What I Learned About Cooking From an Afternoon at Chef Lidia Bastianich’s NYC Home (2024)

My stomach was already growling before I’d crossed the threshold ofchef, cookbook author, television host, and restaurateur Lidia Bastianich’s home in Queens, New York. It probably helped that I hadn’t eaten all day and that a fine layer of snow had dusted the ground; both my stomach and self were seeking nourishment during the cold day. And as I inhaled the scents of a home that had already seen its fair share of cooking as of 12:30 in the afternoon, I knew that’s exactly what I’d get.

Aplate of risotto was promptly handed to me before I even sat across from Lidia toward the end of her low-ceilinged kitchen. We chatted about her recent travels,her childhood growing up in Istria before it became part of the former Yugoslavia, and how she later spent time in a refugee camp before coming to the US in 1958 with her family. And, of course, her new line of cookware and serveware—informed by her own cooking experiences and inspired by some of her fondest childhood memories growing up in Italy.

The line encompasses “all the things that I learned along the way that I know could benefit my viewers and my followers,” says Lidia, who over the years has hosted numerous cooking shows on PBS, including Lidia’s Italy and Lidia’s Kitchen.

Then she put me to work. A private cooking lesson with a chef inspires visions of intricate dishes that take along time to cook. With Lidia, there’s no fuss. “People in the kitchen should have their common sense,” she repeats to me as we cook a simple lunch ofspaghetti and shrimp, asking me if we should add more salt or pepperoncino flakes. It takes about 30 minutes total.

She cooks using apot and cast-iron pan. They’re both pieces included in her new line, and feature a brightly hued enamel cast-iron exterior and a nonstick interior. Lidia intentionally designed both to be a little lighter than the average cookware and added an extra handle to the skillet. She wanted everything to look beautiful yet have a certain ease of use.

“My wrists, because of pots and pans and 50 years in the kitchen, are sensitive,” Lidia says to explain her insistence on lighter cookware. “I’ve combined all the things that I love and the practicality of it [to make the line].”

The look of everything was equally important. Once we finish cooking—with Lidia putting me in charge of the last few finishing touches—she plates our lunch into oven-warmed pasta bowls emblazoned with a red poppy in the center, which she calls the flower of her childhood. Growing up in Istria,Lidia would often help her grandmother with the production of food, mostly as a runner, and remembers how her grandmother would always cook polenta in durable cast-iron pan. Often, Lidia would venture into the wheat fields to collect a bouquet of the poppy flowers for the dinner table, which is where the symbol derives from.

Lidia explains that the presentation of food is just as important as how it is cooked. And while not everything in the line features the iconic poppy, there is a certain sentimentality imbued in every piece.