Pastry chef Zac Young talks about how he became Sprinklemaster, his whimsical dessert creations and Halloween Baking Championship. Zac chats with host Jaymee Sire about his epic Piecaken creation, how it created a pumpkin puree shortage in New York City, and what would be in an ideal “Zacaken.” He shares his sources of creative inspiration, how he conceptualizes new and playful ideas, and what he does when he is in a creative rut. Zac shares his relationship with sweets as a child growing up in a vegan household and the treat he would always sneak on his way home from school. Jaymee and Zac indulge in their mutual love of Zac’s home state, Maine, and how it has evolved as a food destination. He shares his memories of cutting his teeth in New York City and the dessert that won over Alex Guarnaschelli. Zac gets into his favorite moments and costumes from Halloween Baking Championship, why he loves working with co-host Carla Hall, and possibly reveals his Halloween look for this year.
Pastry chef Zac Young talks about how he became Sprinklemaster, his whimsical dessert creations and Halloween Baking Championship. Zac chats with host Jaymee Sire about his epic Piecaken creation, how it created a pumpkin puree shortage in New York City, and what would be in an ideal “Zacaken.” He shares his sources of creative inspiration, how he conceptualizes new and playful ideas, and what he does when he is in a creative rut. Zac shares his relationship with sweets as a child growing up in a vegan household and the treat he would always sneak on his way home from school. Jaymee and Zac indulge in their mutual love of Zac’s home state, Maine, and how it has evolved as a food destination. He shares his memories of cutting his teeth in New York City and the dessert that won over Alex Guarnaschelli. Zac gets into his favorite moments and costumes from Halloween Baking Championship, why he loves working with co-host Carla Hall, and possibly reveals his Halloween look for this year.
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JAYMEE SIRE: Happy Friday and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host Jaymee Sire, and today we have the king of sweets on the pod to talk all about his whimsical, imaginative creations and the viral sensation that spawned a pumpkin puree shortage in New York City.
But before we introduce our guests, we do have a quick note for our listeners. We're going to take a break from releasing a new episode next week, but do not worry, we will be back the week after next with a brand new episode. So make sure you're following us wherever you listen to podcasts so you do not miss a thing. He is an award-winning pastry chef, the president and sprinkle master of PieCaken Bakeshop, and a longtime judge on Halloween Baking Championship, it's Zac Young.
Zac, welcome to the podcast. I have a very important first question for you because I read on your website that when you grow up, you want to be a competitive dim sum eater. So what is your record so far?
ZAC YOUNG: Oh, gosh. I haven't counted. I have a deep love for all things dim sum. And my favorite dim sum moments normally come after, let's say, a long night out. So essentially, you eat until you don't hurt anymore basically.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I mean, I think that that's a good tactic. But you are currently the president and sprinkle master of PieCaken Bakeshop. That's a title they don't really teach you on career day in school, at least not when I was in school. What does a typical day in your life look like?
ZAC YOUNG: Day in the life of a sprinkle master. Let's see. We have so many new projects beyond just the direct to consumer of PieCaken Bakeshop. We're working on a whole new retail line, we have a Chicago pop up store happening for the holidays. So every day is a little bit different. I feel kind of nomadic because we don't have our own single kitchen. We use so many different locations. So it's definitely a change from, say, running restaurants where you physically have to be in one place at one time. But it's a lot of test kitchen stuff, a lot of research and development, which is clearly very difficult eating cake all day long.
JAYMEE SIRE: Tough job. Someone's got to do it, right?
ZAC YOUNG: But yeah, every day is different. And talk about career day. Never thought I'd be a sprinkle master. But then when I started making cookies and making sweets, I never thought that I'd be on the business end of anything. I'm a creative. I don't have an MBA. I don't these know these big terms that get thrown around. So it's been trial by fire, really, in learning the business end of things. So equal parts in the boardroom and in the kitchen are my days.
JAYMEE SIRE: What are the job qualifications for a sprinkle master?
ZAC YOUNG: Well, you have to start as a sprinkle intern first. It's an old-fashioned trade. I think you must love shiny things, whimsy, fun, and--
JAYMEE SIRE: Colorful.
