Published: December 2005
Since graduating from Boston College in 1989 with a degree in political science, Joseph Bastianich has established 10 restaurants, a wine shop, and two Italian wineries. In his first effort, he partnered with his mother, well-known PBS chef and author Lidia Bastianich, to open Becco, an Italian restaurant in New York City’s theater district. It was soon followed by two restaurants called Lidia’s, in Pittsburgh and Kansas City.
In 1998 Joseph Bastianich teamed up with chef Mario Batali, and together the duo—whom the New York Times dubbed the “two men who have defined the way New Yorkers think about Italian food”—have opened Babbo, Lupa, Esca, Otto, Casa Mono and Bar Jamón, Bistro Du Vent, and their latest addition, the 18,000-square-foot Del Posto. Bastianich, who is the proprietor of a wine shop in New York City, was named outstanding wine and spirits professional by the James Beard Foundation in 2005.
Bastianich has coauthored two books with Boston College classmate David Lynch ’89, Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy (2002) and the Vino Italiano Buying Guide (2004). He has begun creating his own wine at two estates in Italy: Azienda Agricola Bastianich, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, and La Mozza s.r.l., in Tuscany.
- Official bio, from Babbo
- A review of two Bastianich restaurants, from New York Magazine
- Story on Batali and Bastianich’s restaurants, from Newsweek
- Review of Vino Italiano, from About.com
