Most of us who watch Food Network’s Ace of Cakes feel like we know Duff Goldman.
He’s the wacky Baltimore baker who has done everything from making cakes move to blowing them up – and always with a smile plastered to his face. His bakery, Charm City Cakes, turns out re-creations of everything from car engines that blow smoke to a scale model of Chicago’s Wrigley Field, complete with ivy-covered walls. His team of painters and cake engineers constructs elaborate edible designs under the watchful eye of the Food Network’s cameras.
And just as the cakes he bakes don’t fit conventional standards, Goldman’s path into a pastry shop doesn’t fit into a standard 9-inch cake pan, either.
Goldman said he caught the food bug early, watching his mother and grandmother in the kitchen.
“Everything we ate was homemade,” he said.
He also grew up watching early incarnations of food television.
“Some of my earliest memories are watching [In the Kitchen with Chef Tell] on black and white while my mom was cooking,” Goldman said.
Goldman worked his way up the culinary food chain – from fast food joints such as McDonald’s and Burger King to greasy spoon breakfast spots and pizza places. He said his parents supported his culinary aspirations, but he had to get a degree first.
He graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he majored in history and minored in philosophy. While attending school, he worked in the Charleston Restaurant, a Baltimore restaurant then called Savannah. Doing double-duty at the restaurant and taking classes caused some attendance problems. He couldn’t always make all of the lectures for his classes, he said, but he wanted to keep his job, too.
“One of my teachers taught Civil War history – he had this thick Southern accent,” Goldman said. “He’s like, ‘Young man, you’re not going to pass this class,’ and I’m like, ‘I’ll pass it. I’ll study. I’ll read everything. I will take all the tests. I will pass it.'”
The semester progressed and Goldman did well in the class, even though the professor “was really tough” on him. One night, he and some other chefs had finished for the evening, and as they left the kitchen, he spotted the professor sitting at the bar. The professor told Goldman it was his favorite restaurant.
Turns out Goldman’s claims weren’t unfounded – he made the A.
After graduation, Goldman ventured to California, going to pastry school before getting a job under culinary guru Thomas Keller, owner of the esteemed French Laundry. Goldman said working there was “like working at the Louvre – you’re in a state of constant amazement.”
Working in restaurants provided him with the mindset toward food he’s carried ever since: “Overdo it.”
And while one might think it would be painful to watch people eat the cakes the bakery works so hard to create, Goldman couldn’t disagree more.
“Not to get too deep, but I think cakes are a metaphor for the impermanence of beauty in life and art,” he said. “They’re these amazing physical manifestations of joy that are then consumed. I think that’s awesome – I like it. If people weren’t eating them, I’d be really upset. They are cakes.”
But even though he loves the art of cake baking – and even tried to break a Guinness record for the largest cupcake – he’s not a fan of cakes’ Lilliputian counterparts.
“I don’t like making cupcakes,” he said. “I have nothing against a cupcake; cupcakes have never done anything to me. I love cupcakes – I love eating cupcakes. I think it’s a delicious little nugget of wonderfulness; I just don’t like making them. I think it’s a pain. I think the whole fad of cupcake trees is just, ugh.”
Goldman said that when he visits the campus tonight, he’s bringing along one of the bakery’s most requested items: a Testudo cake made specifically for the school.
“I’m stoked,” he said. “I’m really excited about it. I know I’m a die-hard UMBC grad – I’m probably going to wear my UMBC jersey … but I’m really excited. I really love the University of Maryland system; I love the state. It’s going to be a great day. Knowing how popular we are on campuses … it’s going to be a lot of fun, because college kids get really excited.”
Duff Goldman speaks tonight in the Grand Ballroom of the Stamp Student Union. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 otherwise. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. show.
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