Lidia Bastianich

It's by far the ingredients. Although we do have great artichokes now here in the U.S., I must say that I've never tasted anything like the traditional Roman artichoke. It's the land. Italy has always had such a great selection of fresh produce, meat and other products. But America is getting better and better everyday. In fact, there are some products that we use in the restaurants that our Italian chefs claim are actually even better and more flavorful than what you find in Italy.

I'm certainly not happy about conflict in other parts of the world. But I enjoy travel and learning about new cultures, and food is such an important part of understanding foreign cultures.

The first diishes that were created at Buonavia, the restaurant I opened in Forest Hills, NY were Italian American since that's what we thought the customers were hoping to eat. However, I was always going through the dining room, asking the customers to taste some of the traditional dishes from Istria--where I came from. Now at our restaurants, we serve traditional Italian food, presented in a simple and innovative way. The presentation is by far simpler than in the past.

I have always told all of my customers and viewers that 50% of a dish is a result of its ingredients. Technique is obviously important (as is practice) but you can create so many wonderful dishes by making sure that your products are authentic and fresh.

I think that all American female chefs who have been classically trained have as much of a chance in the culinary world as the ones who prepare ethnic foods. It's all about professionalism, passion, and determination about what you do.

I remember making gnocchi with my grandmother; it's the most vivid memory that I have. And it was by my far my favorite thing to do and favorite thing to eat.

I actually have Executive Chefs at all of the restaurants who plan the menus, but we are always meeting, discussing and tasting new dishes. I love being a mentor to young people, and I'm so luck to have such talented ones working for me.

Italians love innards; in Sicily they eat milza or spleen sandwiches. In Rome, they eat oxtail and pajata which is beef or veal intestine often served with rigatoni. In Tuscany, lampredotto and tripe are favorites. We try to serve some of these dishes at Felidia, but it's still hard for Americans to fall in love with them.

I love Thai food. It's spicy and flavorful and so different from my native cuisine. If I go out to dinner, I go for Thai.

Caprese salad is always a favorite with tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. I love rice salads in the summer too. A whole grilled branzino or sea bass is perfect for a main course since it's always so fresh and light. For dessert, I love white peach, blueberry and Prosecco soup.

One of my favorite recent experiences was in Piedmont at Ciau del Tornavento with Chef Mauriglio. Its in Treiso just above Neive. San Marco in Cannelli is also doing interesting things. The chef is Mariuccia.

Not over working it is at the base of this simplistic dish but with it comes the difficulty of treating each ingredient properly. You can't over cook the clams, and they need to be the freshest possible. The oil needs to be at its best, and you can't overheat it. And it's very important that you don't burn the garlic. To keep it all juicy, do not underestimate the cooking pasta water. Add a little bit to the mix.

I cook at home all the time and I enjoy it. It's not work for me. When I have my family around me and they enjoy the food, I cook. cooking is not really work for me unless I get in the kitchen with a full restaurant outside waiting.

Some of my most memorable egg dishes (beyond frittatas and especially the frittata with the foraged wild asparagus which I still go back every year to Italy to experience). I'd like to share with you one of my favorites--that my grandmother used to make for me--was fried potatoes with an egg dropped in the middle of them. It's on page 279 in Lidia's Italian American Kitchen. Or I love my "uovo al purgatorio" which you can access on my website, www.lidiasitaly.com under the recipe/appetizer section.

Yes, I feel that the chef needs to be truly involved in the development and design of a kitchen with the architects. Their sense of function and space needs to be guided by the residing chef and the food that he/she cooks.

I think that one of the greatest assets that you can arm you children with is an essential awareness to food. Food gives sensual, gustatory and emotional enjoyment. It is a form of nourishment, social communication and allows you to connect with others. IT's a form of education in topography, geography and culture. I, for example, begin with my grandchildren when they are one month old by cracking herbs under the noses. This way I'm beginning to fulfill their sensual memory with the wonderful smells of food. I have four grandchildren--three by Joe and one by Tanya. They are from 7 months to 4 years of age.

Tuscany has been a region enjoyed by the Brits since the 1800s and somewhat before. Therefore, Tuscany had a head start. But, there's another 19 regions of Italy that are all different, unique and wonderful that are all surfacing slowly. Sicily is a perfect example with its wonderful Byzantine art and architecuture and wonderful wines and Marsalas and the intense foods like bottarga and capers in addition to their oils. Friuli Venezia Giulia, the region that I come from, is surfacing through its whites, cheeses, grappas and its very unique herbal cuisine in the spring. Piedmont of course, with its powerhouse of red Nebbiolos and Barolos and with its white truffles is an experience which is optimal in the fall and brings many travelers to the area. So the regions of Italy are being discovered, although there is still much more to be discovered!

