Lidia Bastianich Accused Of Keeping A Slave

I tend to believe the woman who is suing her. I have heard from several sources that Lidia is a huge bitch and treats all those she thinks are beneath her like shit. Her kids are just like her. She is definitely a person who has forgotten she was once poor and now thinks her and her families shit doesn't stink.%0D %0D I think most of these celeb chefs are like Lidia. They are only nice on screen. I heard Rachel Ray is a one of the world's biggest bitches and while Ina is genuinely nice to her rich friends she too thinks every day people way beneath her.%0D %0D I don't know anyone who's had personal experience with Giada but I would not be suprised if she too is one lousy human being. %0D %0D I wonder about Alton Brown, anyone know if he treats people like dirt too?

A friend of mine works for Rachel Ray and you are wrong, R1.

If this is true, wow, what a fucking cunt Lidia is.

Ha!!! At least *I* didn't keep slaves! Who's the worst tv chef now?!

I wondered if her thin hair is karma.

Bobby Flay seems like he would be a nasty piece of work off screen. He just oozes with condescension for anyone who's "beneath" him.

Rocco DiSpirito didn't try to hide his douchery on his first show on NBC.

Just curious--why would you assume these allegations are true? Even if they are true, the woman made her own decision to stay for 6 years. How long would you put up with being an unpaid home-care attendant when you thought you were going to be a $50,000-a-year chef.

If this is true, she's a total cunt. Horrible piece of shit.

It's not like this woman was in chains. She could have left. It's also not like she was beatened or even threatened, really. This is offensive to people who actually are sold as real slaves on the black market.

I never could stand her Italian schtick. Isn't she a Croat?

It's obvious from watching her that Giada De Laurentiis is a spoiled woman who must make life miserable for those around her whenever she doesn't get her own way.

Which has nothing to do with whether she's a good cook, I just don't think I'd enjoy spending time with her.

Who is she?

REAL WRONG, R1.....Racheal Ray is REALLY nice!

I've met and had dealings with Lidia and have found her to be friendly, intelligent and professional. Joe, on the other hand...

Read the article, r12, and all will be revealed. Or just go away. Either is fine with me.

I worked for that bald hag at Becco. First off she reminded me of my grandmother, although my grand mother is dead. (We should be so lucky with her!) So, the day she came in, I was all smiles and "Hello!" What did I get back? That hag sneered at me, and walked away. SHE can go fuck herself bald. Her being nice is all for show. AND if she has all this money can't the hag afford an Eva Gabor wig? I mean really.

[quote]So, the day she came in, I was all smiles and "Hello!" What did I get back? That hag sneered at me, and walked away.

I think it's marvelous that she hires "special" people. Were you a busboy or a dishwasher?

Why does she not have any fucking hair? %0D %0D No offense to anyone with thinning hair, but gosh! When I first saw her on t.v. ever I thought she was on Chemo. %0D %0D R10 She sure is. Her wiki even says it and if you do the math behind their explanation, you will see that she is not even culturally Italian or anything. She was not the youngest of ladies when this issue in her life first came about at all. It is not as though she was born over in what is now Croatia and moved to Italy as an infant or something like that at all. %0D %0D Fucked up chick! Why did the other gal stick around to do a nurse's age job for this lying and bald hussy!? Dang.

Italian Jew?

This CANNOT be true, she cooked for the POPE himself while he stayed in New York; she is a deeply religious Catholic.

Psst--R18--Julia Childs was NOT French.

I cannot stand her son Joe. He is such a smug asshole on MasterChef. I want to punch him in the face. Cunty behavior must run in the family.

I hope this fake Italian scag gets taken to the cleaners!

It's grating how she so self-consciously corrects her pronunciations and Italian cultural tidbits on her show when she is shown to be a veneer short of authenticity.

I watch her show quite a bit and you can tell that she is a bitch every time she has one of the chefs from her restaurant comes on. These chefs can cook way better than she can, and yet she is so bossy and condescending to them.

Who's Julia Childs?

But is keeping a woman in bondage as bad as Ina's flatulence?

