TORONTO 鈥� On the surface, comedy star Daniel Levy鈥檚 hosting role on The Great Canadian Baking Show may seem ironic.
After his days making audiences laugh on several MTV sa国际传媒 after-shows, he had no interest in hosting a TV show again, says the star and co-creator of Schitt鈥檚 Creek.
And he鈥檚 a terrible baker, he admits.
鈥淚t is almost stuff of legend how bad I am as a cook,鈥� Levy said with a laugh in a recent phone interview.
鈥淚鈥檓 an invitee to a dinner party. I鈥檓 not the person who鈥檚 inviting you over.鈥�
Yet when Levy watched the wildly popular BBC series The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, he got swept up in its thoughtful portrayal of amateur confectionery makers competing in a series of challenges.
鈥淚 found myself being quite moved by a show that prides itself not on tearing people down but rather lifting people up,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is a competition-based show but the competition isn鈥檛 about bakers talking trash about each other or sabotaging each other. It鈥檚 about the baker and their oven, not the baker and the baker beside them.鈥�
Levy became a 鈥渄iehard鈥� fan and tweeted that if the show ever came to sa国际传媒, he would love to throw his hat in the ring to host.
鈥淚 woke up the next morning to a barrage of tweets back at me not only letting me know that it was coming to sa国际传媒 but that it was coming to CBC,鈥� he said.
鈥淏y the end of the week I had gotten a call asking if I was legitimately interested.鈥�
Debuting today, The Great Canadian Baking Show features a diverse slate of 10 amateur bakers, from a human-rights lawyer to a dentist and a graphic designer.
In each episode, they compete in visually sumptuous culinary challenges over three rounds 鈥� the Signature Bake, the Technical Bake and the Show Stopper.
The final three then compete for the Great Canadian Baking Show title.
Levy co-hosts alongside British actor Julia Chan. Pastry chefs Bruno Feldeisen and Rochelle Adonis serve as judges.
鈥淭hose guys opened my mind to new things that I never knew you could do or knew you could eat or knew you could have those flavour combinations,鈥� said Feldeisen, the French-born former executive pastry chef for the Four Seasons in New York and Vancouver.
Like Levy, Feldeisen was also drawn in by the positivity in a TV genre that can sometimes be cutthroat.
鈥淚 think it was very well-spirited, it brings the best of people out,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen we left, everybody was crying.鈥�
Levy said he became known as 鈥渢he sampler鈥� on set.
鈥淚 thought: 鈥業f I鈥檓 going to do it you have to go all in, so I want to know every step of the process.鈥� 鈥�
Levy even tried honing his baking skills before filming.
For three weekends in a row, he baked a focaccia bread to try to nail the recipe. By the end, it wasn鈥檛 great but it was 鈥渃ertainly edible.鈥�
鈥淭here鈥檚 so much more to baking than what I thought, which was opening a box of Duncan Hines cake mix and adding a few eggs, some milk and throwing it in the oven,鈥� said Levy.
鈥淏akers are focused on the details and they have the patience levels that I could only dream of having. So it鈥檚 quite remarkable to sit back and watch these people hone these kills that they鈥檝e developed in addition to their everyday jobs.鈥�
