Specs
Current gig Host of Season 4 of public TV series Lidia's Kitchen
Previous gig Chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, host of Lidia's Italy
Age 69
Twitter: @lidiabastianich
Adweek: Your show, Lidia's Kitchen, doesn't feel manufactured. It feels about as honest as a chef can be about his or her cooking environment.
Lidia Bastianich: I'll tell you exactly how we develop a show. There's a book always that comes first and a book usually takes two years. The first year you gather all the recipes, you adjust them, you fix them, you make them and then you test them all. And then the second year I test the book, take photography. But also in the second year, once I have the format of the book, the shows evolve from that—they are kind of a companion book. It gives people an opportunity to watch me, to listen to me and then to follow me in the book. Because, for me it's important that I teach. It's important that when the viewer gives me half an hour of their time—that's precious time—I owe them something. They need to learn something. They need to take something away from it. With that in mind, I structure the shows. It's 26 weeks, one show every week on PBS, which reruns them. And then the next season, I'll do the other 26.
How do you involve your family and home and garden in the show?
The last three years we [have] not [been] in the studio but we are in a kitchen showroom where we film. [Back] when we shot at home , to do 26 episodes it was about three, four weeks almost before you load in, load out and clean up and get ready. And it was getting too much for my mother [Erminia Motika] now, who's 96, so that's why we moved away. But we started in my home. And I'll tell you also why: When people connect to it, they connect very much on the family level, on the children, on Grandma. She's more popular than I am—she gets more hits [on social media]. It seems that a lot of people out there that either have lost their mom or their grandmother or whatever, she becomes their surrogate in a way. They feel part of the family, and I love that.
Talk about how you started.
I decided to open [her first Manhattan restaurant] Felidia in 1981. Everybody was interested, and they said, "What kind of Italian food is this?" So Julia Child and I, we became friends. She wanted me to teach her how to make risotto. So she came over to the house, and we developed a friendship through food. And she asked me to come on her show [in 1993]. We did two [episodes] and, you know, I was very comfortable because by then I had got to know her. And it was nominated for an Emmy. The producer came and said, "Lidia, you're pretty good. How about a show of your own?" And so Julia encouraged me: "You do for Italian food what I did for French." And that's how I began. I wanted to be on PBS because I think that was a great platform because she was there.
You have a robust social media presence (79,000 Instagram, 34,000 Twitter and 393,000 Facebook). How much are you personally involved in that?
I love for [fans] to know what I'm involved in because I have a lot of business causes. But I also have a lot of altruistic events that I get involved in—fundraising, benefits. And whenever I'm in their city or I travel, I want them to know. I enjoy it. And I must say that between my daughter and the office and the grandkids … when I have problems, I ask them.
What are the main differences in the show today?
People have become much more interactive, you know, and we have too. We set up our internet questions [#askLidia] before doing the show—what would you like to know from Lidia? We get many questions. And then I choose one and we'll respond. What also is in this new series is we have master classes. Within each episode I will stop and I will talk directly to the camera, so I kind of repeat the most important lesson [of the episode].
What would the criteria be for selecting the underwriters for your show?
I develop trust and I think it's the most important to my growth. If my restaurants are always full and my books sell, it's this trust. And I feel so committed that whether I'm on television or whether it's in the book, that that recipe works. I need to give them all the options to make it successful. I need to carry it through in whatever I do. Because once you lose the viewers, you know … So I kind of screen the [underwriters] for them, if you will, through what I tell them, what I do. And that's how we develop that relationship.
You've chosen to stay with public TV when other media have tried to get you to join them. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Well, I want a serious, intelligent educational platform. I'm not an entertainer—that's not what I do. I want to teach viewers, I want to show them. I want to share my culture. Also, everybody can see PBS, I think. My viewership is something like 50 million people a year. No matter what economical strata you're in, you have PBS. And I want to communicate in a democratic, not selective way.
Any favorite experiences with other chefs?
I cooked for the two Popes that were here. Pope Francis I cooked for and Pope Benedict before him. Pope Benedict is German. And I did a little research—his mother was a chef. I come from the northeast of Italy and we have borders with the Slavic [and] the Germanic—and I can make schnitzel and cook with sauerkraut. So for him I made sauerkraut, I made goulash, I made apple strudel. And he loved it. For Pope Francis I thought I'm going to do a nice big meat. But the doctors from the Vatican said no, he needs to watch it. So I reverted to risotto and I made some fish—striped bass was running good at the time. Lots of vegetables—he likes vegetables. He had a good time.
Is it difficult sitting down and eating with a Pope?
Well, I actually just cooked for him.
You didn't have a chance to then sit down and enjoy the meal once you cooked?
No, no. But he came into the kitchen, we had coffee together. He wanted bananas and water [at night] and I put some cookies by his bedside.
This story first appeared in the November 14, 2016 issue of Adweek magazine.
