Family Affair: Buddy Valastro Works on His Family Menu

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• Elizabeth Blau, Buddy Valastro and Kim Canteenwalla
• Buddy with his Auntie Anna
• Buddy Valastro with his wife Lisa
• Uncle Mario and Buddy Valastro.
• Eggplant bruschetta
• Veal Milanese

Cake Boss Buddy Valastro is trading in his flour and sugar for eggplants and veal parmesan. The chef is working hard to get his menu together for Buddy V's, his first Vegas restaurant opening this fall in the former home of First Food & Bar at the Palazzo. Valastro promises to serve up Italian-American food inspired by family gatherings and the recipes passed down by his mother, grandmother and aunts.

Über restaurateur couple Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla, who already have Honey Salt, are partnering with the TLC star and went to his patisserie Carlo's Bakery in Jersey City, N.J., to bring together the family, share family recipes (and secrets) and come up with the menu for the new restaurant.

"[O]nions and garlic frying, meatballs browning, lasagna and peppered chicken baking" took over the aromas of the kitchen. Valastro's mother-in-law Gloria Belgiovine, his wife Lisa, uncle Maxim Tubito, his four siblings and his mother Mary were among those in the kitchen cooking up family recipes.

The menu will include dishes named for his family, including Lisa's sautéed shrimp with cilantro and Gloria's fried artichokes is named for his mother-in-law.

"I don't think you can go wrong with anything we're planning to serve" Valastro tells New Jersey Monthly. "It's home cooking, just like I cook for my own family." ?
· Cake Boss Preps for Vegas [NJ Monthly]
· All Coverage of Buddy V's [~ELV~]