Jacques Torres Says This Is His Favorite Part Of Judging Nailed It! - Exclusive
These days, there's all kinds of content for foodies out there — an endless stream of cooking shows, baking competitions, and more to whet your appetite and inspire your next weekend kitchen project. However, (despite its name) Netflix's Nailed It! really isn't that type of show. Instead, Nailed It! viewers watch as helpless bakers scramble their way through ridiculously difficult challenges, attempting to cobble something together that the judges then have to taste, regardless of how scary the creations may look.
You might wonder: who would even want to judge such a baking competition? Well, acclaimed pastry chef and chocolate master Jacques Torres does. He told Mashed in an exclusive interview that the bakers' penchant for epic fails is exactly what draws him to the show. Torres told us he is "always amazed how courageous those bakers are to expose themselves," saying, "they are goofy. They're going to do some crazy stuff. They're going to fail." Torres added that he understands "it's not easy to go in front of a camera... in front of an audience and do that. And they do it." At the end of the day, appearing on Nailed It! means basically signing yourself up to be embarrassed, "but you know what? Millions of people are going to see it and they still have a good time." That ability to have fun is what Torres loves the most about appearing on the show.
There's a good lesson to be learned from Nailed It!
While most of us are probably watching Nailed It! to see just how badly things will go, Jacques Torres says fans get more out of the show than just pure entertainment value. In Torres' view, Nailed It! "shows you that things don't have to be perfect. Things don't have to be the way that we ask them to be. And it can be fun... [the bakers] can have a good time, even if the result is not there."
Torres hopes that seeing that imperfection hilariously on display is encouraging to bakers at home who might want to roll up their sleeves in the kitchen and try something new. "I love this message behind the show where we say it's okay. It's okay if things are not perfect," the judge told Mashed. You don't need to be a world class pastry chef, or even a good baker, to get creative and have fun. Torres explained "that's really something that I think we try to tell the audience," as well as the bakers on the show.
Jacques Torres says Nicole Byer makes the experience even sweeter
It's easy to see why Jacques Torres loves going to work when he's got a coworker like Nicole Byer. While the two may seem like an unlikely duo, their differences are what makes it work. "We are so opposite," Torres told Mashed. "She's a comedian, I'm a chef. I know nothing about comedy. She knows pretty much nothing about cooking. But somehow we find ways to be friends. We find ways to laugh together... we have a good time."
Torres says he'd never met Byer before they were cast on Nailed It!, but that it's been a match made in heaven ever since. "I love to work with Nicole. You know she's a treasure. She's really great," he praised, adding that the audience doesn't even get the full picture. "Nicole is so funny... I mean, you see not even a tenth of who she is," the master chocolatier said. Torres also admits that getting through a work day on the set of Nailed It! — which can be anywhere from 10 to 14 hours long (via Vulture) — is also easier with Byer around. "I have to say that the day goes a lot faster because she's there," he shared. "Yes it's work, yes it's stressful... but because Nicole is here, it's a lot of fun."
You can catch Byer and Torres in action again on the newest season of Nailed It!, available to stream on Netflix starting March 26.