If you haven't heard that Buddy Valastro and Duff Goldman are going head-to-head for the first time in their decades-long careers this Sunday, (1) where have you been? and (2) that's OK, weirdo. We've got all the info you could possibly need on the upcoming premiere of Buddy Vs. Duff.
Aaand, lucky for you, we also grabbed each of these casual baking icons for a few minutes this week to ask them a bit about the show...which, BTW, both confirm is a fiercely competitive and entirely un-staged journey.
Had you two really never competed against one another before??
Duff Goldman: Never. Never once! We’ve never even hung out. We met a long time ago once for like 5 minutes. I held the door for him, he was carrying a sheeter, a large piece of equipment—that was it. That was the only time we’d ever talked until the first day of this competition.
Buddy Valastro: But I think throughout the filming of the show and stuff, we became good friends!
Was there a particular competition across the 6 weeks where you felt nervous or out of your league, or nah?
DG: One of the things that makes me a good competitor is that I always feel like I’m out of my league. I approached every single one of these competitions—the baking and the cakes—like I was at a disadvantage, and I think that helped us excel and do excellent work.
BV: No! This is what we do, what we live for. I tried to go out there, give it my best, give it everything I can, and I think we did a great job. I’m proud of what [we] accomplished throughout the competition.
Which competition was the most memorable for you?
DG: The very first baking battle, which was our childhood favorites—that one I was really excited about because the strudel I made is very personal. It’s this amazing strudel my great-grandmother would make. Then my grandmother learned how to make it, and she taught my mom who taught me. I was excited to do it because it means so much and it’s incredibly difficult, so the technique I was showing off….well, I was just showing off [laughs]. It’s not easy to make!
BV: Oh, hm. I think the finale was most grueling for us. It was pretty wild. It took four days, four 18-hour days. I slept in my office, we went so hard, you know?
Wait, Buddy, can you tell me what you made?!
BV: I don’t know if I’m allowed to, but I made...a pretty big, giant cake. It was like 20 feet long and five feet wide. It was definitely up there [as one of the largest cakes I've ever made].
What about you, Duff, any baking insanity you can share?
DG: There was one cake we were delivering in the back of my pick-up truck because we were really late, and we had to battle LA traffic to get to the Magic Castle, and we had a cover over the cake, but as we were on the 101, the cover fell off! Like, pieces of it were falling off because of the wind. It was just a nightmare.
Sounds exhausting.
DG: It was a grueling competition. I’ve competed on a lot of different shows [and] in culinary competitions that are not televised, some of them really difficult—especially the ones that are not on TV, those are not designed for fun. Those are purely designed to see who has the most skill, and a lot of them have been really high-pressure. This one was, far and away, the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.
BV: It really was grueling. But I think the whole show was fun. I think it's going to be a treat for viewers.
DG: You’re not just seeing a competition, you’re also seeing the process of how two very skilled but very different people do something. How we approach things differently, how we execute differently, how we work differently. The people who love Ace of Cakes and who love Cake Boss are just gonna love this show.
Now that you know each other—what's the other's biggest strength as a competitor?
BV: Ohhhh. I would say [Duff's] biggest strength is his attention to detail.
DG: Buddy’s a really good baker. Where he is absolutely better than me is speed and time management. My bakery makes five, maybe 10 cakes in a week. He makes 10,000 cakes in an hour [laughs].
