PBS Celebrates Beloved Chef Lidia Bastianich with Hour-Long Primetime Documentary

For 25 years, viewers of Lidia Bastianich’s public television shows have heard her signature saying, “Tutti a tavola a mangiare,” which means, “Everyone to the table to eat!”

This December, PBS invites viewers to come together to celebrate the incredible career of this culinary icon in an hour-long primetime documentary, 25 YEARS WITH LIDIA: A Culinary Jubilee, an intimate portrait of the beloved chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, television host, and Italian food ambassador.

Airing on Monday, Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. ET, 25 YEARS WITH LIDIA: A Culinary Jubilee examines Lidia’s rich legacy, from her immigration to America to becoming the authority on authentic Italian cooking. Special guest appearances and interviews in the documentary include Jacques Pepin, Mary Sue Milliken, Elizabeth Falkner, Geoffrey Zakarian, childhood friend Christopher Walken, along with Lidia’s family and other longtime colleagues and associates.

25 YEARS WITH LIDIA: A Culinary Jubilee shares some of the most memorable highlights from Lidia’s remarkable journey, along with rare and never-before-seen video and photographs of Lidia’s career. Viewers will follow Lidia to Astoria, Queens, where, as a teen, she made her foray into the food industry, taking an entry-level job at Walken’s Bakery, owned by actor Christopher Walken’s parents. It was also in Queens where Lidia and her husband later opened their first restaurant, Buonavia, to critical acclaim in 1971.

After opening her third restaurant, Felidia – one of the first women-owned fine dining restaurants in America – legendary chefs Julia Child and James Beard came to dine one evening with Lidia. Soon after this memorable first meeting, Julia invited Lidia to appear as a guest on her famed PBS cooking show, which catapulted Lidia into the world of television.

Once she stepped in, Lidia never looked back: creating Emmy Award-winning cooking programming over the last 25 years including Lidia’s Kitchen, Lidia’s Family Table, Lidia’s Italy, and Lidia’s Italy in America, as well as the three-time James Beard Award-winning series Lidia Celebrates America.

Produced by public media leader GBH, and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 25 YEARS WITH LIDIA: A Culinary Jubilee culminates with a celebratory meal, held at Lidia’s family-owned restaurant Becco in Manhattan.

Sharing in the special occasion are longtime friends Jacques Pépin, Christopher and Georgianne Walken, Geoffrey Zakarian, NYC restaurateur Angelo Vivolo, and Geoffrey Drummond, who was Julia Child’s producer and helped Lidia get started in television.

“Lidia’s extraordinary LIFE STORY personifies the American dream, yet her ‘elegance-made-easy’ recipes and tips make the aspirational seem achievable,” says executive producer Laurie Donnelly. “The same encouragement that she gives to viewers in THE KITCHEN is mirrored in her off-camera mentorship of women chefs and business owners. She makes everyone feel like part of the family, and, of course, family is at the heart of everything she does.”

In honor of her 25th anniversary on the air, 25 YEARS WITH LIDIA: A Culinary Jubilee is a primetime PBS documentary special that will roll back the years and take an intimate look at Lidia’s life both on and off the screen. The documentary will air starting Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. ET on PBS stations (check local listings), and will stream on PBS.org and the PBS App, also available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.  

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