Lidia Bastianich is included among 100 Women who make a difference.
Below is a paragraph from the article "Walking Tour of Croatian History in New York"
Among most successful business people during the present time is chef Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. Lidia was born in 1947 in the village near Pula, Istria. She learned how to cook from her mother and grandmother and took her Istrian skills all the way to America. Lidia is now restaurant owner of Felidia on East 58 Street, cookbook author of four books and fantastically popular 52 part public television series PBS-TV chef. She prefers to market her business as Italian and considers her family ethnic Italian, but also speaks fluent Croatian. Lidia is a long time member of the "Istrian Club," a not-for-profit group in New York who assist Istrians in Croatia. From her childhood in Istria, Lidia recalls trips to the market, harvesting olives for olive oil, collecting mussels and clams at the seashore and sleeping under the stars on a mattress filled with dry cornhusks on summer nights. Lidia remembers going with her grandmother to the communal mill to grind the wheat into flour for pasta and bread. This "from the earth" understanding and respect for food has given her a definite style as a cook.
