Clashing Over Cakes with Chef Keegan Gerhard of Last Cake Standing by Troy Rogers
From
budding chefs to well-know names on the global
kitchen scene, there's nothing better than a challenge
when it comes to creating diverse, mouth-watering
dishes from all walks of cooking. On Sunday, April
5 at 8pm, the Food Network rolls out its new Food
Challenge series Last Cake Standing that pits
a variety of pastry cooks against each other in
the culinary world of cake creations to crown
a winner after various challenges. In a kitchen
battle that's part of the new Food Network "Challenge"
series, which sees competitors take home cold
hard culinary cash, or simply bragging rights,
Last Cake Standing will school anyone who's having
trouble trying to get their own home-cake to rise
for friends.
Leading up to the premiere of Last Cake Standing on the Food Network, we caught up with show host Keegan Gerhard, one of the best pastry chefs on the planet, to learn more about the challenges of making cakes, Keegan's favorite cake, and whether cheesecake is actually a cake at all.
THE DEADBOLT: Would you say that cake decorating is an extreme sport?
KEEGAN GERHARD: [laughs] I actually would. I’ve done a couple of hundred challenges and I don’t know that everyone would. Here’s why I think it is, because cake decorators are different from sugar showpiece people or chocolate showpiece people, because they don’t feel the pressure or the need to practice as much. You know, if you ask a guy - let’s take chocolate monuments, a recent challenge - if you ask them to make anything, the Eiffel Tower in chocolate, they want a couple of months to practice. Cake people? Tomorrow somebody walks in and asks me to make Nemo, or whatever I have to decide, ‘Do I want to do that or not?’ If I do, I basically have to make it happen. I don’t have time to practice. I have to rely on my existing skill set to make it happen.
So, consequently, cake people are pretty confident they can make whatever comes their way, and sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re not. So the extreme comes in when they over-extend themselves, or when we play with the normal format, which you will see time and again on all four episodes of Last Cake Standing. It’s not a normal challenge. They have prep-time taken away. They have to deal with mystery clients. They have to deal with getting information on the fly, or no information at all.
THE DEADBOLT: What are some of the challenges the competitors face aside from creating unique cakes?
GERHARD: I guess I’ll say that on the surface the answer is "no." They ultimately have to make a cake for each episode. However, what they have to do to get to that in each episode is what the show is more about. For example, there is a mystery client and they come to find out they have to do a wedding and it’s not in a studio. They leave and they have to go and watch the couple get married and it’s just gets crazier from there.
THE DEADBOLT: Given your impressive resume, how would you rank your cake-making skills within this competition?
GERHARD: That’s a great question. I don’t know if I’m the right guy to answer that. But you can go to deboersdesserts.com and see some of our cakes. You know, I would say about 85% to 90% of the cakes I see on challenges, I can do. There’s probably 10% or 15% that I couldn’t, for one of two reasons: I don’t have the skill-set or it’s so not my style that I would never want to go down that road. I would put Mike McCary in a category of pulling off cakes that, not only me but most people on the planet couldn’t do. He was just in my shop the other day and he’s like a little Umpa Lumpa from somewhere else, it’s amazing. Like I said it to him, I don’t understand how he pulls off what he pulls off.
You know, I don’t do all cakes. I do all sorts of sweets. And my wife is a pastry chef as well, and she does way more of the cake than I do. I do real things, like if someone wants a pineapple because they’re from Hawaii. I like doing that. Or if somebody wants Yoda, I can make Yoda exactly in cake. If you want me to make a clown holding a bunch of balloons, it’s not very interesting to me, so that’s the question, and I’m guessing the source of that question, and it’s a good one.
Everyone wants to see me, Kerry, and Patrick [Ashby] compete, because no one has, and I don’t know if it would be as compelling as it could. Probably the only people it would be great for is the competitors who’ve lost in the past, to judge them. But make no mistake, Kerry Vincent is one of the best in the world. Now challenge is not her format, she makes cakes that take five or six months to make. I mean, crazy creations, and you can check out her Oklahoma cake show to see that. And Patrick is there because he’s a good guy. You can see him, if you do your homework, challenge on one of the national pastry championships.
You know, the little footage we show on Food Network where you see a guy carry a sugar piece to a table and it just completely goes to pieces? That was his team in a national pastry championship. There wasn’t anything bigger than a golf ball left on that, Patrick did the flavor on that team. And even though they destroyed their sugar completely, they still got the silver medal because the flavor was so good. So he’s the flavor guy with the unique esthetics and I think that’s why he’s there. So anyway, that’s my take on that.
