Hanging With Lidia

Friday night in Rosedale. The line flowing out of All the Best Fine
Foods on Yonge St. stretches for several stores. Television crews
wade through the crowd, and grown adults clutching newly purchased and
well-loved cookbooks are giddy with anticipation.

Lidia Bastianich — the beloved matriarch of Italian cooking in
America — is in town for one day only, and it’s quite clear she’s
running today’s schedule the way she seems to the rest of her life:
jam-packed & full tilt.

Arriving in Toronto 10:30 in the morning, she began her day with back
to back meetings with Indigo books and her publishers at Random House,
then off to a lunch with sales agents representing her line of Italian
wines that she produces with her son & business partner, Joe.

Next she spends the afternoon shooting promos for her forth Public
Television series Lidia?s Italy in America — a show that sees Lydia
traveling to different Italian communities across the U.S.A. that
begins airing this September. Her sixth cookbook shares the title of
her newest show and will be out in October.

Finally, business done for the day, it’s off to All the Best to meet
and greet hundreds of adoring fans, and sign any number of her
cookbooks.

“Try the [zucchini & chicken] gratin recipe that I made on the Today
Show last week,” she advises me, pointing to my newly purchased
Lidia’s Family Table, that she quickly autographs.

And looking at Courtney’s Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy she
says, “the pasta recipes in here are great,” giving it a quick sign.

Always with a smile, it’s clear the the 64-year-old Nonna of 5 is
enjoying herself. And why shouldn?t she? From the humble beginnings
of post-war Europe to sitting at the helm of one of America?s biggest
culinary empires, Lidia has reached stratospheric success: a
television personality, award winning cookbook author, celebrated chef
of 7 restaurants including her latest collaboration, Eataly, a
50-thousand square foot food emporium in New York City that she runs
with Joe, as well as famed-chef Mario Batali and Oscar Farinetti.
She’s also launched her own line of pasta and sauces as well as
Italian-inspired ceramic tableware.

Glancing at the growing line of Lidia’s fans snaking its way through
the store and down the street, I asked her if she was exhausted.

“Not yet!” she laughed.