EP #189 NEVER BURN BRIDGES- CHEF CHARITY "THE SUGAR SORCERESS"

Chef Charity grew up in Southern California, as the oldest of 6 children. She started performing in musical theater when she was just 4 years old. Charity damaged not one, but 2 Easy Bake Ovens as a child before her mother decided to teach her how to use the “big” oven. By age 12 she had tapped out her mother and grandmother’s cooking knowledge and hit the books as she wanted to know more. As A 6th grader, she entered her first cake competition/auction. When she was 16 she went to work for a local custom cake shop called Flour Power in a nearby town. After her first year at University, where she was majoring in International business and minoring in Voice and French, she went to culinary school in Paris, France at Le Ritz Escoffier, although she didn’t finish her degree there. After working in various industries; computer, graphics, radio, entertainment, restaurant and grocery, commercial food production, she finished her degree at Grossmont College in Pastry Arts. Chef Charity is the Pastry Chef and Cake Artist for Nailed it! On Netflix. She’s the magic hands that makes all the cakes and other treats the contestants attempt to copy in the Emmy Nominated comedy baking show on Netflix. Charity specializes in chocolate and sugar art particularly with regards to wedding, specialty and extreme cakes. She has also specialized in baking and cooking for those with food allergies and sensitivities, which she terms “Free Baking”. Charity owns d’Zrt Cake Studio, and resides with her 3 children in San Diego, CA. Charity is also President of the Board of Directors for Icing Smiles. Icing Smiles is a non-profit organization that provides custom celebration cakes and other treats to families impacted by the critical illness or medical crisis of a child. As a medical mom (2 of her 3 children have medical challenges, Leukemia, Spondylo Arthritis & Crohn’s disease) and a cake artist, Chef Charity is an excellent fit as a member of the board for Icing Smiles. www.icingsmiles.org Although she’s had a 30+ year career in food, for the last 16 years she has worked exclusively with cakes, pastry, sugar and chocolate. In March 2013 Craftsy.com released it’s first Isomalt (sugar art) class, taught by Chef Charity. The educational site, YummyArts.com has a catalog of Chef Charity’s classes. She’s also a judge at numerous cake shows/contests and teaches sugar and cake arts across the country. Television appearances; Charity’s been a contestant on TLC’s Ultimate Cake Off twice in season 2, was featured on TLC’s Fabulous Cakes and the Niecy Nash Wedding Bash. On Food Network Charity has appeared on Cake Wars and Halloween Wars (season 2, 5 & 7). She was then a special guest Chocolatier on the Valentines episode of Cake Wars in 2016. Charity was featured on the pilot episode of SugarDome that aired as a special of Cupcake Wars called Cake Wars. The pilot episode of Caketastrophe was based on an Icing Smiles story, and Charity was also a part of that show. Charity has appeared on numerous cooking segments for news stations and news magazine shows in San Diego and Los Angeles. Since production began in 2017, Charity has been the “Secret Chef” = Cake Artist and Food Stylist for the entire Nailed it! series (Mexico included) on Netflix which originally released early 2018. Nailed it! Has filmed 49 episodes as of early 2020 and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2019 and 2 Emmy Awards in 2020. Charity was featured in the Icing Smiles episode on season 2 of Making Good on BYUtv. Charity has been featured on podcasts with Pastry Arts Magazine, and About to Break. She’s written columns for magazines, Edible Artists Magazine, and done tutorial spreads in American Cake Decorating Magazine. She’s been featured in Bake Magazine, Dessert Professional and others. She was one of the top 10 Cake Artists in 2014 in Dessert Professional Magazine. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kelly-cardenas/support