‘Cake Boss’ Buddy Valastro on TV Comeback After Horrific Injury & Why His New Shows Are Different

There was a point when Buddy Valastro feared he would never bake again. The Cake Boss star was hospitalized after a freak accident in September 2020 resulted in his right hand being impaled three times by a pinsetter in the bowling alley at his home in New Jersey. In the months that followed he needed multiple surgeries and endured intense physical therapy to get his hand functioning again.

But now finally he’s returning with two new shows on A&E, which premiere back-to-back on Saturday, November 11. It’s great news for fans of the fourth-generation baker and entrepreneur as he makes his comeback with Legends of the Fork, which sees Buddy visit iconic restaurants across America, followed by Buddy Valastro’s Cake Dynasty, where Valastro whips up cake creations with his family.

Here, Valastro opens up about his journey and how his two new shows bring something different to the table.

After all you went through, what’s the current update on your hand? 

Buddy Valastro: Thank God my hand is doing well. I’m probably not going to be a hand model, but I got my dexterity. I have one more surgery. I can’t really move that middle finger over, to be quite honest. I would say I’m about 95 percent, which is a miracle. I thank Dr. Carlson at HSS [Hospital for Special Surgery]  and my occupational therapist Deana [Swanson] because without them I don’t know where I would be right now. It’s one of those things you just don’t know until it happens. Until you can’t use your hand or squeeze your hand, you don’t know what else to say. For me, it was crazy because it reminded me of my mom, who passed away. She passed away from ALS, which is probably the most horrible disease on the planet.

One day you can use your hand and the next day you can’t and never be able to use it again. When that beginning stage happened to me, I just thought of my poor mother. Luckily, I got the motion back, but it was really traumatic. It makes you really stop and smell the roses. I’m definitely a lot more careful of my hands, but I’m very mechanically inclined. I’ve been using my hands since I was a kid. It was just a stupid accident. People are like, “Do you hate bowling?” To be honest with you, it’s like if you have a pet lion and it attacks you. And you’re like the lion doesn’t know any better. Well, the bowling alley doesn’t know any better either. I put my hand where it wasn’t supposed to and got bit.

A&E

Have you bowled since? 

I have. I can still throw a hook.

Talk a bit more about the recovery process. How did you work through the dark times? 

I had five surgeries. I’ll never forget it. It was the day after my fifth surgery and the whole time I could not close my hand. During the last surgery, the doctor said I’m going to relieve the tendons and you’re going to be able to do it. The whole time I remember I was trying to do all things with my left hand. I was pissed at myself. Like, “How stupid are you to touch the thing?” My wife took such good care of me. From cutting my steak to helping me bathe and everything in between. I’m a righty too, so it’s my dominant hand. After the doctor did that surgery the next morning. She was like squeeze your and and took the bandages off. I was like, “Thank God!” Then I knew I would be okay. I’m pretty strong. I feel like I am pretty close to what I was.

What do you like to watch on TV or did watch during your recovery? 

We watched Winning Time together. That was phenomenal. Succession was one of my favorites. Billions, even though it went off the rails in that last season. Yellowstone was fantastic. We both love football. We like anything really.

It’s great watching you on both new shows because you see the joy what you do brings you. Just as it does the restaurant owners you visit on Legends of the Fork. Common themes I think of are family, tradition, and legacy. What was it like for you to share in these experiences? 

We go into these places that are legendary. Why are they legendary? Is it the food, how they do things, the person who is there? I loved it. Nothing brings families together like food. Me and my family love food. To be able to go to these places, from The Pancake Pantry in Nashville where it was the lightest, fluffiest, most delicious pancakes I ever had in my life. I actually had to call my son Carlo up on FaceTime to say you have to try these pancakes. To go to places like Patsys in New York City where you hear stories of how they opened on Christmas Day for Frank Sinatra. It’s amazing.