[quote]I wonder about Alton Brown, anyone know if he treats people like dirt too?

AB is professional but he's ALL BUSINESS. He's busy, time is money, and he doesn't care for chitchat.

Everytime I see her son Joe on TV he just screams asshole. The guy is a first class jerk. The man would be nothing without his hard working mom.

Joe never smiles. I think he looked better when he was a bit porky.

Lidia Matticchio (n%C3%A9e Motika) Bastianich was born on February 21, 1947, in the town of Pula, Istria, then newly ceded to Yugoslavia, now part of Croatia. In 1956, her father, Vittorio, sent his wife and their two children to visit relatives in Trieste, Italy, while he remained in Istria to comply with the mandate of Tito's communist dictatorship that one member of a family remain in Yugoslavia to ensure that the rest would return.[1] Hours later, Vittorio himself left Yugoslavia under cover of darkness and crossed the border into Italy.[1]%0D %0D For all intents and purposes she is Italian. Istria is one of those historically disputed areas.

She's loaded, WTF does it take to wear a wig, she can afford on. She doesn't have a nice enough shaped head to walk around with thta thinning hair. My sister has alopecia, it started at 25! You bet your ass my gorgeous sister who actually looks good bald, IS in a wig!

Joey had a strange event here in Las Vegas where he paired wine with music. It was one fucked up event but at least the restaurants that bought-in for menu tastings were good even if the music and wine "pairings" sucked ass from concept to finish.

Joey is quite the oenophile. Just ask him.

Alton Brown is one of the nastiest people I have ever encountered.I worked on a show he was a guest on .The entire crew hated him.A total asshole

I find Sunny Anderson to be far more articulate than Rachel Ray.

bumb for an interesting thread

"bumb"

I would fuck me.

[quote]But is keeping a woman in bondage as bad as Ina's flatulence?

Or Aunt Sandy's meatloaf?

Did anybody know Alton Brown before he became a born-again Christian in 1992? Was he a jerk then, or did he just become one since then? Assuming that he really is a jerk now, & not just a serious professional with no time to waste, as someone says above.

LIdia is totally fake and a huge Cunt.

Alton is THE BIGGEST asshole I have ever met.

Giada is a spoiled Italian princess ( look who her grandfather was) with a gay husband. But at least she's nice and a decent person.

Ina is a fucking blast and will always get the party started

flay is a complete douche. I'm glad Steph has a girlfriend so she can get time away from him.

Paula is a drunk old cow.

emeril is a complete joke amongst his peers. Albeit, a vey wealthy joke.

Tyler is a total manwhore pussyhound, but so much fun to be around.

My partner calls lidia the balding viper.

^ And Sandra Lee?

[quote]Shall I continue?

YES!

And thanks.

Lidia should be executed.

R42 was meant for R40 ...

R40, where did you work? Everyone on your list has/had shows on Food Network except Lidia Bastianich, whose shows appear on PBS.

Yes, R40, please do continue!%0D %0D

r39, Alton Brown is a fundy *straight* man?! I've only seen snippets of him on TV but never for a moment thought he was anything but gay! I guess he's like that fey Brit that used to do Designing for the Sexes. My mom loves both of these guys and is the worlds biggest fag hag! She watches more gays on TV than I do.

R40, glad to hear Tyler is cool. He's one of the few people left on that network who are worth watching.

Is David Rosengarten a decent guy? Not that it matters, really, but I always enjoyed watching Taste. Except that one episode where he spent 30 minutes talking about a baked potato. That was a bit much.

Lidia is Italian. My grandmother was an Italian born in Argentina; that did not make her ethnically Spanish.

Lidia's first job in America was as a clerk at Walken's Bakery in Astoria, owned by Paul Walken, Christopher's father.

No wonder she became creepy, R52.

R40, I love you! Thanks for the gossip.

"Lidia's first job in America was as a clerk at Walken's Bakery in Astoria, owned by Paul Walken, Christopher's father."

Are you serious? I've got to ask my very old aunts if they remember her, they grew up in Astoria where they have remained.

Was she a bitch back then? Did she ever have hair?

