LIDIA BASTIANICH

What I do is my life, but it's not like I spend 18 hours a day, seven days a week in the restaurants.

As a chef, I feel that it is my duty to make the most of what the earth gives us.

If you're like me, food is a medium for communication. It's an expression of love and affection.

I just love engaging a live audience - I love that.

What really makes your business is your workers - their commitment, their knowledge, how you train them, how you treat them. They have to make the entity a winning entity.

The service of food is to nurture, to please, to nourish.

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.

Whether you talk about the olive oil, whether you talk about Aceto Balsamico, whether you talk about Grana Padano, whether you talk about Mozzarella di Bufala. These are all traditional Italian products that are hard to beat, and they're easy to transport and buy. You don't have to do much around it. Just eat them.

Food is kind of my entry card into everything. Food kind of opens the doors... because food is peace. It's good; it's positive.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Everybody can cook. You don't have to do anything fancy. You can do a nice antipasto spread with sardines, anchovies, some meats, marinated vegetables, fruits, cheese, nuts, and crackers.

With the Industrial Revolution, the production of food was delegated to big companies in order for women and men to be in the labour force, to come home, stick something in the oven, and eat. It became a big industry that does not have a love affair with food nor is really concerned about nurturing you or giving you the right nutrition.

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

Vin brule is a version of mulled wine enjoyed in Piemonte, in northwestern Italy. It's a perfect choice for holiday entertaining because you can double or even triple the recipe and leave it over very low heat, ladling it out as your guests come in from the cold.

Chemistry was my college interest. Cooking is about chemistry.

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 think people make it too systematic in a way, like it's a chemistry formula. Food is not like that; food is very forgiving. Connecting and making do with a lot of the food elements can be fun and exciting.

When you sit down to eat at a table, you are ready to take in nourishment - we all need to eat to live. Even in primal tribes, people ate together. It's the opening for friendship.

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.

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.

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