Gathering figs in an Italian courtyard garden when she was 7 years old, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich never dreamed she’d become an Emmy award-winning public television cooking show host, a best-selling author of Italian cookbooks, a restaurateur and owner of a production company, all in the United States.
“I didn’t have a master plan,” said Bastianich, who will share intimate stories and cooking secrets when she comes to Genesee Theatre on Friday.
What she did most likely have that propelled her to where she is today is an interesting story, opportunities and helpful, supportive family members, she said.
And she had a grandmother who knew how to cook.
“My grandmother was the genesis of my connection and passion to food,” said Bastianich from her New York home, just a short walk away from where her daughter, Tanya Bastianich Manuali lives. Manuali is the co-author of Bastianich’s cookbooks.
Bastianich said she was born in Italy, but after World War II, that area became part of Yugoslavia, and today is now Croatia.
“We got caught behind the Iron Curtain. The communists didn’t let you speak Italian or go to church,” she said.
Before her teenage years, Bastianich and her family escaped to another part of Italy; her father soon followed. But she never forgot what her grandmother taught her about cooking and family.
At her grandmother’s house, “we made prosciutto. We were self-sufficient. We made our own olive oil. We grew our own beans.
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“Food was my connection to my grandmother — I would cook and reminisce. My passion for food came from my longing to go back to Grandmother.”
Bastianich brought that passion with her when the family moved to the United States, which she calls her adopted country.
She continued cooking as her grandmother and mother did, sharing that knowledge with her children and now her grandchildren. She began sharing those skills with the world when she opened a restaurant with encouragement from her husband. What followed were cooking TV shows and best-selling cookbooks.
With her fans, Bastianich shares some of her grandmother’s secrets — not necessarily always about how to cook — but also how to be frugal, for example, saving the peels from the potatoes to feed the pigs or for compost, she said.
“My grandmother taught me the seasonality of food,” she said. “She lived with the rhythms of nature. That’s the way we should live. Why do we need raspberries in January flown from Chile? In Italy, we had figs in the winter time when they were nice and ripe. I remember going out to collect them and dry them in the sun.”
Her newest book, “Lidia’s Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine,” co-authored with her daughter and released in October, “is really a very personal book. It represents my voyage and my connection with the American public, and it’s about my philosophy. The first 65 pages is all prose.”
The book features more than 400 recipes, including regional dishes from Italy and Italian-American cuisine, she said.
She gives detailed tips on purchasing and cooking with Italian meats, vegetables and other foods. For example, “Americans don’t know how to approach artichokes,” she said. So she explains how and when to buy artichokes, how to store them, how to remove the outer leaves and ways to cook these vegetables.
Bastianich said Italian cuisine is the No. 1 ethnic food in America.
“I think it’s that way all over the world,” she added.
“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.”
And it does not have to be difficult, she said. Homemade pasta is simple to make, she said, but dried pasta is perfectly fine, too.
“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,” she said. “Then you’ve got yourself a complete meal. The whole thing shouldn’t take more than half an hour.”
But, then there’s the Bolognese sauce, which takes a bit longer. She suggests busy Americans pick a weekend to cook a big batch of the sauce and freeze it for later use.
Her favorite easy dish is spaghetti with clam sauce, and her favorite more time-consuming Italian dish is homemade spinach pasta with a Bolognese sauce.
Bastianich said she’s enjoying the recent American trend of restaurants getting foods from local farmers, what’s called the farm-to-table movement.
“We did that way back when I was growing up. I love it,” she said. “Chefs today now have direct contact with farmers.”
Bastianich said, “Cooking food should be a central part of our lives. It is the social and emotional binder — getting people at the table together. Food is a conduit for many messages. It’s so important for the children, for us, for our well-being.”
Besides writing cookbooks and appearing on her TV show, Bastianich also is the chef/owner of four New York City restaurants as well as Lidia’s Pittsburgh and Lidia’s Kansas City. Along with her son, Joe Bastianich and others, she opened Eataly, an artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in New York City, Chicago and Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Bill Daley of the baiduhai will serve as guest moderator when Bastianich comes to Genesee Theatre. The audience can ask questions about Bastianich’s life as well as about cooking tips and advice on Italian cuisine. A special $75 VIP package is available that offers best seats in the house and a pre-signed copy of Bastianich’s book, “Everything You Need to Know to be a Great Italian Cook.”
An Intimate Conversation with Lidia Bastianich
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $37.50 for show only, or $75, for a seat plus pre-signed copy of “Everything You Need To Know To Be A Great Italian Cook”
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www.geneseetheatre.com