In the Kitchen: Italian Cooking with Lidia Bastianich

In the Kitchen: Italian Cooking with Lidia Bastianich
By Fabiana Santana for Singlemindedwomen.com

It may just be pasta to you, but to Lidia Bastianich, this simple starch is life.

Lidia immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 12 and eventually settled with her family near Queens, New York. To help out financially, then 14-year-old Lidia took a job at a bakery called Walken’s Bakery, owned by the parents of actor Christopher Walken.

Fast forward 48 years and Lidia has created a culinary empire that includes six restaurants, a television production company, specialty foods and award-winning wines, and an exclusive travel company that customizes Italian travel incorporating gastronomy and Italian art history.

It can easily be said that Lidia helped food TV get to where it is now. She started on PBS in 1998, five years after cooking with Julia Child on her PBS series. Her show Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen was an instant hit and she has been a staple on the network ever since. Her success in food seems a natural progression.

“I always knew I was comfortable with food and with being in the kitchen.” And the critically acclaimed chef also always knew that food would be where her career would lead.

A natural cook early on, she helped her maternal grandmother make gnocchi and pasta when she was a small child and hopes that her recipes bring a bit of her Italy to you, especially with her latest PBS series and book, Lidia’s Italy.

“It is a personal journey for me. And the Italy I show is an Italy that is not well known to everyone,” she explains.

“In the 35 years I have been in restaurants, television and books it is the thrust of what I do, to bring Italy to the American table, the American kitchen and American television.”

Her passion does not stop at the table though. In this series – which is running in its third season – she really wants the beauty of Italy to shine, too. “Understanding food, wine and art is really understanding Italy.”

So she brings it all to you.

Lidia takes viewers and readers on a gastronomic tour of Italy via short videos of her visits there for the show and with photos from the trips for the companion cookbook. And with the help of her daughter Tanya, an Italian Renaissance Art historian, Lidia introduces you not only to the cuisine but to the culture of Italy through art and architecture. Then it’s back to the kitchen to bring those trip’s memories to life again through food.

But it doesn’t end there, either. Because, according to Lidia, it is not the food that makes the meal, but the people who join around the table who really bring it to life.

And to get them there, just use her signature line: “Tutti a tavola a mangiare!”

Get a recipe for warm potato salad from Lidia here and many more at Lidiasitaly.com.