Everyone around him talks and jokes occasionally as they work, but Nick Vaccaro rarely says a word. With single-minded determination, he is folding squares of cannoli dough around forms — by hand, just as his great-grandfather did. By day’s end, he and his employees will have formed about 40,000 cannoli shells, the culmination of a multi-day process. 
“I do this because of my family’s heritage, and for my father,” says Vaccaro, who often works 12- or 14-hour days at his company, Vaccaro’s Desserts in Silver Spring. “Plus, I like being able to set my own path. I don’t like being told what to do.”