Lidia Bastianich has just finished celebrating 25 years of presence on TV, since it aired the first episode of Lydia’s Table, the very popular TV show on the American public channel PBS. After six public television series, two Emmys and four James Beard Awards, Lidia Bastianich achieves a new milestone, the grand final of The Taste Awards, now in its 15th edition, for broadcasts Lydia’s Kitcken And Lidia Celebrates America. «Being a professional in my business for more than fifty years is rewarding, but every recognition and award I receive along the way rekindles my passion and gratitude for a profession I love. So I am grateful and excited to be one of the finalists at The Taste Awards”, she says when reached by phone. THE Taste Awards they are considered in the United States as the Oscars of food and lifestyle in general, and for 15 years they have been awarded annually to creatives, producers, hosts and directors of food, fashion, health, travel and lifestyle programs broadcast on television , in films, online videos, streaming, radio, podcasts and even photography.

The table as a place of feelings

The name of the first broadcast, the one that made it famous throughout the United States, Lydia’s Table, has a very specific foundation. «The kitchen table is the most important place in the house. There we feed ourselves to live, but we also feed ourselves on feelings, love, wisdom, sharing, education… , he adds. And it is in fact around the table in her kitchen in Coney Island, New York, that Lidia taught her children and grandchildren to cook, like gnocchi, the memory dish that she always keeps with great affection. Lidia is also the testimonial of the project The Tales of the Roots, created in collaboration with the MAECIand recently presented at the Farnesina in the presence of the Ministers Tajani and Lollobrigida during the launch of the eighth edition of SCIM – Week of Italian Cuisine in the World 2023.

Food as a positive message

In a recent interview, during the celebrations of the 25th year of TV, Lidia Bastianich underlined the importance of food. «I think that cooking and eating together is a powerful antidote to today’s cultural as well as food disorders. Food is a positive message, its preparation unites us in an act of mutual care and sharing, whether it is with family or friends. Even enemies could be defeated by cooking and eating together. It means understanding each other, understanding and accepting each other’s cultures and wishing each other well-being.”

There are two programs with which Lidia reached the final of the Taste Awards: Lidia Celebrates America, where the chef visits and cooks alongside many different people – veterans, farmers, immigrants, immigrants – trying to tap into their lives and passions in the kitchen. AND Lydia’s Kitchen where, instead, he dispenses his advice and recipes from the kitchen of his home, on Long Island, in the state of New York.

Lidia is also a protagonist in Italy

Lidia is also a well-known face in Italy. The majority, perhaps, know his son Joe more, due to his various appearances on television as a judge on Masterchef Italia, as well as on Beijing Express. She was also a judge, with Bruno Barbieri and Alessandro Borghese, of Junior MasterChef Italy in 2014 and 2015. In Bastianich’s TV CV, also among her latest appearances Family Food Fight in 2021, of which she was a judge together with her son Joe and Antonino Cannavacciuolo. It was the first cooking show where it was not individual chefs who competed in the kitchen but entire families, aged between 16 and 80.