Time has created a gender balance in the kitchen.

Question: How has cooking changed in your lifetime?

Lidia Bastianich: Kitchens have changed tremendously in the sense of the sort of the exclusive role of a male dominant chef. Kitchens have opened much more to younger people . . . opportunities to younger people to really reach certain levels. It certainly has opened up opportunities for women evermore. There’s a tremendous consciousness in respect for products rather than just for an exposition for the chef, or for his sort of creativity. Not that that’s not necessary. It is. But I think in a lot of the . . . the older times, that’s what you expected. Actually you expected almost the product not to be recognized, to be transformed into something. That has completely changed.

Recorded on: 10/4/07