Kardea Brown Learned Gen Alpha Slang While Hosting “Baking Championship: Next Gen” — and Loved Every Minute of It (Exclusive)

The Food Network star says working with the young cooks puts her back in “school teacher and social worker” mode

NEED TO KNOW

• Kardea Brown says Gen Alpha contestants taught her new slang like “the ick”
• Her background as a teacher and social worker shapes her hosting style on Baking Championship: Next Gen
• The Food Network star shuts down online hate to protect young contestants

When Kardea Brown stepped onto the set of her newest baking competition, she didn’t realize she’d also be getting a crash course in Gen Alpha slang.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Food Network star, 38, opens up about filming Baking Championship: Next Gen — and the unexpected joy that came from working with a new generation of young bakers.

“Listen, these kids had me learning new words every day,” Brown says with a laugh. “They’d say something and I’d be like, ‘Wait — what does that mean?’”

From calling something “mid” to declaring a dessert “ate,” the sibling duos competing on the Food Network series kept her on her toes. “I was like, okay, I need a translator,” she jokes. “But I loved it. They were teaching me.”

Her personal favorite? “The ick,” Brown says, laughing. “I didn’t know what that was.”

Now, she admits, “I do use ick a lot in my vocabulary.”

For the Make Do with What You Have author, the playful language was part of the show's charm.

“They’re so confident,” she says of the contestants. “So creative, and they know exactly who they are.”

Working with kids, she adds, feels deeply familiar. Before becoming a household name in food television, Brown worked as both a school teacher and a social worker — experiences she says naturally inform her presence on set.

“Working with the kids is something totally different because it takes me back to my time where I was a school teacher and social worker,” she explains. “So it just puts me right back in my element with food and children.”

That background also fuels her protective instincts — especially when challenges don’t go a contestant’s way.

“Even though I’m not a mom yet, I feel like I’m always in mom or auntie mode where I want to protect them from things,” she say, also admitting that she cries every time (yes every time) a child was eliminated on the show and co-host Duff Goldman has to be her voice of reason.

"He's like, 'All right, suck it up, Kardea. You can't cry every time.' And I'm like, 'I'm going to cry!' That's one thing about it. I'm going to cry," says Brown.

That instinct also extends beyond the kitchen and onto her social media feeds.

As fans may recall, Brown was announced as the new co-host of Kids Baking Championship alongside Goldman in October 2025, following Valerie Bertinelli’s decade-long tenure on the series. While many viewers embraced the transition, others directed harsh criticism at Brown online — commentary that sometimes appeared on posts visible to the young contestants and their parents.

“You can feel however you feel about me,” Brown says firmly, “but what you won’t do is hurt these children.”

However, Brown says she understands that public life invites opinions — and she's taking it all with grace, all in an effort to protect the kids. “As long as I’m doing well in life, I’m going to get the hate, and I know i,t and that's fine,” she says. Of course, when negativity begins to affect kids, she draws a hard line and pledges to continue doing so.

“They're innocent,” Brown says. “They haven’t experienced [that kind of hate] yet. Allow them to be children.”

Food Network's Baking Championship: Next Gen is now streaming on HBO.

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