Speaker 1: I Am all in again.
Speaker 2: Let's do.
Speaker 3: Luke Steiner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 4: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast, one
Speaker 4: of them productions iHeartRadio Media.
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 4: Another segment of Luke Steiner with some very interesting guests.
Speaker 4: Today we have Mary Cheron and Buddy Castano. Let me
Speaker 4: tell you a little bit about Mary and Buddy. If
Speaker 4: you want to know about Mary and Buddy, you gotta
Speaker 4: know about Carlos.
Speaker 1: Bakery and Hoboken, New.
Speaker 4: Jersey, family owned legendary best known for stunning custom cakes,
Speaker 4: classic Italian pastries, and of course, being the home base
Speaker 4: of the hit TLC show Boss starring Buddy Velastro. The
Speaker 4: bakery was originally founded in nineteen ten by Carlo Costafero, Yes,
Speaker 4: and later acquired by the Velastro family in nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 4: so you guys have had it nineteen sixty four. Since then,
Speaker 4: it's grown from a beloved local spot into a nationally
Speaker 4: recognized him multiple locations across the US, and an enormous
Speaker 4: online presence.
Speaker 1: I love this story. I cannot tell you I have
Speaker 1: a coffee company.
Speaker 4: We're trying to build up the same kind of business
Speaker 4: that you all have done since nineteen sixty four, So
Speaker 4: good on you for that. Listen, the two of you
Speaker 4: are part of quite the family business. Can you please
Speaker 4: give our listeners a little insight into how this all
Speaker 4: got started for your family.
Speaker 3: Well, my our parents started it, you know, when they
Speaker 3: came here. My dad worked in different two different bakeries
Speaker 3: and then came to Carlo's Bakery and the owner Oarlo
Speaker 3: Augusta Farrow, had wanted to retire, he had a son.
Speaker 3: His son really didn't want to take part in the
Speaker 3: big in the business, so he said, you take over
Speaker 3: the business. I'll hold the loan for you. And my
Speaker 3: mom came in as a salesperson working in the front,
Speaker 3: and he kind of had his eye on her and
Speaker 3: he said, I'm going to marry you. We'll take over.
Speaker 3: And that's really exactly what had happened. And they got
Speaker 3: married and she ran the front, he ran the back,
Speaker 3: and it was kind of like a perfect little setup,
Speaker 3: and that's really what happened. And they got married, had
Speaker 3: you know, five kids, and we were just kind of
Speaker 3: born in there. And I remember being a little kid,
Speaker 3: you know, all of us we used to play like
Speaker 3: on the big fifty pound flower sacks and we that's
Speaker 3: all we knew. That was our life. We were in
Speaker 3: the bakery. We lived upstairs in the apartment, you know,
Speaker 3: and it was just the bakery was such a big
Speaker 3: part of our lives and it just it was a
Speaker 3: lot of hard work. You know, we were very hard
Speaker 3: working people and dedicated and grew it into this big
Speaker 3: empire that it is today.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, just such a great story.
Speaker 3: It's kind of amazing and how it's taken to another
Speaker 3: Like you know, when we were on the TV show,
Speaker 3: it was just so surreal because it was you know,
Speaker 3: people would stop us and you really couldn't go anywhere,
Speaker 3: and constant pictures and even at work, i mean lines
Speaker 3: for hours to get into the store. And it was
Speaker 3: just surreal because okay, my brother makes these amazing cakes.
Speaker 3: Because we me and the sisters kind of just ran
Speaker 3: the front and you know, the brother in laws and
Speaker 3: all the workers because everyone's like family that works here,
Speaker 3: so everyone in the back working and we were running
Speaker 3: the front and it was just like crazy and it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: you want to take a picture or like sign autographs
Speaker 3: because my brother makes these amazing cakes. It was it
Speaker 3: was just like so surreal, and our kids were younger
Speaker 3: and all the other kids, like our nephew and nieces
Speaker 3: are like our own kids, and it was just crazy.
