TikTok sensation Danny Freeman makes pretty pasta. Possibly the prettiest. On one page of his new cookbook, Danny Loves Pasta, the self-taught pasta king forms fresh dough into four-petaled flowers; the next, he embosses rolled dough with zebra and tiger print, perfect for a wild lasagna.
He sculpts raviolis to look like miniature succulents and gives bowtie pasta a funky wide-striped pattern. He uses butterfly pea flower powder and blue spirulina to create a ray of indigos in his pasta dough on par with the best hand-dyed denim.
His recent @dannylovespasta posts on Instagram and TikTok show how, with precision, he transforms ravioli into Minions, complete with goggles, overalls, boots, and gloves. In February he built a miniature football-field lasagna in honor of the Super Bowl, carefully numbering the yard lines and artfully replicating team logos.
Freeman brings the “everything is cake” mentality to the pasta world. He even bought a 3D printer to make his own cookie cutters to better realize his dreamed-up designs. He’s more than a chef. He’s an artist—and pasta just happens to be his medium.
But you don’t have to be a pasta Picasso to pick up his cookbook and give it a go. Freeman confesses to having no formal artistic training and instead describes himself as simply creative. He wants to inspire others to try something new and have fun in the kitchen.
Though his own creations are fantastical, with the book, Freeman sets out to remove the mystique around making fresh pasta dough, step-by-step. “I hope people realize it’s not as hard as they think,” he says. “You don’t need a pasta maker or any fancy equipment. You don’t have to follow strict rules and you don’t have to do what was done in the past.”
A Pandemic Hobby Turned Profession
Freeman is like so many others during the pandemic who found solace in back-to-basics hobbies like baking bread, knitting, or tilling soil. At the time, he was a practicing attorney, 10 years out from graduating at Columbia Law School, with no plans of switching career paths. “I loved that job,” he says. “Honestly, I thought I would do that job forever.”
But when COVID hit and the courts closed, Freeman and his husband Steve Wengrovitz temporarily moved from their home in New York City to work remotely in North Carolina. With a new baby daughter, traveling back home to Albany in time for Christmas 2020 was impossible. Instead, like so many others, they found themselves celebrating the holiday on FaceTime.
Freeman showed his grandmother Janet Allegretti the fresh pasta he made in keeping with her family tradition. It would end up being the last time the two spoke; she passed away the following month.
Freeman was devastated. Often, after his daughter went to bed and sleep eluded him, he would head to the kitchen, mired in grief. He would take out the flour, crack a few eggs, and make his grandmother’s recipes. “It really was a way to feel close to her,” he says. “It was very meditative, just kneading the dough, being by myself. It was really in her memory.”
Freeman posted photos of the results on Instagram. Eventually, he decided to start a separate account in case friends tired of his pasta pics. Then, he had a random idea to go on TikTok and share videos of the recipes being made. “I didn’t tell anyone,” he says. “I just posted it quietly.”
He thought, if the account failed to get traction, no one would need to know. “I’ll delete my account and act like it never happened,” he says.It didn’t take long, however, for @dannylovespasta to get noticed. “In the beginning, people would leave a lot of comments on what they wanted to see,” Freeman says. “It pushed me to keep going.”
For instance, when he made green spinach pasta, viewers asked what other colors he could make. Someone challenged him to use Oreos in a pasta dish (he did). His creativity was sparked.
What really cemented Freeman’s influencer status came a few months later. “I posted a video telling my story, I talked about my grandmother and being a dad,” he says. “I got 100,000 followers from that. People connected so much more. Once I started putting more of myself in it, that’s when things took off in a whole new way.”
Now, Freeman has about 1.5 million followers on TikTok with 82.9 million likes. His videos regularly go viral. About a year into building his social media presence, he got a message from book agent Stephanie Winter, asking, “Have you ever thought about making a cookbook?”
Freeman went to work on a proposal, which was accepted by DK Publishing. The next few months, Freeman spent developing recipes and transcribing all of the details. Soon, he had chapters dedicated to pasta shapes, sauces, and fillings.
Danny Loves Pasta hit shelves last June. A book tour followed, taking Freeman from Chicago to Los Angeles and to the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, where he used to go as a kid growing up in nearby Voorheesville. A kick-off event was held at Little King, a design store in Beacon, where Freeman has been living since 2021.
Freeman’s newfound fame has landed him on the Rachel Ray and Kelly Clarkson Shows. “I’ve had all these amazing opportunities,” he says. When his lasagna soup—a deconstructed one-pot-take with marinara, broken pasta, and ground beef—recently made the New York Times’ “Will it Soup?” column, thousands of home chefs tagged Freeman in their own social media posts as they attempted the recipe (which he originally shared at the request of none other than Grammy-winning artist SZA).
The interaction with fans is a feeling that never gets old, Freeman explains. The community of followers and fans makes all that time alone in his kitchen, perfecting recipes and editing videos, not so lonely after all. “One of the best parts is when people send me pictures of when they make pasta,” he says, “whether it’s the first time ever making it or they’re trying different shapes.”
One of his online fans is New Paltz resident Lindsey Mangeri, who maintains the Hudson Valley food page @imstillhungrythough on Instagram. About two years ago, Freeman popped up as a profile who might interest her.
“I noticed he was local,” Mangeri says. “I saw what he was doing, and I thought it was pretty incredible. I started following him.” She finds his ability to incorporate pop culture into pasta especially endearing. “It’s everything from a Taylor Swift album cover to cute characters like Bluey and Peppa Pig,” she says. “He takes things that are of the moment—and he absolutely nails it too.”
Pasta Dad
Freeman went full-time with his pasta in 2021. These days, he splits his time between making videos for YouTube and TikTok and taking care of his now two daughters, aged three years and six months. “It’s either a work day or a family day,” he says.
His husband remains his constant support. “He helps with the kids, he gives me ideas,” Freeman says. “And I have to say, he’s also the one cleaning the dishes when I’m done. I couldn’t do it without him.”
The couple has laid down roots in Beacon, which Freeman says is full of foodie delights. He counts the Palace Dumpling, Brother’s Trattoria, Meyer’s Olde Dutch, Kitchen Sink Supper Club, and Matcha Thomas among his favorites.
“We live in a neighborhood with lots of sidewalks,” Freeman says. “We can walk to Main Street, go to the farmers’ market and shops. You run into people you know. It’s a very friendly community, and it’s been really welcoming. It’s going to be a great place for my kids to grow up. It’s just a really nice place to call home.”
Follow @dannylovespasta on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Freeman is currently working on a website, where he will be able delve deeper into recipes than social media allows. He is also dreaming up his next cookbook, which he plans to revolve around other facets of Italian-American cuisine.
Freeman is grateful for the twists of fate that brought him to a totally different type of career, one that allows him more time with his family. He wants to keep his grandmother’s memory alive—and make new traditions for his kids. “Food is a big part of that,” he says. “How do I create memories my daughters will cherish?”
