Lidia Bastianich Quotes
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If I'm not tasting wine and food... I'm thinking about wine and food. If I'm not thinking about wine and food... I'm writing about wine and food.
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I found great rewards in cooking a dish and feeding it to someone. It was a means of communicating. I was giving part of my talent or my gift and sharing it with somebody, making somebody happy. And it gave a lot back to me, and I wanted to do more and more.
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What I continuously remember is when I was a child in the courtyard with my grandmother and we milked the goat and we made the ricotta. The still-warm ricotta from our goat, on top of a piece of bread, and we used to sprinkle just a little bit of honey or sugar on it. That flavor, that stays in my memory.
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Physically, women have some challenges in the kitchen, like lifting heavy pots on and off the stove. You learn to adapt; you learn to find a way. But the biggest challenge for women in this industry is how to balance a family with such a demanding career.
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I'm simple in my approach and straightforward. I connect with the average person that is interested in food.
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Julia Child came to my house and wanted a lesson in making risotto.
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Eating is something we all have to do. When we sit down at the table, we nurture ourselves, and hence, all our resistance goes away. We are open to receiving good and taking it in with gusto and pleasure.
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There is a history to Italian food that goes back thousands of years, and there's a basic value of respecting food. America is young and doesn't have that.
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I love telling stories. You know why I love it? Because people love listening.
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The service of food is to nurture, to please, to nourish.
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I think Chicago's a great city. Like New York, it's full of energy.
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A box of spaghetti can take seven minutes to cook, and you can make a sauce at that time with perhaps garlic, olive oil, and zucchini. Then you've got yourself a complete meal. The whole thing shouldn't take more than half an hour.
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I'll get home from work on Friday night and take out some beans and soak them. The next morning, I'll put them in a pot for soup, then just keep chopping, chopping, chopping - carrots and celery and cabbage - and in two or three hours, you have this wonderful, mellow soup that fills up the whole house with its aroma.
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There's a great need to convene at the table with family and friends. People are feeling it and wanting it. For me to be a minor player in helping with that, it makes me so happy.
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If you're like me, food is a medium for communication. It's an expression of love and affection.
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When you are the host, you have to take the party into your hands like a conductor.
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That's the beauty of risotto. You can make it any flavor you want. It's a great carrier.
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If we don't focus on when we eat - like, let's say we watch television or something - you eat much more. If you focus on the food - you smell it, you cook it - you're enjoying it already.
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The filming happens in my home, and I cook like I do at home, on my home stove with my house pots and so on. That's who I am. I am very true to my real profile.
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The best things - when I really feel that I'm communicating, and when I really feel that people are getting it - are simple, straightforward recipes. I think simple is the hardest to achieve because you don't have all those elements to hide behind.
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In 1981, we opened Felidia, and the newspapers, the city papers, the big timers came, and I got invited on the 'Today Show' and so on. A lot of food luminaries would come to Felidia - Julia Child, James Beard, they all came.
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What I learned being a young child was respect for food. Don't throw anything away.
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Cooking is about the ingredients and responding, but risotto, specifically, is about the technique.
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With the Industrial Revolution, the production of food was delegated to big companies in order for women and men to be in the labour force, to come home, stick something in the oven, and eat. It became a big industry that does not have a love affair with food nor is really concerned about nurturing you or giving you the right nutrition.