Top 101 Quotes & Sayings by Lidia Bastianich - Page 2

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I cherish my beautiful Italian heritage.

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.

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.

That's the beauty of risotto. You can make it any flavor you want. It's a great carrier.

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.

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

Cooking is good therapy for me.

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.

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

Food is the common language for all of us.

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

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.

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.

Nature recharges me.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

I love making apple strudel.

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

Today's innovation is tomorrow's tradition.

Lambruscos have been misrepresented by industrial versions that have the soda pop flavor they think Americans want.