Luke’s Diner: Let Them Eat Cake

I Am All in Again.

Let's do.

Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.

Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am All and Again podcast. Almost forgot one of them productions. iHeart Radio, iHeart Media, iHeart podcasts. Luke's Diner episode with the one and only Duff Goldman. Let me tell you a little about Duff. He is a classically trained chef, best selling author, and artist celebrated for his creative desserts and joyful approach to baking.

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Hello and welcome, Duff. How are you.

I'm doing great? How are you doing good?

You're taking a little breather with us for half an hour and then you're gonna get back to Empire building.

Know, I'm gonna get back to taking my daughter to gymnastics.

Very nice. Gotta carve out the time for the little ones.

Yeah, like watching them run around. She's three, like like right around in the gymnastics.

It's just that's just yeah, right right, Yeah, it's it's I have a ten year old. It's just like I'm kind of missed those days, you know, yeah he was.

But it's man, I can tell now, like we'll be doing stuff and I'm just like I'll just look at her and like I'm going to miss this.

Will But but it just it gets so it gets better and better and better every year.

Yeah, it changes you learn about Yeah, it's just like being they're.

They're kind of they're kind of raising you, you know what i mean, the self that's buried down in there somewhere, and it comes out. Yeah, it's it's amazing. So how did you get started baking cakes?

Uh, it's it's a funny story. I was a graffiti artist when I was a kid, and I couldn't really ask my parents for money for spray paints. So I got a job at McDonald's, flipp and Burger's. Fast forward. I graduate from undergrad with a degree in philosophy, which is incredibly useful, and so I went to culinary school because that was like the thing I was good at. I was just I was good at, you know, cooking.

Man, me and you both, you both, I know what that's like, chasing that dream.

Yeah, right, yeah, I'm still looking. I'm still I'm still there, still there, We're still were We're going to get there.

But we should get together and do a do a cooking album or something.

You know. Well, I have a band really yeah. Yeah, it's called fog Rock. So it's all chefs and we do like like seventies and eighties covers.

Oh that's cool. Where are you in California? Where are yeah?

Yeah, Los Angeles?

Oh that's that's so fun. What's the most challenging cake you've ever made? At Charm City Cakes? Do you remember?

Oh?

Man, we made a life size uh working, working, We made a life sized Nascar and then it was like a one to one replica of this new paint job that this racer was going to get, which is a big deal.

And so you like have to like match all the logos to all the corporate sponsors, and like they sent like, you know, like paint chips like this is the color green for pennz oil, or this is you know, the stp is this red And then we uh we took I had an old a little amplifier and we stuck it underneath the cake, and we got a recording of one of the engines from a Hendrix. It was a Hendricks car, and so we got a recording of one of their engines because those guys know like by the

Yeah, wow, wow wow. Do you prefer traditional or experimental flavor combinations in your cake?

Well? I mean me personally, but it was funny. We were just talking about this my wife's like, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday? And I was like, I want my favorite cake in the world is Betty Crucker yellow cake with chocolate frosting and non perells.

That that right, that has a very specific I remember that that's birthday cake, right, That's that's what That's what it is. You're so right, man, yellow cake chocolate frosting. Like there's nothing better like you get. We make like char.

City cakes, Like we make a pumpkin chocolate chip that's amazing. We make a Caribbean black cake de list like really really good. But you know it's Desert Island yellow cake chocolate frosting. I'm good.

Wow, Well, let's talk a little bit about the food. In season one, episode six, Rory's birthday parties. In this episode, pudding is discussed a lot and used as a metaphor. Laura I believes Emily served pudding at Friday night dinner because she knew Laura I liked it. Laura I wants Emily to continue to show she knows Lorelai and Rory, especially when picking out Rory's birthday gift. Oh no, no, no, no, come on, mom, you don't know how to do this

Wait, so the tell me the rasquat? This is okay? Now? Was that a like?

Was this a sort of like a like a it's it's a raspberry kumquat that were.

Mated together, grown together. So this was like a like a like.

Jet And Zuki's husband is a vegetable fruit guy, and he obviously likes to experiment around with this stuff. Yeah, so he comes in with a ras squat. He created it.

