Lidia Bastianich

Television host, author, and restaurateur
Queens, New York

Roots are important to chef Lidia Bastianich. In the summer, at

her home in Queens, New York, Bastianich grows basil, peppers,

eggplant, and tomatoes right in front of her house. The roots of

these plants echo the roots of the plants her grandmother

cultivated in Italy. “Everyone in Italy has a garden,” she tells me.

“You feel naked without it.”

Family, and the rootedness it provides, is also important to

Bastianich. On her TV show, you can regularly see her children

and grandchildren assisting her in the kitchen. On the day that we

cook together, we’re joined by Bastianich’s mother (whom

everyone calls Nona); her daughter, Tanya; and her grandchildren,

Lorenzo and Julia. Everyone congregates in the kitchen, where

Bastianich holds court.

“I love what I do,” she tells me as we begin prepping the first

dish. “I have fun.”

That first dish, Mussels and Clams Triestina, illustrates quite

clearly how Bastianich’s roots inform her cooking. “I’ve been

eating mussels ever since I can remember,” she tells me. “I’d go to

the sea as a child, and mussels would grow on the rocks or the

wood right there in the Adriatic.”