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Input: When  Lidia Bastianich  tells you to eat the pasta  you should eat the pasta.
Nearly 20 years ago  thanks to her award-winning PBS shows   Bastianich  became a food star and introduced countless Americans to real Italian cooking  which even then was dominated by ubiquitous red sauce and pasta dishes.  She  credits Julia Child for  her  TV break. After coming to one of  Bastianich âs restaurant  Child âwanted me to teach  her  how to make risotto and then  she  had me on  her  show. The producer then said âyouâre pretty good. How about a show of your own?â And thatâs how it evolved â  she  remembers. Child âencouraged me.  She  said âLidia  you do for Italian cuisine what I do for French.â We remained friends.â
In real life   Bastianich  has a no-nonsense but warm demeanor  which  she  exudes on  her  show. Countless hours spent watching  her  on TV gave me the false sense that we were old friends and at times during our meal  as  she  doted on me  it felt like I had found my long-lost nonna.
âA lot of adults tell me âI watched [the show] since I was a kid with grandma.â You know what that tells me? Itâs been a few years â  she  jokes. âIt pleases me because food is all about bringing people together and relating to each other â  she  adds more seriously.
But even after decades of cooking on TV  running a restaurant empire and helping to start the wildly popular chain of Eataly stores   she  insists that  she  still enjoys cooking at home. In fact   she  just published  her  eleventh book  Lidiaâs Celebrate Like an Italian  which  she  co-wrote with  her  daughter  Tanya Bastianich Manuali  and includes 220 recipes for everything from cocktails to soup to dessert. âI havenât invented one of them â  she  admits. âI modified some. Iâve changed a little bit here and there.â
If anything   she âs too modest and was very concerned about making the recipes as approachable as possible. âI take these recipes and simplify them as much as I can â  she  says  since  she  actually wants the reader to learn them and enjoy using them. While in  her  restaurants  the emphasis is the opposite  itâs âto create that moment that the guest will not be able to do at home.â Most of the dishes at Del Posto certainly would fit into that category. Speaking of which  when I try to get  her  to order more food for  herself   in true grandmother fashion   she  dodges my suggestions and insists âI can talk while you eat.â
While I enjoy a delicious heirloom tomato salad  the aforementioned pasta and perfectly cooked swordfish fillets   she  shares with me  her  familyâs fascinating story of coming to America.  She  was born in Istria  which before World War II was part of Italy  but afterwards became part of communist Yugoslavia.  Her  family fled to Italy and lived in a refugee camp for two years before emigrating to America when  she  was 12. Itâs an experience that  she  thinks a lot about today as the country debates its policies about letting in immigrants. âMost of us are immigrants except for the Indians â  she  says. And for  her  that struggle is personal and one that is wrapped up with being a chef. âFood is all about the story of a people through the ages â  she  reminds me.
When  her  family got to America  she  was in for a surprise. âThe Italian food I didnât recognize it when we first came here â  she  says since it was so different than what  she  had grown up eating.  She  did  however  immediately fall in love with boxed cake mixes that  she  would whip up each night. Catholic Relief Services put them up in a hotel for three weeks when they first arrived and then  her  father found a job and a small apartment in Queens that they moved into.
 She âs reticent to tell me more  since  she âs working on a memoir that should be out next year  which will go into greater detail about  her  familyâs story and  her  rise to culinary stardom. While Iâm a bit disappointed   Bastianich  promises weâll meet next year to discuss  it . I canât wait.

Lunch with Celebrity Chef Lidia Bastianich