It’s been three months since Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro brutally hurt his hand when he was bowling in his New Jersey home with his family. The 43-year-old has been on the mend since, but now he is getting candid about how the injury affected his career.
“What was going through your mind — right handed, artist, chef, your livelihood there — as you looked down and saw a mangled hand? Yes, you might lose the hand but if you don’t, what are the odds it will work and let you be Picasso, da Vinci?” Dr. Mehmet Oz asked the chef on the upcoming episode of The Dr. Oz Show, which airs on Monday, December 14.
“Dr. Oz, you’re 100 percent right,” Valastro stated. “All those things were going through my head, and I was so mad at myself. But there was something in me that clicked, I mean even through something tragic like this, I got to say to myself, well, I’m going to do everything in my power to push myself to get this hand back to normal, or I’m going to train this hand to make it happen because again, I’m a fighter. That’s what I would do.”
FOOD CELEBRITIES REVEAL THEIR SECRET OF STAYING FIT WHILE EATING FOR A LIVING
Valastro was spending “quality time” with his family — including his sons Buddy Jr., 16, and Marco, 13 — when the bowling pinsetter malfunction, which “turned into a terrible accident,” Valastro’s rep told PEOPLE at the time.
Valastro posted on Instagram: I was involved in a terrible accident a few days ago... What do you think of my new accessory? Photo: Buddy Valastro/Instagram
“I’ve reset [the machine] a hundred times,” the New Jersey native explained. “I guess I looked away, and then my hand got pinned. The metal barb pushed right through the middle of my ring finger and my middle finger. I was stuck in a machine.”
Valastro got two surgeries for his hand — one at Morristown Memorial in New Jersey and a second one at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. From then on, the reality star has been recovering with his brood by his side.
However, Valastro noted that the accident definitely took a toll on his loved ones. “I got to tell you, if it wasn’t for my family, I mean, my wife, my kids there, they’re just so incredible,” he gushed. “They are such an important part of my life. I think that they were so scared until I got home from HSS [Hospital for Special Surgery]. I think after I was home and I started to tell them that, listen, no matter what, I’m going to be fine and I’m going to get better, they felt better.”
16 CELEBRITIES WHO SWEAR THEY CAN COOK A MEAN MEAL
“But there was that week where my wife’s like, ‘The kids might need to talk to someone.’ If that’s the case then whatever they need because it was traumatic what they saw,” he stated.
“What was going through your mind — right handed, artist, chef, your livelihood there — as you looked down and saw a mangled hand? Yes, you might lose the hand but if you don’t, what are the odds it will work and let you be Picasso, da Vinci?” Dr. Mehmet Oz asked the chef on the upcoming episode of The Dr. Oz Show, which airs on Monday, December 14.
“Dr. Oz, you’re 100 percent right,” Valastro stated. “All those things were going through my head, and I was so mad at myself. But there was something in me that clicked, I mean even through something tragic like this, I got to say to myself, well, I’m going to do everything in my power to push myself to get this hand back to normal, or I’m going to train this hand to make it happen because again, I’m a fighter. That’s what I would do.”
FOOD CELEBRITIES REVEAL THEIR SECRET OF STAYING FIT WHILE EATING FOR A LIVING
Valastro was spending “quality time” with his family — including his sons Buddy Jr., 16, and Marco, 13 — when the bowling pinsetter malfunction, which “turned into a terrible accident,” Valastro’s rep told PEOPLE at the time.
Valastro posted on Instagram: I was involved in a terrible accident a few days ago... What do you think of my new accessory? Photo: Buddy Valastro/Instagram
“I’ve reset [the machine] a hundred times,” the New Jersey native explained. “I guess I looked away, and then my hand got pinned. The metal barb pushed right through the middle of my ring finger and my middle finger. I was stuck in a machine.”
Valastro got two surgeries for his hand — one at Morristown Memorial in New Jersey and a second one at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. From then on, the reality star has been recovering with his brood by his side.
However, Valastro noted that the accident definitely took a toll on his loved ones. “I got to tell you, if it wasn’t for my family, I mean, my wife, my kids there, they’re just so incredible,” he gushed. “They are such an important part of my life. I think that they were so scared until I got home from HSS [Hospital for Special Surgery]. I think after I was home and I started to tell them that, listen, no matter what, I’m going to be fine and I’m going to get better, they felt better.”
16 CELEBRITIES WHO SWEAR THEY CAN COOK A MEAN MEAL
“But there was that week where my wife’s like, ‘The kids might need to talk to someone.’ If that’s the case then whatever they need because it was traumatic what they saw,” he stated.
Category
✨
People