Holiday Baking Championship Season 7: Recap, Bakes and Winner

Spoiler note: this recap names the Season 7 winner and covers how the season played out.

Season 7 changed the judging panel out of necessity. Filmed in 2020, the season lost longtime judge Lorraine Pascale to travel restrictions tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Carla Hall stepped into the third chair for what would become a five-season run. The full season by season record lives on our Holiday Baking Championship show hub.

Season 7 at a glance

The finalists

Julianna Jung, from Champaign, Illinois, won the season. The runners-up, both listed as co-finalists, were Lorenzo Delgado and Megan Rountree.

How a Holiday Baking Championship episode works

Even with a new judge in the third chair, the format did not change: a preheat challenge opens each episode and tests a narrower baking skill, while a bigger, holiday-themed main heat closes it out and decides who is eliminated. Bakers work against the clock in a shared studio kitchen, with the judges tasting and critiquing every dish before sending someone home each week, the same structure the show has used since its first episode in 2014.

Notable moments of Season 7

The judging change is the defining story of this season. Lorraine Pascale, who had judged every season since the show began in 2014, was unable to travel for filming due to pandemic-related restrictions, and Carla Hall filled the seat for what turned into a run through Season 11. It was one of several production adjustments baking competition shows made across the industry during 2020, and Holiday Baking Championship's solution, bringing in an established Food Network personality already familiar to viewers, kept the panel's chemistry from feeling disrupted.

Julianna Jung's win closed out a season shaped as much by behind-the-scenes circumstances as by what happened in the kitchen, a reminder that even a purely studio-based format was not immune to the production challenges of that year.

What was at stake

The show's cash prize, reported at $50,000 in its early seasons, remained the core reward on top of the title, even as production adjusted around a global pandemic. That the show could keep its usual stakes and structure intact through a year when so much of television production was disrupted says something about how contained the studio-kitchen format is compared to shows that rely on travel or location shoots, which is likely part of why a judging change was manageable while a full production shutdown was not necessary.

Carla Hall's debut this season kicked off what would become a five-season run in the third chair, just one shorter than Lorraine Pascale's original six-season stint, and the show's overall format had by then matured into a steady, predictable production that could absorb a judging change without missing a beat.

Where to watch and what to read next

Season 7 is generally available to stream on Discovery+ and Max, alongside periodic reruns on Food Network's own broadcast schedule. The complete champion list across all twelve seasons is in our Holiday Baking Championship winners roundup, which also covers the current host and judging lineup in full. Season 6 was Lorraine Pascale's last, and Season 8 continues the Carla Hall era the following year.

Duff Goldman anchored the panel through this transition as he has every season, and his career is covered in our Duff Goldman profile. If the show's colorful showstoppers have you wanting to decorate at home, a set of sprinkles and edible glitter is the fastest way to add competition-level shine to a simple bake.