Duff Goldman Reveals What MadeKids Baking ChampionshipCo-Host Kardea Brown 'Terrified' This Season (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Duff Goldman and Kardea Brown.Photo:Food Network

Food Network

Duff Goldmanhas a new co-host onKids Baking Championship, but this season wasn’t totally sweet thanks to some furry friends.

“Every day you’re like, cakes and cookies, yummy things, and then all of a sudden, here’s a llama, or here’s a pony,” the pastry chef told PEOPLE during the 2025South Beach Wine & Food Festival(SOBEWFF), which ran from Feb. 20-23. While Goldman found the animals “funny,” he recalled Brown feeling differently.

Duff Goldman at SOBEWFF on Feb. 23, 2025.Alexander Tamargo/WireImage

Alexander Tamargo/WireImage

“The challenging part is helping Kardea get over her fear of some animals. I think she was terrified of the chickens,” the father of one laughed. “She’s going to be so mad.”

PEOPLE spoke to theDelicious Miss Brownstar earlier this yearabout her first season of hostingKids Baking Championship.She dished on the sweet times with the kids, the learning moments with Goldman and the scary instances with animals — like a “sort of panic attack” she had while holding a cockatoo named Chicken.

While the animal interactions weren’t the smoothest for Brown, both she and Goldman agreed that her dynamic with the contestants were that of a seasoned host. “Man, Kardea is great,” he explained of the former teacher and social worker.

He continued, “She really is truly just an empathetic person, and I think the kids can really sense that she is as real as it gets and is safe and lovely and wonderful, and she’s got a really amazing sort of point of view on pastry, which is totally different than mine. And so it’s really nice having conversations with her because we come from such complete different places.”

When asked about working with Goldman, Brown called him a “great teacher” and “great friend.” “Gosh, he’s been champion of mine, and I really do appreciate him,” she said in January.

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Brown and Goldman have shared the stage several times forKids Baking Championshipspecials and other baking shows, likeSpring Baking Championship, but season 13, airing now, was their first time co-starring on the Emmy-nominated series.

TheWay Homeauthor took over forValerie Bertinelli— who had previously hosted the series with Goldman since it premiered in 2015 — for season 13 of the show.

New episodes ofKids Baking Championship: Amazing Animalsair Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Food Network.

source: people.com