Lidia Bastianich, known as the First Lady of Italian cooking, was in Memphis last week for the Brooks’ Art of Good Taste. She also signed copies of her most recent cookbook, Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy, and celebrated the distribution of her line of Bastianich wines at Buster’s Wine and Liquor. After a wine tasting at Café Society on Saturday, she was gracious enough to grant me an interview (and a sampling of some of her wines.)
In Lidia Cooks, you once again explore a variety of lesser-known areas in Italy. How do you develop distinct recipes for these regions when there seems to be so much overlap?
In Italy, there are 20 regions, and the beauty of Italy — why there’s so much diversity— is the regionality. As small as Italy is, there are a lot of microclimates and a lot of effects from the water. It’s just different — you go from one region to another and the same dish changes. It never ceases to amaze me, each region and their repertoire of recipes.
