Lidia Bastianich

Italian food really reflects the people. It reflects like a prism that fragments into regions.

I love telling stories. You know why I love it? Because people love listening.

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.

Food is all about the story of a people through the ages.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You can freeze a nice sponge cake and then have a strawberry shortcake any time.

When you are the host, you have to take the party into your hands like a conductor.

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.

My grandmother had a courtyard of animals, like goats and chickens. She made ricotta cheese, cooked with potatoes warm from the garden, grew everything from beans to wheat. It was simple, seasonal food, and we all ate what was produced 10 miles from where we lived. It was that way for centuries.

America has many cultures which makes it great, but it's difficult to create one strong identity.

I cherish my beautiful Italian heritage.

I think traditions change and modify with each generation. With new members joining the family, their customs and traditions have to be respected and combined with the exiting traditions. And the children that follow are part of that new evolving tradition and, as they grow, will have input that will, in turn, continue to evolve that tradition.

Traditions are our roots and a profile of who we are as individuals and who we are as a family. They are our roots, which give us stability and a sense of belonging - they ground us.

Make gifts meaningful by putting the time in creating them, whether baking and cooking, or in making arts and craft. It will all have more meaning for the giver and receiver.

Telling my grandchildren stories of my growing up is some of our favorite times spent together. They want to know what it was like and what I did as a child. They seem to be especially interested in the organic and simplistic setting I grew up in.

I started in the restaurant industry when I was 22, so I've had quite a long tenure, if you will.

The service of food is to nurture, to please, to nourish.

It's important to let children fly on their own. I understood that they needed to create their own life and not be my shadow. Let them make their own decisions, and support them along the way.

Simplicity in preparation is the Italian way. Make easy dishes, and then you can elaborate the final preparation by decorating with vegetables or herbs or adding a dash of olive oil.

Match the right food to the right occasion. Think about what you are celebrating. If you are honoring people, what are their favorite foods? If it is a holiday, what is the food for it? When you give an identity to the party, people appreciate that.

As a chef, I feel that it is my duty to make the most of what the earth gives us.

You should just feel comfortable with food and your own culinary culture, whatever your mother and grandmother know.

Cooking is good therapy for me.

Italian food is seasonal. It is simple. It is nutritionally sound. It is flavorful. It is colorful. It's all the things that make for a good eating experience, and it's good for you.

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.

My grandmother taught me the seasonality of food. She lived with the rhythms of nature. That's the way we should live. Why do we need raspberries in January flown from Chile?

My grandmother was the genesis of my connection and passion to food.

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.

I think that lunch is one of the most enjoyable and important things in the day. But you need to create the space and the time to do just that. And in Italy, we do that.

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.

We had our wheat. We made our own olive oil. We made our wine. We had chickens, ducks; we had sheep, cows, milk. So I was raised in a very simple situation but understanding really food from the ground... the essence of food and the flavors. And those memories I took with me, and I think that they lingered on.

I am the perfect example that if you give somebody a chance, especially here in the United States, one can find the way.

The food of a country is my story. It is a small story, but people relate so much to it. I want to share that, but also the idea of bringing people and family together.

I had my first child at 21, my first restaurant at 24.

Nature recharges me.

Julia Child came to my house and wanted a lesson in making risotto.

Cooking is about the ingredients and responding, but risotto, specifically, is about the technique.

Italy is so influenced by others: couscous in the south, cinnamon in the north because of the Venetian spice trade - I just want to divulge as much information as I can.

Italians are very conscious of what they eat, how they eat, and its digestion.

I love cooking vegan. Anybody can come in any time to any of our restaurants and get a vegan meal or a gluten-free meal as well.

I'm simple in my approach and straightforward. I connect with the average person that is interested in food.

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'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.

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.

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.

My evolution came not as a plan but as opportunities came. People offer them when they see you're doing something well. It's up to you to recognize them, take them, and then dedicate yourself to them.

My success is that I have these two great cultures behind me. One is Italian. I've continued to nurture that. But I also feel very American.