Coming from a long line of bakers, from an Italian Bread bakery in Brooklyn, I can say this without equivocation.

Mass market your product…no matter what, especially if you do it ‘old school’; and you water it down!

Sort of like the way "Sbarro's", the famed mall pizzeria of America, did years ago.
It's nothing like it started out as.
The original Sbarro's was an Italian deli on the corner of 65th St and 17th Ave in Bensonhurst...but somehow co-opted their name and spread their brand across America.

Making pizza.

Mall pizza, or as my brother Sally used to say, " spreading their acita across America!"

I’d even so far as to say that some of the stuff Hoboken’s 'Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro puts out may have suffered that same fate.

I cite the time back not long after the TLC show “Cake Boss” took to the air.
Buddy became a household name.

His store, just across from Hoboken’s City Hall gained instantaneous landmark status.
The place itself was, and I’m guessing, still is something out of 1955!

For that inimitable “Buddy” flavor, people started coming from places far and wide to sample his wares.

My daughter, who lived in Hoboken at the time, and knowing of my love for the “sfogliatelle”, waited on a long line of tourists just to get me a box full of them.

Being an “old world” kind of guy that Buddy is, we both figured his “sfogliatelle” have to be the best you’d find anywhere. Right?

Not so much!

After having waited what seemed like an interminable time to get waited on…only to be received by clerks with “attitude” she finally emerged from the store, dutifully bringing home dad the long awaited pastry.

One taste and I knew they’d been frozen and tasted like cardboard.

Perhaps Buddy’s fame had gone to his head and he was too busy making fondant for his next creation forgetting about what had gotten him to the dance in the first place.

The venerable “sfogliatelle!” now takes a back seat to the “Badda Bloom!”

Che cazz!

So, keeping that in mind, according to this report:
Buddy’s cakes will now be coming to BJ's Wholesale Club.

BJ’s Wholesale Club has partnered with Valastro, star of the TLC series "Cake Boss" to create two cakes that will be available at the retailer's 195 stores in 15 states.

The creations such as “Da Bomb,” a cake made from chocolate layers and caramel icing, and the “Badda Bloom,” a chocolate and vanilla layer cake with buttercream frosting, will be available at the stores for $19.99, the paper reports.

Valastro recently said he was looking to expand to include “old world” bakeries in various locations between Boston and Philadelphia.

That’s all well and good…but to me, the family owned joints of days gone by did it, and to a certain extend, still do it best.

Rossi Glossary:
Sfogliatelle = leafy Neapolitan pastry shaped like a clam with a hard custard and dried fruit center.

Acita = indigestion

Che cazz! = WTF

Despite all the bluster, is Buddy Valastro, TLC’s “Cake Boss”, New Jersey’s best baker?

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