Whenever I found myself mindlessly channel surfing while growing up, I would immediately be transfixed whenever I hit channel 9 to find Lidia Matticchio Bastianich cooking up something — anything — in her kitchen.

She has a knack for making cooking seem so natural, so effortless, and so achievable. And her Italian warmth just makes you want to pull up a chair to her table and stay a long while.

Her newest cookbook embodies that spirit. “Lidia’s From Our Family Table to Yours” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2023), of which I received a review copy, was written by the incomparable Emmy Award-winning public television host, best-selling cookbook author, and restaurateur. With her son, Joe Bastianich and business partner Oscar Farinetti, she also opened Eataly, the famous Italian food-and-wine emporium in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Toronto, San Jose, Dallas, and Sao Paulo.

She co-wrote the book with her daughter, Tanya Bastianich Manuali, who spearheads the production of her mother’s television series, and is a co-partner in the Italian sandwich shop, All’Antico Vinaio in New York City.

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