Local Hudson County Restauants and Wine Suppliers participate in Fundraising Event for Weehawken Free Public Library

By Sally Deering

 Book lovers, Kindle and Nook lovers and those who just adore the Weehawken Public Library for the stellar services it provides are invited to step out on Tuesday, April 26^th for an evening of delicious food and wine at “A Taste of Weehawken” at the Lincoln Harbor Food Court (next door to Houlihan’s) on the Weehawken Waterfront. All proceeds from this fundraising event go to the library’s special programming.

 This marks the 11^th year for “A Taste of Weehawken” and Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner visited the library on a rainy Tuesday morning to announce the upcoming event with members of the library’s board of directors, librarians and restaurateurs who will be donating their time, culinary specialties and services at Tuesday night’s fundraiser.

 “We raise $20,000 and it goes to all the odds and ends that we can’t provide in the budget,” Mayor Turner said. “The $20,000 goal really makes a difference in the services the library provides.”

Leona Nersesian, who has been president of the library’s Board of Trustees for the past five years and a member for 28 years, says this year’s event promises to be bigger and better. There are more restaurants participating and wine tastings will be set up throughout the food court. There’s also a raffle of prizes like dinners for two and tickets to shows worth way more than the price of the raffle. It takes a lot of work to pull the event together, but to Nersesian it’s a labor of love for a childhood retreat.

 “This library is like home to me,” Nersesian says. “I’ve been coming here 45 years. Our director started here as a teenager. The librarians and the staff here are all great people and we have programs for everyone from 18-months to seniors.”

 “A Taste of Weehawken” typically attracts 400-450 visitors and last year, the money raised paid for new computers and programs like “Books for Bingo” and computer classes for seniors; Circle Time and Story Time for the little ones and a math tutoring programs for kids of all ages. In the past, “A Taste of Weehawken” helped underwrite library activities like the NJ Aquarium program, poetry, music, author readings and signings and Family Passes to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

 Participants in this year’s “A Taste of Weehawken” include Allied Beverage Group, Amanda’s, Antonia’s by the Park, Ben & Jerry’s, Bertolotti Desserts, Carlo’s Bakery, Charrito’s, Chart House, The Clinton Social, Flaming Burrito, G.P.’s, Houlihan’s on the Waterfront, Lepore’s Home Made Chocolates, Lorraine’s Table, the Madison Bar & Grill, Paula’s Restaurant, Porto Leggero, Rita’s Italian Ice-Hoboken, Robongi on the Water, Rosa de Saron Florist, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Son Cubano Restaurant and Bar, Starbucks, Tomaso’s, Touch of Spice, and the Weehawken High School Culinary arts Program. The evening will feature a special wine tasting by Giannone Wine and Liquor Company.

 And best of all, guests are invited to meet and talk with the chefs preparing the dishes – an exciting plus for “foodies” who can’t get enough of cooking shows like “Top Chef” and Hoboken’s own “Cake Boss.”

G.P.’s, an Italian restaurant located on Boulevard East in Weehawken from 1968-1976 was founded by George Politis, who was born and raised in Weehawken. At the event his son, also named George Politis will be serving the restaurant’s home-style meatballs in gravy and Greek salads. The restaurant has been a part of “A Taste of Weehawken” since it began 11 years ago and even though G.P.’s is now in Guttenberg, the Politis family continues their commitment to George Politis’ hometown.

 “As a participant, ‘A Taste of Weehawken’ is a fantastic event,” Politis says. “You get to eat wonderful food at a low price. If I wasn’t participating, I would still come.”

 Tues, April 26^th, 6:30-9:30 pm

A Taste of Weehawken

Food Court at Lincoln Harbor

1200 Harbor Boulevard

Weehawken, NJ

$55 per person (6:30-9:30 pm)

$30 per person (7:30-9:30 pm)

For information/tickets call the library at 201-863-7823

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 If you look close the line stretches for two blocks or more.

