40 Fun Facts About Buddy Valastro

Buddy Valastro's right hand was impaled in 2020 while he repaired equipment at home for which sport?

Bowling did the damage: a jammed pinsetter in his home alley drove a metal rod through his hand three times, and his sons cut him free with a saw.

Which New Jersey birthplace of Frank Sinatra is home to Buddy Valastro's Carlo's Bakery?

Hoboken felt the Cake Boss effect quickly: lines to get into the shop often stretched down the block and around the corner.

Buddy Valastro began running Carlo's Bakery at just 17 after which family event in 1994?

His father's death left the shop to a teenager who had been working beside him since the age of 11.

Which star of Ace of Cakes battled Buddy Valastro in a 2019 Food Network competition series?

Duff Goldman won the first season and Buddy took the rematch a year later, in a showdown between the stars of two rival cable cake shows.

Buddy Valastro rushed a life-size cake of which Golden Girls star to her Friars Club roast?

Betty White's cake would normally have taken four days to build, so the Carlo's crew had no room for error on the overnight job.

Buddy Valastro's Cake Boss crew baked a 40th-anniversary cake for which children's TV show?

Sesame Street cast members appear in the episode, partly filmed on the show's own set, and Buddy made a special surprise for his favorite character, Cookie Monster.

In 2019 Buddy Valastro began selling Carlo's Bakery cake slices through which unusual outlets?

Vending machines nicknamed cake ATMs first appeared in Las Vegas and Toronto, and dozens more followed across the US and Canada.

Buddy Valastro marked his wife's 30th birthday with a life-size cake in the shape of what?

Herself, in cake form: the life-size replica opened the third season, in the same episode in which Buddy's mother retired from the shop.

Carlo's Bakery, owned by Buddy Valastro's family since 1964, takes its name from which person?

Its original founder, pastry chef Carlo Guastaferro, opened the shop in 1910; Buddy's father bought it 54 years later and kept the name.

Which storm cut power to Buddy Valastro's bakeries, leaving some customers with fake cakes?

Hurricane Sandy spared both bakery sites from damage, but with no electricity the crew struggled to bake, and a ruined transformer would have taken months to replace.

Chevrolet hired Buddy Valastro to build a cake of a Camaro and which Transformers character?

Bumblebee was so intricate that the cake had to be built at a special effects shop, with Buddy's sister Grace left to run the bakery.

For a bakers' convention in Charlotte, Buddy Valastro's team built a life-size cake replica of what?

A NASCAR race car in cake was billed as the order of a lifetime; it went to the Retail Bakers Association's annual convention in North Carolina.

Buddy Valastro baked a 14-flavor wedding cake for brides marrying on Valentine's Day atop which landmark?

Empire State Building ceremonies that day married 14 couples at the top of the tower, and Buddy's single cake carried a flavor for each of them.

Buddy Valastro campaigned for which New Jersey governor in 2013 and later baked his birthday cake?

Chris Christie was already a customer, having ordered a cake on Cake Boss in 2010, and Buddy went on to endorse his 2016 run for president.

Buddy Valastro hosted Batalha dos Confeiteiros and opened his first bakery abroad in which country?

Brazil got its Carlo's Bakery in São Paulo in 2016, managed by the baker who had won the TV contest Buddy hosted there.

Which TLC studio show had Buddy Valastro preparing his family's Italian-American recipes?

Kitchen Boss ran on weekdays from January 2011, with Buddy's relatives and special guests joining him at the stove.

Through which charity has Buddy Valastro let hundreds of seriously ill children bake alongside him?

Make-A-Wish has sent hundreds of children to bake beside him, and his New Jersey Hall of Fame profile calls him a major supporter of the charity.

Buddy Valastro's Italian restaurant Buddy V's Ristorante opened in 2013 at which Las Vegas resort?

The Venetian later got a Carlo's Bakery of its own, and Buddy's restaurants spread elsewhere in the city with a pizza spot and a cafe.

Buddy Valastro's wife goes by which short first name, the same one his youngest sister uses?

Lisa is short for Elisabetta in his wife's case; the couple married in 2001 and have four children.

Which Kelly Ripa co-host took a cake-decorating lesson from Buddy Valastro for their morning show?

