- Hi, my name is Nicole Byer
and I am the Emmy nominated host of the competition series,
Nailed It on Netflix.
- And I am Jacques Torres head judge on Nailed It!
I get to help choose the winning amazing
and complicated edible masterpiece
that contestants on our show do recreate.
- Okay, Jacques, we are lucky to have
one of the most fun jobs in television.
Thinking back on this season,
what was like your favorite moment or moments,
if you can't nail one down.
- I think we have some very good moments.
I remember some crazy beautiful cakes
that our bakers have to recreate.
I do remember the octopus, that was a very funny cake.
I remember the hot air balloon,
what a catastrophe.
The Medusa, the Medusa was really cool
with those kind of a snake coming all over.
I mean, look so many great cakes,
so many beautiful failure during the show.
In case folks don't know,
we call the season Double Trouble
because the contestant are pair up.
Do you think having a partner to compete with
helps this season contestants
since they could technically work as a team.
- So okay, theoretically I would say,
yes two people in the kitchen is better than one,
but we are asking people to recreate
the most fantastical desserts in the world.
So it's like, it's just two people that get in their heads
and be like, I don't know how to do this.
(laughing)
But I will say it made it funnier,
did it taste better?
I don't know about that.
- But you did finish it right.
Look, they have two time the time
that we give to one person,
so in theory they have double the time,
so they should have the time to go
and to do all the details,
to work a little bit on their buttercream, the cake,
to make sure it's baked.
We didn't see that in that season.
This is crazy to me.
- How do you draw the line between giving the bakers
real advice slash criticism
and trying to be funny and entertaining.
- Nicole, I never going to be as funny as you,
so my guess is I have to be myself.
I have to be the chocolate maker, pastry maker,
the professional, the one who give the advice.
So I think the advice that I give are real,
I'm a technician, I know about pastry,
I know about chocolate, so what I tell them it's real
and time to time, I try to be a little bit funny,
but sometimes I'm the only one who laugh about it, so,
but I do try anyway.
- No, I think you're good at,
I think you have a really nice balance
of actually trying to teach people
and also being like, listen, we're on television,
so why not have a little bit of fun while judging?
I think you strike a really beautiful balance in that,
- We really have so much fun on set.
You are so great at keeping everyone energy upbeat
and laughing all the time.
How do you come up with all those ideas?
- I like to keep it silly.
I like to have fun.
If something in my head makes me laugh,
so I hope it makes other people laugh.
I had once had a teacher in acting school
who told me that like when you're on stage,
you have to be a little dangerous
and people can't get ahead of you.
You have to just, you know, shoot from the hip or whatever.
So like, I kind of keep that in my head.
When I, when we're filming
- I'm always amazed how fast you come up with those jokes
and how funny you are, you know, I mean,
I love to do the show with you.
You are great.
- So every season we have great guest judges joining us,
so like who surprised you the most this season?
- I mean, we have wonderful people working with us
and as guests, but A$AP Ferg really surprised me,
I never meet such a cool guy.
I mean, a rapper on Nailed It!
I mean, he dressed cool, he has all that other cool stuff
and it color my hair at the end, I mean, whatever is left.
I think that was so funny, I have so much fun that day.
I cannot stop talking about him,
I went listening to his music,
look at him on the internet,
I think that was the one where the most unexpected to me.
- Yeah, I loved A$AP too,
I thought he was like, so game for everything
and it was so funny at one point he looked at me
and he was like, so nothing we eat is gonna be good?
And I was like, no.
(laughing)
- So Nicole, we taste things
that run the gamut from the good, the bad and the ugly.
What do you think of
when it's time to test this unknown masterpiece?
Especially after we observed them making them.
- Yeah, people ask all the time, like
are you upset or anxious
or like, how do you feel about tasting things
that people have had like their full hands in,
you see a little sweat going in?
And for me that's part of the comedy.
Part of the comedy is looking at this
insane monstrosity that someone took the time to make.
It's kind of like when someone comes to your house
with something that you're like, I don't want to eat this,
but you can't be rude to the person
who brought it to your house, so you're like, yum.
