Duff Goldman loves good competition. The chef and culinary artist puts his skills to the test like never before through Super Mega Cakes. Premiering June 16, the new Food Network series sees the Charm City Cakes head and his crew including Geof Manthorne face off with six teams of top-tier cake artists over the course of four days all at once. 

Each of the six episodes centers on a specific head-to-head build from Superman and Under the Sea to architectural wonders and alien invasion. These themes have other criteria that must be fulfilled like a floating element or lighting scheme. Sherry Yard and Amaury Guichon serve as regular judges alongside guests to the panel. Among them are Eric Bauza, Beck Bennett, Paul de Gelder, Jack Osbourne, Drew Scott and Jacques Torres. 

It all leads to the finals where it’s up to a 50-person audience to decide which of the finalist cakes wins. Bragging rights and cold hard cash are on the line. Goldman is no stranger to this environment battling the likes of Cake Boss Buddy Valastro. However, he tells us why Super Mega Cakes is a cut above the rest. 

How did the idea for the show come about? 

Duff Goldman: The last cake show on Food Network was Buddy vs. Duff. We thought we should make more cake shows. We thought about how we could top the epicenes of Buddy vs. Duff and came up with this format that was absolutely insane. It was genuinely the most difficult show I’ve ever competed on. A lot of that was I made it difficult on myself because that is what I do. I like to find the limits of what is possible, and sometimes I find them. It’s good because you are figuring out what’s possible and what is the craziest thing you can make. 

What can you say about the competition and how they measure up? 

Buddy was good and talented and a great cake decorator and a really smart guy, but some of the people we were competing against are just on another level. I’d say most of them were younger than me and grew up watching Ace of Cakes, Buddy vs. Duff and all these shows and took the ball and ran with it. So, the cool thing for me is I couldn’t just keep doing the same stuff I used to do. I really had to reach because I was competing against a whole new generation of cake decorators and cake artists that are just out of this world. 

What did you think of Sherry and Amuary as judges? 

I think there are not many people in the world that would be qualified to judge a show like this. Both of those chefs are more than qualified. Sherry is one of the best pastry chefs in the world. She has forgotten more about baking than I’ll ever learn. She is also one of the coolest, sweetest, loveliest human beings ever with a great eye for aesthetics. As much as this is a competition of flavor, it’s also absolutely a competition of aesthetics. We’re making decorative cakes. They have to look good. Also, I don’t think there is anybody like Amuary who has basically taken this way of over-the-top cake decorating and talent that spirit to a different medium, and he does it with chocolate. The stuff that guy makes. We’re talking about working telescopes and stuff. It is insane. That guy is one-of-a-kind. I never met him before this show. Listening to his critiques and the way he thought about these challenges and how he would approach them, I was taking notes. This guy is very subtle and really understands what it takes to create something that is truly effective and amazing. That guy was someone else. 

You also have an eclectic mix of guest judges. Anyone you were particularly excited to see or who may have surprised you with their knowledge? 

We had the guy who does the voice of a lot of the Looney Tunes voices. I mean this guy [Eric Bauza] is the voice of Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny was part of our cake. This guy lives and breathes Looney Tunes, if anyone understands the source material we’re drawing from and understands how reverentially we are treating the source material but also with the correct amount of playfulness and silliness and fun. That cake we really pushed the envelope with not only with what we make and the humor of it. It was very funny. I was a little nervous like I didn’t want to offend anybody. But it’s Looney Tunes. We drop anvils on people’s heads. He definitely appreciated it, which was a plus. 

What can you say about the themes you were excited about taking on? 

I have probably seen the original Superman movie probably a hundred times. I watched it every single day as a little kid. I loved the original Superman and the comics. When you watch it, I think the way we talk about Superman, we get a little nerdy. Superman is iconic, so when we were approaching this we wanted to make it fun but show everyone we understood and had a knowledge of Superman. The cake flavor I made for Superman was a brown sugar, sour cream crumble cake with a rhubarb jam on it. I wanted to do a very Midwestern flavor. I feel it’s the kind of thing the matriarch of a farm would bake. Clark Kent grew up on a farm.

