Dana Herbert, BE98
Journey of a Cake Boss
ALUMNI & FRIENDS | He’s Delaware’s “Celebrity Chef,” winner of TLC’s Cake Boss: Next Great Baker reality show. He’s been invited to cook for Oprah and Ice Cube and the prestigious James Beard House, and is the newest member of the Macy's Culinary Council.
All are obvious highlights in a wildly successful career, but when asked about the defining moments of his professional journey, Dana Herbert, BE98, speaks of his days as a student in UD’s then-fledgling Department of Hospitality Business Management. The professors all came from industry, he remembers, and taught with such passion that they’d actually pick up the phone and call students who missed class.
“I don’t think I can talk about the journey without UD and Vita Nova,” Herbert says of the student-run gourmet restaurant that gave him his first official taste of the kitchen. He even thanks his former professors Joe DiGregorio and Debbie Ellingsworth in his first cookbook, Sweet and Savory Union, and still comes to campus to speak to current students interested in following in his path.
Herbert launched his own company, Desserts by Dana, in 2003 as a way to “exercise my pastry skills,” and his creative talents made their national debut soon after, with Herbert appearing on shows like Wedding Cake Wars and Ultimate Cake Off, before his historic first-season win on Cake Boss in 2011.
Today, Desserts by Dana is a Newark-based bakery that has received dozens of prominent awards, from Best of Delaware recognitions to Bride Magazine’s top-100 bakeries in the United States. Replicas of some of Herbert’s signature cakes—towering tiers as wildly inventive as they are delicious—decorate the store.
But it’s the kitchen where Herbert feels most at home. Thinking up different designs, creating new flavor combinations—those are the things that excite the young cake boss.
“If there’s a secret ingredient to success,” he says, “it’s passion. You have enough, and you can do anything.”
