When I started out as a cook, I didn’t really have any disposable income, so I couldn’t go to restaurants and sample what the local established chefs were doing. My window to technique and flavors was books and television. A few celebrity-type chefs guided me from afar: Jacques Pepin, Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, Ming Tsai, Mary Ann Esposito, Lidia Bastianich, Nick Stellino, David Chang. If you’re about to chastise me for not mentioning Julia Child, sadly I watched her much earlier than this time I am referring to. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, their own angle on what makes a dish, or a meal, great. (If you notice, almost all of these chefs had shows on PBS; specifically, my local station, PBS Wisconsin, Channel 38.) I would watch these shows and steal flavor combinations, learn the traditional dishes of their ancestry, watch their methods, skills and techniques. I would bring this new knowledge into my home kitchen and my work kitchen.
One chef seemed most accessible to my preferences at the time. I love pasta and I love Italian cuisine. Lidia Bastianich seemed to have a somewhat laid-back attitude, that’s not to say she didn’t have high standards, but that there was a recognition that the home cook will not need perfect technique to make a perfect meal. Her presentation attitude definitely made me feel these dishes were attainable.
Over the years, Lidia has worn many hats in the culinary world. She started in a family-run restaurant in New York and later hosted television shows, wrote numerous cookbooks and has been a judge on televised cooking competitions. To say the Bastianich family has an empire is an understatement. (She even has a restaurant in Kansas City). She’s won awards and created many staples in the culinary world, so we can maybe forgive her for Joe.
Later this year, she will release a new book: Lidia’s From Our Family Table to Yours: More Than 100 Recipes Made With Love for All Occasions: A Cookbook. Coincidentally (wink, wink), she will also be a guest on our Author Talk series in September; you can learn more here. Lidia will preview and chat about her newest cookbook. In this inviting, deeply personal new cookbook, she shares the dishes she cooks for those she loves the most. This is the first book Lidia has written since the death of her mother, Nonna, who was beloved not only by Lidia’s family but also by millions of cookbook and TV fans.
