Star Kitchen: Lidia Bastianich

Lidia Bastianich's bright home kitchen is the perfect place for holiday entertaining. Photographs by Paul Raeside.

From: Food Network Magazine

Lidia Bastianich's Kitchen

To her fans, Lidia Bastianich's kitchen is almost as famous as she is. The 13-year PBS cooking show veteran films her current show, Lidia's Italy, from the kitchen of her Long Island home. Three years ago, Lidia bought this New York City apartment as her urban retreat, embarking on what she calls a labor of love: designing every detail herself, like positioning each brown penny-size tile on the kitchen floor.

Twin Sinks

Lidia likes having one sink for cleaning vegetables and another for washing dishes, so she installed two sinks, even though they eat up precious space in her New York City kitchen.

Food Ornaments

Ever since she was a girl, Lidia has put edible decorations on her Christmas tree. She uses ribbon to hang tangerines, dried figs, cookies and candies.

Olive Obsession

Lidia loves all things olive: oil, trees, wood, even the color. She keeps some olive-wood utensils and a tile with an olive tree on it to remind her of her grandparents' olive orchard.

Pasta Station

To roll out her pasta dough, Lidia uses this 80-year-old hand-crank machine (passed down from a family friend), then cuts it on this wooden board. "Cutting fresh pasta on a wood surface leaves the pasta with a rough finish that absorbs the sauce better," she says.

On Tonight