Speaker 3: And how it got started with someone had sent a video.
Speaker 3: My brother used to do these challenges and someone had
Speaker 3: sent a video in and said, oh, I wanted a
Speaker 3: TV show and he happened to be on it. And
Speaker 3: they're like, well we want we don't want you, We
Speaker 3: want him because he had such you know, personality, and
Speaker 3: that's kind of how it was.
Speaker 1: As my son calls it riz.
Speaker 3: Exactly, you know, and that's that's really how it all happens.
Speaker 3: And then undercover people used to come in and watch us.
Speaker 3: And he came to us and he's like, oh, we're
Speaker 3: gonna do a TV show. I go us like why,
Speaker 3: He's like, you girls, you guys are crazy. I'm like
Speaker 3: we're crazy. I'm like we're just like family, like this
Speaker 3: is us and people are interested and it was just
Speaker 3: easy and how interested people were on our lives and
Speaker 3: it just blew up and it was just an amazing ride.
Speaker 3: It was just great.
Speaker 4: So tell us a little bit about some of these
Speaker 4: disagreements they come up, right, I mean, it's always going
Speaker 4: to come up in the kitchen and something's going to happen.
Speaker 1: So tell us about one that is very memorable, memorable.
Speaker 3: What can I tell you about? Well, I want since
Speaker 3: you tell one.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I work full time now at the bakery myself.
Speaker 2: I graduated college last year, said, I'm here full time
Speaker 2: and I work in the stores.
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of.
Speaker 2: Our family arguments didn't make it to the TV screen.
Speaker 5: You didn't get to see them. Yeah, we fight hard,
Speaker 5: but we love hard.
Speaker 2: By my most probably the most memorable one I would
Speaker 2: have to say was probably with me when I was
Speaker 2: very young.
Speaker 5: I was always I was always a buster.
Speaker 2: I was always in the back trying to mix things
Speaker 2: up and keep everyone on their toes.
Speaker 5: And I had actually hidden.
Speaker 2: Components of this huge bowling cake that they were actually creating,
Speaker 2: and the camera crew actually had no idea. So everyone's
Speaker 2: going crazy in the back, like where is this? Like
Speaker 2: my uncle's screaming at production, are you guys messing with me?
Speaker 2: And then everyone's yelling at me because they see me
Speaker 2: in the back laughing, and my uncle Buddy's lines of
Speaker 2: all the employees and it's like, guys, if you're messing
Speaker 2: with me to tell me where it is. When I
Speaker 2: finally came out and said that it was me that
Speaker 2: I had them when I had.
Speaker 5: Stored them in the back.
Speaker 4: But that's just one of the many that have come
Speaker 4: to mind. All right, So at Carlos, you make cakes,
Speaker 4: of course, canolas, cookies, pizza. Can you share a couple
Speaker 4: of personal favorites with us?
Speaker 1: Mary, what's your favorite?
Speaker 3: I really always say I was born into the right
Speaker 3: family because I would rather eat cake than food. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I am a dessert person all in all. I mean,
Speaker 3: one of my favorite things at the bakery. Honestly and truly,
Speaker 3: I have to say, I do like we make amazing
Speaker 3: like chocolate chip cookies, and like all different ones. I
Speaker 3: like the sugar ones. I like the Naker doodle. I'm
Speaker 3: a big cookie person. I love our chocolate dip strawberries.
Speaker 3: Those are excellent. I mean I love our lobster tails.
Speaker 3: I mean the canolis. I mean I like them, but
Speaker 3: I'm not like that's not one thing that I'm going
Speaker 3: to go for. So I love our cake slices, like
Speaker 3: now we're just making a new one. Cookies and cream.
Speaker 3: I think that one's great. I mean, I like the
Speaker 3: strawberry shortcake one. I just kind of move on from
Speaker 3: one thing to the next because there's such a big variety.
