Duff Goldman talks about the ace of taste, savory recipes and his community

What was the inspiration behind Ace of Taste?

I’m a new dad, and I feel like I’ve definitely moved on, especially during the pandemic. My wife and I were here at home and felt like I was running our kitchen like I do a professional kitchen. It was really interesting for me to see how to organize a place because I have a baby to feed, myself to feed, my wife to feed. I have to maintain a pantry. I have a whole thing.

Plus, I do all of these events all the time, so I have a full baking kitchen in my house. I really ran this place like a kitchen. I wanted to share it with everyone, like, “Hey, this is how I cook for my family. This is how we do it.” We can have good food that is nutritious, wonderful, and economical. It’s cool.

What can viewers expect from the show?

Good stuff, man. Every year when I go to film the “Baking Championship” shows, like when you see the “Kids Baking Championship”, “Holiday”, all these shows, there is a whole kitchen behind the scenes where everyone does all this work and there are all these culinary event producers working there.

Every year I try to make a few huge batches of my chilli. It’s a thing. Everyone gets excited like, “Oh, Duff is making his chili,” because it’s really good. I really do good chill. It’s one of the episodes.

We brought in the local fire department, Topanga Fire Department, and I cooked them dinner at the fire station. I made them chili, and I made them cornbread, and I made them cobbler. It’s more like the usual food I make rather than a big cake with lasers coming out of it, you know?

More accessible for this kind of home cook.

Totally. I break down the chilli and it’s not hard at all. You can make really good chili at home.