'Cake Boss' star Buddy Valastro has his kids 'cleaning toilets,' says it helps them gain respect
In 2020, celebrity baker and reality TV star Buddy Valastro experienced a freak accident when his hand was impaled. He had his fifth surgery in February.
Buddy Valastro has no qualms if his children want to join the family business. But they’ll be put to work, he warned.
The "Cake Boss" star is back and cooking up two new shows.
"Legends of the Fork" will follow the 46-year-old as he travels across the country in search of renowned American restaurants and the "secret sauce" behind their success. Immediately after, "Buddy Valastro’s Cake Dynasty" will air, showing audiences how his family is determined to expand Carlo’s Bake Shop.
"My kids are truly blessed, and they do live a pampered lifestyle because of the way I live," the father of four told Fox News Digital. "But the thing is, how do you make them responsible? How do you keep them grounded? When people meet my kids, a lot of times they’re like, ‘They’re so down to earth. They’re so good.’
"And I take that as me and my wife doing our job in raising them. And that means they do come and work at the factory. They don’t have to come into the business. It’s totally up to them what they want to do. But they have to learn responsibility. … The best respect is earned respect.
"When people in my factory see my kids on their hands and knees scrubbing the floors, they have respect for them," the famed baker added. "That’s respect that they’re not going to get just because they’re my kids. … You have to go and do the job. When you do the job, and you clean the toilets, you scrub the racks or you clean the floor drains, you have a lot more respect for the person who does it every day. That’s what my dad taught me, and I still practice that to this day. And I need to emphasize that to my kids.
"It's the things that you teach in values," Valastro reflected. "It’s the lessons you lead by example. But we also kid around, we laugh, we eat. We’re a pretty tight-knit family."
The TV star was recruited by his father, Buddy Sr., to join Carlo’s Bakery in 1988. Valastro started at age 11 cleaning the kitchen before he moved on to decorating wedding cakes at age 15.
The bakery was originally opened by Carlo Guastaffero in 1910 and acquired by Buddy Sr. in 1964. The patriarch died in 1994 at age 54 from cancer. His father’s death prompted Valastro to drop out of high school and take over the business at age 17, People Magazine reported. The bakery has since expanded to different locations across the country.
Valastro is grateful to be back in the kitchen, especially after a freak accident that could have ended his career.
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It was Sept. 20, 2020, when Valastro's right hand got lodged and compressed in a bowling pinsetter at his home lane. A metal rod impaled the famed baker’s hand three times between his ring finger and middle finger.
"I thank God I got pretty good motion on the hand," Valastro admitted. "I might not be a hand model, but that’s all right."
Valastro’s gruesome injury was no laughing matter. In February of this year, he had his fifth surgery to repair the damage.
"From September to February, I could not close my hand," Valastro explained. "My hand was just stuck. … [My fingers], I couldn’t bend them. And the doctor's like, ‘Don’t worry, when we do the last surgery, that’s when I’m going to release the tendons.’ The next day after surgery, I’ll never forget. I was with Dr. Michelle Carlson, who was amazing at [the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City]. She said, ‘Close your hand.’ I made a fist, and I was so relieved."
Valastro previously recalled to People magazine how "blood was gushing everywhere" like "a Halloween movie." Valastro urged his sons to use a reciprocating saw to free him from the bowling machine. Within 15 minutes, his wife Lisa Valastro drove him to Morristown Memorial in New Jersey for his first surgery.
On Dec. 30, 2020, months after severing his hand, Valastro had a special delivery for Dr. Carlson and her team — a cake replicating the hospital where he was admitted.
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"I wanted to be at [the shop] helping, and I had my hand all wrapped for those two, three months," Valastro explained. "I became the oven man. I could pull the racks in and out of the oven because you don’t need to squeeze. I just had to open and go. So, you try to make the best of a bad situation. I worked so hard with my occupational therapist to … get where I am now.
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"This [had] become my new life, my new reality," Valastro shared. "I had my kids and my wife there to help me no matter what. In the beginning, my wife fed me, my wife helped me bathe. … She was the best. I couldn’t have done it without her. But I guess that’s what marriage is about — for better or for worse."
Valastro and his wife Lisa have been married for 22 years and together 24. As viewers will see in "Buddy Valastro's Cake Dynasty," the matriarch has taken on a role within the Bake Shop and is in charge of vending.
Valastro said the secret behind their decades-long union is surprisingly simple.
"Yes dear," he joked. "Honestly, marriages go through ups and downs. … I run a multitude of different businesses. I’m going a hundred miles an hour. It takes a really special person to be with me because I’m always thinking and going. You have to know your partner, and you have to know when to pick and choose your battles. … It’s also about the little things. I think my wife knows me so well, and I know her well.
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"I feel like now that the kids have gotten older, we've gotten closer," he continued. "When the kids are young, there’s a wedge. The kids put a wedge between you. Not in a bad way. It’s just you got a lot of things going on. But in the last five, six years, I feel closer to my wife than I ever did."
