Tony Danza clapped back at Valerie Bertinelli’s claim he ghosted her after she left her number in his glove box over a decade ago.
“He never called me!” Bertinelli, 65, claimed during the Tuesday, October 14, episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, alleging that she once dropped her number inside Danza’s car — but never got that date.
Host Drew Barrymore teased, “They never do, by the way,” hinting that men rarely call a girl and ask her out as they hope.
When Danza, 74, stopped by the talk show later that day for a cooking segment, Bertinelli had to give him a hard time for seemingly ghosting her.
Valerie Bertinelli has confirmed her exit as the cohost of Food Network’s Kids Baking Championship after 12 seasons. “I’ve been avoiding facing what I got confirmation last night and I didn’t want to talk about it last night [because] I wanted to sleep on it because it really hurt my feelings,” Bertinelli, 62, said in […]
“This is a sauce that you’ve never made for me even though I left my phone number in your glove box,” she quipped, referring to the “Date Sauce” Danza planned to make for the hosts.
Barrymore, 50, then looked directly at Danza and asked, “Did you ever find Val’s phone number in your glove box?”
“No I did not!” Danza quickly responded, confessing, “I think she’s full of baloney!”
While Danza didn’t appear to believe Bertinelli’s version of events, the pair laughed off the awkwardness as they shared the kitchen. He proceeded to cook for Barrymore and Bertinelli, before revealing how his famous sauce got its name.
“I used to say, ‘Hey, come over. I’ll cook something,’” Danza said of the recipe’s “date sauce” label. “And I cooked this stuff.”
Bertinelli teased she wouldn’t know how the sauce was named because she “never heard those words,” poking fun at Danza’s alleged dating slight.
Danza smiled as he continued to cook down his sauce and add in meatballs and short ribs, revealing his meatball recipe once beat Bobby Flay’s on TV.
While viewers got tips about how to make the perfect Italian meal from the Who’s the Boss? alum on Tuesday’s show, Bertinelli has been sharing her cooking tips and tricks with fans for years.
Bertinelli exclusively told Us Weekly last month her go-to advice for hosting, which often means making a “good casserole” or “one-pan chicken dish.”
Sometimes the kitchen is too hot for more than one chef at a time, sparking feuds between Food Network mainstays. Giada De Laurentiis claimed in July 2025 that fellow TV chef Mario Batali made an inappropriate comment about her body while writing a foreword for her 2005 cookbook, Everyday Italian. “He’s really the main guy […]
“If it’s a 4th of July get-together with all of [my son] Wolf’s band, I’m gonna make a big thing of chili or gumbo,” Bertinelli revealed in September. “And if it’s like my book group, I’m probably gonna make chicken marbella or some sort of chicken and rice that’s all baked in one pan, because I wanna spend time with my friends talking about the book and not in the kitchen all the time.”
The former Kids Baking Championship judge noted that when she isn’t hosting, she loves to bring either hor d’oeuvres or a dessert as a party guest. Her usual plan of attack for desserts is to switch up her recipes and make something she wouldn’t bake just for herself.
“When I’m in charge of dessert, sometimes it’s chocolate cake. I never have an opportunity to make a chocolate cake for myself and they’re so good,” Bertinelli told Us. “So if I can make a chocolate cake, [it’s] because I’m going to see a lot of people. I know I’m at least gonna get a slice.”