Yes, at Felidia, Becco, Babbo and the other restaurants, we cure our guanciale. And that is the single most important ingredient next to good San Marzano tomatoes in the "amatriciana." I would say the rest is in the technique and simplicity in cooking. Guanciale is not readily available in New York, or for that matter in the U.S., but the ethnic butcher shop you are talking about on 28th Street does make a good guanciale. Try following the recipe in Lidia's Italian American Kitchen on page 137, in which I have indicated the use of pancetta since it's difficult finding guanciale. Let me know how that works.

I like a kitchen cluttered with equipment--so I can stir all kinds of stuff. But I could cook out of a few pots, and those are: -A tall pot to cook pasta, soup or stock -A rondo, sort of braising pot to cook braised meats or sauce -Saute' pan to make quick saute's and frittatas -Cast iron skillet -Heavy bottom pot to cook risotto or polenta

All I know is that by repeated polls taken by the National Restaurant Association, Italian restaurants are the number one ethnic cuisine followed by the Chinese, Mexican and French (in that order). Certainly, the French deserve credit for packaging "the experience of restaurant eating." But I think that Italian cuisine has come another route--through a more simplistic and traditional venue and has infiltrated the American fabric on a rudimentary level and is very much part of "America." Every American has an Italian American food story that they can relate to as part of their growing up. Yes, you could say that French restaurants were the foreleaders in the ultime dining experience. But the true Italian restaurant experience is certainly has certainly entered the America mainstream.

Lidia's Kansas City and Lidia's Pittsburgh are doing very well in the "non big-league cities" as you call them; that's the precisely the point. There was an under serviced market of the product that we offered; hence, it made business sense. Both cities are mid sized cities and are vibrant economically and culturall on the comeback, and those are some of the criteria that we used in selecting cities that would be ready for our products. In both cities, we were greeted with excitement--financially and within the media.

Worms in cheese is a specialty in different regions of Italy. I remember as a child being a spectator (not a participant) of an Aunt who loved cheeses with worms. She would cut the cheese open, collect the worms with a piece of bread and enjoy it with the cheese. It's not a very common practice--especially in the Western world, but the philosophy is that the worms are born within the cheese and are therefore a part of the cheese. It's one of the same. I think that we can all appreciate mold in cheese which is a living organism, but when we see actual worms, we get somewhat squeamish. I don't know how quickly this fad will grow but it has been practiced for centuries

Italy boasts one of the diversified wine repertoires in the world. Therefore, there is the problem of choice, but I think that for a weeknight dinner red, a medium bodied red such as a Tuscan Chianti, a Montepulciano d' Abruzzo, a Dolcetto or Nebbiolo from Piedmont, a Nero d'Avola (an indigeneous varietal from Sicily and the South of Italy) or the Taurisis from Campania are all wines that have lots of body, flavor and complexity and certainly marry very well with Italian food.

And one other thing.... Italian American cooking is the cuisine of adaptation of the early Italian immigrants to America in the late 1800s. (of which perhaps the French were much fewer). Coming to America, the availability of many Italian products was non existent; therefore the adaptation of their rich Italian culinary tradition made with American ingredients yielded quite different results with many substitutions and adaptations along the way. For example the Sunday sauce cooked in Campania, especially in the city of Naples, is basically a sauce made of olive oil, fresh San Marzano tomatoes and a pork shoulder with some onions as a base. The Italian American version has lots of garlic, longer cooking times, some sugar, lots of dry herbs to bring forth the lack of flavor that the American tomatoes had. In the end, the outcome is one of America's favorite cuisines--the Italian American cuisine--an excellent and very valid cuisine but a different one from what you find in Italy today.

Thank you for such a good question. The strongpoint of the Italian restaurants and food is its diversity and the gustatory experiences. Italian food makes nutritional sense and gives great pleasure enjoyment. It is fresh in most cases and is not elaborated food; it uses mostly natural products and has a great repertoire of traditional ingredients which are the base of its cuisine--such as Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, the selection of extra virgin olive oils, etc. Italian cuisine at its best is simplicity in the kitchen, and simplicity is one of the most difficult things to execute. And sometimes I find that the execution is where the faults lie in Italian cuisine in the U.S. Italian restaurants in the U.S. are coming ever closer to the real Italian experience due to the availability of the traditional ingredients and great produce in the U.S. However, the execution of the dishes by the individual chefs determine the actual dish, and it's inevitably determined by their familiarity with the authentic cuisine and the culture.