"Cake Boss" star Buddy Valastro, a fan favorite of the cooking competition classic, recently opened up to the "Today" show about his long, painful recovery from a grisly hand accident in September 2020.
One might assume it was an extra sharp butcher knife that did the trick, but it was actually a horrific bowling mishap that caused the injury, as the 44-year-old got his right hand caught in the pin setter at his at-home bowling alley.
The fact that Valastro’s livelihood is so aligned with his hands compounded the already gruesome injury and its long recovery period.
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As he admitted to Today, "It was really scary because that’s part of me that I call my inner child. When I think about ‘Cake Boss,’ or I think about these cakes that I make, I think that anything in the world is possible, and then I go and make it happen with my hands. This is what I do. And I felt like part of that might not ever be there again."
Valastro’s injury included extensive nerve damage, which comes with no guarantee those nerves will ever come back to full strength.
"I might have to get another surgery over time,” Valastro explained, “but considering what happened, a huge metal spike through my hand, the fact that I’m here talking to you guys today doing what I’m doing — and listen, the technology. I had nerve damage and she repaired the nerve. These fingers here, for like a year, just felt tingly and asleep, but now the nerve’s starting to regenerate and it actually feels back to normal."
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And though he went through multiple surgeries and dour warnings that he might never bake again, within a month he was right back to trying to mix up some of his sweet creations.
Through it all, Valastro has kept his sense of humor and joked: "I don’t think I’m going to be a hand model.”
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