|  Since
those long-ago days of red checkered tablecloths and
fiasco Chianti, Joseph has been a part of an Italian
wine and food “revolution”, much of it ignited
by his mother, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich of Felidia,
and has since been fueled by Joseph in an ever-expanding
array of projects: restaurants, a retail shop,
a winery in Italy, books and much more.
After a brief stint on Wall Street, Joseph spent a year
traveling Italy, working on vineyards and in
restaurants, and immersing himself in the rich tradition
of Italian wine-making and cuisine. Shortly after
returning to the states,
Joseph
partnered with Lidia to open his first restaurant, Becco,
a theater-district trattoria, where his ingenious
"prix fixe" wine list created a huge buzz.
In
1998, Joseph teamed up with Chef Mario Batali to open
the now-legendary
Babbo
Ristorante Enoteca.
The restaurant attracted a flood of critical praise,
including an enthusiastic three stars from the New York
Times and was honored as The Best New Restaurant in America
from the prestigious James Beard Foundation.
Continuing
their partnership, Joseph and Mario opened the
family-style,
Roman-themed Lupa,
the ground-breaking
Esca, where Bastianich, Batali and Chef David Pasternack
have introduced America to “crudo”—
the raw seafood that is a staple in fishing villages
along the southern coast if Italy, and casual, raucous Otto Enoteca Pizzeria.
Soon after, Joseph and Mario
decided to explore Spanish cuisine, creating the taverna
Casa Mono
and
Bar Jamón,
a
wine and tapas bar.
Joseph and Mario teamed up with Lidia
Bastianich and opened
Del Posto,
a beacon of elegance and sophistication, in December of
2005.
Meanwhile, Joseph and Lidia have created
a multi-unit Italian restaurant concept called Lidia’s
with locations in
Kansas City
and
Pittsburgh.
Never content to stand still, Joe again
partnered with Batali and with Sergio Esposito to open
Italian Wine Merchants,
an upscale retail shop devoted to Italian wines. On
location at Italian Wine Merchants, Studio del Gusto
functions as a display kitchen and salumeria where
Bastianich and his partners hold cooking demonstrations
and wine tastings, pairing highlights from their
collection with house-cured meats and home-style
cuisine.
Recently, the native New Yorker headed
West and opened a suite of restaurants: In Los Angeles,
Pizzeria La Mozza, Joe’s collaboration with Mario and
Chef Nancy Silverton, opened to rave reviews. Bastianich and Batali have also opened the
eponymous B & B and Enoteca San Marco in Las Vegas.
Because great food should never be eaten
without equally outstanding wine,
Joseph ventured into his ancestral Friuli-Venezia Giulia
to create the acclaimed wine estate, Azienda Agricola
Bastianich, and into Maremma, Tuscany where he
established the wine estate La Mozza s.r.l. He is also
bottling a delicate olive oil from groves in Colli
Orientali and Trieste.
Joseph has teamed with Babbo General
Manager and journalist David Lynch to write Vino
Italiano, a comprehensive look at Italian Wines. In
November of 2004 they published the Vino Italiano
Buying
Guide, a companion to their award-winning
book.
In 2005 Joseph won the James Beard
Foundation’s Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional
award, as well as the title of Bon Appetit’s Wine and
Spirits Professional at their annual American Food and
Entertaining Awards.
Joseph is frequently featured as a wine
authority on both Lidia’s and Mario’s television shows
and appears regularly as a contributor on NBC’s Today
Show.
For more information
please visit us at
www.bastianich.com.
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