Lorraine Pascale Won't Be Returning to 'Holiday Baking Championship' This Year

It's been two years since Holiday Baking Championship fans saw Lorraine Pascale on the judges' panel — and despite many hoping the OG judge would be returning as travel restrictions loosened for the holiday season, it appears that she is not returning to the panel this year.

For the 2020 season, Carla Hall replaced Lorraine on Holiday Baking Championship, and it appears she's returned yet again for another season.

But why is Lorraine not on Holiday Baking Championship? Here's what we know.

Unfortunately, it appears as though Lorraine will not be on the new season of Holiday Baking Championship, despite being part of the show's first six seasons.

Neither Lorraine nor Food Network have commented publicly on her departure, so it's not entirely clear why she is not returning this year — though we have some theories.

It's entirely possible that since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Lorraine has been working on a sort of rebrand of her content. Before lockdown happened, she would often post photos on Instagram of the food she was making at home, sharing recipes with her 260,000 followers.

Since then, though, she's really leaned in to the self-love aspect of her account, and there's barely a mention of her baking background at the moment.

Her Instagram bio currently reads "Lifestyle • Fashion • Beauty • Healing" and touts her MSc in Psychology before there's any mention of her culinary degree. While there are currently occasional posts about food on her page, they're usually in the context of learning to love feeding and fueling your body.

It's possible that Lorraine has decided to take her career in a new direction, and unfortunately, her time judging baking competitions may be taking a back seat to that for now.

While that doesn't mean that we'll never see Lorraine in the judge's chair again, her food background doesn't appear to be her primary focus anymore — but there's so much more she's bringing to the table.

For those who didn't already know, before she flexed her baking muscles and landed herself roles on Food Network, Lorraine was a model for Versace and a mechanic, proving she can really wear many hats. Her self-love and healing brand is simply just another hat Lorraine has decided to wear.

When it came time to film the 2020 season of Holiday Baking Championship, the COVID-19 pandemic was still causing many countries to keep their borders closed and limit international travel. This meant that even though filming had begun for the season in the U.S., Lorraine was unable to make it.

Lorraine also missed the recent season of Spring Baking Championship, which also films in California — forcing her to stay in London for much of the year.

You can catch Jesse Palmer, Carla Hall, Nancy Fuller, and Duff Goldman on Holiday Baking Championship, airing Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on the Food Network.