{"id":9483,"date":"2025-02-17T15:22:31","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T20:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.epiny.org\/?post_type=chocolate-ball-judge&#038;p=9483"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:52:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:52:58","slug":"mina-hoyt","status":"publish","type":"chocolate-ball-judge","link":"https:\/\/www.epiny.org\/chocolate-ball-judge\/mina-hoyt\/","title":{"rendered":"Mina Hoyt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mina grew up in Greece, NY, and knew from the age of 10 that she wanted to be a chef. Coming from a large Persian and Italian family, baking and cooking have always been central to her life. Whether making Italian cookies with her aunts or learning Iranian dishes from her father, her path to a culinary career seemed inevitable. As a child, Mina dreamed of becoming an artist and working in a chocolate factory \u2014so she blended her passions and became a pastry chef!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She refined her craft early on, attending We-Mo-Co\u2019s vocational program for Pastry and Baking while still in high school. Her talent has taken her far, as a successful competitor in EPI\u2019s Chocolate Ball Cake Competition and on several Food Network shows, including Bakers vs. Fakers, Girl Scout Cookie Championship, Holiday Wars, and more! She has also served as a judge on Food Network\u2019s Buddy vs. Duff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year, Mina is returning to EPI\u2019s Chocolate Ball for the first time as a judge! She is excited to bring her expertise and enthusiasm to the competition and looks forward to seeing the creativity on display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9477,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"chocolate-ball-year":[209],"class_list":["post-9483","chocolate-ball-judge","type-chocolate-ball-judge","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","chocolate-ball-year-209"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mina Hoyt - EPI | Empowering People&#039;s Independence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.epiny.org\/chocolate-ball-judge\/mina-hoyt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mina Hoyt - EPI | Empowering People&#039;s Independence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mina grew up in Greece, NY, and knew from the age of 10 that she wanted to be a chef. 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