Kardea Brown Announced as the New Host of “Kids Baking Championship ”(Exclusive)

The 'Delicious Miss Brown' star will replace Valerie Bertinelli and join Duff Goldman as co-host

Kardea Brown is cooking up some more Food Network content.

The Charleston-based cook signed a new deal with the network, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. Part of the deal includes Brown serving as the new host of Kids Baking Championship.

The Delicious Miss Brown host will replace Valerie Bertinelli, who revealed in January that she would not be returning to the show. Duff Goldman co-hosted Kids Baking Championship with Bertinelli since season one and will continue to co-host this time alongside Brown.

Brown is no stranger to the show. She previously judged Kids Baking Championship and Spring Baking Championship and co-hosted seasonal specials like a Kids Baking Championship Thanksgiving special in 2023.

Brown and Goldman's first full season as co-hosts will premiere in early 2025, and in the meantime, the show has fun holiday specials to come. Kids Baking Championship: Scary Good kicks things off on Oct. 7. Plus, a holiday-inspired Kids Baking Championship: Frosting the Snowman is set to premiere on Dec. 2.

“Having the chance to share my love of food has been a dream come true and I am so thrilled to continue this journey with Food Network,” Brown said in a statement. “I look forward to celebrating the holidays with fans and celebrating these extra special and talented bakers, big and small, and all their incredible creations."

Goldman previously spoke with PEOPLE about how Brown is the perfect addition to the show.

"Kardea has been so much fun as a co-host. She is absolutely killing it. She is so good with children," he said at the time of filming. "She has such a huge heart."

Along with her kind character, Goldman said "her culinary chops are great. She knows what she's talking about."

"But seeing her with kids, she has just absolutely blossomed. She is so natural and easy with them. The kids just implicitly trust her," he said. "It's lovely. It's really, really great. I am so excited about it."

Related: Kardea Brown Recalls Not Taking 'No for an Answer' from Food Network While She Was a Social Worker

Brown is a former social worker, whose career with the network started with a pinch of persistence.  In April 2023, she shared the origin story, explaining how she first entered the Food Network offices in 2015.

"This was my first pitch meeting at @foodnetwork 8 years ago! I remember that day distinctly…..I was so nervous but excited at the same time," she captioned a throwback photo. "This was my big break….I just knew I would leave that meeting with my very own cooking show."

Brown, who dropped her debut cookbook in 2022, admitted in the caption that she was a "little naive" and didn't understand the inner workings of the entertainment business quite yet.

"You just don't show up as a social worker and get a green light for your very own cooking show that same day 😅," she added. "I walked away from the meeting without a show but what I did gain was motivation…. I didn't take no for an answer…. I took it at as 'no…not right now.'"

Brown clearly made a good impression on the network's executives, who would give her her own show just four years later.

"I was and still am a FIRM believer in divine timing. I just knew in my heart that it was going to happen," she said at the time.

Kids Baking Championship: Scary Good premieres Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network.

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Read the original article on People.