Six months after a horrific injury that nearly cost him the ability to bake, "Cake Boss" star Buddy Valastro is healing.
In a chat with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Food Network star beamed while speaking about his right hand. He was even excitedly shaking hands with people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. That, in and of itself, is a huge feat.
"Look, I can make a full fist, I can go fully straight, and I've got my strength," he said while reportedly clenching and unclenching his wounded hand before extending it to greet the newspaper reporter.
Last September, the hugely popular chef wasn't sure he'd ever get to this point after he impaled his hand several times during an accident at his in-home bowling alley. Due to the accident — which caused nerve, tendon and muscle damage — Buddy had four surgeries on his right hand, which is his dominant hand, and wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to bake his elaborate cakes again.
While Buddy isn't back to 100 percent and still has a large bandage on his hand, he knows he's come a long way.
"I can move my hand around, and I got my strength back," he proudly says.
Still, in the aftermath of the incident, Buddy wasn't away from the kitchen long, even baking cakes while awaiting surgeries. He continued baking after the surgeries, too.
"Bad hand and all, bandages on, I'm taking racks out of the oven. I'm making lemonade out of lemons, because that's the way I'm built," he said. "But when I really had time to think about it after the holidays, I said to my wife, 'You know I'm just not the same.' Because even just holding a knife, or holding a brush, I couldn't grab it. And you don't realize how important things are, until something happens."
But, just as Buddy was feeling down, he recalled his doctors removing the bandages from his hand.
"She said 'All right, make a fist,' and I made my fist. And I started crying, because I was like, my hand is back," he said, "and I had strength in it."
Things are actually going so well that he's preparing to begin filming a new season of "Buddy vs. Duff."
As they say, you can't keep a good man down.