Yolanda Gampp was most impressed when bakers on “Crime Scene Kitchen” mastered time management. “Baking is difficult and baking is really time-consuming. And when you’re doing it against a clock, there’s no time for mistakes,” she said.
Gampp explained that most of her own cakes take longer than two hours to bake and assemble. She mostly uses recipes that she personally engineered, and unless there’s an issue with an ingredient, any difficulties she encounters go beyond the recipe. “With me, it’s usually a structural problem,” she said. “It’s usually structural, like it’s too hot in the kitchen. Or I need to chill the cake for a long time before I can carve it, that kind of thing.” So when bakers run into issues with setting their desserts, it usually is something that is out of their control.
“It’s time,” Gampp said. “And that’s why I really empathize with them going against a clock. Because in baking, unlike cooking, you can’t really save things. You either do it right or you fail and you start again. But on a competition show, you can’t start again. So you have to work with whatever you have.” So the next time you see someone’s dessert oozing frosting between the layers, you’ll know it wasn’t because they lack the skill. They simply lacked the best environment or time to accomplish their dessert.
To see more of Yolanda Gampp, along with co-judge Curtis Stone and host Joel McHale, check out “Crime Scene Kitchen,” on Fox.
