Why did Lidia become so famous but Biba did not?

I liked Biba. Her show on the food network was one of the ones I watched regularly. I think she used to own a restaurant in the Sacramento area.

Hair loss is the elixir of success for PBS cooking show hosts.

Damn! I was too quick to answer and didn't read the link. So sad to hear she died. My mom liked her show to and had one of her cookbooks.

Because Lidia Bastianich is ruthlessly ambitious?

r1 The restaurant is still there.

Biba didn’t remember Biba....dementia.

Lidia seems to have always had money pushing her success, from where I'm not sure. I know her mother and father were not wealthy. My guess is her son Joe got in with the mob early on.

Lidia the slave keeper. 🧛🏾‍♀️

Those Slavic bitches (Italian, my ass...) are ruthless.

Who and who?

That Biba made the most marvelous makeup in my day!

ICON!

Lidia got a new wig for the new season and it's really bad. The last season's wig looked somewhat realistic but the new one is fresh from Eva Gabor's collection.

I stopped watching Lidia after Slavegate. I never saw Biba's show.

Wasn't there a story about Lidia stealing tips from her restaurant staff or was that her son, or both?

R7 on Lidia's wiki page it says she owned two restaurants and after her father died she sold them and bought a building with a restaurant in Manhattan and paid $750,000 in renovations. This was back in 1981. I also suspect mafia money laundering.

R9 I always found it funny that her family came to America as political refugees. Why exactly did they need to escape Italy?

R14 her son Joe and Mario Batali were sued and fined for stealing tips from their employees.

It's because Lidia had a slave. Americans adore abusive people.

Giada De Laurentiis is 10x bigger than Lidia.

Groucho said it best...

Tutti a tavola a mangiare!

I worked for them. Lidia is ok, her son Joe is obnoxious.

Is Joe gay?

Someone posted a story here some years back about working in one of her restaurants and when she showed up she ignored everyone and walked straight into the kitchen.

When her camera crew showed up she starts acting like a mama and talking about how everyone in her restaurants is like her family. When the filming was over she walked out and ignored the person who said goodbye as she was leaving.

^^^That was about Lidia

Who ARE these people?!

Joe has a wife.

R15 She left Communist Yugoslavia. She is an ethnic Italian from the former Yugoslavia.

A day before this thread appeared I was looking over a cook book by Biba. I had never heard of her before.

The recipes seemed authentic enough, but the over-all look of the book was sort of dull. The photos, graphics, layout not very appealing.

Lidia had her son working with her and Marcella Hazan had her husband. I think a lot depends on who you have around you and how much ambition there is.

I totally forgot Biba existed until I saw this post. My mom did like her. She also likes Lidia. I eat lunch in the diner across from her restaurant often. I'd never pay what she charges for what is essentially peasant food.

[quote] She is an ethnic Italian from the former Yugoslavia.

Not so sure. Her parents' last name is Motika, which means "Hoe" in Croatian, and, which the family transcribed as Mattichhio to make it sound more Italian. After WW2, ethnic Germans and Italians were allowed to leave Yugoslavia and move to the countries of their ethnicity. The whole claim to be ethnic Italian was probably made for the purpose of getting emigration permits. Even her husband's last name Bastianich might be Croatian.

[quote] Italian boy raised to loathe Italian restaurants

To loathe Italian restaurants run by Yugoslavs

[quote] After WW2, ethnic Germans and Italians were allowed to leave Yugoslavia and move to the countries of their ethnicity.

They were expelled at short notice, their belongings seized by their neighbours and many of them died en route.

R29 The names were changed and they are ethnic Italians. The family in no way looks Slavic at all. Yes they are Italians and are still pieces of shit! Stealing tips and making a slave of that girl from Venice was a crime. They are greedy scum.

Lidia is a shilling merche no matter where her tribe came from. She's probably Portuguese, so many 'Italian' restuarants are run by Portuguese.

Are the Portuguese basically Italian?

They're all white-adjacent R33, relax under your caftan, you type ignorant.

R33 No. R34 There are many ethnic Austrians in Trentino Alto Adige. In addition, Lombardia(Lombardy) is named after The Lombards who are originally from Sweden. So no not all Italians are white adjacent as you call them......