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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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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
Always
Given
Kids
Together
Cooking
Able
Favorite
Thing
Asks
Something
Pleasure
Really
Whatever
Make
Family

More quotes by 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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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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The best pastas are cut with bronze dies that give them a rough texture and allow the sauce to cling.
Joe Bastianich
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I definitely invented the everything bagel. There's no doubt. It's undeniable truth. It's one of those things that's 100% true, 50% of the time.
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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Essentially, wines are fermented grape juice, so I'm trying to make the point that the wine world is about scores and marketing and kind of creating a scarce resource where they don't really exist.
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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After World War II, a lot of people moved to the cities for work and abandoned the old vineyards. Then in the 1950s and 1960s, wineries were paid to produce volume at a cheap price. That's when the Lambruscos and bad Chianti were popular.
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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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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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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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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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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I'm one of three judges on 'MasterChef' with Gordon Ramsay, but I don't want my own show. I'm kind of used to the sidekick gig.
Joe Bastianich
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No matter what it is you are cooking, buy the best ingredients you can afford. I don't care if it's a simple salad or Beef Wellington. A quality product stands alone and won't need any dressing up.
Joe Bastianich
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With four-appetizer, four-entree menus, it's like, give me a break. That's not a restaurant, that's a dinner party.
Joe Bastianich
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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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When I stopped looking at food as a reward or a celebration and began looking at food as energy to fuel my athletic ambitions, that really kind of changed the whole world for me. That was the real 'aha!' moment.
Joe Bastianich
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I'm a baritone. Baritones don't mature until late.
Joe Bastianich