Speaker 3: I love our pockets. We make these pockets. I like
Speaker 3: the crembroulet or the hazel nut. The apple one would
Speaker 3: be my least favorite, but you know those are the
Speaker 3: other things. You know, when I go in, I'll either
Speaker 3: grab an egg sandwich first, or just like a plain
Speaker 3: croissant or a choco croissant, I mean Danish. There's so
Speaker 3: many things. But honestly, I can tell you without fail.
Speaker 3: I can tell you that I eat at least four
Speaker 3: different desserts today. And I'm not even kidding, not even kidding.
Speaker 3: And now when we're done here, swear to God, I'm
Speaker 3: going for cake tasting because we have a whole new
Speaker 3: line of cakes and we're doing all cake tasting and
Speaker 3: now they're setting it up for me. I'm gonna taste
Speaker 3: like twelve different desserts.
Speaker 4: And that's the well, No, it's the joy of what
Speaker 4: I do too.
Speaker 1: With my coffee companies. I get to through the coffee
Speaker 1: tastings and I love that part.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you that here's a technical question, right,
Speaker 4: I want to know how you solve the shelf life issue,
Speaker 4: the refrigeration issue when you're shipping across the country.
Speaker 2: So a lot of a lot of our stuff. We
Speaker 2: have a great partnership with Dawn Foods. They store and
Speaker 2: distribute a lot of our food for us. We produce
Speaker 2: everything here at our factory here in Jersey City, at
Speaker 2: our warehouse. This is where all of our offices are based.
Speaker 2: And then they kind of store and help and then
Speaker 2: our stores purchase this stuff directly from Dawn Foods.
Speaker 1: Are they in Jersey City?
Speaker 5: They have?
Speaker 2: Dawn Foods is a major corporation. They have warehouses and
Speaker 2: stuff all over the country.
Speaker 4: Okay, so it stays, they stay, it stays fresh. They
Speaker 4: what they flash freeze it or something, and then they
Speaker 4: ship it.
Speaker 2: When they need to factory, everything is instantly flash frozen.
Speaker 2: We have nitrogen tunnels that basically lead almost throughout our
Speaker 2: whole entire factory.
Speaker 5: These are massive tunnels.
Speaker 3: If you ever in your New Jersey you should actually
Speaker 3: stop by. You would be really amazed as at what
Speaker 3: goes on in the factory. But my brother just passed by.
Speaker 3: He was waving to us.
Speaker 5: Yes, so hard to come up.
Speaker 2: That was our biggest issue with scaling was was making
Speaker 2: sure that we were able to preserve our freshness and.
Speaker 1: Getting yeah, huge issue, huge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just amazing the factory and and and we
Speaker 3: make that's coming out soon too, a delicious pizza. It's
Speaker 3: a frozen pizza, but if you ever tasted it, it's
Speaker 3: it doesn't even taste like frozen. It tastes like fresh,
Speaker 3: I mean pizza. It's just it's just out of this world.
Speaker 3: We just got this pizza thing that like from Italy,
Speaker 3: and the guys were here for months from Italy, like
Speaker 3: some selling guys setting it up. They were wonderful. It's
Speaker 3: just amazing. Wow, Like everything that we do is kind
Speaker 3: of like kind of top notch. And I'm not just
Speaker 3: saying this because I'm part of the family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I know.
Speaker 4: I can hear it in your voice. You're proud of it.
Speaker 4: Top quality products, top quality and you're proud of it.
Speaker 4: I can hear that. Yeah, that's the way I am
Speaker 4: with my company. Only the best, only the best. Any
Speaker 4: plans to expand the offerings or introduce new creations at the.
Speaker 3: Big we're just working on a whole new line of
Speaker 3: different cakes, different flavors in different things. So we're going
Speaker 3: to get that, Like I said, we have a new
Speaker 3: pizza that's coming out, and again it's phenomenal. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: you know what, you have to send your address and
Speaker 3: I'm going to ship them to you. Honestly when when
Speaker 3: and I'm going to ship you And then you tell me.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is the apps? And I think I already know.
