Meet the Houston-Beaumont Trio in the Disney+Cake Challenge series "Foodtastic"

When Dillon Barlow collaborated with Maurice Abelman to design the David Jones sculpture last year, Disney+ first noticed his food art skills.Photo courtesy of Dillon Barlow of Over The Top Cakes.
Just need Houston residents Dillion Barlow and Maurice Abelman to post on social media the elaborate food art design featuring “Pirates of the Caribbean” David Jones, and the producers of Disney and the new Disney+ show “Foodtastic” noticed he.
Born and raised in the Netherlands about 100 miles from Houston, Barlow has admired his father’s passion for making cakes since he was a child.Inspired by these childhood memories, Barlow worked as a pastry chef in his hometown bakery before moving to the big city Houston last year.Now, his company Over The Top Cakes keeps him busy making elaborate cakes for customers on the Gulf Coast.
His talent and enthusiasm are now appearing in the new Disney+ show “Foodtastic”, which launched an 11-episode food art competition show on December 15th.Each episode of “Foodtastic” is hosted by Emmy Award winner Keke Palmer, with Flour Shop founder Amirah Kassem and New York City City Cakes founder chef Benny Rivera as food art experts on the show.
The first season of “Foodtastic” consists of three different teams, each episode competing to showcase technical skills, creative storytelling, and originality featuring one of the Disney brands: classic Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Planet War.The show features not only talented pastry chefs and food artisans from all over the world, but also some people from Southeast Texas.
“I received a call a few months ago and I was shocked,” Barlow said.”Although I was required to appear in many shows, I didn’t become Disney until this year. I can’t let go of that opportunity.”
Barlow quickly assembled a talented team of artists, which he believed would give him a competitive advantage.Thinking outside the box, Barlow brought in friend, artist and graphic designer Maurice Abelman. Maurice Abelman is the co-owner of Beaumont Creative Studio and a member of Lamar State College in Port Arthur. professor.He also recruited another talented Beaumont artist, Dee Compean, who is known for her hand-painted works.She previously made cakes with Barlow at Market Basket and Rao’s Bakery in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area.
The opportunity to participate in “Foodtastic” was a pleasant surprise for these Texas residents, especially during the pandemic.All contestants in the show must fly to Los Angeles, California for isolation before the competition.According to Barlow and his teammates, the filming process takes a week for each episode, which brings them closer together.
In this creative challenge, any food can be used as a raw material to make stunning and Disney-worthy designs.”Disney knows no borders,” Barlow said, with his experience in the huge pantry, and the team was provided to construct each storytelling design.Encourage the team to think boldly.
“With Maurice’s talent for drawing and building models from scratch, and Dee’s ability to draw detailed iconic Disney characters, I know that our team has a great chance of winning,” Barlow said.
Although the winner of the show has no physical prizes, the pride that the judges noticed and displayed on the global platform is exactly what this team desires.We can’t wait to see how this team performs.Watch these Southeastern Texans play in episode 10 of “Foodtastic”, now playing on Disney+.