Regis Philbin then invited Buddy onto the show, unaware that a special cake was being made for him and his co-host.

Which Jersey Shore cast member visited Buddy Valastro's bakery to order a cake for her mother?

Snooki, born Nicole Polizzi, dropped in during the 2010 season, in an episode that also sent the crew to a New York seaport museum.

Buddy Valastro's bakery sold which Italian pastry for 25 cents on its annual Throwback Day?

Cannoli are a Carlo's calling card: Buddy later took them to Disney World to serve at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.

Buddy Valastro copied his father's old-school wedding cakes by filling one with which live animals?

Birds went inside the tall, ornate cakes his father used to make, and Buddy brought the showpiece back in the first season of Cake Boss.

Which Milan-born brother-in-law is known on Cake Boss as Buddy Valastro's right-hand man?

Mauro Castano married Buddy's sister Maddalena in 1991, two years after a first date that her father had arranged.

Danny Dragone, a jack-of-all-trades at Buddy Valastro's bakery, goes by which animal nickname?

The Mule earned the name for his versatility; he has worked at the bakery since before Buddy was born.

Buddy Valastro's mother Mary, a Cake Boss regular, died in 2017 after five years with which illness?

Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS, was diagnosed in 2012; Buddy coped by making her a special cake on his own, with no recipe.

Where did Buddy Valastro open a large cake factory inside the Lackawanna Center complex?

Jersey City gave him room the cramped original shop lacked: the factory let Carlo's ship cakes nationwide instead of only within driving distance.

Buddy Valastro opened the Cake Boss Cafe, his bakery's first branch, in which part of New York City?

Times Square got a small shop selling pastries and show merchandise in 2011; the first full-range branch came two years later in Ridgewood.

Buddy Valastro baked a cake in 2011 to mark New Jersey being named host of which national games?

Special Olympics is a cause he supports: the cake marked the announcement that the 2014 USA Games would be held in New Jersey.

Buddy Valastro's father was born on Lipari, an island off the north coast of which Italian region?

Sicily was the last stop when Cake Boss followed the family to Italy, a trip that took Buddy to both of his parents' birthplaces.

Altamura, the Italian birthplace of Buddy Valastro's mother, is famous for which baked good?

Bread from Altamura is sold in cities across Italy, and the Roman poet Horace was already praising the local loaves more than 2,000 years ago.

Buddy Valastro and his wife renewed their wedding vows on a Disney cruise to which destination?

The Bahamas ceremony nearly washed out when rain threatened the beach, and Buddy, baking his own cake for it, hit a creative block.

Which award did Buddy Valastro's bakery present to veteran baker Sal Picinich in the summer of 2010?

Employee of the Century marked the bakery's 100th anniversary and suited a man who had worked there since 1964, the year Buddy's father bought the shop.

On Buddy Valastro's contest Next Great Baker, eliminated bakers were driven away in which vehicle?

A box truck marked Not the Next Great Baker carried the losers off, with Danny, a close friend of Buddy's, at the wheel.

Buddy Valastro moved to which cable network in 2023 with Cake Dynasty and Legends of the Fork?

A&E built Cake Dynasty around his four children joining the business, while the second show sent him to restaurants around the country.

A Texas company that sued over the name of Buddy Valastro's Cake Boss in 2010 sold what product?

Bakery software called CakeBoss had been on sale since 2007, and its maker won an injunction against the show's title before the two sides settled.

At a gala for Buddy Valastro's mother's foundation, Mary Valastro sang a duet with which disco star?

Gloria Gaynor joined her on I Will Survive, the anthem that gave the Cake Boss episode about the gala its title, We Will Survive.

For its ninth season in 2019, Buddy Valastro's Cake Boss moved from TLC to which sister channel?

Discovery Family also commissioned Bake It Like Buddy, and Cake Boss signed off there in 2020 after eleven years on air.

Which comedian plays a parody of Buddy Valastro on Comedy Bang! Bang!, the podcast and IFC show?

Paul F. Tompkins has also played rapper Ice-T and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on the show, usually staying in character for a whole episode.

Which chocolatier joined Buddy Valastro as a permanent judge on Next Great Baker's fourth season?

Jacques Torres shared the panel with Magnolia Bakery's Bobbie Lloyd in a season where contestants competed in pairs for $100,000.