Now, a kum quat is also a sort of a mating of a couple of things. Right, it's an apricot and I think it's a It is an apricot and an orange or something like that, like a like a kubquat is that also? Like a low quat is another sort of one of the quats. Now, I don't know, and I am not a food scientist. I am a baker, but I feel like raspberries being a berry and a kumquat or a low quat being a stone fruit. Wait is it? No, A cub quat is a citrus, a

This might not be possible. All right, we found out here this is this begs other questions.

Yeah, hmm, interesting, interesting with the science here, which they're.

They're taking some artistic license.

Maybe I tell you I am very pro pudding, Okay, right, I mean who's not?

I am too. I actually joined protest marches for pudding.

Yeah, I'm very pro pudding.

It used to happen a lot in my old neighborhood.

We made a cake the pro pudding, the pro pudding lobby, I'm part of that.

Yeah, that's about as political as I get.

So one time we made a cake and it was this big dinosaur and I was thinking about like dinosaurs and sort of like some of the like the dioramas that you would see when you go to like the you know, the Natural History Museum, and I was like, you know, one of the things I love about like dinosaurs, it's like all like the like the Librea tar pit bubbling mud kind of thing. So it's like, how are

It was a little couple of little dinosaur eggs and there. Maybe they're just like white chocolate. Yeah, yeah, that's why that's why I'm not a chef. Really.

Well, no, the white chalk is actually a good idea because it's the chocolate is fat based. It's not water soluble, so it would melt.

Right.

If I put a candy dinisaur egg in there, it's just gonna melt into the liquid of the pudding. But a stoll ad piece of chocolate not going anywhere.

I put that in the book. I'm gonna steal that one, all right, thank you.

I'll tell you.

Is there a pastry that you've made that it stands out as your personal favorite.

I'm gonna say my great grandmother's apple scrutle. She was a baker and she was from like Ukraine, Moldova, that kind of area back I did get up. The border is always moving, so who knows where she's from somewhere over there. And uh, the thing that's really interesting about it,

That's very good point. That's a very good thing. Yeah, because it really if you've got if you've got you know, if you're boiling, if you're doing the chicken and you're boiling some rice, and yeah, it's all water management, water management.

Right, yeah, water, so nothing will caramelize in the presence of water. Right. When you reduce all these apples, you reduce reduced reduce. It finally gets to a point where there's no more water, and at that point it starts to caramelize. But you spent seven hours reducing this whole thing, and that right when you get to the very end, you've got to make sure that you really stern it, really stern it, because you want it to get this

You know, let's take a break. I need eed something. What's the request you've ever received for a cake? Just sign? Uh it's a family show, family show.

Yeah, well there was I got it. Like it's a little gross, but there was one where you know, like there's that like doctors and nurses kind of have a sort of different sense of humor than most people, right and yeah, and uh, there was a nurses convention in Baltimore, and so there was all these nurses coming and they wanted to get a cake, and they they wanted a cake of and these like anatomical models that they use in like you know, med school, nursing school, and the

That is definitely well, that was the question, you know, the strangest and the weirdest that that qualifies. Are there any specific cakes on Goldberry that have become unexpected bestsellers?

And you know, I mean they all do really well, but like some of them are seasonal and some of them are like they're they're there year round, like our chocolate cake is there year round, and I see, I don't know. I mean the nice thing about Gallbelly is that, uh, like I have a shop. I have a cake shop. It's in Baltimore. And if you live in Baltimore. You

Spokane, Yeah, Spokane, Yeah, Spokane.

I'm not from there, right, so I can like I can say a biza because I'm not from Abithaia.

It's a mouthful, isn't it.

Yeah? Yeah? Did you see a pizza? Yeah, it's pizza like pizza.

I see a Z. I'm calling it out. I'm not I don't. I don't see a th h when I see a Z. I'm sorry.

Did you see a biza or a pizza?

That's good too. I like a pizza because it's like pizza.

Yeah, but there's only one z. If it's two c's, I think it's a pizza.

But I see one, I want to say the z.

Okay, yeah, a viza.

I don't limit myself language wise. No, I'm not one of those guys.

