Duff Goldman: Ace of Star Wars Cakes
Tune into Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" and you might catch rock star pastry chef Duff Goldman and his team at Charm City Cakes creating culinary masterpieces that would even get
Vader to remark, "Impressive. Most impressive."
He and his team bake and decorate impressive edible creations including both a
Death Star and a
Star Destroyer cakes that could double as
ILM models. StarWars.com chats with Goldman about his rise from a graffiti artist to a master pastry chef, as well as a closer look at his drool-inducing
Star Wars confections.
What is your culinary and arts background? 
When I was 13 or so I was a graffiti writer and I used to paint bridge underpasses and freight trains, so that's where my artistic streak started to surface. Then one of my school teachers explained to me that it would be a bad idea to continue down that route, so I instead started to do metal sculpture and really took to it. I took some classes at the local art school, but I wasn't into it because the school was full of freaks and didn't really teach you anything practical about what to do once you were done with school.
The whole time I was doing all this, I was cooking at fast food joints to pay for my paint, metal and various art materials. It turned out I was a better cook. I realized there was probably more money in cooking than there was in making sculptures or painting trains. I wanted to go to culinary school. My parents, however, really wanted me to get an undergraduate degree instead. Basically, I think they were afraid I'd be a dishwasher the rest of my life given my sketchy past. I went to college and got a major in history with a minor in philosophy. I was also a hockey player, too, and there are no culinary schools with hockey programs......