Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich (; born February 21, 1947) is an Italian-American celebrity chef, television host, author, and restaurateur. Specializing in Italian and Italian-American cuisine, Bastianich has been a regular contributor to public television cooking shows since 1998.
In 2014, she launched her fifth television series, Lidia's Kitchen. She owns or has owned several Italian restaurants in the U.S. in partnership with her daughter Tanya Bastianich Manuali and her son Joe Bastianich, including Felidia (founded with her ex-husband, Felice), Del Posto (closed and sold in 2021), and Becco in Manhattan; Lidia's Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh (closed in 2019); and Lidia's Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri. She also is a partner in Eataly locations in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, Dallas, and São Paulo, Brazil.
Early life
Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich was born on February 21, 1947, in Pola, Istria, just before the city was assigned to Yugoslavia in September 1947 (which is now part of Istria County, Croatia). Istria was part of the Kingdom of Italy, but it became part of Yugoslavia at the end of World War II, as confirmed by the Treaty of Paris (1947) and Treaty of Osimo (1975). She is the daughter of Erminia (1921–2021) and Vittorio Matticchio (1911–1980). Until 1956, she lived with her family in Yugoslavia, during which time the family's name was Croaticized from Matticchio to Motika. Bastianich, like many other Istrian Italians, fled to Trieste, Italy, during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, with her brother Franco and her mother on the pretense of visiting their sick aunt Nina, who was a personal chef. Soon after, her father joined them in Trieste after he crossed the border into Italy at night. After Nina could only provide temporary shelter, Bastianich and her family became refugees at Risiera di San Sabba. According to Bastianich in a Public Television documentary, although a wealthy Triestine family hired her mother as a cook–housekeeper and her father as a limousine driver, they remained residents of the refugee camp. Two years later, their displaced persons application was granted to emigrate from Italy to the United States. In 1958, Bastianich and her family reached the United States, arriving in North Bergen, New Jersey, and later settling in Astoria, Queens in New York City.
Bastianich gives credit for the family's new roots in the United States to their sponsor, Catholic Relief Services:
Bastianich started working part-time at the age of 14, during which she briefly worked at the Astoria bakery, Walken's Bakery, owned by Christopher Walken's parents. After graduating from high school, she began to work full-time at a pizzeria on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Although she and her family are nationally Italian, a DNA test indicated that her family is largely of Eastern European descent, due to the multiethnicity of Istria. Concerning her identity, Lidia has stated: "I feel very Italian, but I do have some Slavic in me, and I relate to that as well; so that forms the mixture that is Lidia."
Career
From Queens to Manhattan (1971–1981)
In 1971, the Bastianiches opened their first restaurant, the tiny Buonavia, meaning "good road", in the Forest Hills section of Queens, with Bastianich as its hostess. They created their restaurant's menu by copying recipes from the most popular and successful Italian restaurants of the day, and they hired the best Italian-American chef that they could find.
After a brief break to deliver her second child Tanya, in 1972 Bastianich began training as the assistant chef at Buonavia, gradually learning enough to cook popular Italian dishes on her own, after which the couple began adding traditional Istrian dishes to their menu.
The success of Buonavia led to the opening of the second restaurant in Queens, Villa Secondo. It was here that Bastianich gained the attention of local food critics and started to give live cooking demonstrations, a prelude to her future career as a television cooking show hostess.