This Emmy award-winning TV host grew up in Queens
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MARCH 19-MARCH 25, 2021 13
In conjunction with the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society, TimesLedger Newspapers
presents noteworthy
events in the borough’s
history.
Born Lidia Giuliana Matticchio
on Feb. 21, 1947, in
Pula, Italy, Lidia Bastianich
is an Emmy award-winning
public television host, bestselling
cookbook author, and
famed restaurateur of Italian
cuisine. Her family immigrated
to America in 1958 and
eventually settled in Queens,
where she still lives. As a
teenager, she worked at Walken’s
Bakery in Astoria.
While a baby, the future
celebrity chef’s hometown
became part of Croatia in the
former Yugoslavia, and the
family was forced to change
their surname from Matticchio
to Motika. After fleeing
Yugoslavia in 1956, young
Lydia and her family lived in
a refugee camp in Italy for two
years. In 1958, the family of
refugees immigrated to New
Jersey, and eventually settled
in Queens with the help of
Catholic Relief Services.
Bastianich recalls her
family’s struggles coming to
America, recalling “Catholic
Relief Services brought us
here to New York; we had no
one. They found a home for us.
They found a job for my father.
And ultimately, we settled.
And I am the perfect example
that if you give somebody a
chance, especially here in the
United States, one can find
the way.”
After marrying in 1966,
the Bastianiches opened their
first restaurant in Forest
Hills in 1971. The tiny restaurant,
Bounavia, copied recipes
from the most popular Italian
restaurants of the day. With
the opening of their second
restaurant, Villa Secondo,
Lidia Bastianich’s star began
to rise as she garnered the attention
of local food critics.
In 1981, the family business
expanded into Manhattan
with the opening of Felidia
near the Queensboro Bridge
entrance. The new restaurant
was highly acclaimed by
critics, earning a three-star
review from the New York
Times. Although the family
sent their children, Joe and
Tanya, to college not expecting
them to join the family
business, both children
played an instrumental role
in the expanding culinary empire.
Son Joe opened Becco in
Manhattan’s Theater District
in 1993, and daughter Tanya
partnered with her mother to
start a travel agency offering
tours of Italy. Bastianich’s 99-
year-old mother, Erminia Motika,
maintains a large garden
behind the family home in
Douglaston, where the celebrity
chef choses ingredients
to develop her menu.
In 2010, the family partnered
with Oscar Farinetti to
open Eataly, a popular food emporium
in Manhattan devoted
to Italian food and culinary
traditions. Bastianich offers
cooking classes at her shrine
to Italian cuisine, which
has since expanded to other
American cities and overseas
to Brazil and Canada.
The famed Queens resident
appeared on the public
television series Julia Child:
Cooking With Master Chefs.
Bastianich went on to host
her own programs on PBS, including
Lidia’s Italian Table
and Lidia’s Kitchen. She hosts
her popular television programs
from her Douglaston
kitchen, with her mother often
serving as sous-chef. The
award-winning chef has also
written numerous cookbooks
to accompany her shows.
In a culinary career spanning
eight decades, Lidia Bastianich
has inspired viewers
the world over and brought
joy to the lives of countless
restaurant patrons. She was
named Best Outstanding Chef
by the James Beard Foundation
in 2002, and in 2013
earned an Emmy for Outstanding
Culinary Host and
was inducted into the Culinary
Hall of Fame.
For further info, call the
Greater Astoria Historical
Society at 718-
278-0700 or www.
astorialic.org.
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