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As a lifelong baker and owner-operator of a chain of family bakeries, Buddy Valastro would seem ideally suited to distinguish the home bakers from the pros as host of Food Network's new Wednesday competition series "Bakers vs. Fakers." But not always. "You'd be shocked at what the home baker could do from a baking standpoint or a cake decorating standpoint," the 39-year-old New Jersey native says. "I look for the little telltale signs of like the way they hold a piping bag, the way they hold a spatula, the way they cut a piece of cake or their knife skills and stuff like that. "But I'll tell you, man, throughout this competition I've been fooled plenty of times, where you think, 'Uh-oh, they would never do that as a professional or a professional baker.' But then you'd see them come up with something ingenious that's such a professional move. So it's pretty crazy. I've been tricked too many times." Similar to "Cooks vs. Cons" (which like "Fakers" is produced by Valastro and Cakehouse Media), the new hourlong series features a mix of four pros and amateurs laboring to come up with delectable desserts to impress a rotating panel of judges, which include Nancy Fuller, Alex Guarnaschelli, Daphne Oz, Damaris Phillips, Lorraine Pascale and Zac Young, through two rounds of challenges. If the winner is a pro, they win $10,000; if it's an amateur, the prize is $15,000. Naturally in any competition series, pressure plays a role and mistakes are made. But, says Valastro, they were made by both groups and there were some that were very common. "I think sometimes just being overambitious," he says. "Like we did a cheesecake challenge one time and just baking a cheesecake in 45 minutes by itself is a lot, you know, rather than doing an individual ramekin versus a whole seven-inch cheesecake. Just from baking times, things like that were telltale signs for me." Buddy Valastro BY GEORGE DICKIE What book are you currently reading? "Right now, I'm not much of a book guy. I'm not going to lie. So nothing comes to mind right now when it comes to a book." What did you have for dinner last night? "My wife made fresh tomato sauce, you know from the tomato; put them through the mill, with linguine. It was so good. Sunday gravy. She also made eggplant parm. She also made meatballs, brasciola – that stuff was in there as well. Typical Sunday Italian dinner." What is your next project? "I've got lots of different projects. From a baking standpoint, I opened a bakery this week in Bethlehem, Pa. This year I'll probably open seven or eight bakeries all over the country and the world. And our goals for 'Bakers vs. Fakers' and 'Cooks vs. Cons' is to hopefully do a lot of them. ... We have another 40 episodes of 'Cake Boss' to film this year. We've got two restaurants open; plan on opening one or two more this year. So we just keep ourselves busy." When was your last vacation, where and why? "Actually, it was over the new year. We went to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), me and my family." Amateurs challenge the pros in Food Network's 'Bakers vs. Fakers' Page 8 January 30 - February 5, 2017 D.C. (N Subject to Black- out) 10:30 p.m. NBCSN NHL Colorado Avalanche at Los Angeles Kings. From Staples Center in Los An- geles. (N Subject to Black- out) THURSDAY 7:30 p.m. NBCSN NHL New York Rangers at Buffalo Sabres. From Key- Bank Center in Buffalo, N.Y. (N Subject to Black- out) 9:00 p.m. CSNCH NHL Chicago Blackhawks at Ar- izona Coyotes. From Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz. (N) FRIDAY 7:30 p.m. NBCSN College Hockey Vermont at Notre Dame. From Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind. (N) SATURDAY 6:30 p.m. NBCSN College Hockey Vermont at Notre Dame. From Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind. (N) SUNDAY Noon WNDU 0 NHL Los Angeles Kings at Washing- ton Capitals. From Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. (N) rodeo SUNDAY Noon WSBT 6 PBR Bull Riding Frontier Communi- cations Showdown: 15/15 Bucking Battle. From Ana- heim, Calif. rugBy MONDAY 2:00 p.m. NBCSN Sevens World Series: Wellington. SUNDAY 8:30 p.m. ESPN2 Americas Championship — United States vs Uruguay. From Toyota Field in San Anto- nio. (N Same-day Tape) skating SATURDAY 3:00 p.m. WNDU 0 Fig- ure Skating European Championships. From Ostrava, Czech Republic. soccer TUESDAY 2:55 p.m. NBCSN English Premier League Soccer Liverpool FC vs Chelsea FC. Chelsea is unbeaten in their last five matches at Anfield, since the 4-1 PL defeat in 2012. (N) WEDNESDAY 2:55 p.m. NBCSN English Premier League Soccer Manchester United FC vs RETIRE WORK Take Control of Your Future 64825 County Road 31 Goshen, IN 46528 574-642-2023 www.QualityDriveAway.com See America and Supplement Your Income!! Get Paid to Deliver Vehicles Throughout the U.S. & Canada Retiring Doesn't have to be Scary We Have Vehicles for Every License Type! Call Us Today!

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