The Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship kicks off Season 11 this week, welcoming 10 bakers to “a terrible haunted mansion filled with secret passageways and scares around every corner,” according to its announcement.
Orlando’s money should be on Kissimmee local Alan Arras, if you ask me. His copious pastry chef experience at one of Orlando’s world-famous theme parks should prove useful in navigating such treacherous spaces. And he’s excited for friends and fans to watch the action on the extra-large, two-hour season premiere Monday, Sept. 15 at 9 p.m. EST.
Arras is no stranger to televised competition.
Contestant Alan Arras amid the baking process on The Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship, Season 11. The show premieres on Monday, Sept. 15. (Photo courtesy Food Network)
The El Paso, Texas native has brought home a pastry prize before — winning Episode 6 of Season 1 on Netflix’s “Sugar Rush” back in 2018.
“I love all these shows,” Arras told the Orlando Sentinel, “but Halloween was a goal to compete in. It’s one of my favorite holidays and it’s so much fun, because you can be whatever you want — scary, cute, whatever. Being on the show was a dream come true.”
Host John Henson — along with judges Carla Hall, Stephanie Boswell and Zac Young — presented a host of harrowing challenges for Arras and his fellow competitors, including one in which bakers were to create their “biggest nightmares,” he says.
“It could have been anything — a fear of something or from a scary movie,” says Arras, but the scariest parts, largely, were the time restrictions.
“You have to use your imagination to come up with an idea and create something scary, which is fun, but hard,” he notes. “I do this all the time at work, but I don’t have to do all of it in two or three hours, which is really insane. And you also have to make sure you’re meeting all the requirements of the challenge. And it has to be delicious.”
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His skills, he says, were not a concern, though it was fun to meet talented bakers — both professional and home cooks — who lit fires under one another.
“It was exciting to have the opportunity to compete with them,” says Arras of the diverse field. “But I learned that I am a very competitive person … We all loved each other, but we also all want to win.”
Good-natured taunting on set was not uncommon. Neither was gore.
“Lots of body parts!” he laughs. “It was really fun to get outside of my comfort zone and do scary stuff, use ‘blood’ and that kind of thing, because I’m used to making Halloween things on the cuter side. It was awesome.”
No spoilers, of course, but the biggest thrill Arras can talk about was meeting the judges — in particular Carla Hall.
“I love to watch all the shows she’s on. She’s one of my favorite chefs and I was so close to her. She’s sitting 5 feet away!”
Their costumes, too, he says, were amazing, “and honestly, sometimes they were really scary!”
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Time constraints notwithstanding, Arras says the pro-baker just kicks in at some point when the clock is running.
“I’m not used to creating things in such a short amount of time, and for sure the time affects the sort of things you choose to bring to the judges, but there’s a point where you just have to make it work.”
On the evening of Sept. 15, Orlando can tune in for the two-hour premiere and see whether Arras makes it through the blood-spattered gauntlet of all seven episodes to win the $25,000 — along with the title of Halloween Baking Champion.
Watch live on Food Network GO. Stream on Discovery+ and Max.
amthompson@orlandosentinel.com