Speaker 4: But what's the absolute best part about being in a
Speaker 4: bakery where it's all family? I mean this, this this
Speaker 4: question answers itself.
Speaker 2: Whether our kids are like my best friends and brother
Speaker 2: and sisters. We all work here together, like side by side.
Speaker 2: My direct boss is my aunt Mary's other sister, my Grace,
Speaker 2: and we are our marketing, our social media team. We
Speaker 2: have our cousin Emily, who helped us set up this computer.
Speaker 2: We have from everybody, there's a family member in every department.
Speaker 5: There's a family member in every department. There's at least
Speaker 5: ten or fifteen of us here.
Speaker 3: And even if we do disagree, which we do like like, well,
Speaker 3: we get over very quickly. There's no point in holding
Speaker 3: a grudge, like we say we have to do, and
Speaker 3: we definitely move on. I mean, you know, but we
Speaker 3: for the most part, like we really do get along,
Speaker 3: like on the weekends we're at each other's house. Is
Speaker 3: like we go on vacation together. We all together all
Speaker 3: the time, like honestly and truly, like where.
Speaker 5: We all live five minutes away from me, we really do.
Speaker 3: We live in the same town. We like, we eat together,
Speaker 3: we hang out together, we do everything together. My husband
Speaker 3: will be like, let me guess you're on the phone
Speaker 3: with your sister, or like, don't be jealous, you know.
Speaker 1: I want to know. That's what I'm I don't know
Speaker 1: when the cameras are off.
Speaker 4: His buddy's still really the boss or you get the
Speaker 4: boss him around a little bit.
Speaker 3: Listen, Buddy, Buddy right now is definitely the leader, like
Speaker 3: you know, but I wouldn't want to be Buddy. Buddy
Speaker 3: has to be in charge of all of this. Like
Speaker 3: I couldn't do what Buddy does. But like, okay, perfect example,
Speaker 3: my daughter is I have twins, and my both twins
Speaker 3: are in college. They're juniors. So I just said to Buddy, like, Buddy,
Speaker 3: you know he has an extra car or so so
Speaker 3: I'm like, Buddy, my daughter's coming home from college, Like
Speaker 3: I need one of your cars. He's like, no problem,
Speaker 3: I'll just like one car was given back eye drive stick.
Speaker 3: He's like, just call up Nikki show like extend the least,
Speaker 3: Like whatever you want from Buddy, like he just does.
Speaker 3: Like Buddy's very accommodating. Buddy's not like whatever anyone from
Speaker 3: the family needs from Buddy, it's done. Like like whatever
Speaker 3: you want, you get from Buddy. Buddy's like a very
Speaker 3: soft guy like Buddy, like you know, it's sometimes he
Speaker 3: seems like he's hard, but he's very but he's a
Speaker 3: good hearted guy. He would do anything even for anybody,
Speaker 3: Like Buddy's a good guy. Like he's not listen, if
Speaker 3: Buddy has to be like firm, of course he has
Speaker 3: to be firm, but he would do anything for anyone.
Speaker 3: He's a good hearted guy. He's the leader of the family, yes,
Speaker 3: but he he's would do anything for you too.
Speaker 5: He's the boss.
Speaker 2: He's the boss hey when it is when it comes
Speaker 2: to being here, he is.
Speaker 5: He's very hands on with the business side.
Speaker 2: But my aunts have that creative input and that outlet
Speaker 2: in the stores. There's nobody who's done the amount of
Speaker 2: working at the counter from when they were twelve years
Speaker 2: old to this day. Behind it, there's nobody who knows
Speaker 2: more about what the consumer wants, yes and needs than
Speaker 2: my aunts when we ran the fun he ran the
Speaker 2: back for years. My aunts there, they do the showcase designs.
Speaker 2: They do so much of the stuff inside of the stores.
Speaker 2: It's actually it's quite remarkable. And again without really a
Speaker 2: formal education from growing up, from just being in the
Speaker 2: bakery from a young age, my aunts can walk into
Speaker 2: a bakery and immediately take that shirt down, move that
Speaker 2: pan over there, you know, put it sideways happily.
