Disney works get immortalized in food in Disney+’s ‘Foodtastic’
Anyone who craves to see scenes from Disney productions depicted in food will find a competition series to their liking on Disney+.
In “Foodtastic,” which premieres Wednesday, Dec. 15, teams of food artists create detailed and extravagant pieces of art depicting scenes from Disney intellectual properties, be it “Ant Man,” “Star Wars,” “The Avengers” or “Pirates of the Caribbean,” from vegetables, fruit, nuts, melted chocolate and other foodstuffs. But unlike cake decorating shows where the final products can be consumed, these sculptures are not edible – that is, unless you like substances like glycerin mixed in with your chocolate.
The winner is determined by judges and food art experts Amirah Kassem and Benny Rivera. Emmywinning actress Keke Palmer serves as host and the audience’s guide to the action, when she’s not acting in segments introducing the storylines.
“I’m literally just being my normal curious self and asking, ‘What’s going on? What are you using? What are you doing there?’ And learning quite a lot, I might add,” says Palmer, who is also an executive producer here. “But also being blown away by how these people transformed the elements of food into these unbelievable, museum-like art pieces. I just didn’t know anything like that existed so I was genuinely surprised and inquisitive about how they were going to go about it – without trying to bug them too much, of course.”
The backgrounds of the contestants here are varied, ranging from food professionals to architects, animators and construction workers. And the set of the show changes with the storyline, so the “AntMan” episode take places in a forest and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” set will be at sea.
The one constant in this setting is the virtual sun. The contestants have from sun up until sundown to complete their pieces. In real time, that’s about a day and a half, a far cry from the weeks a typical food art show allows. As the sun reaches the horizon, Palmer issues the final warning and the pressure ramps up. The reactions are all over the map.
“Some (contestants) were like, ‘I’m used to the pressure, no big deal ...,’ ” Palmer notes. “Some became very funny and entertaining under the pressure. Other people were really having anxiety problems, stomach aches, being just stressed out. You know, it was a lot of different emotions going on. And that’s my job when I put on my hosting hat, to really hopefully make them feel comfortable.
“The main thing that’s important to use is everybody’s safety and feeling good under this pressure. Because the reality is they usually are allotted a lot more time. ... So this was a lot of pressure for them to be under and they all excelled.”