Baking aisle expansion

Guy Fieri’s supermarket gets a sweet makeover

Love him or hate him, it can’t be denied that Guy Fieri loves to share. Why, he’s even handed off the keys to his beloved Flavortown Market to someone else. The “Guy’s Grocery Games” host has set Duff Goldman loose in the supermarket where his cooking competition is filmed, and has even given the pastry chef permission to remodel.

The result is “Dessert Games,” a decidedly sweeter take on the “Guy’s Grocery Games” formula. The new series premieres Monday, July 10, on Food Network. At its core, the foundation is the same as it is in “Triple-G.” Each episode brings four pasty chefs into the grocery store (actually a TV set, but just as stocked as a real supermarket) with their eyes on the sweet, sweet $10,000 prize. Goldman then issues them a series of dessert challenges, with the contestants needing to run up and down the grocery store aisles to shop for their ingredients.

What sorts of challenges? Well, maybe the host will block off certain aisles so that the important ingredients there can’t be used. Maybe he’ll put up a display of pre-made confections that he’ll force the bakers to repurpose. As “Guy’s Grocery Games” has proven, there are countless ways to trip up shoppers, forcing the culinary hopefuls to rely not only on their culinary skills but also their quick wits and smarts.

After three rounds of having their sweet creations judged by a rotating panel of judges, the winner gets to take home something even sweeter than all the sugar found in the baking aisle: a $10,000 prize.

Like any cooking competition, though, it’s the host that truly makes it or breaks it. Food Network would have been hard-pressed to find a better host for a baking competition than Duff Goldman. The pastry chef became a star when his custom cake shop, Charm City Cakes, was featured in the series “Ace of Cakes,” which lasted for five seasons. Since then, he’s hosted “Cake Masters” and “Duff Till Dawn,” making his mark as one of the nation’s premier and best-known pastry chefs.

Guy Fieri has handed over the keys and Duff Goldman is stepping up. “Dessert Games” premieres Monday, July 10, on Food Network.

Duff Goldman as seen in “Dessert Games”