Blowtorches, power saws and explosives aren't typicaltools of the trade for a pastry chef, but then, Duff Goldman is not your typical baker.
Goldman, 31, is the owner of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also the extreme-cake chef on the Food Network's new series Ace of Cakes. Goldman has baked a replica of Wrigley Field baseball stadium, a seven-tiered Cat-in-the-Hat wedding cake, a three-foot-tall sea horse and a car engine with exploding fireworks. His edible creations take between 10 and 200 hours to assemble. They range in price from $175 to $20,000.
"There's a lot of construction involved,"Goldman told TFK. "We have every tool you can possibly imagine." For the car engine, he and his staff packed firework explosives into plastic piping and wood. Then they assembled the cake around the pipe. "We shot it off and ate it," he says.
Layers of Hard Work and Studying
Adventures in cooking began early for Goldman. At 14, he took his first food-industry job at a local McDonald's. "They will teach you all the skills you need to know," he says. "It's a really good first job. I would recommend it to any aspiring chef."
Later, Goldman studied history and philosophy in college. After attending cooking school in northern California, he took several pastry positions at restaurants. In 2000, he started his own business.
Building Success, Bite By Bite
Goldman credits both work experience and education as key ingredients of his success. Knowledge of art, history and even geometry are part of the mix. "People will ask for weird shapes like a hexagon," he says. Goldman draws the design or shape, and uses a template to cut the cake.
For this baker, cooking up a crazy cake is about much more than just flour, sugar and power tools. "We make joy, and that makes me really happy," Goldman says. "Everything we create will make someone smile."