Missoula’s open spaces, behind the guitar in the “Close But No Seger” Bob Seger cover band, slinging breakfast sandwiches at the Bistro, and is looking forward to opening a new downtown eatery: Brasserie Port Rouge. A man of the world, Jason has an MFA in poetry, has taken to sea as a member of the US Navy, and is pulling hard for chicharones for this event’s secret pizza ingredient. He spends his 7 minutes of free time each week with his wife and son, and second family: the Rattlesnake 1000 cycling club.
Contestants
We are so excited that three of our supporters are willing to duke it out in the kitchen and put their pizza-making pride on the line when asked. Below are the 2021 "The Great Biga Bake Off" contestants:
Courtney Babcock
Originally form Ontario, Canada, Courtney started making anew for herself in the running world while at the University of Michigan. After college, Courtney moved around to different training groups before settling in Missoula with Mountain West Track Club, the only all women’s professional running team at the time. After being a professional runner, making an Olympic team, setting multiple national records, and being a NCAA coach, Courtney began her own coaching business, Key Running.
Bart Morris
Bart and Wendy moved to Missoula in the summer of 2006 and feel lucky to call it home ever since. Bart grew up working on local ranches in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, before spending 16 years catching Grizzly Bears as a game warden and Regional Access Coordinator. In 2014, Bart and Wendy fulfilled a life-long dream and started Oxbow Cattle Company. Oxbow Cattle Company is a regenerative ranch that raises grassfed and grass finished beef on Five Valleys' conservation easement land and is sold directly to the Missoula community.
Hank Green
Hank Green is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. He's also the CEO of Complexly, a production company that creates educational content, including Crash Course and SciShow, prompting The Washington Post to name him "one of America's most popular science teachers." Complexly's videos have been viewed more than two billion times on YouTube.
Thank you to Bob Marshall and Biga Pizza for hosting us.
Biga Pizza owner Bob Marshall tossing dough. Photo by Michael LaPointe.
Thank you to our business sponsors for their generous support of our event:
