Food & Entertaining
A Season To Celebrate
Talking face to face with two of Kansas City’s shining stars who are shaping the holidays.

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A Holiday Feast

Like most homeowners these days, Lidia Bastianich has a dining room but hardly uses it. “We’ve used it three times in the past 20 years,” says the Italian cooking show host and owner of Lidia’s Kansas City, which has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Even during the holidays, when up to 30 people come together, everyone wants to be in the kitchen. Most of the family prefers this location because of the large window that overlooks a garden and Little Neck Bay. “We eat in the kitchen and pull in tables until we fit. It ends up looking like a ‘T’ that goes on forever.”

While the dining room suffers alone, the rest of the space is very busy. “It’s a very lived-in house,” notes Lidia, whose 86-year-old mother stays with her, and her daughter, Tanya, is within walking distance. “The kitchen, especially, is such a conducive place, made to eat, cook and hang around.”

But Lidia spends a lot of time away from home, traveling outside New York, where she has four restaurants, to her Kansas City and Pittsburgh restaurants and to the Colli Orientali region of Friuli in Northeastern Italy, where she and her son, Joseph, opened two wineries. In addition, Tanya expanded the family business to include a product line of pasta sauces and also launched Esperienze Italiane (Italian Experiences), an upscale travel company that develops customized tours of Italy that combine fine art with fine food and wine.

Lidia makes it to Kansas City every couple of months. During the holidays is one of her favorite times of the year to visit because of the Plaza lights. One time she visited a haunted house over Halloween, but “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” she remembers with a laugh.

One might wonder how someone who deals with food all the time would still enjoy cooking in her downtime, but Lidia does. “I love it. It never gets old because there’s always a new challenge, like when I’m using a new product. Cooking is a way to give a piece of me, and I love pulling everyone into it together,” she says.

The holidays must provide the perfect opportunity. For Thanksgiving there’s always a turkey but everything else is Italian, such as sweet potatoes and pumpkin ravioli. “The American theme comes through the kids’ pictures of turkeys they make at school and we also say an Indian prayer,” Lidia adds.

At Christmas, dinner consists of roasted pork loin with prunes, or duck or goose — or sometimes both. There are always lots of nuts and dates on hand and big bottles of grappa, a sweet wine. Dessert is decently healthy, usually poached fruit like grapes and pears. Lidia also may whip up a moist almond pound cake that’s a crowd favorite.

After dinner, everyone plays chess, Monopoly or Briscola, an Italian card game. Someone will light a fire and the women will tell stories. With her entire family surrounding her, Lidia is most happy. “I’m so thankful for my family and that my mother is still healthy and we have as much of grandma as we can,” she says.

Chef’s Tip: Get kids involved in the decorating. Lidia offers her grandchildren oranges and other fruit to form centerpieces that everyone can eat after dinner. She also has them peel the vegetables and wash the salad. Everyone should have a task, even the adults, whether it’s helping cook or cleaning up after dinner so that not only one person is doing all the work.