Speaker 5: On a pan.
Speaker 1: Right. It's not about that. It's about just getting up
Speaker 1: in the morning and grinding every day, you know. That's
Speaker 1: what it's about.
Speaker 3: His wife is here in the building. She works here
Speaker 3: in the business. So so everyone in the family has
Speaker 3: a part of the building, like me and my sisters.
Speaker 3: My one sister is here full time and she's strictly business.
Speaker 3: She's that's his boss.
Speaker 1: Me and his.
Speaker 3: Mom and my other sister. We're more playful, we're definitely
Speaker 3: more playful. We stop in and like, we're like more joyful.
Speaker 3: We'll like, oh, good morning, We'll come in and just
Speaker 3: really hang out. But we run the Hoboken Dekery. So
Speaker 3: the three of us together will stop it and Hoboken
Speaker 3: and it's just more much of a joyful, pleasant experience
Speaker 3: where we go in, you know, hang out with the
Speaker 3: fans and you know, like just run the business and
Speaker 3: it's like not as stressful.
Speaker 1: And how many how many bakeries.
Speaker 5: Are there we have in total? Right now?
Speaker 2: We have a couple of different yeah, a couple of
Speaker 2: different concepts within that, Like we have a Buddy's Boardwalk
Speaker 2: Empire thrown in there. So they're all Corlo's bakery concepts.
Speaker 2: We have them scattered across the.
Speaker 3: Country and some of them have like restaurant like you
Speaker 3: know with them, there's food there really and bakery. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and we have a great pizzeria concept too in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: It's called Pizza Cake and the pizza is very good.
Speaker 3: And Buddy and Lisa have a restaurant Buddy vs. That
Speaker 3: does phenomenal in Las Vegas. It's called Buddy VI's. It's excellent,
Speaker 3: the food is very good.
Speaker 1: And what was the timeframe?
Speaker 4: So you had the one bakery, but then you expanded
Speaker 4: into the second one? How long did it take to
Speaker 4: build out seven? And they're not franchise, they're all owned
Speaker 4: and operated, right, They're.
Speaker 2: All owned and they're all owned and operated by my
Speaker 2: team actually work in retail question and so we run
Speaker 2: we run all the different locations. It's me and three
Speaker 2: of the best girls in this company that have been
Speaker 2: for so many years us we run the separate location.
Speaker 5: So from start our first location, it was opened solely.
Speaker 2: Up until twenty sixteen, we had one location and now
Speaker 2: and then we quickly expanded across like New Jersey and
Speaker 2: then through a couple of different states.
Speaker 5: But as of more recently.
Speaker 2: We've been we've been a little bit less on the
Speaker 2: retail side and more focusing on the e commerce side
Speaker 2: of the business. But everyone always says, you know, retail
Speaker 2: is not the same it's not the same environment. So
Speaker 2: a lot of it's been shifting in my uncle, that's
Speaker 2: where he kind of steps in and being the innovator
Speaker 2: of this place and kind of keeping us ahead.
Speaker 5: Of that curve. And that's where we're kind of on now.
Speaker 2: We're working with so many different retail partners getting our
Speaker 2: product into different retail store So that's been the new mission.
Speaker 1: Nice retail is tough, that's tough sledding in it.
Speaker 4: You know, the margins are really like very thin there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you gotta do. Yes, they change, they change
Speaker 1: a lot, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, change, especially as a lot of people don't realize
Speaker 2: we still we use real eggs, we use real milk,
Speaker 2: we use is real butter we use.
Speaker 5: People are like, oh, like the prices of stuff have really.
Speaker 2: Gone up, and from our side, you really see what
Speaker 2: you were paying just last month to this month.
Speaker 4: I know, we just got a price hicle on the
Speaker 4: Arabica beans and it added so much cost. All right,
Speaker 4: listen now on to Gilmore Girls. If you were just
Speaker 4: if you were designing a cake inspired by Gilmore Girls,
Speaker 4: what would it look like?