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah, and making people happy because at the end of the day, sweets are not a necessity. You won't die if you don't eat cake. Well, I might because my body is so used to it, but it's a luxury and it makes people happy.
JAYMEE SIRE: Speaking of which, you eat a lot of cake, obviously, and sweets. I have to say you are in incredible shape. I hope it's OK for me to say that. How do you find that balance between splurging on the sweets and the cake and also keeping fit and healthy?
ZAC YOUNG: Well, one feeds the other, really. It's like I work out so I can eat the cake. And also I feel my diet is pretty far on either extreme. Either I'm eating all the cake, all the ice cream, and all the pies, or I'm eating kale, quinoa, or dumplings.
JAYMEE SIRE: Or dumplings, as we've covered. You literally disrupted the pumpkin puree supply chain in New York in 2015 when you created the, drum roll please, the Piecaken. As I understand it, this is like a dessert version of the turducken. So it's pecan pie in the bottom, pumpkin pie in the middle, spice cake on top, topped with apple pie filling, cinnamon buttercream sandwiched between all the layers. Please walk us through how this brainchild came to be.
ZAC YOUNG: Like my life and most things in it, it started as a joke. And it was Thanksgiving in one of our midtown hotel restaurants. And the executive chef there was a bit of a man-child, very excitable and very excited about his turducken. And my pastry chef in that property had said, why don't we do one of those Piecaken things where you bake the pie in the cake?
And I said, that's brilliant. But let's take it to the next level. Let's truly make it the turducken of dessert and take all of the Thanksgiving favorites and layer them together to make this kind of massive cake. And it was just going to be a special. It was just going to be one day by the slice for Thanksgiving. And then I put an in-progress picture on my Instagram, and all of my friends said, wait, can we buy that for Thanksgiving? Can we buy one? And I'm like, why? No, we don't sell cakes. We're a restaurant, you've got to come get a slice.
And then the light bulb went off that oh, we should sell it. So we figured out how to sell cakes out of a hotel basement kitchen. And next thing we know Kelly Ripa is talking about it on the show in the morning just from an e-blast that we sent out, and it blew up overnight. And that was the year there was really bad weather in Mexico and California. So the pumpkin crop was already pretty low. It was pretty hard to get.
And the week before Thanksgiving, we're calling all of our suppliers, every vendor, every broad liner, every food service company, saying, do you have any pumpkin left? We need all of it. We bought everyone out of the pumpkin puree. And I was like, I don't care how small the can is, I will open them by hand. If there was any pumpkin left, we took it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you remember how many of these you sold?
ZAC YOUNG: So the first year, I said, if we sell 40, I'll be happy. Why not? 40 cool. We sold 400 that year. And again, the kind of big blowup that Kelly Ripa mentioned, that happened the week of Thanksgiving. So that was all we could handle. That was all we could make. We had no runway and no pumpkin puree.
JAYMEE SIRE: And now there's several other iterations. I think there's one for Christmas, 4th of July. But I want to know, what would a Zaccaken look like?
ZAC YOUNG: I've made Piecaken for literally everything except myself. The original is still my favorite. I think just the flavors of fall speak to me. I'm a very fall kind of person. I'm autumnal. But the Zaccaken would definitely have a carrot cake layer. Carrot cake has kind of this repeating theme in my life. It was my parents' wedding cake, it was the dessert that got me the job at butter for Alex Gauna Shelley, and it was also the dish that I beat Bobby Flay with too. It's my go-to. So carrot cake would definitely be involved. There would be a cheesecake layer because cream cheese frosting and carrot cake, hand in hand. And it would probably be topped with some kind of donuts.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. I mean, that sounds delightful.
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah. Now I know what I'm doing after this now.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Perfect. You heard it here first on Food Network Obsessed, guys. Well, it seems like your concepts are equal parts technical skill and then of course that creativity that we love. Where do you draw that creative inspiration from?
ZAC YOUNG: Who knows. I mean, my mind is a mess. If you look up there, it's like an episode of Hoarders. But the inspiration I think comes from the grandmothers of America, the great canon of American baking. I have a huge collection of those Better Homes and Gardens 1960s, 1970s cookbook anthologies with like the crazy jell-o mold stuff and all that retro stuff, and I love it. So these kind of classic pieces of Americana are inspiring. And it's like, how do we pay homage to grandma? How do we take what grandma would have made and blow it up and just go way over the top with it? So I have great reverence for grandma.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do you ever get in a creative rut, and if so, how do you kind of snap out of it?
