The superstar chef did not take over Lidia.

Question: What are the pressures of being a celebrity chef?

Lidia Bastianich: You know I get asked that question a lot. I think that I . . . I . . . That superstar chef did not take over Lidia. I can look at the superstar chef almost from the outside and still be Lidia. And therefore I think that it has not changed me or my values all that much. What it has done, it has given me an opportunity, a platform to maybe predicate some of my philosophy and act upon it – whether it is to work with UNIFAM on helping the women of the world; or whether it is with the war in Bosnia to help the children. So you . . . your stature helps that. That’s, you know, quite . . . quite . . . quite a positive. And being . . . Having the stature, there’s also a responsibility. There’s a responsibility of the people that watch you, that follow you, that imitate you – that you deliver the right thing to them; that you continue to . . . to deliver things that will stimulate them rather than just make it a personal sort of collecting ground.

Recorded on: 10/4/07