Diane Cordial

In 1965, Diane Cordial, a registered nurse and mother from Powell, Ohio entered a contest at the Ohio State Fair with just one entry, oatmeal cookies, and became hooked on competitive baking by winning her first blue ribbon. This sparked an interest in baking competition that would last the next 40 years, where her candies, cookies, cakes and pies became winners in over 70 categories. As a young girl, Diane cultivated her baking skills in 4-H. She also learned many culinary fundamentals growing up with her grandmother, taking advantage of their fresh-grown gardens from their farm in London, Ohio.

Diane became especially well-known for her performance on "Pie Day" at the Ohio State Fair, baking as many as 15 pies in one day and winning all major pie categories including baked cherry, pecan, pumpkin, coconut cream, lemon, raisin, chocolate cream, sugar cream, peach, traditional apple, Dutch apple, peanut butter, butterscotch, blackberry, blueberry and other specialty categories.

The highlight of Diane's baking career came in 1991, when her sour cherry pie won the Crisco American Pie Celebration in New Orleans. Diane's pie was voted best pie over 49 other state champion bakers, all of whom had won blue ribbons for their baking skills in their home states.

Since 1991, Diane has served as a judge in various baking competitions, where she continues to act as a teacher and consultant to aspiring bakers everywhere. Although no longer baking competitively, she enjoys creating her homemade specialties for family, friends, and co-workers.

In 2005, Diane decided to share her love for quality baking with others. Together with her husband of 44 years, Charles, their four daughters and sons-in-law, they made it a family affair, and formed the Ohio-based company, Simply Sweetz, LLC. Simply Sweetz features pies, of course, as well as other blue-ribbon recipes, including cakes, cookies, candies and other confections.