ZAC YOUNG: I do. I think creativity is one of those things that can't be forced. And I struggle when everyone comes to me and says, well, what's the next thing or what are we doing now or can you make this? And it's like, I wish I could flip the switch. I think pressure is a great motivator. I think trusting your instinct and just going, like don't think about it, just jump. And when I'm in a rut, that's kind of what I do. I just get in the kitchen and make something, and everything else follows.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, your style is very playful, it's fun. It brings out know your inner child, I think everyone else's as well. What was your relationship with sweets growing up?
ZAC YOUNG: Nonexistent, which is why I became a pastry chef. My mother is vegan, made me growing up gluten-free. Basically all of these things that are now a thing, she was kind of a pioneer of. I mean, we were eating kale and quinoa before people could pronounce quinoa and shopping at the farmers markets and food co-ops and whatnot. And food for us was very much fuel. It was not necessarily celebratory, there wasn't a lot of emotional attachment to it.
Which growing up, was awful because imagine being me trying to trade your lunch with someone. I couldn't even trade what I had with the girl who has the tuna fish sandwich. That's how bad it was. But those kind of values and thinking about food now as an adult, it's pretty amazing actually. So my relationship with food now is so much more healthy because I was kind of raised to actually think about what we were eating.
But yeah, sweets were pretty verboten except for some date balls made with carob and a big splurge. But I used to sneak to the corner store on my way home from school and I'd get a slush puppy, the blue slush puppy. Remember it? What happened to--
JAYMEE SIRE: Electric blue.
ZAC YOUNG: So, so good. And basically every snack cake you could. And I'd hide them. I would hide them under my bed and sneak them.
JAYMEE SIRE: Did mom ever find the hidden snack treasure under the bed?
ZAC YOUNG: She found the wrappers. She had her own stash though. She's a big fan of chocolate, and especially dark chocolate. So I would find her stash, but of course those were the kind of raw fair trade 98% cocoa. I had no interest in that as a kid.
JAYMEE SIRE: No, why would you? And you grew up in Maine. I sort of have an obsession with that state, so indulge me for a second. How did growing up in Portland shape your culinary point of view aside from what we kind of covered in your house with the vegan and the healthy eating? Did anything just about where you grew up kind of shape who you are today?
ZAC YOUNG: Maine is an incredible state. And I'm so happy that Portland and all of Maine is really on the food map now because it wasn't so much growing up. I think Mainers are , kind the land of the sea no-nonsense people. And I think growing up with that mentality has translated into a lot of my thinking around food where respecting the ingredient, whether it's a blueberry or a lobster. There's a lot of simplicity in the cooking.
And it's funny that I'm saying this as someone who's known for doing things that are over the top and covered in sprinkles and whatnot, but respecting the ingredient and trying to make that blueberry taste even more like a blueberry, right? Like be the best blueberry you can be.
JAYMEE SIRE: Give that blueberry a pep talk.
ZAC YOUNG: That's right. All right, kids. We're going to go out there and we're going to make the best pie possible. So I think there's a lot of respect for the ingredients, respect for where the food comes from that came from Maine.
JAYMEE SIRE: But the blueberries up there as you mentioned, they are unmatched. They taste completely different than any other blueberry you've ever had.
ZAC YOUNG: It makes me so proud now because sometimes I see frozen Maine wild blueberries in the supermarket, and I'm like, oh my gosh, these are my babies. Not really. Like I didn't grow them, but I have great pride any time I see them. So any time you see frozen wild blueberries, get them.
JAYMEE SIRE: You also were a drama kid. Growing up, you went to school for theater. You were in that world for a while. So at what point did you decide to stop pursuing theater and do what you're doing now?
ZAC YOUNG: So I was working in the wig department at Radio City, like you do. And it was Christmas for six months of the year there and I wanted to make Christmas cookies, which was something that clearly we didn't do growing up. So I bought a mixer and I bought this kind of basic cookie cookbook and started working my way through it. And the first batches were pretty terrible. And then I started getting good at making the cookies, and I kept bringing them into work.
