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The stories of wine lords who trade wine on intimidation or food critics who trade free meals for reviews those are the stories of my life. I am telling the stories of my life in a true way.

Joe Bastianich

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Joe Bastianich
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: September 17
Entrepreneur
Restaurateur
Television Personality
Television Presenter
Television Producer
Winemaker
New York City
New York
Joseph Bastianich
True
Meals
Stories
Critics
Way
Wine
Life
Telling
Trade
Food
Lords
Lord
Intimidation
Free
Reviews

More quotes by Joe Bastianich

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At home, I make a large batch of tomato sauce and freeze it in meal-size portions in freezer bags.
Joe Bastianich
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I think that, by comparison with $2,000 bottles of grand cru Burgundies, first-rate barolos, which sell for under $100, are undervalued ten-fold.
Joe Bastianich
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If you eliminate the junk food, you don't really run the risk of gaining weight if you've got a good workout routine.
Joe Bastianich
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My grandparents in Istria had a frasca, which is about the most basic kind of grocery/restaurant. They sold wine from their own vineyard. I took control of the vineyard, hired a local winemaker, and bought another winery in 1996. We had our first commercial vintage in 1998.
Joe Bastianich
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Babbo's menu is only four pages, but it's overwhelming - there are 20 different pastas in there, a lot of stuff. There is nothing I hate more than a useless, lazy menu with only three appetizers and four entrees.
Joe Bastianich
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Being frugal, conscious of making money, is not a negative thing. That sensibility of creating value and finding value and reinvesting in those customers is what separates great restaurants from the average ones.
Joe Bastianich
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The general manager is kind of like the step into darkness when you reach the top of the league. As GM, you're responsible for everything, including the maitre d's and the sommeliers - all these people who have their own agendas. But you probably make less than the maitre d' and have a lot more work and a lot more headaches.
Joe Bastianich
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Maitre d's are at the financial spigot of the restaurant, meaning they control who gets in and who doesn't, but aside from that, they don't do anything. And yet they get paid as much as the highest-paid people in the place.
Joe Bastianich
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Aside from hospitality and delicious food, our [restaurateurs'] job is to entertain people. Restaurants should make people feel special, excited and fulfilled.
Joe Bastianich
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Cooking for my family is always a pleasure when I'm able to do it. My favorite thing to make is really whatever my kids ask for on any given day. It's more about being with them and doing something together.
Joe Bastianich
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Wine pricing is an art - like painting.
Joe Bastianich
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He brought a sensibility and a hard-edged reasonableness to operating restaurants that had a lasting impact on me and still affects how I run all our restaurants today. The passing of 'Restaurant Man' - the original gangsta 'Restaurant Man,' my father - was the passing of an era. No one can replace him.
Joe Bastianich
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'MasterChef' is the search for America's culinary amateur talent, so this is a search for the best home cook in America, and it's our job to figure out who that is.
Joe Bastianich
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It's kind of like a midlife crisis kind of thing. When you turn 40, you have to run the marathon, while all the parts still work properly.
Joe Bastianich
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Restaurant Man is kind of the story, an unabridged story of what happened in my life, the good bad and ugly. Some people might glean some life lessons. It is honest, not written as a press release.
Joe Bastianich
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Being general manager is like being the de facto owner. It's like wearing the crown of 'Restaurant Man' without being 'Restaurant Man.' You're trying to run the business, but you're running the ranch without riding the big horse.
Joe Bastianich
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I come from a family that loves to eat, not exercise. Being fat made even walking hard.
Joe Bastianich
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I'm a baritone. Baritones don't mature until late.
Joe Bastianich
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America has been conditioned to think of pasta as the never-ending pasta bowl and Olive Garden.
Joe Bastianich
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The menu should be part of the entertainment, part of the dining experience. It's kind of like reading the 'Playbill' when you go to the theater. It should be an alluring and interactive document. Does it have burn marks on it from the candle? If you ever get a greasy menu with food stains on it, it's time to run like hell.
Joe Bastianich