So to me, it's like committing to the bit,
you're like, this is insane.
(laughing)
I have to put this in my, in my mouth.
Are there ever moments during the competition
where you just like want to go over there
and help one of the bakers
because they're struggling so much?
- You know, I mean, you can see,
I am in my manufacturer here.
I am hands-on,
I am always going from one station to another,
working with people who make the chocolates
and pastry and all those things.
I am in vending packaging and I'm helping
and if I see something that I want to change,
I go and I do it with them,
but during the show, we are trapped behind the table
and I cannot go and help the bakers
and I want to do it!
I want to do it so bad I have heartburn sometimes
you know I'm looking at you and I say,
Nicole, look, what's going on!
Oh my God, going to be a bad cake again.
And you know, what can I do?
But, I think it's part of the game,
we have to let them fail.
And yes, definitely, I want to help,
I want to show them how to do it differently,
how to do it better, how to do it faster,
how to do all those little details,
but you know what?
Most of the time they forget the time,
they forget the clock
and then the last 5 minutes, 10 minutes, oh my God.
That's when everything collapse
and that's when I think we love the most.
- What do you think separates Nailed It
from other competition shows.
- I think Nicole Byer magic is what separate us
from the other competition, Nicole, come on!
We are also very positive during the judging.
We try to give real information,
but we don't make anyone cry.
And that's maybe the difference between us
and the other competition show.
You know, it's positive, it's fun.
We laugh with the bakers.
We give them good advice.
You make everybody laugh at the end of the day,
you love everyone.
I think that's the big difference.
What do you think, Nicole?
- You said a lot of things how I feel,
I also feel like we don't shy away from the truth.
I don't know anything about baking.
Sure, I picked up a little thing here and there from you,
but like you are the professional,
you talk about the professional things
and I very much am just like,
I don't know it tasted weird or it tasted good.
I think I'm like, I speak for the viewer,
you speak for a viewer who like
knows what they're talking about
and we both enjoy when things don't look perfect.
Who wants to be perfect?
How boring!
I want to see what extra thing you put on.
Like, this is like seasons and seasons ago this woman
had made this stuff that kind of looked like kitty litter,
but it was like sweet and crunchy.
Do you remember that?
It was so good.
If someone was striving for perfection
and following the directions fully,
we would never have stumbled upon that delightful treat.
So honestly, I just, I think the casting is really fun,
that like grandmother who was just a real Looney Tune.
She was just, she like, she balked like a, she was like,
(balking)
like she was so fun.
(laughing)
You know, I just, I think it's like a lot of people
who are down to clown,
our camera department, Rob.
Rob is always game for a bit like,
I don't know everyone who works on this show
is just like really magical.
- I think you're definitely right.
I think that the message behind the show is
not everything need to be perfect
and that's great in today age
because so many people want be perfect.
You know what?
It doesn't matter, at the end of the day,
not everything needs to be perfect.
- Who would your dream contestant on Nailed It be?
And honestly, how can we make that happen?
- I don't know.
Oh, this is so hard for me to answer,
Nicole, it's so many people.
I bake and I make desserts for a past President Obama
and I would love to see him baking with his wife.
That would be so much fun to have to see him in the kitchen.
What do you think?
He's so proper and see him baking and interact with him
and what do you think?
- I think it would be great to be like,
Barack Obama, how did you go about making this buttercream?
And he's like, well I mixed it
and tried to let emulsion happen
and Michelle was here and she was not helpful.
I think that would be very funny.
- I want to see Michelle telling him what to do.
No, don't do it like that, do it like that.
I mean, come on, you know,
there will be so much good comedy.
How can we make that happen?
Can you call them?
- Oh yeah, hold on.
Let me call 'em.
(laughing)
- Excuse me, Barack, hello, come on Nailed It!
He said yes, he's in for the next season.
- Yes!
(laughing)
- Okay, so even after five seasons in,
I still enjoy seeing all the love for Nailed It online.