And then I started playing with the recipes. So adding things, taking things out, adding chocolate-covered pretzels to the peanut butter base, which is excellent, adding wild blueberries to the oat cookie, which did not work because of the moisture content. And I kind of became fascinated with the creativity within the confines of science. So there's only so much you can stretch a recipe before it doesn't work. And I loved that. As someone who shockingly likes to push the boundaries and may or may not bend the rules, it really appealed to me to see what can you get away with.
And Christmas was winding down and vegan mom of all people said, you're not talking about auditioning, you're not talking about going into the wardrobe or hair department of another show, all you're talking about are these cookies. So why don't you look at culinary school? And I didn't know that was an option. That wasn't kind of talked about in career day. And also I was 23 at the time, and I said, how can I change the direction of my entire life now?
I spent 15 years working for a life in the theater. How can I change it all now, which of course, I laugh at. This is a 23-year-old saying it. Calm down, Zac. There's time for a second act. There's time for a third act, a fourth. But at the time, it just felt like my entire world was going to turn upside down if I changed courses. But I did.
JAYMEE SIRE: So what was that first step? Going to culinary school then?
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah, I went to culinary school. And of course I marched in there and they're like, why are you here, and I was like, I want to make cookies. They're like, we don't really have a cookie program, but how about pastry? And I'm like, well, are cookies involved?
JAYMEE SIRE: Will there be cookies?
ZAC YOUNG: Will there be cookies, the Zac Young story.
JAYMEE SIRE: I like that. That's a working title. I think you should go with that. Well, you did attend the Institute of Culinary Education and then you kind of cut your teeth at Bouchon and also butter of course Alex Guarnaschelli's restaurant. What do you remember about those first days working in kitchens?
ZAC YOUNG: Oh gosh, very little.
JAYMEE SIRE: It's a blur.
ZAC YOUNG: Sometimes it is a blur. So Bouchon, right out of culinary school, I started my internship there. So that was my first job. It was the opening of the Time Warner Center. Bouchon was the first one in New York, the only one other than Yountville. Bouchon is Thomas Keller's bakery. Per SE was huge at the time. Per SE still is. But again this kind of like dumb Zac, not realizing how high-level he's walking into something, just kind of went in, same thing. I like making cookies. Let me make some cookies.
And I think my kind of blindness there served me well because had I thought about oh wow, this is actually kind of above my skill level and pay grade, I would have overthought it and I would have not just dove right in. Similarly, I answered a Craigslist ad that said downtown hot spots seeks pastry position. And I had no clue what Butter was. At the time, Butter had been open for maybe four years. It was just celebrity after celebrity every night.
And Alex had started there maybe a year or so before and was making a culinary name for the restaurant, this market-driven American cuisine. So I showed up, answered the ad, and Alex and I talked probably for half an hour about nothing food-related, by the way. About life. And then she said, OK, come back tomorrow and make me something. I was like, all right. I'll make you something interesting.
So in my head, I thought I'd do something really complicated like some of the French mousse cakes or entremet that we were making at Bouchon at the time. And on the subway ride down to Butter, I just thought, you know what I want, I want carrot cake. Why don't I make carrot cake? And why don't I stuff it with some cream cheese frosting like molten style? This is on the subway.
JAYMEE SIRE: Some of the best thoughts come on the subway, I have to say.
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah, the best or the worst. It depends on time of day and where you're going. But yeah, so I get there and I make the carrot cake and I give her one. She eats one then she eats another one, and she's like, all right, when can you start? And I ended up that position pretty much with full range of freedom to create the dessert program at Butter under Alex's guidance.
But all of a sudden, it was like, oh, I guess it's chef now. I guess my name is on the bottom of the menu in a few months. Yeah, lots of happy accidents. I think Alex kind of continued this respect for the ingredient. We'd go to the green market together and she'd tour around and kind of show me what to look for. I'd never respected a peach before. I'd never really felt and smelt and talked to the farmers and talked about the rainfall and all of these factors.
So when you have the respect for the ingredient, it's really easy to treat it well, to know what it wants. And I also think that Alex kind of broke me from a really rote pastry. Pastry can be really scientific, it's very formulaic. You follow the recipe, and it's always the same. And Alex kind of gave me this chefier approach to pastry, flavor-driven. A lot more free form and tasting things and it kind of developed my palate that way. And that's how I think about dessert too because it's form and flavor.
