The New Season of the “Halloween Baking Championship” Is Like No Other Cooking Contest sometimes – Because it comes with warning labels about blood, gut and clots. Yes, Season 8 is all of the above, but, of course, in a surprisingly delicious, chipper way.
“Warning: The following program depicts blood, bones, and brains in a way that is delicious. All the baked goods involved in making this show are frighteningly high in calories,” on a black screen at the show’s opening Alert reads.
Popular Food Network series (also streaming search+) sees the return of host John Hanson as the caretaker of a haunted hotel where 12 bakers must impress the judges, chef extraordinaire Stephanie Boswell, Carla Hall and Zack Young. If they fail, the bakers are forced to “check out” and take the elevator to the mysterious 13th floor, from which the guests never return. A real “dead and breakfast,” as Hanson puts it.
“It’s not like what I had booked on the train,” said one of the contestants going up the stairs of the hotel in the dark of night.
Every season, the show pushes the “yuck” factor a little further. This year – leaky sores, squirting plasma, “guts” that move even when they pop out of a cake. “It’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever eaten,” Hanson said. And it’s one of the most disgusting things for fans seen,
Yes, it can be pretty gross — Boswell said of a dessert, “It’s awful to look at in the best way possible” — but it’s not all “disgusting.” In each episode, the judges don some elaborate costumes to get into the Halloween spirit, with Hall teasing that this season has seen him sporting everything from prosthetics to bald hats.
“We have a great head of wardrobe, Susan Bordeaux,” Hall told TheWrap. “And the makeup artist, Tammy Dubey. What can they do for so little? And the reason we love it is because it gives people ideas about things they can do without a lot of money, because we don’t have big budgets. ,
Hall gets in such a mood that, she said, once her costume is on, she’s in character. “You sell it. I mean, I, my, as soon as the last piece of my dress goes on, I don’t break until the makeup comes off. I never break out. I am that character. She proves that big time in the season premiere episode on Sept. 12.
It sounds as fun for the audience as it is fun for those on camera. “We’re really friends. We call Halloween camp. We do things outside, which I think is really important,” said Hall, who worked on ABC’s “The Chew” a few years ago. Knows the magic of the troop. “You have to work together and the audience can see if there is any kind of tension. So one of the things – and I’m not saying I take it upon myself – but I make sure that outside of working, we’re working together. We’re eating out, we’re having game night, we’re doing other stuff. So that when you see us on camera, it’s an extension of the things we’ve done out of work. ,
Oh, and, yes, those fabulous desserts. Which sometimes seems awkward to eat… but the judges have to. For example, Hall was not thrilled with the idea of putting a confectioner in his mouth that looked more like a cockroach.
“Bugs. Yes,” she said with a smile. “So we, year one, they had a special scary thing they had to do. And one person had, it was a cockroach. Oh. And they had a hard chocolate shell, uh, like a loose liquid caramel inside So that when you eat it, it’s gone. I could.. I.. I was just…” She chuckled. “I had such a hard time separating. Like the exoskeleton, you know about cockroaches. Just… yes.”
A gross-looking but surprisingly luxurious chocolate-covered, oozing cockroach that makes the same crunchy sound as a real roach makes when you step on it is just the tip of the iceberg. As the seasons pass, the desserts prepared by bakers seem to be more complex and creative, both in recipe and in design, with the biggest increase being the quality of home bakers, Hall said. And after each episode is filmed, you can bet there’s at least one request for a doggy bag.
“There is a PA who comes around and collects the dishes. I’m like, ‘Put him in a box, put him in a box.’ I mean, because I’m like, ‘I can’t eat this’ Now hebut I Will Eat this,” Hall laughed.
Season 8 of “Halloween Backing Championship” Premieres Monday, September 12 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Food Network and streaming on Discovery+.