When Chris Walken won the Oscar, his family gave out free cookies the next day!

R55, she's shown family pictures with her as a girl & young woman, & she had normal looking hair. It thins in post-menopausal women, some of us worse than others (sob!). If I were on TV, I'd wear a wig but I'm told they're uncomfortable, hot & itchy -- there's no law about it, after all.

Not all post menopausal women with hair loss walk around like this woman does, it's absurd.

A multi-millionaire can surely wear a cute short wig, if short hair is her preferred style. I can see how long hair might hinder her, plus long hair is not a good look for such an old woman.

With that big round head she looks like a balding fat man. Some people clearly don't care about their appearance, Looking the way she does, speaks volumes about her arrogance.

Sure wigs might be hot & itchy, but not so much if you are pretty much bald as she is! There is no hair under the wig to make things worse. It appears as if she has one layer of short hair left on that huge head of hers. Aren't TV studios well air conditioned?

My sister, who has lost a ton of hair to alopecia at only 25, has been in wigs for years. Our 88 year old mother still has a ton of thick wavy hair, go figure!

not that it means anything but I met her in Stew Leonard's once & she was extremely personable & approachable. Of course the slave could have been in the trunk while she shopped.

What about Todd English?

There was a storyline on Desperate Housewives several years back exactly like this.

[quote]What about Todd English?

Douchebag who left his wife for another woman, whom he broke up with by phone on their wedding day. After the jilted bride trashed him to the media, he retaliated by filing assault charges against her, claiming she had been physically abusive to him and verbally abusive to his kids.

[quote]Not all post menopausal women with hair loss walk around like this woman does, it's absurd.

True -- I wear a baseball cap. I started collecting them during chemo & now I have one for every outfit.

R61, That sucks!! What an asshole!

While I worked for Lidia's, I got to see a lot of her shitty antics. Once, they needed a server to go to Pittsburgh to train and work for a few weeks. They had him drive from Kansas City and told him that he would be reimbursed for his gas and travel time, as well as paid some kind of bonus for helping out. But upon his return, they decided that he made a lot of money in tips there, so he didn't need to be paid back. He quit.

They also kept a tip pool at the restaurant for the servers. We turned in our tips at the end of the night, and they handled the tip outs and split the money for us. What I later learned, from a former manager, was that they maintained a "slush fund" that was taken off the top of the tip pool. The money was used for wine tastings, the managing partner's lattes, training expenses, paying busboys for cleaning jobs, and who knows what else. I guess it was a considerable amount of money, and Lidia and her agents felt entitled to it.

And yes, she's VERY nice: at meet and greets, book signings, and on camera. Otherwise, she is awful, condescending, and elitist.

I can't believe no one has talked about how disgusting it is to watch her taste the food on her show. It's like watching a sink full of food go down the garbage disposal. Ugh.

This is not as uncommon as you might think.

A few years ago, it was discovered that a local real estate agent had been keeping a slave to clean the house and take care of the children.

The realtor was an ethnic Chinese, and her slave was a poor Philippina. The woman had taken away the girl's passport, and told her that if she spoke to anyone she would be thrown into prison.

The weirdest part of this, to my recollection, is that they were living in a STUDIO APARTMENT because the school district is better than in areas where they might have afforded to live in something larger.

Guess she was just trying to stick to a budget!

What was the outcome of the lawsuit? Has it been settled yet?

Enslaver!

Just out of curiosity, did idia start wearing a wig or get a hair transplant or use Rogaine or what? A few years ago, her hair was thin and sparse and very short, now it's a little longer and you can't see her scalp any more.

Her son Joe is a piece of shit

Is he bald? I hear you inherit baldness from your mom's side.

R37 had me in stitches. An even more entertaining post than R40--and that's saying something!

Lidia Bastianich is not even really Italian she's Croatian. She's trying to market her marinara sauce but big surprise, nobody is buying it at supermarkets and it will wind up at a dollar store or some land fill.

Ina Garten couldn't keep slaves. The stench from her farts would chase them away.

R66 makes a good point. This is less rare than people might think. It's common enough in India, China and elsewhere, and far from unprecedented that people from those countries come here, find people w. shaky immigration status or bring their slaves, er cultural traditions that must be respected, with them. A lot of the human trafficking stuff -- other people seeing tons of ads & articles about it? -- relates to sex work, nail places, etc., but a non-trivial amount of it relates to situations like this one.

For everyone wondering about Lidia's thin hair, please look up "alopecia" on WebMD or something. It was distracting in the early days of her PBS show. You kept wondering how much of her hair fell into what she was cooking.

R7, there are all kinds of people in this world, there's a sucker born every minute, etc., etc., but that doesn't excuse the one taking advantage. Modern day slavery does happen, in America. Like this woman, a foreigner is brought to America by their fellow countrymen, lured by promises of green cards, and/or money and opportunity which isn't available to them at home.

I thought Stephanie March and Bobby Flay were long broken up.

Lidia did a shitty thing to her but the woman chose to stay. She was manipulated (most likely) and a kind person so she stayed with the sick woman. She then sought out an attorney. She may have had a case for fraud until she said she stayed because she had bonded with the woman. That speaks to free will. I think the statute of limitations for fraud is six years. I may be wrong but for some reason, that's what comes to my mind.

While I think Lidia is a piece of crap on two legs (as are her progeny), I'm not sure this woman was a slave. Manipulated, lied to, and mistreated certainly but to call her a slave is pushing it.

I guess I was wrong about the statute of limitations. It seems that the woman won the lawsuit and the court ruled that the woman should have been paid, which she should have been. Funny. No mention of the suit at all on Lidia's wiki.

Lidia is not a Croat but she sure is a Crunt!

R40, is it true that there is some feud between Anne Burrell and Ted from Chopped? I forget what it was supposed to be about though. From watching them, I would guess they'd both be really annoying in real life.

Not surprising at all. She raised a son who turned out to be a thief. And the apple never falls far from the tree.

She and her family are grifters, they are not actually even really Italian but are Croatian.

R80 actually yes she is Croatian. She was on that PBS show "Finding your Roots". She has always claimed that the Yugoslavs changed her families last name from Matticchio to Motika. Research on the show revealed that this is false. Her original family name is Motika and that it was changed by the family themselves, I guess in hope to get themselves out of Yugoslavia and into Italy. She identifies herself as Italian but DNA taken from her on the show proved that she has 70% Croatian/Slavic blood in her. If this is not proof enough that she isn t a true Italian, I don t know what else is. She simply calls herself an Italian because it makes her more money as a famous "Italian" cook than if she was honest and said that she was Croatian.

Wow! I had no idea R83. I have always thought she and her family are crooked low lives. I saw her on some show while waiting at the dentists a few weeks ago and she was saying that Mario Batalli (sp?) is another son to her. Figures.

She has androgenic alopecia which is probably caused by metabolic syndrome/diabetes.

I’d like a house slave. How does one acquire such a commodity?

Someone posted here on another thread about Lidia that he worked in one of her restaurants and when Lidia came in for a taping she ignored everyone and only talked with the chef and manager.

When the cameras got there she started talking about how all the employees are her family and how much she loves visiting them and talking with them.

When the segment was finished she was out the door without so much as a goodbye.

Cunt.

Why are most rich people and celebs such fucks? I mean do you think they were born that way and would have turned out to be pure shit even if they were poor or is money truly the root of all evils?

For those of you blaming the woman for her own enslavement, did you read the article? You self centered brats do not understand that she was afraid to leave the 100 year old woman, most likely because she was afraid for her safety from the Croat woman, who most likely mistreated the old woman. The Croat cook also promised the slave that she was depositing money each week into a bank account which had been opened for her. Sadly, the article states that he bank account has never materialized.

When the karma hits it will be a bitch.

Per the wig issue, a woman with money could afford a system that would make her hair appear fuller, without looking like a wig or being too hot. As it is, she does not look like a TV host, nor a high end cook. She reminds me of a pastry chef.

