You might think you love Halloween. And sure, you’ve probably watched Hocus Pocus nearly 72 times and have taken home first place at your local dive bar’s costume contest. But I don’t think I’ve met anyone who’s as dedicated to Halloween as Raising Cane’s owner and founder, Todd Graves.
For several years now, Graves has sought out the country’s biggest pumpkins to have them carved into massively spooky jack-o’-lanterns during Halloween. This year has been particularly ghoulish given that there are pumpkin carvings in both Los Angeles, California and Salem, Massachusetts.
Given that Salem is arguably the most chilling city in the country, it should come as no surprise that the Raising Cane’s jack-o’-lantern is part of a Guinness World Records attempt.
While I didn’t make it to Salem, I did check out the pumpkin carving in Hollywood. Nicknamed “SpongeBlob,” the giant jack-o’-lantern was transformed by professional pumpkin sculptors and Food Network Halloween Wars alumni Jamie Louks, Anthony Pater, and Drew Smith.
I had the chance to chat it up with Louks about her impressive work on the jack-o’-lantern, and learned that she started out as a pastry chef. It was her appearance on Halloween Wars that helped introduce her to the world of professional pumpkin carving.
“I actually started as a pastry chef, and I've got a degree in pastry chefery,” Louks shared with LUSHWORTHY. “But then, I competed on Food Network’s Halloween Wars. And that was about five years ago. It's a team of a cake sculptor, a sugar artist, and a pumpkin carver. Me and my pumpkin carver we hit it off super well. He invited me to carve pumpkins at an event with him in Colorado. And then, the rest is history.”
For Louks, who carved the Dracula-inspired portion of the jack-o’-lantern, the key to carving such a massive pumpkin is hilariously straight-forward: “go big.”
“The technique is just to remember to go big,” she said. “Go big with your details. And the amazing thing about something like this is these pumpkins can be a foot thick or thicker than that, so you can do some insane details and carving into it. I genuinely can't really think of a downside to carving something like this. Yeah, it has a different texture than your pumpkins that you would get from a pumpkin patch for home, [but] it's almost easier to carve.”
Naturally, you don’t chop it up with a pumpkin connoisseur without asking them about the precipitous rise of PSL culture. Don’t worry, your Pumpkin Spice Latte is safe. PSL Twinkies though? Not so much.
“You know, the pastry chef side of me also has a very strong opinion about all of that,” Louks revealed. “I don't mind as long as it's well done. But the idea of like pumpkin spice cereal flavors, pumpkin spice Twinkie flavors? It's a little much, and it tastes really fake. But if you're going for pumpkin spice, go with some real pumpkin, real spices. The flavor is going to be better.”
If you’re in the Los Angeles area and would like to take a gander at SpongeBlob, you can find the jack-o’-lantern at the courtyard next to Raising Cane’s at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard (near the TCL Chinese Theatre).