JAYMEE SIRE: Coming up next, Zac tells us all about the new season of Halloween Baking Championship, and he reveals his favorite costumes he's worn on the show. We've seen you on Halloween Baking Championship, Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, Cooking Channel's Unique Sweets, just to name a few. What is your favorite part about the filming process with Food Network?
ZAC YOUNG: I think it's the family. There are so many shows and production companies and people who work on these shows, but it's actually a very small community. So you end up working with not just the amazing Food Network talent that everyone sees who is a family in and of itself and I'm proud to be a baby brother to all of them. But it's the camera operators, the assistant directors, our hair and makeup teams, you work with the same people over and over again.
And it's really every time you film something, it's like a family, it's like a homecoming. And I think that's my favorite part, is just kind of being on set, being with these people, and creating something fun.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. So many people that we've had on the podcast have said the exact same thing. So it's always good to hear that because it just reinforces that that is actually what's happening there. And you mentioned the hair and makeup department, which for Halloween Baking Championship, is on another level. Such a fun show. Definitely a perfect fit for you. It's playful, there's drama, there's costumes. What have been your favorite looks that you've had on the show after seven seasons?
ZAC YOUNG: Oh my gosh, all of them. I mean, clearly, it's the best time of year. And our wardrobe and hair and makeup departments are so incredible. And I think they love it too because they get to flex their muscles and do something out of the ordinary, not just spray in some hair and put some bronzer on me. So it's a fun process, it's a collaborative process, especially the hair and makeup. That's where everything comes to life. And there's always this kind of back and forth of like, oh, what should we do, where should we go.
And even the costumes. I mean, my first season there, we shot in New Orleans in the summer. And New Orleans is one of my favorite cities across the board, the people the food. But the summertime there is not fun. 100 degrees and 100% humidity. And all of my costumes were pre picked for me and they were all these massive historical numbers. So night with full chain mail, this Game of Thronesy king literally wearing a quilt.
And I said to the producers midway through, whatever happened to gymnast or lifeguard? Because I feel like the Cowardly Lion in a community theater production of Wizard of Oz. I am I'm dying here. What are you going to make me next, like a mattress or a sheet? So the next season, I sent them a list ahead of time, unsolicited. I was like, hey guys, here's some ideas.
JAYMEE SIRE: Some ideas for you. What was in the list?
ZAC YOUNG: Getting a newborn baby in a diaper. Anything that didn't involve clothing. I have two favorite costumes. One is romance novel cover model. Still have the wig. Thanks Food Network. Don't threaten me with the wig in a wind machine. And the other was actually a costume that it was not my idea and I really didn't like it at first, and it was a cupcake. And it was this blue rigid little cupcake liner and then this like fluffy loofah pink thing.
And I was just like not into it. And they kept adding these like sparkly sprinkles onto it to try to appease me. They're like, look, shiny things. You'll like it. And I was like, I just don't like it. So we're sitting in the hair and makeup chair, and Tara, who is my makeup artist, was like, let's just go whole hog. Rosy cheeks, freckles, spray your hair, there's like a cherry fascinator. And I was like, you know what, just do it. Let's do it. So I walk out on set and I look ridiculous.
And I decide to I look at myself in the mirror and I'm like, you know what, I'm going to be a stale cupcake. I'm going to go the complete opposite of this entire look. And I had so much fun and the pictures from that still make me laugh. My friends still send me GIFs and images of that. When I'm cranky, they'll send me that picture. But it actually ended up becoming everyone's favorite costume just because it was so absurd. But yeah, it's hard to pick.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. What kind of wacky creations can we look forward to this season?
ZAC YOUNG: In the wardrobe department?
JAYMEE SIRE: Wardrobe or food department.
ZAC YOUNG: Oh, I'm sorry, is this podcast about food? I thought we were talking about costumes.
JAYMEE SIRE: We can talk about costumes all day.
ZAC YOUNG: All day long. Well, we have an '80s horror theme this year for costumes, which is super fun. And even our day drag looks, our regular judging looks are informed by the '80s, which is awesome. So we got to the first episode, I was chucky, which it scanned. It worked. These are some kind of iconic characters and iconic looks. So I was really into it.
