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.
Lidia Bastianich
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.
Food feeds our souls. It is the single great unifier across all cultures. The table offers a sanctuary and a place to come together for unity and understanding.
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.
When I say, 'Everybody to the table and eat,' I mean it. That is the glue, the center that holds the family, that gives security. Good food brings everybody to the table.
The Caprese salad perfectly represents the colors of the Italian flag. While I am not so sure that the colors of the flag stem from the cuisine, there is no denying that those colors do evoke a typical Italian plate.
Make your refrigerator or freezer like a treasure chest.
It's in the nature of Italians to live life with a positive tone and to celebrate the invitations that come along in life. Italian food is so conducive to all of that.
The service of food is to nurture, to please, to nourish.
If you're like me, food is a medium for communication. It's an expression of love and affection.
Italian food really reflects the people. It reflects like a prism that fragments into regions.
Italians are very conscious of what they eat, how they eat, and its digestion.
I think a ricotta cheesecake is very easy to make.
Cooking is good therapy for me.
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.
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.
As a chef, I feel that it is my duty to make the most of what the earth gives us.
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.
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.
Vin brule is a version of mulled wine enjoyed in Piemonte, in northwestern Italy. It's a perfect choice for holiday entertaining because you can double or even triple the recipe and leave it over very low heat, ladling it out as your guests come in from the cold.
I love making apple strudel.
Food is the common language for all of us.
Everybody can cook. You don't have to do anything fancy. You can do a nice antipasto spread with sardines, anchovies, some meats, marinated vegetables, fruits, cheese, nuts, and crackers.
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.
When you sit down to eat at a table, you are ready to take in nourishment - we all need to eat to live. Even in primal tribes, people ate together. It's the opening for friendship.
Holidays - any holiday - are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together.
Food is kind of my entry card into everything. Food kind of opens the doors... because food is peace. It's good; it's positive.
Food is culture. Food is an identity, a footprint of who you are.
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.
You can freeze a nice sponge cake and then have a strawberry shortcake any time.
I think Chicago's a great city. Like New York, it's full of energy.
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.
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.
That's the beauty of risotto. You can make it any flavor you want. It's a great carrier.
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.
America has many cultures which makes it great, but it's difficult to create one strong identity.
Cooking for somebody is very personal.
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.
What I do is my life, but it's not like I spend 18 hours a day, seven days a week in the restaurants.
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.
I just love engaging a live audience - I love that.
Kids today are really so alienated from the source of food. If they are going to nourish themselves properly, if they are going to safeguard this environment we have and the economy that goes with it and world hunger that goes with it, they need to know about food.
I am a transporter of the Italian culture - culinary culture, family culture - because I love it, I thrive in it, and I think it's the right way.
Eating well, being around the table with the family or friends or relatives - it doesn't get any better.
Whether you talk about the olive oil, whether you talk about Aceto Balsamico, whether you talk about Grana Padano, whether you talk about Mozzarella di Bufala. These are all traditional Italian products that are hard to beat, and they're easy to transport and buy. You don't have to do much around it. Just eat them.
I think people make it too systematic in a way, like it's a chemistry formula. Food is not like that; food is very forgiving. Connecting and making do with a lot of the food elements can be fun and exciting.
Choose recipes like a base recipe; make a big pot of soup and freeze it. From then on, you can take it in any direction. Another day put rice in it, or then put corn or sausages. From there, it's endless.
I am blessed that the food business is good for me. Good to me.
I see how people connect with me on different level through my show, how they want to transport what I cook into their home kitchens for their own families. It's my responsibility to always make sure that is quality.
Don't accept what a grocery store has for you. Tell the store to get you want you want. If you want honey from a local farmer, organic honey, you tell them. We are in control. It's up to us as the consumer to get what we want.
