Monday, April 29, 2024 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
On LIDIA CELEBRATES AMERICA "Flavors That Define Us," beloved chef and Italian immigrant, Lidia Bastianich, travels from big cities to small towns in rural America to share the inspiring stories of first, second, and third-generation Americans forging their own way, and shaping the shifting definition of what it means to be an American.
Chef and Italian immigrant Lidia Bastianich shares stories of first, second and third-generation Americans shaping the shifting definition of what it means to be an American. As America grows more diverse than ever before, immigrants must figure out how much of their culture to keep and what to leave behind, and many are more openly sharing their heritage with a new country they now call home.
Common among this nation of 46 million immigrants is the fact that these individuals are often faced with the question of how much of their culture to bring with them, and what to leave behind. What’s clear is that as America grows more diverse than ever before, many immigrants are making different calculations – as they more openly share their heritage within a country they are now helping to define.
Lidia is invited to the home of Christine Ha in Houston, TX, where they make Thit Kho, a braised pork belly dish together. Ha grew up eating Vietnamese food and took it for granted until she was 14 and her mother died. Teaching herself to cook, and then as an adult adjusting to vision loss, Ha set out to recreate her mother's dishes, using Vietnamese cookbooks and her father's memories.
When civil engineer Marcos Lorenzo immigrated from Cuba, he found himself wanting to share the music and food of Cuba with his neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky. At the four Cuban restaurants he has now opened, Lorenzo wants guests to feel like they’ve been transported to Cuba. Lidia visits Marcos at one of his restaurants, Havana Rumba. Together, they cook a classic Cuban dish, Ropa Vieja.
Watch Lidia make Borscht, Ukrainian style, in Hartsville, South Carolina, with Polina Frishko and another Ukrainian immigrant, Enna Elias. While they cook, they talk about food and community.
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