It's Barcelona, all right, just come on, but like just you don't you don't sound is like when you have like okay, like say my accent, right, like, this is my accent. This is how I talk. It's like a weird mix of New England and you know, East Coast and a little bit of Calvin who knows. Right, it's a weird accent. But like if I'm sitting there talking, I'm like, yeah, so I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna grab these tomatoes and put it in here. They're gonna

Right, you know I do want to try that? How did you do that?

Yeah?

More?

Yeah, it's mine Italian?

It is Italians don't even say.

It like that. I'll say it like that. That's how they say in the movies or something. Right, yeah, right, actors, actors, I know, right.

Wow.

Are there any particularly challenging or memorable cakes that stand out in your career? There's one that just you couldn't quite get it, but you thought it had great potential and it just fell apart or something. I don't know.

Well, uh, it's you know, there's one cake that I've always wanted to make, but nobody has offered me enough money to actually pull this up, because it would be pretty expensive. But what I want to do is I want to make a uh like a life's size tonton right from Empire Strikes Back? Right?

What's the tantan?

Was the the snow that weird?

Like?

It was like a bipedal line warns that they rode around in the snow, right. Don't want to make one of those. But I wanted to have like some sort of again managing water. You need like some sort of edible waterproof bladder inside of the tontan. And so when it came time to cut the cake, you could cut the belly open and then all of the like intestines, like you know those tubes, they all fall out, and then you have a Luke Skywalker cake and you shove it in there, right, and then you eat it.

One does That's what I want? One? Does? You know, let's start a you know, go fundme page or something. You know, Let's let's get that done. What do you call it, ton, Let's let's get that raise money for the Ton Time cake.

I like it. I think if we get it in front of Bob Biger, right, whoever, whoever owns that ip.

Right, now, let's do it. Let's just make a whole spectacle about it, and we can sell to Netflix as a as a documentary. That's actually kind of a that's the kind of wacky, great idea that would actually be fun to do.

You know, like, let's see if we can pull this off, right.

I mean, because it's so off the wall and great, you know, oh my god, that would be fun.

It's just such a visceral scene, right like when Hansolo cuts it open and all the tubes come out. You're just like, it's just.

A little right right, turn that into a well, I don't see why we can't turn it into a recipe or you you know, let's do it.

Yeah, I like it.

How's your time on television shaped your relationship with fans and and the baking community.

That's a great question, Thank you very much. Wow. Uh you know, I like, I mean, before I was on television, I didn't have any fans, so but like it's it's been like an evolution. Where like when I first sort of got on television, you know, I was like this kid that owned a bakery and was just trying to make it, you know, trying to pay my bills and be in a band and people are like, oh yeah, I have a picture, you know, and you're like why

Really shocking because you for you forgot, you didn't you forgot and you were just you and like what's going on here? You know? Why why are you attacking me?

Yeah?

Oh right, yeah that show.

Yes, you're like pictures of your cakes, Like, oh okay, you're I see it. I see it. And then I think there's a point at which you start to accept it, right that you know, part of me, part of me is public property. Right, there's just a thing where you know, you can't sort of like teach people decorum. You know, like if I'm at a restaurant eating dinner with my family,

If it's Kate Blanchett, I wouldn't care.

Really, yeah, you do it.

I'd walk through piles and you know what to get an autograph with her.

Did you see coffee and cigarettes.

Jim Jarmish I probably did, but I don't remember it.

It's just like, oh man, well, it's like all these little vignettes. It's all these different little like five minute stories. Like there's one that's like Bill Murray and the Rizza and the Jizz from Routank Clan and they're just these weird little short stories. And there's one Kate Blanchett does where she's playing herself and she's also playing her like you know cousin who's just like this sort of rando who's just like, oh, look at you all, and it's

If you could bake for anyone in the world past or present who would it be?

And why if I could bake anybody? You know, one of the things that I've noticed about cakes is that if you would show up to any sort of like super exclusive function right of anything, of some weird after party and blah blah blah, some crazy nightclub with the line out the door, the bouncers with oozzies, if you show up and you're wearing a chef coat and you have a box with a cake in it, they let you in no questions since they let you in, And so I think I would probably I would use that

My left ear got partially blown out in a nineteen seventy five Led Zeppelin concert at the Spectrum in Philadelphia because of the genius sitting right here underneath these headphones. Decided to go sit inside one of the amps.

