Lidia Bastianich Quotes

It's wild how chefs have become like rock stars.

When I set up my first restaurant, I was so inspired by Wolfgang Puck, who is also based in L.A. and is now a good friend of mine, and the way he would engage with his customers and greet them personally.

When you have a chef that wants to be in the spotlight, maybe after one or two appearances on a show, they think they're at a certain level that they haven't reached yet in the kitchen. Shows like 'Top Chef', 'Hell's Kitchen' have helped bring attention to the culinary world.

We're probably close to reaching 2,000 shows, which is more than Julia Child and Jacques Pepin together.

'Top Chef' is always entertaining - it's hard to stop watching, like a good hockey fight, but no one gets hurt. It's great that the format is so inherently dramatic and can make cooking so entertaining to people who might not ordinarily be interested in a cooking show. Good for the industry all round.

I want to be Jacques Pepin. I want to have a nice 50-, 60-year career. I want to be on PBS when I'm 70-something, still kicking it, having a great time, showing up in Aspen to sign cookbooks. I just want to have a nice, big, long career.

My aunt is a famous L.A. chef, Susan Feniger, and she's got Street and Border Grill. So a fun night out for me is to go to my aunt's restaurants.

Restaurants and chefs have become followed by such a broad swath of the public, in a way that used to be reserved for sports stars, movie stars, and theater actors. Restaurants are in the firmament of today's common culture.

I am a chef who happens to appear on the telly, that's it.

I'd rather have Daniel Boulud have 20 restaurants than some restauranteur. It's going to make the food in our country better.

When I'm back in New York - and this is a terrible thing to complain about - I eat a lot more really, really good food than perhaps I'd like to. So many of my friends are really good chefs. It's kind of like being in the Mafia.

I'm obsessed with 'Top Chef'.

Did I ever think about TV stardom? I don't watch a lot of TV. I wasn't even aware of the phenomenon of what was going on in food television, what you started with the Food Network.

When I was growing up, Chef Charlie Trotter inspired me a lot.

I'm a big foodie and I love the Food Network. I watch it alarmingly too much.

Is it OK to admit to being slightly obsessed with the TV programme 'Great British Menu?'

I was lucky enough to have great mentors both in the culinary world and in the world of chefs who became celebrities. Bobby Flay is one of my dearest friends and a tremendous mentor for me. Mario Batali is the same way. They began doing TV a little before me and they showed me the way.

I became friends with a lot of chefs. I was a judge on 'Top Chef' last year. It was a dream come true.

It is great to add some glamour to the food industry, like television shows have done for the food world and inspiring people to work in the industry. The flip side of that is unfortunately people think that after they get their qualifications, they get their invitation to compete on 'Top Chef.'

I am so proud of 'Top Chef' - I think it's got great cred.

I love 'Top Chef.' I think it rewrote the book on how food shows are presented on TV.

I love doing 'Worst Cooks' so very much.

I'm as surprised as anybody. I never would have thought I'd be here talking about having a cooking show on the Food Network. It wasn't on my list of things, but it's fun, and I'm having a good time.

From Julia Child to 'The Galloping Gourmet' and the Food Channel and Cooking Channel, our fascination with the spectacle of cooking has been a mainstay of TV entertainment.

'Iron Chef America' is so real. Imagine putting on television the whole process of making that food, the technique. It's all about technique. It doesn't even matter if you show the faces sometimes.