 

The post CAKE BOSS-CARLO’S BAKERY DRAWS CROWDS EVERYDAY IN HOBOKEN first appeared on River View Observer.

Source You Tube- Thanks Roger Muller-Muller Insurance

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TLC Monday Nights …10pm

By Sally Deering   Photos by David Bayne

No disrespect to Frank Sinatra, but Hoboken’s bouncing a new favorite son on its knee, a charismatic cake baker who followed in the floured footsteps of his father to become the star of his own reality TV show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the premiere of “Cake Boss,” tourists have turned the busy little bake shop into a must-see on their vacation itinerary. Out-of-town customers mingle with locals as they crowd into the red-bricked storefront bistro, nestling into café tables and “oohing” and “ahhing” the cannoli, cream puffs, brownies, layer cakes and other sensational home-made pastries on display. Digital cameras in hand, they pose for pictures with Valastro’s vivacious mom and personality-plus sisters while trying to decide what will satisfy their sweet tooth. And once they choose, they snap pictures of each other giddily diving into their desserts — and, rightly so. I mean, have you ever tasted a Carlo’s “lobster claw?”

 

“Anybody else, come on down,” Valastro’s mom calls out to the crowd after posing for a snapshot with Valastro’s sibs and Cristin Wright, 15, of Rhode Island who came to taste the desserts she sees every week on the show.

 

“I’m a fan,” Wright says, beaming after her photo opp. “I watch it every Monday night. I like to watch them make the cakes. I hope to be a pastry chef when I grow up.”

Throughout the day, crowds pour through the door leaving little doubt that the Cake Boss’s star is on the rise.

As sweet as the cream in his tiramisu, Valastro, 32, is warm, funny and passionate about his family and the tradition of baking.  And beneath the celebrity stardust and the boisterous persona that hoots and hollers, cajoles and kibitzes is a humble baker who wears his heart on his chef’s coat sleeve for the man who taught him everything he knows — his dad, Buddy Sr., who passed away long before the cameras came.

“When I was 5, my dad would take me to the bakery on weekends and sit me up on the bench and roll out Pasta Frola,” Valastro says in his tiny upstairs office during a break from taping. “He would give me a cookie cutter and I would cut out cookies and decorate them. It was a fun time with my dad. Then when I was 11, I started making a difference helping out in the store. The more I was there, the more I was intrigued. I looked up to my dad. I wanted to mimic him.”

Valastro comes from a long-line of bakers. His grandfather baked bread in Sicily and Valastro’s father Buddy, Sr., learned the trade. At 13, he went to work for Carlo’s on 4^th and Adams Sts. in Hoboken, a popular bake shop that had been around since 1910.  When he married Mary several years later, the couple bought the bakery and kept the name. Inside the current shop, if you stand near the pie case, you’ll see a photograph of Mary and Buddy, Sr., in their Adams Street store holding a smiling baby Buddy “Cake Boss” Jr.

 

Having a dad as a baker, meant that birthday cakes were something special at home and Valastro recalls the time his father made him a Batman Cave cake.

“My dad was a great cake decorator,” Valastro remembers.

 Buddy Sr., passed away when Valastro was 17 and although he never attended culinary school, he dedicated himself to continuing the family business and “putting it on the map.” Back then, Valastro says, birthday and wedding cakes were very traditional, usually made with whipped cream icing and buttercream rosettes. So, Valastro began working with fondants and other new culinary techniques. When he opened Carlo’s Bake Shop in its present location, he was still in his 20s and the business and his career started taking off. He entered several Food Network bake-offs – winning a $10,000 wedding cake challenge — and pitched his own show. The TLC network liked the idea and even christened him “Cake Boss.” After the first season aired, the TLC aired a “Cake Boss” marathon and that’s when Valastro, his Hoboken bakery and family became reality show stars.

