(From left) Kristy Gardner, “Crime Scene Kitchen” host Joel McHale and Tarsha Joyner
Mother and daughter Tarsha Joyner and Kristy Gardner agree on one thing: They don’t always work well together.
Years ago, not long after opening her Lynchburg bakery, Mrs. Joy’s Absolutely Fabulous Treats, Joyner hired Gardner to help. “She didn’t listen to nothing when we worked together; I used to fire her on a regular basis,” Joyner says.
“Oh, she did, but I will say I fired her several times, too,” Gardner says, laughing. “It didn’t really work, but I tried.”
That history didn’t stop Joyner from suggesting she and Gardner apply together for season two of Fox’s “Crime Scene Kitchen,” a cooking competition reality show where teams of bakers construct a confection after only two minutes of studying — and sniffing — clues left behind, including compost bin contents, jars and canisters on counters, and clean and dirty dishes.
Each episode includes two challenges in which teams suss out the sweet and prepare it for the show’s judges: celebrity chef Curtis Stone and YouTube cake baker Yolanda Gampp. Teams who create the most accurate dessert are safe. Those who don’t are at risk for elimination, with one pair exiting every week. The last team standing will claim a cash prize of $100,000.
Both Joyner and Gardner have experience with TV food competitions. Joyner won FoodNetwork’s “Christmas Cookie Challenge” in 2015 and later competed on the network’s “Dessert Games” and “Haunted Gingerbread Showdown.”
Gardner, who helped her mother prepare for her gingerbread outing, couldn’t participate in the taping because she was nearing the end of a pregnancy and wasn’t allowed to fly. But in November 2021, at the same time she opened her own bakery, Joy Jr. Treats in western Henrico, Gardner competed with a network-assigned teammate on Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown.” Joyner and Gardner did appear together on Food Network Canada’s “Project Bakeover,” which gave a fresh look to Joyner’s Lynchburg bakery.
(From left) Gardner and Joyner with McHale and “Crime Scene Kitchen” judges Yolanda Gampp and Curtis Stone
Joyner admits that on-camera experience is useful. “I know what I’m supposed to do, and I focus on what’s important,” she says. “My first time [on a competition show], I was like a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know what they wanted, I didn’t know what to do or how to behave. Now, I’m just doing me; otherwise, they wouldn’t want me.”
What does get to her, she admits, is the clock. “I ignore everything else, but that clock is like a dark cloud over your head, and you never know when it’s going to burst,” she says.
Both bakers agree that being away from their own kitchens, without their own appliances and preferred ingredients, presents challenges.
“My stove and I, we understand each other at this point,” Joyner says. “I know if it’s having a good day or a bad day, and we adjust. You don’t have time to do that [in a competition].”
Gardner says she’s learned she has to feel comfortable in front of the cameras in order to focus on the task at hand. “My mom and I are different: She’s more worried about the baking; I’m more worried about how my eyebrows look on TV,” she says. “I also make it a point to get to know the crew. After ‘Project Bakeover,’ I realized … I don’t like to perform for just anybody.”
The upcoming season of “Crime Scene Kitchen,” which debuts Monday, June 5, was filmed in Atlanta last spring. The production took Gardner away from her three children, ages 13, 7 and 3, for both Easter and Mother’s Day. “That was a little tough,” she says. Both mother and daughter slipped away from their hotel on occasion to attend church services. “I felt like we wouldn’t be blessed [in the competition] if I didn’t go to church,” Gardner says, “and we met some awesome people there.”
The pair also found friends among their competitors, Joyner says. “We have time to sit and talk off-camera, and I always learn something from them,” she says. “I’m self-taught; I only know what I know because I looked it up somewhere. These people know what they’re doing. I glean as much info as I can.”
Joyner is once again turning out treats at her Lynchburg bakery, though she plans regular trips to the Glen Allen Latter-day Saint temple, which opened in May and is close to Gardner’s home. Gardner closed her storefront in August 2022 but is still baking for customers who find her through social media and by word-of-mouth.
While early episodes of “Crime Scene Kitchen” show some disagreement between the two, they also show color-coordinated outfits and a willingness to listen. “Not everything [Kristy] comes up with is bad; sometimes, she’s right, and I admit it,” Joyner says.
“I enjoyed getting to know more about my mom and the pressures of being together more than we’d like to,” Gardner says. “I learned that my baking skills are way better than I thought they were. I know we did our best. I don’t think there’s much of anything else I would change about it.”
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