And then I'll tell you, the bakers year after year continue to blow it out of the water. I don't know how they achieve what they do in the time that they're allotted. And when you think that you've seen it all, we're in season 7 of Halloween, they keep raising the bar. So we're seeing stuff this season that we haven't seen before. I'm just always shocked when someone comes up with something new because it's like, how many bat cookies can you make? I just get blown away by the technique.
I love the show because we also showcase different sides of pastry too. It's not just a big cake competition, there's a lot of smaller things, some plated desserts, pies, et cetera. So the chefs really get to-- the bakers really get to show off their full skill set and take advantage of it.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's awesome. Also we had Carla Hall on the podcast previously. She is just a ray of sunshine. What was it like working with her?
ZAC YOUNG: Carla and I have been friends for 11 years. And as great of a human as everyone thinks she is, she is even better in person. She has some like divinity to her. So the my other favorite part of filming Halloween is getting to spend two weeks with Carla, and of course Stephanie and John Henson, who was actually a childhood crush of mine. I fan boyed out on him our first day on set and now we're friends. But Carla is just-- her energy is contagious and she's also just a great listener too. She's curious about everything, food, life. So I get a year's worth of therapy in two weeks with Carla.
JAYMEE SIRE: And you don't have to pay for it.
ZAC YOUNG: And I don't have to. Someone else, Food Network, pays for my therapy, which is great. But yeah, Carla and I have the most fun. And we're always shooting in an interesting city too. So after eating for 14 hours on set all day, Carla and I still go out and have dinner afterwards, which is kind of absurd but worth it.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your favorite Halloween treat?
ZAC YOUNG: Twix bars. Full size Twix bars. There's a simplicity to the Twix, that crispy shortbread, that chewy caramel, that just right chocolate coating. It's my absolute favorite.
JAYMEE SIRE: This has been so much fun. We are going to close out with some rapid fire questions, and then we have one final question for you here on Food Network Obsessed. All right. So best dessert spot in New York City.
ZAC YOUNG: Dominique Ansel.
JAYMEE SIRE: Deserted island dessert.
ZAC YOUNG: Does that mean I have to make it on a deserted island or can I bring it?
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, that's a good question. I didn't think ahead on this. Maybe you have to make it. Maybe you have to make it with what you have on the island.
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah. I would drink my dessert. I guess I'd ferment some coconuts into some kind of coconut liquor and make some kind of pina colada.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, that sounds delightful.
ZAC YOUNG: Why not?
JAYMEE SIRE: Is moderation overrated?
ZAC YOUNG: Moderation is not overrated. Moderation is the key to enjoyment. Unless you're eating your feelings, and then all bets are off actually.
JAYMEE SIRE: Speaking of which, favorite cake flavor.
ZAC YOUNG: Carrot cake.
JAYMEE SIRE: Carrot cake, yeah. I figured.
ZAC YOUNG: Hands down.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. Favorite Girl Scout cookie.
ZAC YOUNG: Samoas.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes, that was my childhood favorite. I've moved on to tagalongs but--
ZAC YOUNG: Wow, really? Interesting.
JAYMEE SIRE: You're like, disapprove. How do you take your coffee?
ZAC YOUNG: Black and iced.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite place to travel.
ZAC YOUNG: Anywhere. Hawaii. Love Hawaii, all of the islands. I feel like I discover something new every time I'm able to go.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. Favorite Broadway show.
ZAC YOUNG: Wow, you're digging hard. I mean there are--
JAYMEE SIRE: We ask the hard-hitting questions here on Food Network Obsessed.
ZAC YOUNG: Book of Mormon. Currently running Book of Mormon. Really excited for City Center encores production of The Life, which is '90s Cy Coleman musical that had a great run back then. I just love the score to that. And then some niche stuff like Bat Boy, which was off-Broadway.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, we're just happy Broadway's coming back.
ZAC YOUNG: Oh my gosh, I know.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. So the final question that we ask all of our guests here on Food Network Obsessed, and that is what would be on the menu for your perfect food day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. Moderation is not on the table for this one. You can time travel, you can regular travel, spend however much money you want. There's basically no rules. So we just want to hear your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and of course dessert.
