Dishing With Author, Chef, Restaurateur Lidia Bastianich

As a food and travel writer, I often leave the peaceful streets of NoHo and Toluca Lake to attend events around other areas of Los Angeles.  Sometimes, I am lucky enough to sit down and chat with the very people that inspired me to follow my passion for cooking and food and to become a writer.

I caught up with one of my favorite chefs, Lidia Bastianich, when she was in town hosting a new wine and dinner promotion over the hill at Shutters on the Beach.

A native of Istria, a part of northern Italy that was ceded to Yugoslavia after World War II and is now a part of Croatia, Bastianich immigrated to the US when she was 12 years old. From the time she was a young child, Bastianich helped her Grandma Rosa work in the garden and cook.

“I was always my grandmother’s helper. She was a great cook. That’s what remained in my soul, my connection to who I was always was with food,” said Bastianich.

At the age of 23, she opened her first restaurant, Buonavia Restaurant in Queens. 

“At the time, I wasn’t able to get ingredients that were standard in Italy such as Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Arborio rice,” she said.  “Like many immigrants who came from Italy in the early part of the 20th century, I adapted cooking techniques to fit the products available.”

Bastianich worked as a sous chef for over 10 years, preparing Italian-American dishes. By the time she opened Felidia in 1981, she started incorporating the dishes she grew up with on the menu. One day, James Beard and Julie Child walked into her eatery and changed everything.

“Julia and I had an immediate connection over food,” said Bastianich.

So much so, that Child invited her to be a guest on several episodes of her PBS-TV Master Chef show. Producers liked what they saw and asked her to host her own show.

“My programs aren’t about showing what I can do as a chef. I want people to relate and say ‘I can do that,’” said Bastianich. 

Her business is a family affair, though when she started she emphasized that her two children get an education. Both did. Her son Joseph worked on Wall Street and her daughter Tanya earned a PhD in art history. Both returned to the family business after working in the corporate world. Joseph is now partner in most of her restaurants and runs her winery in Italy, while Tanya helps spearhead her culinary tour business and co-authors many of her mother’s books.

When asked what she thought of the food scene today, Bastianich was glad that home cooks now can find traditional products.  

“Italian food is getting very regional,” said Bastianich. “Now it is much easier to duplicate recipes and showcase a variety of a food from the many different parts of Italy ... Food has become its own form of entertainment. Along the way, I think the positive aspect is that it brings cooking into more households and viewers can now be inspired to experiment in the kitchen,” she said.

Bastianich owns six restaurants, four in New York and others in Pittsburgh and Kansas City. Her cookbooks include Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy and Lidia’s Italy, both companion books to her Emmy-nominated television series, Lidia’s Italy as well as Lidia’s Family Table, Lidia’s Italian American Kitchen, Lidia’s Italian Table and La Cucina di Lidia. Together with her son, Joseph, she produces award-winning wines at their Bastianich Vineyards in Fruili in Italy. Diners who want to taste her wine can visit Shutters on the Beach this summer and enjoy a three-course wine and food pairing featuring seasonal ingredients. 

What does Bastianich like to cook when she is at home with her family? Simple pasta. 

“I like using seasonal ingredients to create a pasta with fresh tomatoes and garlic.” 

Diners can taste the three course Summer of Bastianich with paired wines at Shutters Coast restaurant for the next three months.

Perhaps the single most important quality that Lidia shares is her belief that it’s not only the food on the table that makes the meal, it’s the people who join around the table who bring the meal to life.