Foodtastic's Delightful Fare

Simba of Disney's The Lion King has appeared in a few forms — most notably, animated in the original film and as a puppet on Broadway. But perhaps the most unusual Simba yet appears on the Disney+ series Foodtastic: he's crafted from cake, with a mane of corn silk and African grass  and "fur" of textured white chocolate colored with powder and cinnamon-coated chocolate. His bird companion, Zazu, is made of rice cereal treats and modeling chocolate; they sit in a colorful landscape formed in part from artichokes, leeks and pineapples.

Such is the premise of Foodtastic, a competition show in which three teams of food artists build scenic "foodscapes" based on Disney properties. In the Beauty and the Beast episode, Belle's beloved books are carved from cheese. For the Pirates of the Caribbean, chocolate pirates wearing clothes of cabbage, kale and bok choy sail aboard a ship made of rice cereal, focaccia and tortillas.

Other properties in season one's eleven episodes include Star Wars (fondant-wrapped Death Star, anyone?), Up, Toy Story and The Avengers. The series is hosted by Keke Palmer, a 2021 Emmy winner for the short-form series Keke Palmer's Turnt Up with the Taylors. She also appears in scripted vignettes playing a character relevant to each episode's theme.

"This all started from an innate fascination with playing with your food," says DJ Nurre, an executive producer who is also executive vice-president, unscripted, at Endemol Shine North America, which developed Foodtastic. "Before we were even eating solid food, we were playing with food. If you're at Benihana and the chef makes that little volcano out of onions, the whole place goes crazy. If you're buying junk food at the grocery store — candy corn, goldfish crackers — that's food art, food made into fun shapes."

The show features artists of diverse backgrounds, and the foods used reflect the makeup of each episode's teams. "We found there's a huge melon-carving population that comes from Southeast Asia," Nurre notes. "When you have a team from the Midwest, you'll have a lot of pumpkin carving."

It can take more than fifty ingredients and twenty to thirty hours to craft one foodscape; teams are judged on technical aspects and creativity. All unused food goes to food banks and the works themselves are composted, as they're inedible after hours under hot lights.

The foodscapes evoke comparisons to the Tournament of Roses Parade floats, which must be decorated using only natural materials; in fact, the Endemol Shine team analyzed the float-making process as research. Like the fragrant parade floats, Foodtastic's foodscapes serve up tantalizing aromas.

"It was a little slice of heaven," Nurre says. "Don't come to the set if you're trying to cut down."

This article orginally appeared in emmy magazine issue #2, 2022, under the title, "Food Fun"