Veteran-Turned-Pastry Chef Competes on Fox’s New Baking Competition Show

Tune into ‘Crime Scene Kitchen’ Wednesday night to see Alexandria’s Erinn Roth of Ms. Jo’s Petite Sweets.

Erinn Roth still can’t believe she was chosen to compete on FOX’s new baking competition show.

“Crime Scene Kitchen” premieres this Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.

“I can hear my mom saying, ‘If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.’ If you had told me 90 days ago, if you had told me a year ago, during COVID, that I would be on a national TV show on this major network, I’d be like, ‘Yeah right, whatever,’ but God is laughing,” said Roth during a recent interview with Alexandria Living Magazine.

The show pits 12 teams of two people against each other to win a $100,000 prize. Teams are made up of both self-taught and professionally trained bakers.

The contestants are allowed to explore a kitchen that was recently used to bake a specific treat. They must use their baking skills and the clues left behind to determine what was baked and then they have two hours to recreate what they think it was. At the end of each episode, after two rounds, a team is eliminated. The show is hosted by actor Joel McHale with celebrity judges chef Curtis Stone and cake artist Yolanda Gampp.

It was Roth’s late mother who inspired her to start her dessert and catering business, Ms. Jo’s Petite Sweets, after Roth retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2017. Her mother passed away suddenly a few months before retirement. “I was in a severe funk for a couple of months, until one day something said, ‘Get up off your butt and start that business.’ I feel like it was my mother talking to me, so I decided to, as an eternal tribute to her, name my business after her. Ms. Jo is my mom’s first name,” Roth explained.

Roth said that starting her own business was tough but worth it and she passes on the lessons she learned to others who are considering starting their own business. “If you’re lazy, don’t be a small business owner,” she said with a laugh. >