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Take two professional bakers and their assistants, caffeinate them, keep them up well past midnight, turn them loose in a kitchen and see what results. That's the formula of Duff Goldman's new Food Network series "Duff Till Dawn," airing Thursdays. The series, which premiered last week, takes place after business hours at Goldman's Los Angeles bakery, Duff 's Cakemix, in which bakers do their thing after the sun goes down, with Goldman acting as host and adviser. The rules are few and emphasis is on creativity as the competition goes on overnight. "We wanted this to feel very authentic, very, very real and like these are real cake decorators going at it head to head," Goldman explains. "We're literally stripping away all the rules because cake decorating is so much different than cooking. Even cake decorating is very different from most baking competitions, too. And I think with cake decorating competitions, you really have to do them right, and one of the things you have to do is you've got to remove a lot of those guidelines from people to allow them to do what they do because cake decorators are different from bakers and pastry chefs and cooks because they really are truly visual artists and you want to let them be able to do what they do." And the competition ends as the sun comes up – literally. "We look at like weather.com and it tells you sunrise is at 6:13 a.m.," Goldman says, "so at 6:13 a.m. hands off your cakes. It's different every night." BY GEORGE DICKIE GOLDMAN takes cake decorating after hours on 'Duff Till Dawn' What book are you currently reading? "I am reading 'The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts' by Louis de Bernieres. It's part of a trilogy. ... And basically it's kind of magical realism ... ." What did you have for dinner last night? "I'm eating raw right now, just because between filming shows I eat so much cake and stuff I try to stay healthy. So last night I had a watermelon, a green apple, celery, half of an avocado and carrots and I cheated with a little bit of peanut butter." What is your next project? "I'm actually writing a book right now that should be out October 2015, and it's called 'Duck Bakes.' ... We stripped away the stuff that people don't need to know and explained in very accessible terms like, 'This is why a good scone is good and this is why a bad scone bad. This is why some pie dough is flaky and this is why some pie dough is mealy.' " When was the last vacation you took, where and why? "My last true vacation was probably about nine months ago. It was New Zealand last year and I literally flew to New Zealand with a backpack with one change of clothes. And I rented a BMW 650 (motorcycle) ... and I did about 1,600 miles in eight days. And I've got to tell you, man, I really think this was the vacation of my life. It was incredible." It's a shame Louis Zamperini didn't live long enough to see "Unbroken." Surely, the saga of the many fascinating chapters of his life gets a certain amount of "Hollywood treatment" from director Angelina Jolie ... but her second dramatic effort at calling the shots still is an assured and compelling portrait of Olympic runner, prisoner of war and later inspirational speaker Zamperini, who died last summer (shortly after he was named Grand Marshal of the 2015 Tournament of Roses Parade). Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, "Unbroken" – and Jolie – get a real boost from star Jack O'Connell, who does a masterful job of maintaining the spirit and dignity of Zamperini as he survives not one, but two aerial disasters as a World War II military man. For those who admire such sequences, Jolie stages a pair of nailbiters on a par with the king of such depictions, Robert Zemeckis ("Cast Away," "Flight"). As much as those scenes dazzle with their technical expertise and visceral thrills, though, it's really the human story that's at the heart of "Unbroken." Zamperini and two colleagues (Domhnall Gleeson, Finn Wittrock) survive their plane's in-flight destruction, and after they endure a grueling time at sea, an intensely challenging internment in a Japanese camp lies ahead. The scenes of Zamperini as an athlete unfold as flashbacks, with his wartime experiences framing the screenplay. The device works well, and frankly, it would be a surprise of it didn't given the picture's all-star team of screenwriters: Joel and Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese ("Behind the Candelabra") and William Nicholson ("Shadowlands"). Throughout, the film also benefits from the eye of veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins ("Skyfall"). For all others involved, though – even including Jolie – the principal casting of a story such as "Unbroken" has to be right for the movie to work. In O'Connell, the director certainly has that actor, and he commendably does much to fuse its parts. Jolie's name still carries bountiful star power, for sure, but O'Connell truly holds "Unbroken" together. Jack O'Connell A man's spirit proves 'Unbroken' in Jolie's true drama BY JAY BOBBIN Page 8 February 2 - 8, 2015

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