Speaker 3: I mean, it would have to have your diner like
Speaker 3: somewhere on that. I mean it would have to have.
Speaker 2: I would have to focus. I would I would have
Speaker 2: to put pull ink on there. He would have to
Speaker 2: be on there. I would have to I would have
Speaker 2: to incorate Luke's cheeseburger somewhere on that cake.
Speaker 3: We would have to have like, you know, Laura someone
Speaker 3: and Laura and Rory.
Speaker 2: We'd have to incorporate some of our old school Hertford
Speaker 2: have a little bit of you know, Emily and Richard's
Speaker 2: house incorporated into their somewhere.
Speaker 3: There's so many different things that we would have to
Speaker 3: incorporate you there.
Speaker 4: All right, So if you're baking just for Laurel and Rory, okay,
Speaker 4: what would you serve them?
Speaker 5: Cool? See?
Speaker 2: Now, I have always been a fan, and it's hysterical.
Speaker 2: The the blueberry shortcake. That's one of my one of
Speaker 2: my favorite recipes from the show that I've actually created myself,
Speaker 2: and I've actually done it.
Speaker 5: But I think Rory.
Speaker 2: I remember Rory always loved Suky's chocolate fldge cake, so
Speaker 2: I think and that's our that's our famous We're famous
Speaker 2: for our chocolate fledge cake. So I would have to
Speaker 2: do a chocolate fudge cake for the both of them.
Speaker 4: Right right, okay, all right, listen. Luke Steiner, as you know,
Speaker 4: might not be a bakery. But if Luke added one
Speaker 4: dessert to the menu, what should it be?
Speaker 3: Would it be the grayson Berry?
Speaker 5: The great I would say the grayson Berry.
Speaker 3: So that's like a blueberry like sponge, so it's kind
Speaker 3: of like a blueberry muffin on the box them. And
Speaker 3: then it has like a lemon moose, but it's not
Speaker 3: like lemone. It doesn't have like a really strong lemony flavor,
Speaker 3: and it's lemony moose. And then it has fresh blueberries
Speaker 3: on time. Just to know.
Speaker 2: In the development of that recipe, we must have taste
Speaker 2: tested over one hundred different recipes. The lemon flavoring correctly,
Speaker 2: it's not too much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I know it takes a lot.
Speaker 3: It's the perfect amount of lemon. It's not overpowering, right right.
Speaker 1: Here's the question, though, if you were to come into
Speaker 1: Luke Steiner, what would you order and where would you sit?
Speaker 6: Okay, so I would have to order the cheeseburger, Yeah,
Speaker 6: I was gonna say, And I like, what table would
Speaker 6: I sit at?
Speaker 2: Probably the circular one that's not commonly on the show,
Speaker 2: but that one that's up by the front door near.
Speaker 1: The Yeah, yeah, by the window. It's sit for me.
Speaker 3: That's the best.
Speaker 1: That's the best seat in the house.
Speaker 4: That view of the park right there not and there's
Speaker 4: a little street there in front of it.
Speaker 1: They get the park. Yeah, Mary, what about you?
Speaker 3: I went one of the cheeseburger too. I was thinking
Speaker 3: that before he said it, and I would probably sit
Speaker 3: at the same table because I would want to be Yeah,
Speaker 3: I would want to be eat him with him, Mike.
Speaker 5: It's close to yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, I wish we had more time I
Speaker 4: could talk to you too forever.
Speaker 1: You got to come back.
Speaker 4: Okay, First of all, please commit to coming back to
Speaker 4: the show. We have more to talk about, Buddy, Mary,
Speaker 4: so great to talk to you, and uh listen, We'll
Speaker 4: do this again. Thanks for all the downloads everybody, and
Speaker 4: remember where you lead, we will follow.
Speaker 1: Stay safe.
Speaker 5: Augusta dotcat.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 4: Follow us on Instagram at I Am All In podcast
Speaker 4: and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.