I had a lot of fun doing it. Honesty, it’s a way for me to showcase to the world what makes these places legendary. Places like Katz’s Deli serve 4,000 tickets a day. Think of what that takes, and think that they’ve been doing that for over 150 years. We’re talking 40,000 pounds of pastrami in a week. It’s a 28-day process to make the pastrami, but when you eat a pastrami sandwich in a Katz there is nothing like it in the world. It’s a religious experience.

These are essentially mom and pops. You hear about longtime establishments around the country that have been closing after 50,60 years.COVID shut down a lot of places. How is it for you to show these particular places are not only surviving but thriving?

To have this vehicle and go around and shed light on these places and make people keep going to them. Some of these places might not be as social media savvy. That’s the world we live in. What’s driving people to go to these places? Shows like mine where we can go in and talk about the history and show them what they do and how they do it. To me, it’s amazing. The baking and food industry as a whole has been so good to me and my family for all these years. This is a way for me to give back and showcase other people. I was that person like the brother and sister from Canter’s Deli who were there every day. They know every piece of equipment and fix every little thing. There is that common denominator wherever you go. What’s that secret sauce that keeps this establishment going?

How was it eating all that delicious food? 

I lost a little weight but gained about six pounds after filming the Legends of the Fork. I came back to my intermittent fasting and drinking a ton of water. You want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but you want to live. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I can’t eat pizza.

For Buddy Valastro’s Cake Dynasty, we get to see your family dynamic at home and work. What did they think of getting filmed? 

It’s a much different life than when I got on television in 2009. When we did Cake Boss, my kids weren’t really old enough or I didn’t put them on camera so much. Now they are old enough. They want to be on camera. They want to be part of the business. So, this show is about where I am in my life right now and the succession of this business. It was a dream of mine to build something with my dad. Now I can do it with my wife and kids. To have that opportunity, it’s amazing to me. We still do some crazy great cakes.

I also run a manufacturing facility. Yesterday we made 12,500 cakes. That’s 18 cakes a minute. It takes a different kind of skillset. We have multiple bakeries, restaurants, pizza concepts, vending machines. My wife is working full-time now that the kids are a little bit older. She has been working with me for about a year and a half. I couldn’t be more proud of her. She has been such a big help. I have a lot of things on my plate, but I love it. I want my kids to be humble. I’m the same guy before Cake Boss and never change who I am. I’m at the bakery every day. I’m filming a new show now and before I started filming at 9, I was up at 5 on the line at my factory with my employees getting everything set up.

A&E

What can you tell us about the cakes to come? The first episode you’re team is working on one for Wicked. I also saw you did one of Neil Patrick Harris’s 50th. 

Neil’s cake was amazing. I’ve been friends with him and David [Burtka] for years. I make their kids’ cakes. So when they asked me to make a cake, I wanted to do something fantastic. They are such good people. That was probably my favorite cake of the season. It had a wedding cake flair to it. It wasn’t a wedding cake, but there is something spectacular about a tiered cake. You can do the Wicked cake, fantastic, But it’s shaped like a witch. It almost doesn’t look like a cake. Neil’s cake was more of what I was born and bread on. To be able to do that and do that for amazing people and good friends, it was awesome.

Watching this show, we’re seeing the kids get older. We’re seeing your daughter have a boyfriend and all these things. How has that been to witness? 

My daughter’s boyfriend. He is actually a really good kid. We do tease him and have some fun. But let me tell you my daughter is one tough cookie. I don’t worry about her. She knows how to handle herself. She is an independent, strong, beautiful woman. Watching them appreciate what I do. I think they always knew how hard I worked. The biggest joy to me is when people meet  them and say, “Your kids are normal and down-to-earth they are.” They live a blessed life. Beautiful homes, have anything they really want and have been on extravagant vacations and private jets, but they also scrub floors and also know what it takes to work hard and appreciate things. Being able to show them the balance of that is really awesome.

Legends of the Fork premiere, November 11, 9/8c, A&E

Buddy Valastro’s Cake Dynasty premiere, November 11, 10/9c, A&E