R83 is unfamiliar with the fact that Italian identity is not a matter of some bizarre notion of genetic "purity," but a matter of cultural and social identity.

I cannot stand that Bastianiches - Lidia seems self-evidently a pompous ass and pushy self-aggrandizer (with a genuine knack and vitality for food). Her son is a crook, his associates are crooks, and the daughter is a phony "expert." Grasping mercantilists with a thin veneer of gourmandizing panache.

But anyone who hears Lidia's mother speak Italian, who listens to the family stories and who observes the family connections in Italy (which are for business but are indicative of Italian acceptance) knows that the family, while from Croatia near Italy, are as Italian as they are anything else.

Italy as Italy didn't exist until the 19th century. Even today Italians and their non-national cultural-Italian associates are diverse as to language, customs, perspective and history. Lidia's family were Istrian-Italian, and Pula, Croatia, and Trieste, represent a locus for Italian culture extending not just to Roman times but to actively pursued colonizing and control by Italian states (mainly Venice) from at least the 1300s onward.

Trying to apply a genetic identity on Italians is not just suspect. It reflects a dangerous misunderstanding of identity that could easily turn into ethnic puritanism and a new tool for discrimination.

Go after this nasty pile of smarmy self-serving business people for other reasons. Don't act like they aren't able to call themselves Italian.

Stronzi ignoranti.

She wasn’t a SLAVE-slave.

She's not Eyetalian, she's Croatian

Sei un coglione R90, yes Italy is an extremely diverse unified country now and northern Italians are some of the worst when it comes to claiming how they are "true" or "real" Italians, and this includes lega nord members and people who are not a part of that political party but who are from various regions in Northern Italy have this mentality.

People who are from central and southern Italy do not have this mentality.

The Bastianich family can claim or pretend that they're Italian all they want but they are Slavic/Croatian. Even her annoying son likes to pretend he's some big deal/celebrity in Italy but the majority of people don't even know of him or like him or his mother.

The city she was born in was part of Italy. It then became part of Yugoslavia, and now is part of Croatia. She can’t help that city changed hands politically, but she was born in Italy.

R81

Ted outed Anne a few years ago in an interview. She freaked out and went into hiding for a couple of days before officially coming out herself. Ted had said he assumed it was common knowledge, but she claimed to be straight on her social media till then.

Lidia has enough to be hated for without creating an issue around the authenticity of her ethnicity. That slave business ruined her forever for me.

Anne Burrell was in?

The only one who seems like a decent person to me is Jacques Pepin. Which is unexpected considering how nasty the French can be.

Yes, Anne did claim to be straight on Facebook, etc., but when she finally came out she tried to say she was never in.

How could Anne think people didn't know she was gay. God how people delude themselves.

When Lidia's show started on PBS the first season she was very down to earth about her talents, her history and her first restaurant, which she described as a "spaghetti house".

When her son Joe became involved with the show suddenly she was a city wide famous chef with the most popular "bistro" in NY.

Oddly enough the first season has never been aired again while other subsequent seasons have been.

She uses so much olive oil in her food, her colon must be as slick as ice.

I love how her tales of poverty become more maudlin with each season. In one show she talks about her grandmother saving up bread crumbs to feed the chickens and in another show she talks about being a child and her family raising and butchering two pigs every year. If they were as poor as she claims no fucking way they could afford to have two pigs to raise and butcher every year.

Bobby Flay is such a cunt.

Exactly R102 she and her family are frauds and grifters, and not Italian culturally or for their ethnicity.

I saw one episode of her TV show where she had her mother on as a guest and claimed that they only ate a tiny portion of risotto daily for breakfast.

If they were really that poor or lived in that much poverty they would have stayed in Croatia/Yugoslavia, and never emigrated to the United States.

She's no me.

Oh, I love you, R90!

"Grasping mercantilists with a thin veneer of gourmandizing panache. " That is some first rate gay shade!

Thank you for throwing it at the vile Bastianich family. I bow, I bow to your cutting way with a word.

You'd think with all her money she'd buy a decent wig or get hair plugs.

May i interrupt all the tears and pearl clutching to point out this frivolous suit was dismissed?