Why would you do that?

Because I wanted to be close to the music.

Man became infused in you, right, like.

Let me. It was so loud, you know, just in general, they had the volume turned up so high you could barely make out the music. It was that loud. You could hear you could hear bottom thundering away, but as far as guitars and bass and all that stuff, you could kind of make it out. But it was so loud.

It was like just distorted.

And yeah, yeah, it was so loud. Anyway, if you were to come into Luke's Diner, okay, what would you order? And here's the big question, where would you sit?

Well, I if it's there was a counter, right, yeah, I'd sit at the counter.

Okay.

I like that that conversation, the conversations that happened that counters are always better than the ones that happened anywhere else because there's immediately you are talking to strangers. I would order. Let's see, I would probably like I would want something that's very specific to diners. So I'm going to say, like a Paddy melt or do Yeah, it's a little fishy taste like chicken. Yeah, I want crinkle cut fries.

I got Oh boy, would you would you actually order crinkle cut Luke would just give you a look. Really, Luke, crinkle cut if you said crinkle cut fries instead of just fries, he just he just are.

You but here? Okay, he's rude. Let me ask you this, he's rude. Think about a French fry.

I'm thinking, what is the.

Best part of the French fry? Is it the gooey center or the crispy outside? You can say, everyone knows the answer. Outside, Yes, the crunch the outside. Sure, a crinkle cut fry, due to simple simple geometry, has much more crispy outside than a straight French fries. Some more surface area, more surface area that holds more salt, more crunch. So I would tell Luke to have a seat, get your ass back there and make me speak. Buddy.

It's a loud Duff cage match. I like it. It's been a pleasure talking to you, Duff. You got you gotta come back and uh there's more conversation you had here. Thanks for coming on and good luck with everything. And remember folks go to Duff dot com go to at Duff Goldman or goldbelly dot com to get all things Goldman.

Thank you, sir, thanks for having me. This is great.

Great pleasure and good luck with everything, and one day I hope to see the band, just just saying.

Okay, if you come to the ib I E, the International Baking Industry Expo, that is in September of twenty twenty five, we will be playing a full eighties set right after Wang Chung.

Oh my goodness. Yes, Wow, they're Wang Chok is opening for you.

No, no, no, it's like they're they're playing a show. And then we are the like the after party.

Show that fantastic Where where where is this being held?

Vegas?

Oh my goodness, dude, I'm there. I'll get your info. We'll connect. I'm I'm going to be there. What's what's the date?

September one, September twenties, twenty fifth, Maybe its September twenty something.

All right, I hope I'm gotta help. I'm in the country. I hope I'm here.

Are Encore is Tom Sawyer? Oh no, I got I gotta be there. It's so good.

Maybe I'll bring my axe and you know, do it?

Come on up.

I got a white strat, I got a white strat. I can well a little bit.

I got I gotta, I got what what do you got to see sixty nine P bass.

Oh look at that. Wow, that is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I got this at Carter Vintage. Have you ever been in a Nashville.

No, I was, and I was there over the summer and I didn't have time to actually go around and hunt for guitars and I really wanted to.

It is a museum. That place is unbelievable. Yeah, Carter Vintage. Going there And not only is this the bass that I picked out and I've wanted it forever, but I got to when they when they let me play it in the store, I got to play it through an amp that was on consignment from the bass player. Total.

Man, that's so cool.

I got to play that guy.

Just the business is rough, but man, just playing this, it's it's all you need, you know, It's just a need.

Our Thanksgiving is like one hundred something people. My wife's huge family out here in California, and uh, there's a talent show that's just so many. And so me and my wife and my mother in law, my father in law, and my father in law's son and also my soush chef are like we are bringing our stuff and we're playing. We're playing California dreaming because I got a flute solo in there that my wife plays, and we're playing some Dave Matthews but I'm playing drums and like I'm a

Thanks dotty, everybody, and don't forget.

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