Buddy Valastro, best known for his reality TV show Cake Boss, detailing the daily life of running his family bakery business, is more than just a cake guy. He’s also a celebrity television personality, innovator and successful businessman. After 36 years of baking and grinding, Buddy has grown his brand and become a recognized baker worldwide.
At the young age of 11, Buddy began working in his father’s shop, Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey. When his father passed away when Buddy was 17, he began taking over the family business. He gained recognition for his gorgeous designer wedding cakes, leading him to compete in Food Network competitions. He won Battle of The Brides in 2007 and was offered the opportunity for his TLC show, Cake Boss.
Now, Buddy has the original Carlo’s Bakery in New Jersey, and three restaurants in Las Vegas: The Boss Cafe, Pizza Cake, and Buddy’s Jersey Eats. In 2020, Buddy opened a secondary location for his bakery in the heart of Times Square. The location features his classic sweet treats like cannoli, tarts, and cakes, as well as pizza, breakfast sandwiches, and fresh-baked bread. He also has cake slice vending machines and sells cake slices in more than 4000 Walmart stores nationwide.
Buddy has appeared on many competitive culinary shows. On Beat Bobby Flay in 2020, Buddy challenged Bobby to beat his multi-layered cake, which ended with Buddy winning the challenge handily. He has also been a guest judge or hosted shows such as Next Great Baker and Kitchen Boss. Now, Buddy hosts two of his own shows on the Food Network, Legends of the Fork, and the Cake Boss spin-off, Cake Dynasty.
Buddy was featured as a guest chef on the first ever Chefs Making Waves cruise, a food, wine and spirits festival on the sea. We met with him and talked about his perfect bite of cake, how he is definitely not a NY Jets hater, and the story behind how his cakes are now all over the world.
What’s your perfect day in New Jersey?
I’m going to give you two perfect days because there’s a fall and a summer scenario. Summer would be spending the day at my shore house. I’d have my coffee outside looking at the water, just hanging with my family, having just the most amazing day. Maybe a little fishing too…Then make a nice pot of linguine and clams…Then once football season starts, there’s nothing like a Sunday in my house. You wake up to the aroma of my wife making a big pot of sauce and then we watch football and just chill and it’s just spectacular.
What’s your perfect tailgate?
I like sausage or pepper sandwiches, cheesesteaks, and chicken wings, depending on what capabilities you have there. Pizza is always good.
Who’s your team?
I’m a Giants fan. I’m not a Jets hater. I mean, I respect and appreciate the Jets. It’s just that I’m a Giants fan. I was born a Giants fan. I’m gonna die Giants fan.
What was the highlight of filming Cake Dynasty with your family?
Honestly, to create something with my kids and see them engaged. They took it so seriously because I didn’t force them to do it. They were engaged and they loved it. They did their part. They got to see that even when we aren’t filming, it’s still work.
Any hesitation about throwing them out there and into it?
Well, I never did it until they were of age. That was their decision once they got a little bit older. Now that they’re a little bit older it’s their own life, their own decision and they want to do it. They want to follow in my footsteps.
Did you find any favorite new spots while filming Legends of the Fork?
Legends is so funny. I know this is going to sound weird, but I found this restaurant in Hoboken, New Jersey. We went to other amazing places, but the food there was so good. It’s a little place called Antique Bakery. I’d never gone. The premise of the restaurant was to have a 150-year old brick oven.
Just to see how the chef adapted the menu to that was just phenomenal and really, really good. We ate in a lot of places that were great, but I didn’t see it coming. I like the uniqueness and surprise. I’m a baker, so maybe it’s the nostalgia of making everything in an oven like that.
What’s your perfect bite of cake?
I like a cake to be moist, and it’s got to be smooth and velvety. I like vanilla and chocolate, so if I was going vanilla I would make French cream, fresh raspberries, chocolate ganache. If I’m making chocolate cake, with chocolate mousse, fresh strawberries and a little ganache.
What are some tips for traveling with your family?