ZAC YOUNG: Oh, time travel.
JAYMEE SIRE: Time travel. You could like supersonic jet all over the globe in one day, whatever you want to do.
ZAC YOUNG: I didn't think about time travel. So breakfast, I am a creature of habit. I have to do the same thing every morning. Morning routine is very important to me. If I don't do that, I feel like my day is totally off. So I'd have to start my day with a venti unsweetened iced coffee and a spinach and egg white wrap from Starbucks.
JAYMEE SIRE: From Starbucks. I was going to say, wait, from Starbucks?
ZAC YOUNG: Yes. Every morning.
JAYMEE SIRE: Every morning you do that.
ZAC YOUNG: Honestly, if I've ever been late to set, which I don't think I have. I think I've always made it in time, but it's because there was a Starbucks stop. I mean, I think if I had a talent writer such as a basket of puppies, which I don't, but that would be the only thing in my writer. And then we're going to go to the airport because we're going to Italy, which means that lunch will be Panda Express. I will literally time my travel so I miss a meal so I have to eat at Panda Express at the airport.
JAYMEE SIRE: There's a Panda Express chicken sandwich.
ZAC YOUNG: There is. It is at their Innovation Kitchen in Pasadena for four weeks. I might be going to Pasadena. But it will be the orange chicken and the they call it chow mein. I always called it lo mein growing up the vegetable noodle dish. So that's lunch. And then we're going to Italy, and we're going to go to Lo Scoglio on the Amalfi Coast, which is-- I have not actually been there. I sat with the chefs at a brunch that Bobby Flay hosted, and I was like, I must go to this place.
And then all of a sudden, all of the travel documentaries are featuring it, and I'm like, no, no, no, this can't get too popular. So we're going to eat all of the seafood, all of the pasta. They have their own farm too, so all of the vegetables. So just coastal Italian feast. And then because you let me time travel, we're going to go to France and we are going to go to the court of Marie Antoinette.
And we are going to have that feast. That over the top, the croquembouche, the macaron, all of that entire pastry table, that's dessert. And maybe we'll take a wig back too.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, you have to. It's tradition.
ZAC YOUNG: But I'll throw my midnight snack in two or as we return to New York in the year 2021, it will be a strawberry sundae from McDonald's.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it.
ZAC YOUNG: I love that soft serve. There is nothing like it when the machines are working. Which, by the way, you know how many soft serve--
JAYMEE SIRE: It's a controversy, right?
ZAC YOUNG: Yeah, I've offered to fix them. I'm like, I am a professional. I know how to dismantle and reassemble these machines. I will do it for you for free if I can get a sundae.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, my gosh. I love the mixture of high and low and it seems very on brand. So I love your food day.
ZAC YOUNG: Totally. I mean, it's like when friends have me over for dinner or friends of any chef over for dinner. They're always terrified to cook for a chef. And it's like, no, we just love food. And we love if other people make the food too.
JAYMEE SIRE: 100%.
ZAC YOUNG: Or we'll help you make the food. But you feed me, I'm happy. There's very little I won't eat.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, it has been so much fun hearing all about your life, and of course we're so excited to see the rest of the season of Halloween Baking Championship. Best of luck in the future. Oh, what are you going to be for Halloween?
ZAC YOUNG: Well, I have seven costumes to choose from. I'll tell you, I am going to re hash one of the looks from this season of Halloween baking, and I will let you decide which one it is. I know which one it is, but I think people should guess as they watch.
JAYMEE SIRE: We'll look forward to that and try to pinpoint which one is going to be the winner. Thank you so much again for joining us. This has been such a delight.
ZAC YOUNG: Thank you Jaymee.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right. Even though I am not a sweets person, my mouth is watering after that conversation and I cannot wait to see which costume he picks for Halloween. You can catch more of Zac on the new season of Halloween Baking Championship Mondays at 9:00/8:00 Central on Food Network and streaming on Discovery Plus. And don't forget, we're taking a break from releasing a new episode next Friday, but we will be back the week after. So it's a good time to binge any episodes that you might have missed the past. And in the meantime, make sure you're following us wherever you listen to podcasts so you do not miss our next new episode. And of course, if you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review. We love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next time.