Celebrity Chef Lidia Bastianich knows what it’s like to be in a strange land, without a home. OSV News recently spoke with the Italian-American – who has become famous as a television host, author and restaurateur – about her own experiences as an Italian immigrant fleeing communism in the former Yugoslavia, and her current work as a board member for Jesuit Refugee Services/USA.
Bastianich, a devout Catholic, shared how in her current work for refugees and migrants she draws on memories of her two years in a refugee camp, her family’s resettlement in the U.S. by Catholic Charities, and her passion for the deep connections food can forge between human beings.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
OSV News: Given how divided our society and our world have become over any number of issues – from immigration to religious belief to the environment – food remains an area where there’s still common ground. Why is that?
Lidia Bastianich: Food is a common denominator to all of us, no matter what culture, no matter where you are in this world. Food just opens the door, because it’s nurturing; it’s keeping us alive. So, if you offer somebody food, you want to connect, you want their well-being. I think that certainly has been my way of communicating.
It’s emotional, too. Food carries memories. Nothing will take you faster to a deep-down memory than the smell of some food.
I think sometimes that in today’s world, “food diplomacy” should be at the table – that the first thing diplomats should do is sit around the table, share each other’s food and then begin to talk and to negotiate. They will be in a different state of mind, because food has physiological effects.
When somebody approaches us, and especially if they’re foreign, we can be on the defensive – “OK, what do they want?” – especially if you’re talking about exchanges on a global basis, with different cultures.
But when you sit at the table, your defenses go down. We are more open to listening, to taking in, to maybe evaluating without resistance, as we normally would.
That’s why eating at the table together, especially families, is so important. There are the elements that we communicate with on that level, while ingesting food is part of our nourishment – and it’s all positive.
OSV News: A number of foods that are now staples in American diets were once quite foreign and came to be integrated as a result of cultural exchanges. What are some examples?
Bastianich: Well, tomatoes, corn, peppers – all of them were brought to Europe after (Christopher) Columbus (the 15th-century Italian navigator). They were indigenous North and, I think, South American products.
I can best talk about the Italians, who called them “pomodoro,” or “golden apple,” because the original tomatoes were yellow. And I guess the Italian terrain and sun made these golden apples turn into these wonderful red tomatoes, and Italians made them the basis of their cuisine.
Polenta was cornmeal, and corn is very efficiently grown; it doesn’t need a lot of space. So, these foods really affected Europe. And then when European immigrants came to America, they brought these things with them.
What gives an immigrant identity? Sure, their looks and the language they speak, but what they cook really tells their story. America is made out of immigrants; their food comes in.
America is different. It’s like a quilt; it’s different patches of different cultures that are put together and make a beautiful quilt. We have to respect this and enjoy it.
And Americans do enjoy it. You go into any place, even small towns – they have Korean food, Chinese food, Lebanese food. Food is the positive connector, the door-opener to cultures, to understanding and appreciating each other.
OSV News: How do your own experiences as an immigrant, your passion for culinary arts and your work as a Jesuit Refugee Services/USA board member all intersect?
Bastianich: I was in a part of Italy that became communist. We were forbidden to practice our religion. So, I gained freedom of religion, freedom of democracy by being an immigrant when my family and I moved into a free world, and with the opportunities that were given to us. … I spent two years in a refugee camp. There were people from all of Eastern Europe there who were escaping communism. We had no papers, and we had to be in the camp.
Catholic Charities brought us here (to the U.S.), and how welcoming the American people were – I can’t forget this.
And I feel, “You know, can I do this for these immigrants?” I relate to the world, not just to America, and I look at what JRS is doing around the world – not only the immigration element, but also feeding people, nurturing people, educating the children. Any child in a camp loses two years of education.
All the aspects of my being a child immigrant – I can do something about it now. I can help somewhat. And this organization has the extensions and certainly the setup to do that.
And I am happy to do as much as I can.
OSV News: Based on your own experience, how do you think the trauma endured by refugees and migrants can be healed?
Bastianich: It is extremely traumatic. I was age 10, not understanding, and wondering, “Why? Why do we have to run? Why don’t we have a home? Why can’t I close my door and be with my family like everybody else? And why can’t you ask all of these questions?”
And then also there was the fright, because when you are a refugee and you enter a camp, they divide you. Me and my mother were on one side, my brother and my father were on the male side. And I remember panicking, “Will I ever see my brother, my father?”
I heard my mother cry. As a child, you say, “What can I do? Why? Why are we so different? What’s happening? Where will we end?”
And all of these things stay with you.
I remember when we first came to the United States, and they put us in a hotel just like they’re doing today. We were vetted thoroughly, and that I believe in very much, so that everybody that deserves it gets this opportunity. When finally they found a little apartment for us, and everybody had left, we locked the door.
And I felt, “I have my own home now. I am with my family. Nobody’s going to take me away from here. Nobody’s going to chase me away.”
As a child, those things mean an awful lot. So, we really have a mandate to make sure that more children feel that security and fast.
Maybe God has sent me here at the right time to do what I do best with food – to use food, whether to generate events, to generate awareness, to do messaging (for JRS/USA). People will listen to food.
We are talking about maybe going and cooking with immigrants who are waiting (for admission) and asking what it means to them and how much they do with so little – and showing the world that we really need to be conscious of this, because this is our future world. These people are going to grow up and lead our world, and we need to, just humanly, give them a place of peace and serenity and family happiness.
