Duff Goldman — star of the hit Food Network show “Ace of Cakes” — visited MU on Thursday to lend his talents as a judge for the Mizzou Cake Challenge. Goldman also led an audience at Jesse Hall through a two-hour, freeform Q-and-A extravaganza, spouting anecdotes about “Ace of Cakes,” his early exploits in graffiti and how fear can be both an elixir and a paralyzer.

Goldman walked freely about the stage and plainly asked the audience “what do you guys want to talk about?.” He spoke about nearly every topic the audience threw at him; be that his brief stint at world-renowned restaurant “The French Laundry,” his hatred of cupcakes or his recent guest appearance on Food Network elimination show “Chopped,” where he was robbed, according to the excited audience.

“I do like to make an ass out of myself in public, and I’ve made a career at Food Network out of losing competitions,” Goldman said. “I’ve kind of made a career out of making a big jackass of myself in public. Basically, I am the Johnny Knoxville of Food Network.”

Although Goldman acknowledged he isn’t too fond of competitions, his visit was synchronized with the judging of the Mizzou Cake Competition. The competition had over 160 applicants, 55 of which were accepted and placed in professional and amateur categories.

The cakes — following the theme of springtime at MU — were displayed to the public at the lower level of the MU Student Center, where Goldman and a panel of three other local executive chefs judged the cakes.

“It was an awesome experience,” chef Leslie Jett said on judging the cakes with his fellow executive chefs and Goldman. “Duff was awesome.”

A portion of the audience sought advice on future career choices and asked questions on how to start their own baking businesses and how to get involved in the food industry.

“The biggest thing for anybody who wants to work in this field: before you spend the money and go to culinary school, you have to work in the industry,” Goldman said.

Goldman encouraged one young aspiring baker to read cookbooks like she would
read “Twilight.”

Later in the lecture Goldman called his dad — an MU alumni — and put him on speaker to talk with the 1,700 plus audience. The audience bantered back and forth about MU sports and Goldman asked whether his mom — who went to Stephen’s college — or his dad did the walk of shame.

Goldman’s dad signed off shouting “M-I-Z” to the audience, which promptly yelled back “Z-O-U!”

Goldman said he was touched by the packed auditorium, with an audience who screamed out compliments, broke into applause numerous times and held up signs announcing how much they loved him.

“The fact that I came here to Mizzou — and all-the-sudden — packed auditorium!” Goldman said. “You have no idea how touching it is to know all these people were watching what we do on television and laughing and getting something from it, being inspired. It’s really something else.”

Wrapping up his spur-of-the-moment lecture, Goldman ended on a sentimental note.

“Basically, we never get a chance to say thank you to the people who watch our show,” he said. “So thank you so much for watching and laughing.”