On a recent visit to the Bake Shop, TLC cameras were filming an episode with Valastro and his kitchen crew creating a cake for the Camden Aquarium. Valastro was experimenting with liquid sugar to make coral, pouring the hot mixture into pitchers of ice cubes. When the blue, orange and yellow sugars chilled, he gently shook them loose and they looked just like aquarium coral. The challenges of creating novelty cakes inspires Valastro and he just keeps topping himself like in the episode where he had to create a mechanical robot cake and then deliver his niece’s roller-skate-themed birthday cake – on roller-skates.

 And now that the show is a huge hit, customer requests are getting more elaborate, Valastro says, “They don’t want a cake they want a cake that will spin, talk and move.”

 And then there are all those lobster tails to make. The big demand for this scrumptious delight makes it the most popular pastry in the shop, Shaped like, well, lobster tails, they have a crunchy exterior, like a light, sweetened Shredded Wheat biscuit filled with a sweet cream that sends taste buds into orbit.  Valastro says they’re difficult and time-consuming to make, but even he admits it’s his favorite pastry when a craving calls for something sweet.

Valastro’s craving for the sweet smell of success hasn’t gone to his head although it can be a bit daunting, he says, like when he visits New York City and sees himself on a huge billboard in Times Square. He’s both surprised at the show’s popularity and grateful for all that “Cake Boss” has brought to his family business. There’s just one special ingredient missing in his piece of the pie – the dad who inspired him with just one little cookie cutter.

CAKE BOSS can be seen on The Learning Channel (TLC) Monday nights at 10pm   CAKE BOSS show schedule and times

Carlo’s Bake Shop

95 Washington Street,

 Hoboken, NJ 0730

201-659-3671 

visit them on the web @ www.carlosbakery.com

The post Cover Story -CAKE BOSS- Buddy Valastro -Our River View Interview first appeared on River View Observer.

The Star of The Learning Channel’s

 

  Confectioner extraordinaire Buddy Valastro, the accomplished fourth-generation baker and the owner of Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, will be the first speaker in this season’s free Lecture Series at Hudson County Community College. Mr. Valastro will appear on Thursday, November 19 at 6:00 p.m. at the College’s Culinary Arts Institute/Conference Center, 161 Newkirk Street – two blocks from the Journal Square PATH Station in Jersey City. There is no charge for admission.

 

 Hudson County Community College President Dr. Glen Gabert said the theme of this year’s series is “Reaching New Heights,” and that the other speakers are: Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, one of America’s most renowned authors and social/cultural observers who will appear on February 11, 2010; and Rita Moreno, one of only a few performers to have won all four of the nation’s major entertainment awards – the Oscar, the Tony, the Grammy and the Emmy – who is scheduled to appear on March 17, 2010.

 “We are very happy that Buddy Valastro will be with us. We feel a special camaraderie with him because he is a Hudson County native, and because of our shared ties in the culinary world,” Dr. Gabert said, referring to the College’s acclaimed Culinary Arts Institute.

 With the help of his family, Mr. Valastro has indeed, taken their bakery to “new heights,” and he has said he was “born into this business and practically has icing in my blood.” Mr. Valastro learned his trade of baking and decorating cakes by working as his father’s apprentice in the family’s bakery on Washington Street. Utilizing his father’s time-honored recipes and his own innovative decorating and sugar art techniques, Valastro has created cakes that are as delicious as they are elaborate and beautiful, including the circus-themed confection he created for Britney Spears’ 27th birthday. His creations have earned him and the family business national acclaim with stories in The New York Times and several national newspapers and magazines as well as appearances on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and the Food Network. The Cake Boss, which premiered on The Learning Channel last spring, chronicles Mr. Valastro’s desire to achieve his late father’s dream of making Carlo’s City Hall Bake Shop a household name.

 Tickets for Valastro’s lecture will be available as of 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 19 for HCCC students, faculty and staff members from the College’s Office of Student Activities. Limited tickets will also be available for the public. For more information on the HCCC Lecture Series, please visit the College’s web site at www.hccc.edu or phone the Office of Student Activities at (201) 360-4199.

 

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The post Hudson County Community College Takes the Cake with the Cake Boss, Hudson County’s Own Buddy Valastro first appeared on River View Observer.