So are you up to looking at some of the
hashtag Nailed It at home challenges
to see who hashtag Nailed It?
- Oh my God, yes!
I always love to do that
and to see what people think and say of course.
- Okay, so to me, this looks pretty good.
I see maybe like a Tiffany's box, which is cute.
I see a heart.
Jacques, what is this?
Do you know what this is?
- Yes.
So we did the blended at home class
and this is the hatbox from All The Boys movie.
The staff take that out of the closet
and she has mail in it
and that's what that represents
and this is actually a very nice one.
Look at the cookies,
they really look like envelope
and they look like postcards and I can see her hearts,
I can see the hat box, the hat box have the beautiful color.
This is a nice cake, Nicole,
I think they did a really great job.
- Yeah, I think they nailed it,
to me it looks clean and nice.
- Good job, they nailed it definitively.
- Let's see another.
Okay, this is from the same challenge.
I will say the hat box seems a little small.
I don't know what kind of hat fits in there.
Maybe a hat for an American Girl doll
or like a doll that's that size.
It doesn't look that bad though.
I think it looks good.
I think they did pretty good.
Jacques, what do you think?
- I remember those bakers
and they were so much fun and I think you're right.
The cakes might not rise enough.
So they cut it a little bit smaller
and the envelope a little bit bigger than the cake,
but you know, overall look, the color is there.
We have the hatbox, we have the little envelope cookies,
you know, they also nailed it.
It's not exactly what we asked them, but you know what?
It doesn't matter, they end up with something
and that's something pretty good looking.
- Oh, this one's a video.
So she's sifting,
mixing,
using a piping bag,
- And voila!
- I mean, it's a child.
You can't say anything negative to a child.
This is great.
- I think she's so cute that whatever she do
we'll say beautiful.
Look, we have to say, you know, an A for effort here
and she's using a piping bag, that's not easy, Nicole,
not everyone can do that.
- I've never used the piping bag.
- She did good, I don't see,
I didn't see any adult on the kitchen,
so, you know, congratulations.
- Yeah, she broke into a kitchen.
This little child,
no adults around.
No, I'm kidding, that'd be funny thought.
(chuckling)
- Uh oh, mixing, baking,
what's happening?
- Okay.
- That's going the oven.
Those are the cookies.
Piping bag again, decoration of the cookies
and the cake that's the cake.
Uh oh. - Oh, right, okay.
So a little, a little issue with the fondant.
- The challenge was hard
and half of it was covered with fondant,
the other one, the other half was covered with buttercream.
That was not too, too much fun
and so it was a little bit difficult to roll it so thin.
You know, I always make those challenge first
to understand the difficulty
and this challenge was actually pretty hard.
So, you know, whoever ended up with a cake to me
they nailed it because already
finishing with a cake was actually pretty good.
That was not an easy challenge.
- I love that you do the Nailed It at homes
before the actual day of the Nailed It at home,
like, I love how into it, like this is your thing.
I love it.
- And I need to answer the question the right way, Nicole,
so I want to be sure
that the information that I give are right, you know
if you call me and you ask me a question
Nicole, I will be able to answer.
- I love that, Jacques.
Feeling, DJ Khalid, another one.
- Another one!
Okay, oh wow, look at that.
- That's pretty!
- Look at the top of the hat box on the right
and the bow is beautiful.
- Yeah, I mean, that's a bow I'd put right in my head
and the cookies, I think they,
I don't know what the cookies are supposed to look like,
but they seem to have a lot of color.
I like that.
- The cookie's supposed to look like an envelope or card.
- Oh, that's not that.
- I love the bow, I love the color, I love the blue,
the blue is a little bit dull,
but you know, look, it's very nicely made.
I think they nailed it too, you know, Nicole.
- Most of these people, they doing pretty good.
Well, this has been fun.
It's always a treat to see you, Jacques.
I truly miss you so much.
- Nicole, I always love to spend time with you.
I don't spend enough time with you, Nicole.
- All right Jacques, bye.
- Thank you, Nicole.
(kissing)
Miss you, bye, bye, Nicole.