Hosting Food Network Challenge

I was able to participate in a phone interview with Keegan and ask him questions about Food Network Challenge and their new mini series Last Cake Standing.

Tonight is the premier of Last Cake Standing. This reality TV series is like some of their other reality tv shows. They are pushing these pastry chefs to their breaking points to see who has what it takes to have the last cake standing. Keegan described the competitors as being tough and that they learned more about themselves than they did about making cakes.

The stress of competing is what gets to most of the competitors. Keegan’s advice is for competitors to come prepared. You may not practice making the exact cake but come with ideas and something simple, because time management is the first thing to go out the window and you have to allow time for something to go wrong because something always will.

He is also the pastry chef I would call on if I could afford him, if I lived in the area he works in and needed a Yoda cake. He said that for him, making cakes has to be interesting to him. He can carve it if it his into it. Otherwise, it’s not something he wants to do.

I asked Keegan what his favorite off set location was and he said selfishly it would be Hawaii, but for the show, Disney World. When you combine, Food Network Challenge to Disney, then magic happens. One of the competitions was for the contestants to be released into the park and finding someone to make a cake for.

There are a few older episodes that are Disney inspired. There was the Disney princess cakes, and the Disney character cakes.

I also wanted to know what his personal greatest disaster was and he was actually kind enough to tell all of us. It was for a restaurant he used to work for and Baked Alaskan was their specialty dessert. Well, he made enough of the frozen part to serve 2000 people and thought his part of the job was over. Well, later he finds out that the freezer he put all of it in was broken so he had to scrounge together people and desserts to serve to 2000 people. The head table was still able to have Baked Alaskan but everyone else got whatever could be found. Luckily, only one person wrote and asked about that Baked Alaskan.

My final question was how he came to be the host. I asked him why he chose to be the host and well he says he didn’t. There used to be a show on Food Network where they covered a national competition and there was no host. So there was a lot of dead sound (crowd noise from the competition) He was one of the competitors there and it just sort of fell on him to start hosting. He became the host as the show changed into Food Network Challenge. (at least this is my understanding of what he said.) It is very hard to participate in an interview when your children are crying in the background (but I LOVE THEM dearly) I also can’t wait for my next invitation to do an interview.

Keegan enjoys hosting the show and working with the judges. The audience constantly wants to know his favorites and he is constantly biting his tongue. He has to say I just like cakes, even if he does have a favorite. Just remember, he does like cakes, he is a pastry chef.

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