'Foodtastic': Amirah Kassem and Benny Rivera Bring Expertise to Disney+'s New Competition Show (Exclusive)
Amirah Kassem and Benny Rivera are used to judging baking competition shows but nothing quite like Foodtastic. The show, which premieres on Disney + on Dec. 15, follows contestants who are instructed to create Disney-inspired works of art made out of food. Rivera and Kassem, both of whom are renowned bakers and cake artists with their own shops, serve as judges. Keke Palmer is the host, as well as the executive producer. PopCulture.com spoke with Kassem and Rivera on the concept of the show, being wowed by the contestants, and what they took away from the experience.
PC: We are very excited about Foodtastic. This is different from a lot of the food competition shows we've seen. What made you guys want to be a part of this show?
AK: For me, it was definitely the magic of Disney. I mean, we've seen so many types of food competition shows and this one is so unique. Not only are we using a different Disney IP for every episode, but we're also just fully diving into all food. It's food art. It's not necessarily one type of food and seeing these different artists with their different skill sets and how global the show, truly is with the ingredients and the contestants. Just incredible.
BR: The fact that it's a different show, it's not the traditional or typical baking competition show that we've been seeing for the last few years, it's just a brand new concept. We finally have the chance to have a food art competition on TV, and the fact that we can see artists create beautiful, stunning, amazing, edible pieces of art, using different types of food, such as vegetables and fruit, and using iconic IP Disney characters with some Disney scenes involved into the concept, is just something amazing.
And what elements were you looking for most in the contestants? Obviously the sculptures, I'm sure, as I saw from the clips, turned out to be gorgeous, but what were the factors that you were looking into from each competitor?
AK: Everyone brought such a different and unique skill set, right? You have someone who works with chocolate, someone who works with pumpkin carving, someone works with ice, and so it's really hard to actually pinpoint what each person brought to the table, but one thing overall in the build, apart from having to nail a Disney character and make sure that it's recognizable and that the story is true to the character, one of the things that we constantly were looking for was how uniquely they transformed an actual food. Instead of just placing the food on there, is that they painted it, they carved it, they sculpted something, the transformation of the food was very key to everything. And not just that, how many different types of foods that they would use, definitely took play in terms of figuring out what was the best. Because I think that we've seen a lot of food competitions out there where we use a lot of cake, and don't get me wrong, I'm huge cake fan, obviously, but I just loved seeing them use so many different types of foods to create texture and color.
BR: And I had to add that a lot of these contestants or artists, it was the first time they working with specific mediums. And I love the fact that we were able to experience them live, pushing themselves forward to work with those mediums that they never worked before. And the final products were just stunning.
Speaking of the final products being stunning, I'm sure you guys had a lot of wow moments with these sculpture designs. I spoke with Keke Palmer prior to you guys, and she said that one of the things that impressed her the most was your reaction to a lot of the designs that the contestants were able to come up with. So can you speak a little bit to that?
BR: Yes. To me, personally, I was blown away by the way that some artists use specific mediums. I don't want to go into specific details, because I don't want to give all the aspects of the show, all the details of the shows, but yes, the way that some of those people were able to put together or create or work with some new techniques that I never saw before, it was just mind-blowing. And the fact that they were able to kind of blend different edible materials or different edible mediums to create the beautiful piece that they were able to display at the end, it was just mind-blowing.
AK: Yeah. I think exactly what you're saying is what Keke was saying that we were wowed, and it's not necessarily just purely on skill set or anything like that. A lot of times, we are trained or we are taught, or you sort of start to use a tool in a certain way, or you use an ingredient in a certain way, but to be around such creative people that are just flipping your brain upside down, I'm like, "Wow. I never thought to use that tool for that, or paint this with this and mix that with that. And this actually glues that." So the way it was sort of spinning our wheels in techniques, so many techniques, as much as the pairings for me and how their brains just see something so unique. And I kind of go back and think about my childhood and imagination, when you give an apple to a bunch of children and they all do something different with it. And I think that's sort of what Foodtastic does, it's bringing out the imagination and the creative side of people, which gives you a wow factor, no matter how long you've been in the industry.
BR: It's like when a lot of these artists have gone to culinary school and what you learn in culinary school, it's just like some basic techniques. It's just a real artist will transform those techniques that you'll learn and apply them in different ways, to different mediums or different materials, and it was just beautiful. When you see the contestants using their own techniques or creating their own techniques to bring to life the concept of their ideas.
And were you guys involved in any of the challenges? Were you able to give your input into what you wanted to see the contestants do?
AK: I think that on a personal level, we were very excited, and always when someone told us about what specific skillset they had, we would try and push them to sort of lean into that in what they were building. But the challenges themselves were created for each individual IP, but Benny and I were constantly like, "I really hope that guy really does this. And I really hope that girl brings in this skillset that she had." So we tried dropping hints here and there on what we wanted to see out of certain people because it is about pushing boundaries and taking risks in the kitchen.