Chef Lidia Bastianich Reflects on Coming to U.S. for New ‘Lidia Celebrates America’ PBS Special

In the latest installment of Lidia Bastianich‘s PBS special Lidia Celebrates America, the chef is highlighting A Nation of Neighbors, visiting spaces where “volunteers and visionaries are building community one neighborhood at a time.”

This special takes her to five different locations across America: No Res Gourmet, a Los Angeles establishment lending a hand to those displaced by wildfires, District 10 Market, a free grocery store in San Francisco, SAME Café a pay-how-you-can restaurant in Denver, Ikoi No Kai, a community hub for Japanese-American elders in Portland, Oregon, and Kiki Ruff, an Indianian TikTok star who helps families stretch their groceries amid food insecurity.

In Denver, Bastianich gathers with those whom she met along the way to “break bread together, share stories, make new connections, trade ideas, and reflect on the enduring power of neighborliness.”

As Bastianich explained to TV Insider, her own experiences inspired this special. “When I came here I was 12 years old and America is my home. I made it my home. I can’t tell you how grateful I am, from the beginning to now, for how I was accepted, and my family. We were given the opportunity,” she explained. “I became who I am because of all of these opportunities.”

She continued, “In the very beginning, how the neighbors around cared for this new young family that came … public charities brought us here and found a little home for us in New Jersey. It was in the Italian district, of course, and people would come to the door with bags of food, of clothes, of everything. It’s not easy to forget that. I hear America being maligned in a way that’s just not right. It’s not appropriate. I started this all those years ago as kind of my thank you to America, all the good things that I see in America.”

PBS

Scroll down for more from our interview with Bastianich.

How did you decide on the places you visited for this special?

I had people researching and we found these places that had a story to be told about what they do for neighbors. No Reservation Gourmet in Los Angeles, it’s a restaurant and provides food for people that need it. It sort of began after the fires. A lot of people were left out and didn’t have a place to eat, a place to stay, so it was Firas Ayyad who got this idea. He said, “If we’re going to help our neighbors, it’s not charity that we want to profess. It’s kindness and love.” That’s why he called it No Reservation Gourmet. They really do, they cook there. I was there, in the kitchen, I’m cooking with them. They cook different foods, ethnic foods, and then serve in the church there and outside at beautiful tables. Everyone was invited to come and eat. It’s beautiful to see that there’s also respect.

The same is at District 10 Market in San Francisco, which is a market, and it sort of was born in an area where people are given a place to live off the streets and they have this big building, sort of, making space for people to really live. And the market was formed with the local legislation, actually, a beautiful shopping market. Food is given to people with stamps and whatever, but usually it’s a box, and whatever’s there, they take home. But here, they have a chance to go in with a cart and shop and cook what they want from what they have there. They plan their own meals. So it has integrity. What I found out there is that a lot of this caring and giving, but also considering the people’s attitude and position and respect.

What was your favorite memory from filming this special?

They really have their own special kind of connection and meaning, but the SAME Café in Denver. Same means so all may eat. And it is this kind of almost luncheonette restaurant, and here, if you have nothing to eat, they will feed you. But, they will feed you also if you have something to bring to the table and help them. If you’re growing vegetables in your yard or whatever, you bring them in, they can use them for their meals, and they’ll give you a meal. You can kind of help in the kitchen, work for your meal, if you will. I decided to do that. Or you can pay. It’s wonderful to see that this kind of works. It moved me because there were people that were homeless that either took their food out or sat there. There were elegant people, well dressed, some with children, that had a meal there and I’m sure they either paid or compensated in some way. This exchange was really moving.

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What do you hope viewers take away from this?

I hope they see what, really, America is all about. It’s people that care for another. We get all this kind of news that makes you depressed, but that’s not what really America is. America is exactly these people that I show. This is the other extreme, really people that go out of their way to help other people. But America is neighbors helping neighbors. Simple neighbors, in a simple neighborhood, that really care for each other, that watch each other’s children, that walk each other’s dogs, that watch their houses. I know, if I travel, my neighbor is there. I want people to see out there and be positive that there’s a lot of great Americans and good neighbors to each other.

It’s so important in today’s life to have that social human connection and care for each other.

Lidia Celebrates America: A Nation of Neighbors, Tuesday, November 25, 9/8c, PBS