BEAUMONT, Texas — Three Southeast Texas bakers are competing to see if they have what it takes to build the most "Foodtastic" creation.
They appeared on the new Disney+ series "Foodtastic." It’s a cooking competition hosted by entertainer Keke Palmer.
Two of the artists spoke with 12News about their experience and the art they continue to share here in Southeast Texas.
The three artists are making Southeast Texas proud, but they had quite the secret to keep for almost a year.
They filmed the show with Disney + last year and it finally aired on December 15, 2021.
"They just found me on Instagram through my cake work,” said Dill Barlow, owner of Over the Top Cakes.
They connected through social media.
"I found him on Facebook," Barlow said. "So I messaged him and the first thing I said to him was like, ‘Hey, I got this thing you want to try it out,’ and he was like, ‘Who are you? I don't know you.' And I was like, 'Just trust me, we gotta do something together."
Barlow is a Nederland native.
Maurice Abelman, a Beaumont resident, co-owns the Mont Creative Studios in Beaumont and is a professor at Lamar State College-Port Arthur.
The two then added Dee Compean to the mix to compete for the Disney+ cooking show 'Foodtastic.’
"We were just like ideas, ideas, ideas," Abelman said.
"He came up with the idea of Davy Jones," Barlow said.
To qualify for the show, they built a Davy Jones bust out of vegetables.
Once they qualified, their challenge was a surprise.
"We just knew it was going to be Pirates of the Caribbean,” Barlow said. “And I Keke Palmer was the host. And we knew our teammates that was pretty much it."
They only had 25 hours from the time they walked on the onset to finish their structure.
"I guess the biggest challenge was just how big these things were," Abelman said.
We're talking about 7 feet tall, with a base of 8 feet by 16 feet.
"It's just magical like how Disney would do anything normally but like the pantry was literally a tree full of foods was a pantry how just like That's incredible,” Barlow said.
They said the mess and the nerves were well worth it for the sweet experience.
"We're like in the middle of the filming covered in, like Rice Krispies and chocolate, mashed potatoes," Abelman said.
"We were nervous the weeks months before, nervous getting on the plane going down,” Barlow said. “So as we drove up, it was nerve-racking but you can't let that really get to you because you have to be on camera and be presentable and also to build this thing that they want you to make. So, you just have to forget about nerves."
We won't spoil how well they did on the show. You can stream their episode on Disney+. That's episode ten.
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