We put the rhubarb jam because it’s canon that Superman’s favorite dessert was his mom’s Rhubarb pie. I made the filling and put it on top because I couldn’t make a cake out of rhubarb pie, so I still kept the flavor. It was a deep cut not a lot of people would know. Another thing about that cake is a 2,200-pound ice sculpture for it. I’ve carved a little ice on Food Network, but not a ton. Back in the day I was a competitive ice carver before I was on television. I got to do a really big ice sculpture for the Superman cake, which is not something you see very often on Food Network. It was very satisfying for me personally to show something maybe people didn’t know I know how to do. 

Tell us more about what’s up for grabs. 

The winning team of each challenge gets 10 grand. At the end of the six episodes, they take the six winning cakes that go against each other. We have them in a room and invite 50 people to walk around and taste the cakes and ask questions. Just people off the street. Then whoever wins from that gets 40 grand. 

We’re talking about cakes, but you’ve gone through your own health journey as well. Tell me about how that all started and how you’re inspiring others. 

I got an Instagram account that was really to journal for myself. Something to keep me focused and make sure I was posting every day. If I’m not working out, then there would be nothing to post. It was a way to just really keep it consistent. It has grown to almost 30,000 followers. It is such a positive community. I’m selling absolutely nothing. I’m not giving anyone advice on how to do an exercise or something. All I’m talking about is my day-to-day journey. Like I worked a lot this week and eating brownies and eating cookies and when I got home I wasn’t in the mood to have a salad and had a pizza. These are the words I’m telling myself. I’ll say if I feel good about this or bad about that. I’m on a roll and my t-shirts are fitting differently. I talk about all the things happening in my head. I think that resonates with people because the things I’m saying to myself are things other people are saying themselves on this journey. 

I’m just some guy just like everybody else. I’m built the same and have the same muscles and bones and temptations and weaknesses that everyone else has. I think when people see how I’m able to overcome a lot of those lapses. Like when I’m on a road trip with my family, I’m not going to bring a blender with juice all the time. I’m just going to eat some burgers. That’s just how it is. People understand and see that when my days are structured at home, I can eat clean. This is what I’m eating and the exercises I’m doing. Mentally this is also what I’m going through. It’s amazing the amount of people who have found inspiration from there because I’m not some 23-year-old completely shredded Instagram influencer trying to sell you protein and creatine. I’m a 50-year-old dad who eats brownies for a living. It’s a lot more relatable. 

Where are you in terms of your goals today? 

I feel I’ve plateaued for the last two or three months at about 50 pounds I’ve lost. I’d like to lose another 40 or so, but I’m right in the middle of filming. When this is over, I’m going to step back into the building and taste 12 slices of pie. It starts adding up. What I try to do is on my account I let people know “Listen, this is my job. This is what I do. I’m a professional chef and I like to eat. ’m not eating sardines, black beans and lettuce every day. This is what I do for a living.” I’m trying to be a normal human and trying to stay healthy while I’m doing the thing I love to do, which is bake cookies, eat cookies and talk about cookies. 

Now I’m hungry. 

[Laughs] Right! 

Lastly, do you see yourself facing off with Buddy again? 

We had a lot of fun together and made some crazy cakes. Facing off against all these newer, younger pastry chefs that are bringing something incredible to the table, I feel like me personally, I’m learning a lot more from them. That’s why I like competing. You watch what everyone does and see how they do it. Same thing for judging. One of the reasons I love judging these shows is every time someone brings up a dish and puts it in front of me, I learn something. I don’t know everything and learn a lot. I think that is what I learned about this show. I’m learning from a whole new crop of people using new technologies in cake decorating. Back in the day for Ace of Cakes, I was the guy that was bringing different technologies to cake decorating. I was bringing plumbing and electricity and engineering and motors and lasers to cakes. Now one of the people I was competing against made an edible hologram! What the f*ck? How do you compete against that? I had to see how he did this. I was floored and blown away. I saw some really cool stuff. These people are hungry, excited and want to take me down because I’m the G. It’s good because you have to remind all the youngin’s that I’m Chef Goldman for a reason motherf*ckers. 

Super Mega Cakes premiere, June 16, 9/8c, Food Network