The Insta_merican Doughnut
Insta_merican Doughnut

Cartoon doughnuts with outlandish mustaches, colorful hats and whimsical facial expressions greet customers who walk through Glazed & Confused’s eye-catching purple doorway.
âWe designed our store to be the apex of fun,â says Paul Valenti, the shopâs owner who describes the design aesthetic as âgraffiti meets corporate.â Paul, along with his wife, Sarah and their two children, Izabella and Roman, are the heart and soul of the doughnut operation that has been taking the Syracuse community by storm since 2016.
The brain-child of Izabella and Roman, who envisioned a pastry shop similar to one the family would visit during vacations in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Glazed & Confused âs rapid rise as a Salt City staple has propelled the family and their wonderfully unconventional pastries to a level of popularity thatâs exceeded even their wildest expectations.
Doughnuts are a versatile food that have become increasingly popular. 202.8 million Americans consumed doughnuts in 2018, up from the 194.64 million reported in 2017, according to data specialists at Statista. Their evolution stems from a complicatedâ historyââthe French, Russians, and Native Americans all claim to have a stake in their origin. However, the first documented doughnuts in America were Dutch imports from settlers who brought their âolykoeks,â (translation: oily cakes) to New York, then New Amsterdam, in the 1600s. A more formal introduction to doughnuts was subsequently presented in the 1809 domestic manual, The Frugal Housewife, as a âDough Nutâ recipe prompted homemakers to try their hand at fried desserts.
Since then, doughnuts have fallen into a limbo of abstract labels and convoluted interpretations: a dessert thatâs been baked, fried, torched and topped with a garnish of bacon bits to the point of near-unrecognizable lunacy. The word itself, has been shortened into slang by mass-distribution food conglomerates for public convenience. Yet, doughnuts remain some of the most iconic emblems of classic Americana sentiment.
âDoughnuts are symbols of bodily desire and America, both of which figure at heart much of our popular cultural representations of ourselves,â says Dr. Paul R. Mullins, a historical archaeologist and author of Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut. âHomer Simpson responds to desires we all have and wish we could answer to as well. Lots of people overseas see doughnuts as symbols of American foodways, and of course they are good examples of the high carbohydrate, sugar-rich, rapidly consumed foods that are at the heart of American foodways.â
This richness is translated into glossy, hyper-filtered online images that garner hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of likes on social media platforms. The doughnutâs digital age makeover has made them an unlikely object of foodie fan-fare, with social media users flocking to snap pictures of the edible creations, hoping to provoke digital envy.
âIf it wasnât for Instagram I donât know if we would be here today,â said Leslie Polizzotto, co-founder of The Doughnut Project. In New York City, Polizzottoâs âproject,â has grown a cult-following and massive success with its uncanny flavors and aesthetically pleasing culinary presentations.
A former full-time lawyer, Polizzotto, along with her business partner Troy Neal, envisioned a pastry shop that would celebrate unexpected and unorthodox flavor marriages. The pair, who have successfully opened two locations in Manhattan, are known for using unmatched, restaurant quality ingredients like its house-made blackberry jam and even a bone marrow-infused chocolate pastry cream. Much-loved menu standouts include a vibrant beet and ricotta doughnut inspired by a savory beet salad and a distinct olive oil black pepper doughnut simulating fresh bread dipped in warm olive oil.

It wasnât long after Polizzotto and Neal opened their first story that their social media presence grew astronomically. âWhen we started, we had 700 followers and today we have 105,000 followersâââall organic. Every day we have people come in our shop from Australia, Japan, England, Scotland, Chinaâââyou name it,â said Polizzotto.
One of the bakeryâs most popular niches is its collaborations with alcohol brands like Angry Orchard, Patron and Campari. Through experimentation and hoursâââsometimes daysâââof taste tests, the bakery coats fluffy pastries in sinfully sweet, liquor-infused glazes containing an alcohol content in line with FDA guidelines. Eventually, even non-food companies like Adidas and Crayola took notice of the storeâs quickly-growing digital popularity and began requesting their own âprojects.â Through collaboration, the shop is able to translate their clientsâ brand identity into specialty pastries, such as a recent collection of doughnuts glazed in Valspar paint-inspired icing hues including âmink grayâ and âwarm buff.â
But doughnut shop owners arenât the only ones reaping the perks of food-driven social media popularity. In sunny Southern California, Ilya Albert fastens a comically large top hat to his head and buttons up a doughnut emblazoned shirt to transform into his internet persona, âThe Duke of Donuts.”
To his friends, the 30-year-old digital content coordinator at the University of Southern California is a film lover with a penchant for lavish vernacular and all things doughnut-related. In his Instagram bio, the fictional pastry nobleman proudly proclaims himself, âthe cat-in-the-hat, with donuts,â and spends his spare time traveling to local and even national doughnut shops, giving out noble seals-of-approval to these humble establishments.
