Author and host of Lidia’s Kitchen, the renowned Lidia Matticchio Bastianich will be appearing on Thursday, March 21st from 7:00 – 8:30 pm to discuss her memoir “My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family & Food.” The event will be held at St. Luke’s Church, located at 73 S. Fullerton Avenue in Montclair, New Jersey.
She is the author of thirteen cookbooks and the Emmy award-winning host of public television’s Lidia’s Kitchen, which airs internationally. She is also a judge on MasterChef Junior Italy and Italy’s highly rated daily program La Prova del Cuoco. Lidia owns Felidia, Becco and several other restaurants and is a partner in the acclaimed Eataly.
Her story began with her upbringing in Pula, a formerly Italian city turned Yugoslavian under Tito’s communist regime. She enjoyed a childhood surrounded by love and security, despite the family’s poverty, learning everything about Italian cooking from her beloved grandmother, Nonna Rosa. When the communist regime began investigating the family, they fled to Trieste, Italy, spending two years in a refugee camp waiting for visas to enter the United States, an experience that would shape Lidia for the rest of her life. At the age of 12, she started a new life in New York, beginning work in restaurants as a young teenager, the first step toward the creation of her own American dream.
Lidia will be in conversation with Marissa Rothkopf Bates, a Montclair-based food writer, columnist of the Newsweek “Gadget Lust” column and a trained chef from the Institute of Culinary Education.
Tickets are $17 and include admission, plus a copy of Lidia’s book that can be signed at the event. Call for more information or to order tickets at 973-744-0500 x 2275. Please note that non-perishable food items will be accepted for Toni’s Kitchen at the event.
