How does it feel to be hosting a baking show?
Very, very excited to be honest with you. It’s like something we’ve always watched with our families, baking shows. This is the first time in a long time I’ve said to my wife or daughter ‘oh yeah, we’re doing this show’ and they actually wanna come to set and see what’s going on – because we just love that format of show.
I remember reading that the best host to be is: it's not about you, it's about the people you're shining a light on. So we definitely took that on board.
What was it like seeing all of these professionals from different cultures coming together?
Well I think that’s what makes it – because we actually filmed at the [Warner Bros. Studio Tour London], where we filmed the movies, and these [contestants] are the best of the best at what they do. So getting them together, pairing them in teams, and they had never worked together before – so seeing those relationships form – ‘are they gonna get on?’ all that kind of thing, but it’s amazing how professional they can be to get a particular bake done in 10 hours that would usually take 2 weeks.
If you’re building a five-foot phoenix – yeah, that’s gonna take about 2 weeks to do. 'OK, you’ve got 10 hours!' And you’re gonna have two people coming over to ask 'how’s it going?’ But what was great to be there to witness the masters do what they do best. We enjoy baking – but even little things like learning how to properly crack an egg. I’ve been cracking eggs wrong my entire life!
Do you guys bake yourselves? And is one better than the other?
We definitely enjoy baking – as kids it was always something around us. Our grandmother would always be showing us how food was put together and our parents were the same. I don’t know if it was just to entertain us for a bit, but my dad would normally say, 'right, why don’t you go make some cakes in the kitchen' and we’d go and do it – so it was cool seeing that side of it.
It was very removed from a big professional kitchen with these guys. Here, you’ve got a baker but also got the patisserie chef – so you get to see the different types of baking as well which was really cool. A couple of contestants were molecular gastronomists ("He's only saying that because he’s just learnt how to pronounce that") who were pretty much scientists in the kitchen.
What kind of baking wizardry did you get to witness?
They would make stuff up – one contestant – Mitzi made this mango caramel, which literally melted in your mouth when you had it. And I think she realised that we liked to taste samples to the point where she basically gave us a whole tray of it. Which is great, because we don’t have a casting vote on who goes through, so it's better because people kept being like, 'try this one, try this one' - definitely a perk of a job.
But Carla and Josef, the judges, they do such a great job of describing what everything tastes like, what flavours work with what – and it’s actually made me appreciate flavours of food I eat now. Because off-camera I asked Clara, “describe me eating this Twix” and it was so weird, she described everything that was in this chocolate bar. And she does that on camera too; yes it is about what things looks like, but ultimately this is a baking show. So it helps bring all the viewers in on it, but makes you very hungry too.
How was it reuniting with former cast members, such as Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch and Warwick Davies?
There were moments where it felt like we were in a time machine and there was no time between filming the last movie and this. And we had to film it at night, because it’s filmed at the Studio Tour – so they weren’t gonna close the studios off – so we we were filming at 1 or 2 in the morning on the set. So we were in this space, but at the same time, it just felt like, especially when we had Warwick, Bonnie and Evie with us, it was very much a case of “oh wow, a lot has happened in the past 12, 13 years since we were last here” but we just fell straight back into that world. And we think a lot of viewers will feel the same way, back in that nostalgic zone.
What are some of the biggest showstopper moments fans can expect to see?
Even for the very first episode, the Patronus that Elizabeth crafted was just absolutely incredible. And you see the standard from the very beginning. It's not just “oh we’re gonna make a standard cake and put a Hogwarts scarf on it” – they really went to town and you realise early on that these are the best they do.
In that first episode, when Ricardo makes the crawling spiders – they tasted amazing and were actually peanut butter bon-bons, which was insane.
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking to launch exclusively on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland on 17th December.
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking is premiering tonight at 8|7c on Food Network and streaming on Max.