âWhenever Iâve been to doughnut shops dressed up in the character, people would automatically say, âWhoâs that in the hat? Oh, thatâs the duke,ââ said Albert, 30.
His over 3500 Instagram followers, whom he affectionately refers to as âdonuts and donettes,â include a growing list of California doughnut shop owners like actor Danny Trejo, who opened Trejoâs Coffee & Donuts in Los Angeles last year. For, Albert, who hails from a family of Russian immigrants that relocated to Sacramento, doughnuts illicit childhood nostalgia. He fondly remembers visiting doughnut shops with his grandparents, who would order fresh doughnuts along with coffee for themselves and chocolate milk for their young grandson. Heâs also fascinated by the multiple international doughnut incarnations, from the Israeli Sufganiyah and Armenian Ponchiks to Mexican Churros and Russian Pishkiâââpastries all with fried dough foundations. âI found it interesting that numerous cultures have their own versions, and anywhere you go it can be a common discussion,â he said.
Self-professed food lovers like The Duke of Donuts use Instagram to document their doughnut discoveries and share their findings with mass networks of fellow culinary aficionados.
âEveryone is as sweet as the content that we talk about,â said Albert, who has made several âdoughnut friendsâ through his Instagram.
In Salt Lake City, Utah, Benjamin Lee uses the Instagram pseudonym @donutcritic to promote his love for doughnuts while reaching over 2500 followers. When heâs not at his day job as an Adobe project manager, the 37-year-old father of two seeks out the newest doughnut digs around Salt Lake as well as when traveling with his family.
âPeople are waking up and treating doughnuts as a medium and being able to go in multiple directions with them,â says Lee who cites a blow-torched, sugar-crystallized pina colada donut from Hollywoodâs Gastro Garage as the most unconventional form of the pastry heâs seen. âThere are bigger shops like Krispy Kreme and I feel like they serve a purpose because some people just want really consistent, convenient doughnuts,â he adds. âIâve always felt like thatâs a doughnut of necessity.â
In their Syracuse shop, the Valenti family is serving the freshest desserts to ensure their customers receive the best experience possible.
âWe make doughnuts every 10 minutes all day long, so you never get a doughnut thatâs over 30 minutes old,â says Paul.
Recent famous walk-ins like singer Sam Smith, WWE stars the Bella Twins, and most recently, Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, have also ensured the business’s serious social clout. Nearing 32 thousand Instagram followers and with plans to expand to Rochester and Saratoga Springs in the upcoming year, it wonât be long until other Upstate New Yorkers will be able to experience the Glazed & Confused hype for themselves. Though the Valentis havenât forgotten their humble roots and original business ethos.
âI like to think that the Syracuse community is good to us because they realize weâre good to them,â says Paul, who instilled the decree that the shop would donate 10% of its profits to a local charity and continues to do so. With plans to unveil new Keto doughnuts in addition to serving gluten-free pastries on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the business is making sure to cater to every niche eater.
Though mass-produced doughnut brands like Krispy Kreme and Tim Hortonâs are indeed cashing in on their own niche: convenience. Last year, Dunkinâ brands reported $900 million in sales for Dunkinâ Donuts as well as 313 new storefronts across the United States. In 2015, Dunkinâ Donuts even introduced its own version of French pastry guru Dominique Anselâs highly coveted croissant doughnut hybrid: the cronut.
âWe have seen a resurgence from what we thought a doughnut was to what really a doughnut is,â says Thomas Vaccaro, who currently serves as the Culinary Institute of Americaâs school of baking and pastry arts dean in New York City and has had a 40-year long career as an award-winning pastry chef and baker. âWeâve gotten away from packaged doughnuts that sit on a shelf for three weeks to going to a bakery or cafĂ© to purchase yeast-raised doughnuts made fresh that day.â
At the Culinary Institute of America, Vaccaro is teaching his students the fundamentals in creating delicious desserts and mouth-watering baked goodsâââincluding doughnuts. He notes that several of his students have graduated and gone on to open highly successful small bakeries and pastry shops, catering to the current popularity in freshly baked goods. âI think that people, in all foods, are looking for the best ingredients, the most satisfying for what theyâre purchasing, the best value for what theyâre purchasing, and will pay for good quality,â he says.
Under layers of lemon zest, matcha dust, and sea salt caramel drizzle, doughnuts remain, at their purest, a simple delicacy that unites people, creating a bond stronger than even the thickest glaze. The internet has undeniably transformed the classically nostalgic dessert into an iteration which appeals to a rising generation of foodies and serial Yelpers. At the same time, these consumers speak to Americaâs changing tastes: a new era in which diners are welcoming more complex flavor profiles and seeking higher quality from their food. Doughnuts may be the latest treat swept up in a food-vamping bubble, but as their history indicates, they can stand the test of time.
âThey have been an American delicacy for over 100 years,â says Albert. âItâs been such a continuous tradition I donât think weâll ever let go of it.â