I’ve done a cruise with all my sisters, all my nieces and nephews. You either have to go on a cruise or a big resort. You have to keep everybody contained. I would say a cruise is a great vacation, even for dining. If you go to certain places, it’s just hard to get reservations. We’re to the point where if it works, it works.
Split it up where we chill all day, people hang out, have their time and not be sensitive about things. Life is too short for bullsh*t. At the end of the day, have a Coke and smile.
That’s the best family advice I’ve ever heard.
I’m a manufacturing engineer and an industrial engineer by background and I’m super obsessed with your factory. I have eaten your cake out of vending machines all along the Jersey Turnpike. I became obsessed with how you keep the consistency and the quality.
Honestly, I got the bug for it.
You said you came up with the concept. How did you put it into motion? Did you hire people?
Yeah. Listen, it wasn’t intentional. We were really just growing bakeries and the factory was meant to grow bakeries. Before COVID, I had a guy come to me and say, ‘I want to do a vending machine with cannolis in it.’ Just a random, crazy guy. A guy from Canada showed up at my factory. No appointment, unannounced.
I get people who want to see me all the time, but for some reason, I was like, ‘all right, bring them in’ because I’m a pretty easy guy. He tells me his background is in automated retail. I told him a cannoli will never work because it gets soggy. I said you can’t do it. I go, ‘but a slice of cake you can do.’
We just did it on a handshake, and we’re like, ‘We’ll figure it out. If it works, it works.’ So now it’s a real business. The only problem is you only get a four-day shelf life. I didn’t want to put preservatives and stuff into it. So, I started studying MAP packaging.
We actually controlled the atmosphere inside the package by vacuum sealing it. I bought a 500K piece of equipment and everyone thought I was nuts. I ordered it. COVID happens. Well, now there’s no business. Nobody’s traveling.
We had a ton of online business, and we were the only ones that were able to facilitate it. We really became strictly an online manufacturer. Christmas week, we would ship out anywhere from 30-40,000 packages. That’s 750,000 pounds of dry ice. That’s like 28 tractor trailers of coolers.
I started doing more and more and I’m like, ‘Oh, you know what? If I get one more piece of equipment, I could make more cake slices.’ Walmart saw my vending machine and they called me. They were like, ‘We want to put your vending machine in Walmart.’ I wasn’t sure if it was the right fit, but I started having conversations with them.
I start talking about my cakes. You know, no preservatives, scratch recipes, 20-day shelf life. They are starting to get really intrigued. Finally they’re like, ‘Screw the vending machines. I want to put cake in the stores.’ I go, ‘I’m an innovator. That’s what I do. I love innovation and I love creativity, so I’m going to send you out a bunch of my stuff. Let’s show you everything I’m working on.’ The next day they wanted me to come to the store saying ‘There hasn’t been anything like this in the industry for a long time. You’re shaking it up.’
Are you in Walmart now?
We’re in 4000 Walmart stores.
What’s the craziest place that cooking has taken you? Any favorite moments?
Probably Lagos, Nigeria. I mean I’m in Abu Dhabi, Philippines, Manila, Indonesia, Malaysia. Everything was so great. I love seeing cultures. I love seeing food. The best thing for me was seeing that my show brought families together no matter where it was in the world. No matter what differences we have as human beings, I think that food and family are the one common denominator, the one thing that connects all. I felt like my show resonated that way. I think that no matter where you were from in the world, that touched my heart.
Tell me about your new Times Square location. That had to be super special for you.
It was so, so good. I mean, I don’t want to say that was one of the good things out of COVID, but we would have never been able to find an empty location right there in Times Square. So, we’re excited about it. We opened it and again, like I said in my speech, your business mistakes sometimes are real estate decisions.
You know, if I would have told you 20 years ago, ‘Oh, the malls are disappearing,’ you would tell me I’m nuts. But the thing is, when you start to open bakeries in malls and now it’s 20 years later, nobody goes to the malls. It’s not your fault. You have to roll with the punches. You learn that there’s only one Times Square, there’s only one Las Vegas, one Disney World, where you can do your thing and do it right. That’s what it’s all about.