Paul Hollywood from ‘Great American Baking Show’ is a ‘Terrible Ping Pong Player’ Anthony ‘Spice’ Adams Dishes [Exclusive]
Celebrity chef Paul Hollywood from The Great British Baking Show and ABC‘s The Great American Baking Show was no match for NFL great Anthony “Spice” Adams at ping pong.
Adams, who co-hosted The Great American Baking Show said Hollywood was a blast to work with and laughed about the afternoon he went to Hollywood’s house for a rousing game of ping pong. “He’s very down-to-earth. He’s a terrible ping pong player,” he told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
Paul Hollywood was pretty competitive at ping pong
Adams recalled that Hollywood was not a fan of losing. “Terrible,” Adams recalled of Hollywood’s ping pong playing skills. “He’s competitive, but he’s not very good at table tennis. I think I beat him probably out in five games we played, I beat him four.”
The fierce competition began during an afternoon hanging out at Hollywood’s house. “He had a [ping pong table] at his house and I was like, ‘Let’s play.’ So, we started playing. At first, you start feeling people out to see if they’re pretty good or whatever. And he saw that I was good, and he started to lose,” Adams recalled.
Did Paul Hollywood take losing at ping pong well?
Hollywood is a formidable figure in the series and does not seem like someone who would back down from a challenge. “Well, like I said, we played five games,” Adams said. “We really were only supposed to play one or two, you know. So he’s one of those types where it’s like, alright, I guess I had to let him win one. He just wouldn’t stop playing. It’s like, man, I just beat you four times. You wanna keep playing?”
Adams added that he’s a huge fan of Hollywood and they are still friends today. “He’s a great guy,” he said. “I’d be over to his house and we laugh and joke and he’d make some bread. And, you know, he’s a great guy. I love Paul Hollywood. I texted him the other day.”
Adams also loved hosting The Great American Baking Show and was often a source of inspiration for stressed-out bakers. “It’s very hard because you’re not in a familiar environment,” he recalled of what the bakers endured on the series. “You’re outdoors, you’re away from home, you are in an international space. And so things aren’t the same. The way they measure things, it’s not the same. So it’s easy to get down on yourself and to actually doubt yourself because you’re not familiar with a lot of the things that go on there.”
Spice Adams taps into his hosting talents for a new event
“And so to have someone there who is in your corner who can kind of ease the tension,” he said about his role on the series. “And I can make fun of myself and that kind of makes you feel like, OK, I can drop my guard down a little bit. This guy is not competing against me. So it’s easier for the contestants to talk to me and laugh and joke with me. And that’s what it’s all about.”
Adams will tap back into being a source of inspiration and fun once again for an exciting event. He joins Modelo to help host the brand’s first-ever “Hands on a Hot Drop” competition – a hands-on a hard body style competition to inspire fans to go all in this summer for a chance to win a limited-edition Modelo and Takis vending machine and a year’s worth of Modelo and Takis to keep it stocked!
Adams is pumped to host the big event. “Two great brands come together and they’re creating this vending machine,” he dished. “Contestants have to put their hands on this vending machine. And they just have to have the same fighting spirit of Modelo. And they have to have the same intensity as a spicy snack of Takis. So there’s going to be a lot of distractions, a lot of tricks, a lot of obstacles to make sure that they don’t keep their hands on the vending machine.”
The event will go down live on July 10 during the iHeartRadio Block Party presented by Modelo, in New York City from 2:00 to 6:00 pm EST at Pier 76. Fans who can’t attend in person can stream the competition at @ModeloUSA and @SpiceAdams on Instagram Live.
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