Bastianich, on how she plans a menu.

Question: What make a great restaurant?

Lidia Bastianich: I think what should go on the menu, again, should reflect, certainly, the seasons. That’s number one; should reflect the philosophy or the culture of the chef or whomever is running the restaurant. In our case of course it’s Italian, and there’s usually a consultation with the chef and the sous chef as a whole; and a monitoring of what are the trends. What are people looking for? So well-balanced, certainly. And vegetables. So if it’s winter, some soups. The fish element, the red meat, the white meat, the legumes. It’s a balance between all of that. Besides, it’s just not okay to just put lobster on the menu. The whole orchestration. It’s a symphony of things that has to happen.

Recorded on: 10/4/07