America is Diverse Food

Whatever is wrong in the world, there is one thing that is universal. We all love to sit down and share a good meal. Italian women know how to create that good meal. Celebrity Chef Lidia Bastianich reminds us that we all communicate with food and it is a good meal that brings people together. Her love for food and togetherness has built her a food empire over the past 40 years. She is a favorite Italian Chef with 6 seasons on PBS. Her show is simply called Lidia’s Kitchen. She has her name sakes pasta sauce, wine label and her partnership at the popular marketplace called Eataly. She wrote and is always selling more than a dozen books featuring her recipes.  She also owns 11 restaurants despite her grandmotherly image. Her immigrant story is amazing especially in a male dominated celebrity chef industry.

Her artistry has earned herself 7 James Beard Awards and won her second Emmy for Outstanding Culinary Host. She said she credits her courage and career to the legendary Julia Child who also was a groundbreaking famous woman in the Celebrity Chef industry who discovered Lidia and gave her the opportunity to host cooking episodes on her own. It was Lidia’s lucky break that most immigrant refugees don’t get in America and worldwide lately. She was born in 1947 in a northern part of Italy town called Istria that was dominated by Communist Yugoslavia. Her family lost everything and escaped being migrants and lived in a refugee camp for 2 years before escaping to America. At 12 years old her family made a good life for themselves in America. It was the American dream realized that our President doesn’t want refugees to have in America now.

Her new PBS Special is called Lidia Celebrates America where she travels to towns all over this country trying out and celebrating home cooked recipes from all types of folk living in this already great country. She celebrates all the diverse cultures found all over rural America. She wants to find out all about the other immigrants in America. This country is rich in successful diversity. She lived her high school years living in Queens, New York but now is making Tamales in Texas, making Southeastern Asian dishes of mustard greens and pork in Wisconsin or cooking up fish in Northern Minnesota in the Scandinavian tradition of Ice fishing. Making Gumbo in Louisiana too represents the literally melting pot that America IS.

We need food diplomacy to solve the world’s problems. The American dream   is alive and well but too many hateful people want to build walls around dreamers still. We need to find a common ground where no one suffers, no one is denied their due pay for a day’s work and no one is harmed by criminals, rapists or drug traffickers. Our focus must not be towards civil war, or profits for just the very wealthy or healthcare just for a select few. Over a good meal maybe people could be happier when well fed and more reasonable towards each other. We are a nation of immigrants and it is our unique blend that makes us all already great.