TV cover story: Food Network stars show techniques and offer recipes.

Lidia a highlight of foodie specials this month

Lidia Bastianich in Lidia Celebrates America: Home for the Holidays
Lidia Bastianich in Lidia Celebrates America: Home for the Holidays

If you're a fan of TV chef Lidia Bastianich you're probably familiar with her signature phrase, "Tutti a tavola a mangiare!" She repeats it at the end of every episode of Lidia's Kitchen, one of her cooking shows that airs on the Create channel.

What it means is something along the lines of "Everyone to the table to eat!" And if you've ever seen some of the food she cooks, you'd be more than happy to slip into a chair, stuff a napkin into your collar and dig in.

The chef's new special, Lidia Celebrates America: Home for the Holidays, airs at 8 p.m. Friday on PBS and AETN. Bastianich says the project is a labor of love, and it's "part of her journey to experience diverse American culture through food." She contends, and I concur, that our native traditions are part of what makes us unique.

Along for the ride, and a good meal, are six celebrity guests of different ethnic backgrounds: actor and childhood friend Christopher Walken, actress Rita Moreno, television journalist Ann Curry, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson and conductor Carlo Ponti Jr.

Home for the Holidays begins with a bit of Bastianich's own history. She takes viewers to her homeland, Italy, where she travels every year to her family vineyard.

She was born in Pola, a former Italian city (now part of Croatia) that was made a part of Yugoslavia in 1947. After nine years living under Marshal Josip Broz Tito's Communist regime, in 1956 she and her Italian Catholic family were thrown off their land, she tells viewers. They were shipped off to a camp for political refugees that was once a concentration camp. A lot of emotion can be seen on her face as she revisits the place and reminisces about that turbulent time.

But in 1958, with the help of Catholic Charities, she and her family moved to the United States and landed in Queens, N.Y. She was 12 years old.

When she was 14, she and her mother worked in a bakery owned by Walken's family. It was there she formed a lifelong bond with the actor.

She then moves on to share culinary memories with each guest. First is Walken. His signature dish is Scallops a la Walken, and it looks delicious. Other recipes include Samuelsson's Swedish meatballs and sweet potatoes and cannellini beans inspired by Lakshmi.

I've been a fan for years of this chef, who, with her short, sassy haircut and gold bangle bracelets, is a calm and capable presence in her TV kitchen.

But Home for the Holidays offers a side of her most never see. And it is refreshing.

MORE GOODIES

During the holiday season, so many of our activities revolve around food. If you can't get enough of cooking or eating, or both, Food Network and the Cooking Channel have some festive specials airing this month.

They include:

Christmas at Bobby's, 11 a.m. today on Food Network.

Bobby Flay invites friends to his place for an early day of cooking. Guests include Sunny Anderson, Anne Burrell, Scott Conant, Alex Guarnaschelli, Katie Lee, Geoffrey Zakarian and former Arkansas Razorback turned Food Network star Eddie Jackson.

The menu features Stuffed Poblano Peppers, Sweet Potato and Turnip Gratin, Prime Rib Roast, Black Forest Trifle and Sweet Potato Rum Pie.

Viewers can find recipes for the dishes in the special and photo highlights at FoodNetwork.com/BobbysChristmas.

Ro's Tasty Treats: Holiday, 8 p.m. today on the Cooking Channel.

YouTube baking personality Rosanna Pansino prepares seasonal goodies for a holiday party. She's joined by family and a few friends as they whip up things like Reindeer Pops, Snowman Pizza and Ro's special Pizzelle Cookies.

Unwrapped 2.0: Festive Foods, 7 p.m. Monday on Food Network.

Host Alfonso Ribeiro takes viewers behind the scenes to see how some holiday treats are made. They include Ocean Spray's Jellied Cranberry Sauce, Wick's Pumpkin Pie, Dr. Praeger's Potato Latkes, Willa's Shortbread Gingersnaps, Spangler Candy Co.'s Candy Canes, Valerie Confection's Fruit Cakes and Peppermint Bark, and C.H. Distillery's Chestnut Liqueur.

Holiday Impossible, 8 p.m. Thursday on Food Network.

Robert Irvine heads west to Jackson Hole, Wyo., to visit the City Kids Wilderness Project, a camp in the Teton Mountains that plays host to at-risk teens from inner city Washington.

Irvine helps redo their space in just three days, updating the 25-year-old facilities full of broken equipment and under-utilized space. And, he surprises everyone with a barbecue meal, too.

A Barefoot Holiday With Ina Garten, noon on Dec. 13 on Food Network.

The affable host, husband Jeffrey and some friends head off to the Berkshires for a holiday getaway. Then it's back to East Hampton, N.Y., where Garten throws a luncheon for friends and then a midnight feast for two.

Style on 12/06/2015

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