Donavon “Monty” Alderman’s career took a sweet turn a couple of years ago, and now he can’t imagine doing anything else.
Alderman, a former football player and high school coach, has traded the turf for the kitchen. He spends his days making cupcakes and teaching cooking classes through his baked goods business Monty’s Neighborhood Snacks.
“Bringing sweets to the streets, changing neighborhoods one cupcake and smile at a time” is Alderman’s motto.
The New Castle man’s bright, upbeat personality and culinary abilities recently caught the eye of the Food Network, which is featuring Alderman in “Bake It ‘Til You Make It,” a seven-episode program that premieres Dec. 26 at 9 p.m.
The documentary-style series gives an inside look into the world of competitive baking and follows the lives of seven enthusiastic bakers.
Delaware chefs have been getting plenty of national TV exposure in recent months.
SoDel Concepts’ Corporate Pastry Chef Dru Tevis has been appearing on the Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” and Hari Cameron, a co-founder of grandpa (MAC) in Rehoboth Beach, is featured on Netflix’s “Snack vs. Chef.”
Robbie Jester, a Newark-based chef who has appeared several times on the Food Network and bested Bobby Flay on the program “Beat Bobby Flay,” is gearing up to be one of 11 contestants competing for $100,000 on the Netflix series “Pressure Cooker.”
The “Bake It ‘Til You Make It” episodes on the Food Network featuring Alderman will be narrated by Duff Goldman, a master cake artist who often appears on the Food Network and once had a show called “Ace of Cakes” that revolved around his Baltimore cake shop.
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The new series highlights baking competitions across the country, including cake conventions and cookie shows.
Each featured baker is at a different stage of their competitive baking experience; some are amateurs and some are professional. Participants in addition to Alderman include a Texas sugar artist, a Washington, D.C., veteran baker, and an amateur pastry chef from California who funded her college education by making cheesecakes.
Over seven half-hour episodes, audiences will see all the ups and downs as the bakers work to fix last-minute goofs, handle finicky judges and manage the fierce competitions.
“With ‘Bake It ‘Til You Make It,’ we are able to pull back the curtain on the world of competitive baking, giving viewers a front-row seat to the highs and lows of each baker’s quest for success,” said Jane Latman, president of Home & Food Content and Streaming for Warner Bros. Discovery. “The creations are incredible, the determination dogged, and the wild ride from ideation to presentation is something to behold.”
Alderman said he was invited to participate in the series after someone from the Food Network saw his baked goods and inspirational social media posts on Facebook and Instagram and his website, montysneighborhoodsnacks.com.
The Wilmington native, who grew up on 29th Street, said he has long been interested in baking but hadn’t really thought of it as a career.
He attended Howard High School of Technology, but he said, “It wasn’t my thing. I was a bad kid with a reading disability. I got kicked out of Howard.”
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Alderman then went to Dickinson High School in Milltown, where he played football and was co-captain of the 1992 team that won the state championship.
He graduated in 1993 and later attended and played football at Delaware State University, where he earned a degree in education in 2000.
Alderman then worked as a mathematics teacher and coached football at Middletown and Dickinson high schools.
In between sports, he spent time in the kitchen.
“I baked a cake and one day, my wife’s friend said, ‘You should sell this cake.’ I sold a cake, and it was amazing,” Alderman said. He stopped teaching math and put his energy into baking.
“I started going to barber shops [to sell cakes].”
During the pandemic, Alderman started Zoom cooking classes. “That kept me going,” he said.
“I don’t teach traditional cooking classes. I teach realistic classes for latchkey kids,” he said. Alderman also brings his classes to places like Ferris School and the Latin Community Center.
The cupcake creator has tapped into his “knack to entertain” and produces online “uplifting videos to make you smile.”
He said he is not a professional chef or baker. “I didn’t go to school for culinary arts, but I’m doing what I love and what I do makes people smile.”
He makes his baked goods ‒ his strawberry crunch cupcakes ($38/dozen) are a customer favorite ‒ at the Police Athletic League of Wilmington’s kitchen. Items are available for pickup or delivery.
“I don’t do wedding cakes, but I do amazing cupcakes and cakes,” Alderman said.
Earlier this year, a Food Network production came and filmed him baking and teaching classes.
They also followed along this past summer as he went to Delaware State Fair and entered some baking contests. Alderman said it didn’t go so well for him.
“Those women whipped my tail,” he said, laughing.
The Food Network series is his first time on national TV.
“The process was fun. You get to see how things work behind the scenes,” he said.
Because the series hasn’t yet aired, “nothing has changed yet,” Alderman said. “It was a nice experience. For me, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Alderman said he ultimately wants to be in a position where he can hire people for his business who have reading disabilities as he does.
“I’m not just selling cupcakes; I’m selling feelings and memories,” he said.
Contact Patricia Talorico at ptalorico@delawareonline.com and follow her on Twitter @pattytalorico.
