Keke Palmer Was 'Blown Away' by Culinary Creations on Her Disney+ Show 'Foodtastic' (Exclusive)

Keke Palmer does it all. She’s a singer, dancer, actress, daytime talk show host, and now an executive producer. The former Strahan, Sarah, and Keke co-host is happy to lend her producer talents to a new Disney+ food competition series Foodtastic. The series follows contestants who are challenged to create Disney-inspired works of art made out of food. NYC’s City Cakes founder Chef Benny Rivera and Flour Shop founder Amirah Kassem serve as judges.

Palmer, an admitted foodie, jumped at the chance to be part of the show. She was even more sold by the Disney IP inclusion. PopCulture.com spoke to Palmer, 28, about what attracted her to the show, honing her EP skills and being impressed by the artists.

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PC: We are so excited about Foodtastic. This is such a good spin on the usual cooking and food competition shows. Obviously, to be a part of a show like this, you have to be a foodie to host and to EP. So how did the project come about for you?

KP: Yeah, it was presented to me from Disney, and they thought I would be a good host for it. And I was really excited. And once I saw that it was, of course, a food competition show, I was all in. I didn’t realize that it wasn’t really about eating. Because I was really excited about the aspect of, “I’m about to be on the show, eating food all day.” However, this is a lot more different than any other food competition show out there because it’s all about actually transforming food into something to be adored and viewed as art. Changing things that we use just to eat and turning (them) into a different piece, making an apple a cupcake. Or making a gingerbread, an actual structure, not just like a gingerbread house but the actual structure, making cities out of it.

I was very blown away when I realized that was even a thing that people do. And then, on top of that, there was also the aspect of the show where I get to do these interstitials that kind of bring our competitors into the story arc of the different Disney IP they’re going to be creating art around. So the fact that I was going to also get to kind of do sketches and play different characters, from the world of all these different…Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Beauty and the Beast…that was like, ‘Oh my gosh, now this is very much, this is me, my name is written all over this. I’ve got to be a part of this.’

And this is such a creative concept. And as you said, I love the aspect as far as the Disney IP being involved in it. And you talked about being involved in some of it, but did you have any input when it came to coming up with each food task or what the competitors would have to actually create? Did you have any inclusion in that creative process?

No, that was all the food artists. They always came up with their own ideas. My main thing as a producer is to make sure that everybody’s good on the show, make sure that all of our competitors feel comfortable. Because in reality, (in) food art competitions, you actually get like a week and some change to create your art pieces. And in our show, you only get like a day or a day and a half. So we are really putting them to the test. Making sure everybody was good on the floor. Making sure our two new judges, who had never really done this in this realm before, was also a very exciting part to assist and support too, as it came to me being a producer. So that was really my addition, as far as production goes. And everything else I allowed the food artists to kind of create on their own and come up with their ideas on their own. And, of course, Disney owns their IP and always makes sure that’s presented in the best way possible.

I’m sure you were wowed by the outcome of a lot of these Foodtastic sculptures. How talented are the competitors where you walked away and were like, you could probably hire them to do a party or two for you, create a sculpture for one of your events?

Exactly. I was very blown away, especially by a lot of the ice carving that I saw. It was just absolutely unbelievable. There was this one team that was both in the Muppets episode and in the Pirates of the Caribbean episode that I was just completely astonished by. I think about them often, actually, about how are they able to create that? It was just very inspired work.

It was also to the point of where Amirah and Benny are like, “Wow!” too. That’s the thing when our judges are also saying, “Wow.” Benny has been in so many different competitions and has won so many when we see people that he’s actually competed with showing up and stuff like that. That’s when you know.

Now you’ve mentioned that you were disappointed that you weren’t going to be able to eat food all day. I’m sure I would’ve been disappointed myself, but as a fellow foodie, what are your guilty pleasures when it comes to food? What do you absolutely have to have? What are your favorite foods?

One of my main guilty pleasures, I would literally have it just Ubered to the house randomly, is snickerdoodle cookies. I love snickerdoodle cookies. They literally make me just feel like my childhood or something. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just something about them feels so homey. So I love snickerdoodle cookies.

What are some foods that are off-limits for you? What do you not enjoy?

Man? What do I not enjoy? You know what, that’s a very hard question because I’m really that person that will try anything. Lately, I’ve realized that I have a very big sensitivity to gluten. So I definitely want to try to stay away from many things that involve that. Because it definitely changes my mood and the way that I feel. It’s crazy as we get older, what we discover about ourselves, and our health and stuff like that. There are not many foods that I really will say no to, maybe eel.

How fun overall was this project being a producer, being a host? What are you looking forward to viewers really taking in from this competition series?

Oh man, just a fun family show and hopefully inspiration. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had some kids or even some parents that after watching this show, want to compete in the next one. Because the great thing about it is some people have done many food competitions in our show, and then other people are just somebody that has a bakery, or somebody that just is a mom at home that loves to cook, or dad that is a carpenter or construction worker. That’s the great thing; I think people will also see about our show is that not everybody has been in food competitions for years and has this amazing resume. A lot of these people are everyday people that say, “Hey, you know what, I want to enter this competition and see if I could do it.” And that’s also really inspiring.