Recently, the shop was pleased to bring Lidia Bastianich to Vancouver in an event co-hosted by the Italian Cultural Center. The evening was in celebration of her latest cookbook, Lydia's Commonsense Italian Cooking. The queen of Italian cuisine was warmly greeted  by hundreds of devout fans as she signed stacks of her latest collection of recipes to a seemingly endless accompaniment  of spontaneous hugs and choruses of "Ciao, Lidia!" 

The dinner and book-signing allowed generations of Lidia's local admirers to greet her personally as they they posed for pictures and discussed their favourite Lidia-inspired dishes. The event featured a discussion - introduced by Barbara-jo - where Lidia ruminated over aspects of Italian cuisine with fellow chef Umberto Menghi. Topics ranged from the different qualities of various olive oils to travelling in Italy. A wonderful time was had  by all.   

If you missed the event, Lidia's latest cookbook is available at the shop along with an interesting selection of her previous works.