Duff Goldman teaches cooking and science in Duffs Happy Fun Bake Time
He’s written “Super Good Baking for Kids,” hosted the “Kids Baking Championship” series, and now celebrity chef Duff Goldman will star in a Discovery+ show for families in collaboration with Food Network, “Duff’s Happy Fun Bake Time.”
Like Michelle Obama’s Netflix series, “Waffles + Mochi,” the program’s aim is teaching children about food; Goldman, a professional baker, will explain the science behind his mouthwatering recipes designed to be fun for kids to make at home.
In the grown-up world, Goldman is best known as the star of “Ace of Cakes” and “Buddy vs. Duff” as well as from his guest appearances as a judge on various competition shows. He’s also built two businesses, Charm City Cakes bakery in Baltimore and Los Angeles, and the DIY treats store, Duff’s Cakemix, with shops in Pasadena, West Hollywood, El Segundo and Irvine.
So, when we heard about his new show we just had to find out why he wanted to do an educational program and how he liked costarring with a cast of puppets from the Jim Henson Company. In this series, which begins streaming on Thursday, April 29, he gets to battle a sea monster, meet aliens and more. Here’s what he had to say about his latest television adventures.
Q: We know you’re super busy and you and your wife just had a baby girl in January. Congratulations! Why did you want to make time for this show and how’d you get involved?
A: Well, I was in my kitchen, I was baking, and I was watching “Sesame Street,” because I love kids’ shows. I was just like, this is such a work of art, such a good show with the writing, the beauty of the art, everything about it is really great. And I thought wouldn’t it be really fun to do a cooking show with puppets? And I know people have tried before. It was never awesome. And so I kind of came up with this whole idea and then I brought it to the Jim Henson Company like, “Hey, I got this idea.” They said, “Yeah, let’s do it!”
Q: You brought it to them? Get it, Chef! But this is a new kind of show for you, right?
A: This is definitely something different. My idea was that there would be an actor playing the part of the big guy in the kitchen. And when I brought that up Henson was like, “No, no, no! It’s gotta be you!” I was not planning on being in front of the camera for this.
Q: But you’re on TV all the time with more than one hit show, the folks out there in TV land love you.
A: Yeah, but that’s just me eating a brownie and telling you why it’s good.
Q: This show looks fun with a mix of animation, puppets and live action. Talk us through the characters.
A: Yeah. So Couscous is the sous chef and she’s really in charge. She’s got me and this slacker Sloth, S’Later, and Edgar, a crabby crab, and the Dragon Oven who puts everything in his mouth, he’s obviously not well behaved. There’s a very excitable robot elephant, Dizzy, who’s the mixer just stuck to the wall. So, she’s loud and tries to get everyone to look at her. And then there are six eggs in the fridge and they’re all different grandmothers, they’re called the nonna eggs. So every time we open the fridge we all kind of get yelled at by six grandmothers. Couscous is there to keep us on track.
Q: There’s a grocer guy, too?
A: So my sous chef, my partner in Charm City Cakes, Geof Manthorne, is a friend of mine from college. We’ve: been working together since 2003- 2004. He’s a singer-songwriter. … We’re really tight. And I was like, there has to be a role for Geof. So I said, “You’re going to be the produce guy, the purveyor. Whenever I need something, you show up.” So he brings a mandolin or guitar or something. And he sings a song about whatever we’re doing.
Q: Children’s programs are becoming so cool. I just wrote about “Waffles + Mochi” which teaches kids about ingredients and hopes they learn to try new foods. This show teaches science. And that’s up your alley because baking has to rely on science.
A: What I’m really hoping is that kids will get more interested in the food that they’re eating when they understand what’s happening. Like you can understand what the eggs do in a cake, then you taste the cake and it’s, “OK, I see, this is really fluffy.” It creates even more curiosity and not just about cooking, but just about everything. Having kids curious, I think, is the most important thing we can do.
Q: What do you make on the show?
A: So we make some cakes, we make some cupcakes, we make pasta from scratch. We make sweet snacks and salty snacks. We make ice cream, like five different ways. So, we were making lots of different kinds of things. We make bread and then we make these crazy sandwiches out of it. Each episode has three or four recipes.
Q: Real deal recipes?
A: Just like my recipes that are in my kids’ cookbook — like the chocolate chip cookie recipe — that’s the one that I use when I want to impress people, no doubt about it.
Q: As a pro chef, you’ve taught adults. How is teaching kids different?
A: If an adult doesn’t quite understand, nine times out of 10, they’re going to pretend they do. If kids don’t understand they’re going to be like, “Hold on. What does that mean?” They ask questions. They want to know. So you have to go back and really be able to explain any part of the recipe. And if you’re making it up, kids are gonna know.
Q: Fun challenge! How did you like acting? You even do some green screen. What’s it like on set?
A: I was star struck when I found out some of the projects all these people had worked on, you know, “The Dark Crystal,” Muppet movies you name it. These are the A-listers of the puppeteering world. They were so welcoming and they went out of their way to make it easy for me. Just their improv comedy skills are so great, they could rescue any scene. It was really incredible getting to work with these people, just a dream.
Q: So what do you think, are you going to do some more acting?
A: Hopefully we get to do more “Happy Fun Bake Time.” If everybody watches it we’ll get to make more. That would be wonderful for me. I had so much fun.
Q: Are you proud of doing something that is for the whole family?
A: I really am. When we started putting the show together I really wanted to make sure that kids absolutely love it. It’s obviously for kids, but I want parents to not just be able to tolerate it, but to really enjoy it, too.
This post first appeared on ocregister.com
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