Holy cannoli! Buddy Valastro, the star of the # 1 hit TLC TV series Cake Boss, spent last night with a few thousand fans at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan. This famous baker is currently rolling his way across the country with his ‘Baking with the Boss Tour’ in support of his book “Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia”.
Valastro spent two and a half hours engaging the audience with stories of his upbringing, his road to success, demonstrating cake and cupcake decorating techniques, having the audience participate in some friendly cupcake decorating competition and whole lot more.
Baking is a piece of cake for this Boss. However, his life has been hard work. Valastro is a fourth generation baker and works at Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. The bakery was bought by his dad Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro, Sr. in 1963. Valastro’s father passed away from cancer when he was 17 years old, leaving the bakery to him.
Currently, Valastro is rolling in more dough. He is in between taping 40 episodes for the new season of Cake Boss. Other exciting ventures coming his way is a new show he’s hosting called The Next Great Baker, which debuts December 6th. He’ll put aspiring bakers through challenges to compete for the top honor. He is opening a pizzeria called Sofia’s in New Jersey, named after his daughter. He’s also acquired a distribution center where he’ll be able to ship his cakes and baked goods all around the world. The sweetest news of the night was that his wife Lisa is pregnant with their fourth child.
I never expected to get choked up during his show, but I did. Valastro spoke about his involvement in the Make A Wish Foundation. Many terminally ill children are wishing to spend one of their last days baking with Buddy. There was one girl who looked beyond ill and came into Carlo’s Bake Shop to spend a day with the Cake Boss. Once the Boss got over his insecurities, he turned into an entertainer and baked with her all day. At the end of it all, her parents thanked Valastro for making their daughter’s day. They finally got to see her smile one last time before she succumbed to her disease.
Audience participation took up a great deal of time where Valastro brought up groups of men, women and children to the stage to see who could decorate a cupcake the best. The most rousing part of the evening was when the Boss brought three men up on the stage and they had to make a rose out of modeling chocolate and present it to their significant others in a very sensual way.
I got the opportunity to visit Buddy Valastro’s bakery in Hoboken last month. During the entire show, I kept on wishing I could be back at the bakery tasting his sweets. I had the best red velvet cupcake and cannoli. As a Cake Boss fan, it was wonderful being able to see the “set”. While I was at the bakery, the TLC crew was taping and Valastro’s brother-in-law, Joe, made an appearance on the main floor.
All in all, I give this tour 12 eggs out of a baker’s dozen.
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