THE DEADBOLT: Do you have a favorite type of cake?
GERHARD: Well, I’m a guy, so I like chocolate cake like most of us guys. But my favorite cake - I think it has to do with my upbringing. I grew up in Germany until I was eleven and so my mom always made me lemon cake. She thought it very American, and there was never any lemon cake in Europe, so to this day I still get lemon cake in the mail from my mom on my birthday. So that’s my favorite cake.
THE DEADBOLT: What about cheesecake? Is that technically a cake?
GERHARD: That’s a great question. I was just online somewhere and we argued that very point. I argued that it was not a cake because it didn’t have flour, and just because someone named it cheesecake. It should be called a torte. In other countries around the world that do have cheesecake, it’s not called cake. For example, it’s not gâteau à la formage in France, it’s something to do with cheese. You can set it with egg yolk and there’s no levener. So when you take levening and flour out of the mix ... Technically, you can’t call it cake. But they sure are delicious.
Loved the interview with Keegan. His insights during the challenges are great however, after watching LCS I think its time to replace Kerry Vincent as a judge. Kerry could hardly contain her disdain for one of the competitors because of his prior work experience. She, apparently, had a less than satisfactory experience with his former employer (in fact, it came across as sounding like pure jealousy on her part as to his former employers skill.) In one of the challenges when the competitor was unable to use his skill (that his former employer had taught him) Kerry could barely rein in her glee. If she can no longer be impartial she has no business judging in a nationally televised program.
I was disappointed in Last Cake Standing. I felt that the outcome was almost predetermined from the outset. Several times different 'rules' were applied (the winner was allowed to lie down in the Producers Room to sleep rather than spend time going all the way back to the hotel like the other competitors). But mostly, in the Team Challenge the "Winner" Mary Maher would not compromise her design which was the integral part of the challenge- to COMBINE and create an altogether NEW cake. But ohhhh, noooo they just had two separate cakes... and no teamwork. Both the two main points of the challenge- but they wanted Mary to win. From Challenge One- and were willing to bend every rule and give every point until it happened. In that last challenge, Courtney's cake was better.
Last Cake Challenge was a waste of my time. Next time they want to do this, I'll watch the first few minutes to see Kerry's catty remarks to know who she likes and quit watching. At that point, I'll know who will win. The contest is over at that point. Food Network, get rid of Kerry Vincent.
From
budding chefs to well-know names on the global
kitchen scene, there's nothing better than a challenge
when it comes to creating diverse, mouth-watering
dishes from all walks of cooking. On Sunday, April
5 at 8pm, the Food Network rolls out its new Food
Challenge series Last Cake Standing that pits
a variety of pastry cooks against each other in
the culinary world of cake creations to crown
a winner after various challenges. In a kitchen
battle that's part of the new Food Network "Challenge"
series, which sees competitors take home cold
hard culinary cash, or simply bragging rights,
Last Cake Standing will school anyone who's having
trouble trying to get their own home-cake to rise
for friends.
So, consequently, cake people are pretty confident they can make whatever comes their way, and sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re not. So the extreme comes in when they over-extend themselves, or when we play with the normal format, which you will see time and again on all four episodes of Last Cake Standing. It’s not a normal challenge. They have prep-time taken away. They have to deal with mystery clients. They have to deal with getting information on the fly, or no information at all.
GERHARD: That’s a great question. I don’t know if I’m the right guy to answer that. But you can go to deboersdesserts.com and see some of our cakes. You know, I would say about 85% to 90% of the cakes I see on challenges, I can do. There’s probably 10% or 15% that I couldn’t, for one of two reasons: I don’t have the skill-set or it’s so not my style that I would never want to go down that road. I would put Mike McCary in a category of pulling off cakes that, not only me but most people on the planet couldn’t do. He was just in my shop the other day and he’s like a little Umpa Lumpa from somewhere else, it’s amazing. Like I said it to him, I don’t understand how he pulls off what he pulls off.
You know, the little footage we show on Food Network where you see a guy carry a sugar piece to a table and it just completely goes to pieces? That was his team in a national pastry championship. There wasn’t anything bigger than a golf ball left on that, Patrick did the flavor on that team. And even though they destroyed their sugar completely, they still got the silver medal because the flavor was so good. So he’s the flavor guy with the unique esthetics and I think that’s why he’s there. So anyway, that’s my take on that.