A Troy pastry chef is sweetening the meaning of artistic “mixed media.” Jonathan Elias is part of a three-person team putting their pumpkin carving and culinary skills to the test in an annually televised Food Network contest beginning Sunday, Sept. 22.
Eight teams in “Halloween Wars” will compete in what show executives describe as a battle to “create mind-blowing monster themed displays” and mouth-watering treats. Elias is the team’s “sugar artist,” also known as a “sugar sculptor” or “sugar crafter.” His assignment: To craft sugar-based decorations using ingredients and tools, including chocolate, fondant, icing, a sugar pump, stencils, cutters, warming boxes and tubes.
His teammates — one from Seattle and the other from Austin — are tasked with cake baking and pumpkin carving. The goal is to put it all together to create artful works that “capture the essence of iconic and classic Halloween monsters.” Tasty, of course.
“Working with sugar is not my favorite thing to do; however, I do enjoy it,” said Elias, known locally for the customized cakes he creates for customers celebrating weddings and special occasions. Sugar, Elias said, “is a whole different art medium and it’s fun to create pieces with it. You can do a lot with it.
Sugar is a very interesting and challenging medium.” The seasonal Halloween showdown is the 14th for the show and is the fourth time Elias has been a competitor on a televised cooking show. He said he has been runner-up previously on “Foodtastic,” “Guy’s Grocery Games” and “Halloween Baking Championship.
” “I keep getting that ‘always a bridesmaid’ comment,” he said of his contest results. “‘Halloween Wars’ is unlike any other show,” Elias explained. Competing as a three-member team, the challenge is to combine for “crazy, over-the-top” displays and scenes.
A seven-hour time limit guides each round and teams are given a “surprise” ingredient to add to the mix, he said. “It takes a team to pull this off,” Elias said. “You want your three individuals to combine to tell a story through a beautiful display.
” Elias began baking as a teenager growing up in Sterling Heights. A 2004 graduate of Sterling Heights High School, he received a degree in pastry arts from Macomb Community College in 2008 while working three jobs, including a bakery and a restaurant. Around metropolitan Detroit, Elias is known for his elaborate wedding cakes.
For his part, Elias said his favorite dessert treat is ice cream, especially mint chocolate chip, pistachio and coffee-flavored. “I love ice cream,” he said. “It’s fun to experiment with flavors.
In a perfect world, I would own an ice cream shop.” The new season of “Halloween Wars” is scheduled to begin Sunday, Sept. 22 on the Food Network with a special segment on how competitors were selected at 8 p.
m., followed by the first weekly episode at 9 p.m.
.
