Decades later, he was one of 18 expert chefs and bakers from around the country who competed in the new Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking show on Food Network. The show is hosted by James and Oliver Phelps, who played twins Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films. Culinary experts Carla Hall and Jozef Youssef are the show’s judges.
“I fell in love with [Harry Potter] early on in my life … and I remember playing in the backyard with a stick and pretending it was my wand,” Le Bescond said. “So, to be able to be a part of such an amazing experience with so few people being able to share that with me was definitely something very exceptional.”
Le Bescond is the executive pastry chef of Emma’s Patisserie inside the Equestrian Hotel at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. He previously served as the executive pastry chef at Le Macaron in Miami. Before Wizards of Baking, Le Bescond competed in Food Network’s Summer Baking Championship in 2023, making it to that show’s season finale.
“I’ve basically spent half of my life in the kitchen, and what I’ve learned working with dozens of people under me, is that you have to do the right thing always, you can’t take shortcuts,” Le Bescond said. “And I always related to Harry, Hermione and Ron — doing what is the right thing and not taking the easy route. And that’s what I always try to do in my kitchen: be respectful, inclusive, kind.”
The new competitive baking show features the best of the best pastry chefs, cake experts, chocolatiers and sugar wizards from around the country. Each week, the teams of two design, bake, melt, sculpt and construct elaborate edible set pieces inspired by the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The prize: The Wizards of Baking Cup and inclusion in a new Harry Potter cookbook.
“These are the best that the U.S. has to offer. They are at the top of their game,” the Phelps brothers told Orlando Weekly. “Each week, they have to make big-bake pieces inspired by sets on the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.”
In the first episode, Le Bescond and partner Kayla Giddings combined their favorite things from the first movie into a gravity-defying showpiece celebrating Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. Erupting from a chocolate wand is everything the two loved from the first film: fondant Hogwarts letters, the Sorting Hat, a pink and green “Happee Birthdae Harry” cake and popcorn-filled Golden Snitches.
“I’m a pastry chef, but I know my way around … like wedding cakes, but cake design and working with fondant and all that is not necessarily in my area of expertise,” he said. “So, I really wanted to bring in all the texture and the flavors and the real French pastry techniques into our creation.”
Other teams’ bakes included ones inspired by Patronus charms, the Mirror of Erised, the Weasleys’ cobbled-together home, Luna Lovegood’s Spectrespecs glasses and the iconic scene of the Ford Anglia flying into the Whomping Willow.
The Phelps brothers said the show — filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden — “ticks so many boxes for so many fans.”
“We’re filming on the sets, so they’re going to see those sets again in different ways than they had before when it was in the movies,” they said. “The bakers — they’re all big fans of the movies, so they’ve brought their own interpretations of the stories to their bakes.”
Oliver and James remembered one of the personal touches Le Bescond added to his and Kayla’s bake.
“Yohann said Potter was one of the first films he went to see, and he mentioned the taste of popcorn always reminds him of a Potter film, so he included that into his bake,” they said.
Le Bescond experienced a “full movie moment” when touring the sets and working in the kitchen on Wizards of Baking. The contestants used the green flame Floo Network to enter the set and did their sugary work under a portrait of the screaming Fat Lady.
“I remember seeing the set for the first time doing a walkthrough, and I was just blown away by the size of it all,” he said. “Even though it’s fiction, they made it very, very real. And stepping into that world was really fantastic.”
While Le Bescond and his partner didn’t earn a ticket for the Hogwarts Express to remain on the show past the first episode, they still had the experience of a lifetime.
“It was great working with my partner Kayla for this first episode. Although it wasn’t the result we hoped for, I feel grateful for this great opportunity and have made strong bonds with not only the cast members, but also all the fantastic crew members putting the show together,” Le Bescond said. “It takes an army to put such a big production together, and being a part of such a unique experience like this isn’t something I will forget anytime soon!”
For the Phelps brothers, hosting Wizards of Baking was a dream role.
“We’ve still got that connection with the Harry Potter fan base and stuff within the world,” they said. “We always wanted to get into presenting and a show like this on this scale … it’s like a dream come true for us. Because we get to be ourselves a bit with it and we get to stay within that world of Harry Potter.”
Tasting all the sweet and magical creations was a perk, too.
“We’re the hosts so we could eat and not be worried about having to pay too much attention to all the details,” Phelps said. “I watched the first episode the other day. I was literally drooling … because it felt like I was eating what they were talking about.”
In a competitive baking show themed after the immersive world of Harry Potter, the Phelps brothers also appreciated the camaraderie and community that grew on Wizards of Baking.
“All the bakers were making sure that each other was doing well by cheering each other on,” they said. “I think that fans are going to watch it and hopefully talk amongst themselves and say, ‘What would we do? What would we put into our bake?’”
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking airs Thursdays on Food Network and streams on Max.
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This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2024.