Baked

Tom Papa bakes and eats his way through New Orleans, a city well-known for indulgence. He starts by making Doberge cake, a Big Easy cult-classic that's a tower of custard, cake, buttercream and chocolate. Then he heads to Gendusa Bakery to bake French bread for some of the city's best sandwiches, like the fried shrimp po' boy at Zimmer's Seafood. At Cochon Butcher, Tom tries a Cajun pork dog on a pretzel bun, and at SoBou, beignets get a sweet and savory makeover with sweet potato in the batter and coffee ganache glaze on top. Finally, Tom heads to Cafe Reconcile, where they help at-risk kids while serving up warm, gooey slices of bananas Foster bread pudding.

Tom Papa heads to Cleveland, the "Pierogi Pocket" of America, to bake up some serious comfort food, like Old World-style rye bread for the city's favorite mile-high corned beef sandwich and, of course, cheesy potato pierogis. In Little Italy, he makes a cloud-like cassata cake with mountains of whipped cream and strawberries. Chef Jonathon Sawyer shows Tom how to make the pot pie of his dreams with half a bone-in chicken in buttery blitz dough, and then he caps off his trip with a classic Hungarian dessert of sour cream dough, raspberries, walnuts and chocolate.

Tom Papa heads home to New Jersey to bake flatbread in a 400-square-foot, coal-fired oven at Frank Sinatra's favorite bakery. Crumb cake gets a massive makeover when its piled high with the s'mores trifecta: chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker. Tom goes international with new New Jersey classics like paper-thin Turkish dough layered with butter and cheese and Portuguese puff pastries filled with cinnamon-spiked custard. And his childhood memories come flooding back with a bite of Italian rum cake soaked with the spirit and layered with whipped cream.