Red Gerard and the perfect family-of-ten recipe

Winning Olympic gold can certainly gain you clout online.

But PyeongChang 2018 snowboarding Olympic champ Red Gerard still has some way to go to match his sister Tieghan’s food and fashion monster blog ‘Half Baked Harvest.’

Red has around 250k followers on Instagram, while his sister has amassed a whopping 3.6+ million fans and counting.

Yes, Red Gerard can hit a switch backside 270 rail with his eyes closed… but can he nail a Vanilla Burnt Basque Cheesecake?

Maybe, if he uses his sister’s recipe.

Red and Tieghan Gerard: Family business

The Gerard family has had enjoyed some wild success in completely different fields. The secret ingredient? A tight relationship of support and mutual admiration.

Red took the world by storm at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games as a 17-year-old, winning gold in snowboard slopestyle in spectacular fashion.

In 11th place before his final run of three, Gerard pulled off a sublime backside triple to leap to the top of the podium.

Behind the scenes of Olympic gold

Tieghan was there, along with 18 other members of the loud and proud Gerard family party in Korea - all dressed in red.

She'd been there since the Opening Ceremony, and her blog post allowed viewers to live the moment through the eyes of an Olympic champion's sister.

"I really didn’t care what (position) Red ended up taking. Obviously first would be amazing, but he had already accomplished what he came there to do. He put down a kick ass run. He did his best.

"But guys? That kick ass run held the top position all the way through and Red won gold!

"GOLD."

It was record-breaking.

The USA's first medal at PyeongChang, the youngest male US Olympian to win a gold in close to a century, the youngest men’s snowboarding gold medallist and the first Olympic Winter Games medallist born in this millennium.

Solid foundations

Red Gerard started snowboarding because of his brother Kai. The future Olympic champion followed his older sibling onto the slopes.

"Malachi has been with Red literally every step of the way," Tieghan wrote online.

"But especially throughout this last year leading up to the Olympics. Watching those two together is best. I’ve never seen so much brotherly love or two people who can spend so many hours together and not become sick of each other, it’s incredible.

"I was so happy I was able to be there to watch that award be given, because in a way, Red’s gold medal is also a testament to Kai, and really to all of my brothers. It was a pretty special moment, and I saw tears in my mom’s eyes."

In the media feeding frenzy that followed, Kai was there too to support and help his teenage brother.

Standing 1.65m (5'5), diminutive, dynamic, instantly likeable, Red became an overnight sensation, going from an exciting young rising star not many people had heard of to being part of the USA's 'fantastic four' in PyeongChang.

Suddenly his name was in the same sentence as Shaun White, Chloe Kim, and Lindsey Vonn.

Tieghan Gerard and the rise of 'Half Baked Harvest'

There must be something in the Gerard DNA.

His brother Brendan is also a pro snowboarder, and what started as Tieghan's small food blog after attending fashion school in Los Angeles has become a global entrepreneurial enterprise.

Like Red, Tieghan also found a bedrock of support and inspiration at home. In 2012, after years of experimenting with family recipes and cooking ideas she found online, mother Jen suggested that she start her own food blog.

The year 2022 marks the ten year anniversary of the blog and the success has been stratospheric. An account on Instagram with a whopping 3.6 million followers, a New York Times bestselling cookbook, and another on the way that will be published in February 2022.

That's the same month that Red will try and defend his Olympic gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

'Half Baked Harvest' has got so big that Tieghan has been interviewed on several network TV shows and national media outlets.

Unsurprisingly, the whole family gets involved. Mom and Dad, Conrad, both work with Tieghan, while Kai plays a key role in photographing the delicious food.

In an idyllic converted log barn practically next to the family home in Summit County, Colorado - where the flock of chickens and family of goats roam free - Tieghan spends her days making mouth-watering meals for the people she loves, with the people she loves, then sharing her creations with the world.

When the local brightland.co blog visited and asked Tieghan what she likes doing with her time outside the kitchen the answer was easy.

"I live for my morning hikes and spending time with my family. I am very, very simple and love chill time," she said.

Red Gerard Olympics: Beijing 2022

Time stands still for no Olympic champ or supremely successful food blogging sister.

While Half Baked Harvest has gone from strength to strength, Red has been elevating on the slopes too.

In 2020 he won his first X Games medal, coming third place in Aspen, and topped the podium too in Copper Mountain on the Dew Tour.

Olympic preparations have been similarly successful. At the virtual Beijing 2022 Team USA Media Summit in October 2021 the reigning champ was confident that Team USA could make it a slopestyle threepeat.

At Sochi 2014 Sage Kostenburg became the discipline's first ever Olympic gold medallist, then Red emerged victorious in 2018 and now he's confident the U.S. can claim the crown once more.

“I do feel good about the U.S. slopestyle team right now,” Gerard said, as reported in Forbes.

The 21-year-old liked what he saw at the U.S. team’s training camp in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, in October 2021 saying he was “amazed” at his teammates' progression.

“Everyone is learning new tricks. Two years ago, it was cool to see 1440s; now it seems like 1620s are just on the regular and everyone’s doing them," he said.

When asked about his own journey, he talked about his growth over the last four years.

"Last time when I went, I think we were all just so young and really had no clue what to expect and all that," he continued at the summit.

"You know, when four years go by, things change. I think the number one thing is just getting older and doing more contests each year and sometimes getting on top of the podium or just getting on the podium in general, brings a lot of experience and makes you maybe a little bit more hungry for that feeling."

Speaking of hungry, while Red admits he's no gourmet chef and leaves that to Tieghan, he also knows he'll have big family support when the Beijing Games begin with the Opening Ceremony on 4 February.

While he won't have the same family presence in Beijing due to Covid restrictions, this older, more mature Olympic champion is ready to make his family proud once more as they watch on from the Colorado mountains, more united than ever.