Has anyone ever heard of any of these "celebrity" chefs? These stories come out like we are all supposed to know who they are. I do not live in the same city as their restaurants, but there is this idea that they are national figures.

I am sure this woman's restaurant is successful. But I do not live in New York.

R108 is Lidia's mouth breathing, tip stealing, wine gulping son Joe.

We would imagine, then, R109, that you would be familiar with her TV shows, which have been running for years. If you don't know who she is, why are you here?

I saw that somene was a accused of keeping a slave and thought it might be a politician.

According to the thread she has a PBS show. I have not had a television for the last 7 years and I would not seek out a cooking show on streaming.

I asked a few people if they heard of her...not one of them had.

Did she make the list?

But you know who seems nice? Jacques Pepin. I saw an episode of his show where he cooked with his granddaughter, and they were charming together. Normally I don't watch when they have kids on these shows.

I always refer to her as Lidia Bastardovitch.

R112, we don't care what you think.

Bitch needs hair!

Who is she?

Her food, and recipes suck, and she's not even really Italian at all despite how she loves to pretend she is. She's also a major cunt and treats the people who work for her like shit.

Also she's been trying to market her overpriced marinara sauce and other food products but nobody's buying any of them.

R119 Of course she's Italian and you'd know this if you were familiar with European history. I like a lot of her recipes which are primarily simple traditional meals. Simple but sumptuous.

Raising a pig has always been a way for the poorest of the poor to be able to have some meat. That’s why they sustained peasants in China and hillbillies in Appalachia. You could acquire a piglet and then fatten them up on garbage and leftovers. One of my treasured childhood photos is of four-year old me In overalls standing next to the fence of Grandpa’s pig pen.

r114, I love Jacques, he's the real deal. I can watch him for hours.

R120 I'm extremely familiar with European history, and no she's not Italian at all. She's from Croatia, and is Slavic despite how she pretends she's actually Northern Italian.

Dr. Louis Gates on Finding Your Roots PBS had proved that both chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali are not genetically Italian. Wikipedia even removed changed Batali s title from Italian American chef to American chef. The reactions of both Bastianich and Batali was precious when their DNA results came back showing that they are not Italian blood. By their reactions... they both already knew that they are not Italian. They stood firm as to saying that they are only because of their "Italian" restaurant ventures. Both Bastianich and Batali have been in business together and both have been brought up on charges of stealing tips from employees. Bastianich was sued for holding an Italian women hostage/indentured/servitude in NYC. Bastianich no longer films from the home that was part of the law suite stating that she also stole the home from the elderly person living in it. for which she hired the Italian women to take care of. Both Bastianich and Batali hold firm believing that they are Italian. If Bruce Jenner can be Caitlyn Jenner.. Lidia and Mario can be Italian.

She has always claimed that the Yugoslavs changed her families last name from Matticchio to Motika. Research on a TV documentary style show about genealogy and genetics revealed that this is false. Her original family name is Motika and that it was changed by the family themselves, I guess in hope to get themselves out of Yugoslavia and into Italy. She identifies herself as Italian but DNA taken from her on the show proved that she has 70% Croatian/Slavic blood in her. If this is not proof enough that she is not actually Italian, I don t know what else is. She simply calls herself an Italian because it makes her more money as a famous "Italian" cook than if she was honest and said that she was Croatian/Slavic.

R124 Please provide a link for this info. I have to see your name change claim for myself.

R123 Really? Batali dad is an Italian American! Lidia's family was a mixed Italian/Croatian family from Istria.

R90 Exactly. Some Italian Americans would be shocked to find out that they (especially form Puglia) of Albanian descent! Their ancestors fled the Turks and traveled to Italy. It doesn't make them a lesser Italian. The genetic component is not a prerequisite for being Italian.

That being said Lidia is a bald thieving fat cunt.

R123 Utter stupidity. Again, if you knew the history of the region you'd recognize LB i is Italian born, raised and culturally infused.

Why people still care about "ethnic purity" in 2018 is a mystery to me.

I hate her no matter where she's from.