The Picture Duff Goldman Doesn't Want His Former Hockey Teammates to See

We went over to campus tonight to see Duff Goldman (of Food Network's 'Ace of Cakes' show) as part of the University Lecture Series. The boys and I did this last year to see Grant Imihara and Kari Byron, but I posted some mediocre pictures and had a good time. This year, Ed was with us, we had better seats and I got better pictures because I now have a better camera. Oh, and we had an awesome dinner, too.

Anyway, when Duff came out on stage, he told the audience of his first trip to Tampa: 20 guys, two 15 passenger vans and a bunch of hockey gear, all because they had a match against USF (so I'm assuming he was on the UMBC team). They thought they'd cream them, because what would a bunch of guys who live in perpetual summer know about hockey?

They got spanked.

So, the moderator presented Duff with a Bulls hockey jersey and Duff said it would be very bad if his fellow teammates see him wearing this, since they got beaten by the team so handily back then. Guess they didn't think that some guys from the snow belt who were raised on the ice would pick a school where it's sunny and much warmer in the winter.

It was a great presentation. The moderator asked questions and Duff would spin long tales in response to each one. He started the bakery in his townhouse in Baltimore and someone from the Health Department knocked on his door. "We have reports that you're running an unlicensed bakery out of this house." Duff asked if he even looked like a baker and the guy left. Soon after, he bought the first bakery, then later bought the church on Remington that is Charm City Cakes today. The name of the bakery is because there are tons of businesses with 'Charm City' in the lovely city of Bawlmore, he thought it was industrial sounding, hon.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, he and his brother delivered a LIFE SIZE baby elephant cake to Arizona. 850 pounds, 250 of which was gray modeling chocolate. That delivery resulted in them eating wings at Buffalo Wild Wings on Thanksgiving, so that they could watch football.

He cleared up some misconceptions. He doesn't hate cupcakes entirely, he just finds them incredibly boring to make and decorate. Hand him one to eat and he will do it.

Apparently, over time, it's been reported that he has a fear of cutting cakes. He doesn't, he just feels he sucks at it and because he does a bad job of it, he gets others to do the deed.


For all the episodes of "Ace of Cakes" where the staff is drinking white russians or grabbing booze from Dizzy Izzy's, it ends up that we've never seen Duff drinking on the show. I realized this after he said he's allergic to alcohol. What a bummer.

He was asked what cake he'd like for his birthday, which he modified to his wedding cake. If he had his way, the bottom layer would be the 14" round sausage discs you get on a Lou Malnati chicago deep dish pizza. Then, it'd be a 12" layer of meatloaf. Next, a 10" layer of spam. The top layer would be another meat product (forget which), then frosted in mashed potatoes with hot, crispy bacon rosettes and a gravy ganache. I get the impression that he doesn't like cake much.

Then again, he did live in an apartment above he bakery. He told of waking up at 6am to the smell of cake, his cat smelling of cake, his clothes smelling of cake and well, I think I can understand why he might have had his fill of the stuff. Add to that he worked at the bakery, has a gym and rehearsal space for soihadto in the basement and that he'd sometimes spend four days straight in that building and once he had enough money for two mortgages, he moved back into that townhouse.

As for the future, he will be opening another bakery in Los Angeles and Geoff will take over the day to day operations in Baltimore. His goal is to retire in five years and go far, far away from television cameras. If possible, he wants to make cheese in Italy. Sounds like a good plan.

Once again, USF brought someone entertaining to speak and he did not disappoint. It was just a bonus that I got to break in the new camera taking pictures tonight.

Comments

Meghan said…
Hey Suzanne, it sounds like you had a great time tonight. I wish I could have been there! At least you took pictures :)
Unknown said…
Hello Suzanne-
I stumbled on your blog while searching for anything on the Duff Goldman interview. My daughter was the moderator, and we, her dad and I, live overseas and could not attend. I really appreciate you blogging about it; it gave me a nice picture of what the night was like. Thought you'd like to know! Thank you!
Cathy Layton
Suzanne said…
Cathy, if you want to email me at the blog name AT gmail dot com, I will be happy to email the pictures I got of your daughter, too. :)

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