Celebrity Scoop: Joe Bastianich
Joe Bastianich
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Those who love Simon Cowell and Gordon Ramsay will take to Joe Bastianich.
The vintner and restaurateur is a no-nonsense, smart guy who does not suffer fools -- gladly or otherwise. Like Cowell and Ramsay, Bastianich is an expert in his field.
A judge on Fox's "MasterChef," Tuesdays, Bastianich can spot a cook who can be molded into a chef. Perching on a stool at the bar of the Manhattan eatery Babbo, one of several esteemed restaurants he and Mario Batali own, Bastianich reflects on a life spent in restaurants but not at the stove.
He grew up in Queens, and as a kid would travel with his dad to the markets in the South Bronx and load vegetables onto a truck. He cleaned the sidewalk in front of his family restaurant.
"I would go there after school, and do my homework, and go to sleep on the tomato boxes," he says.
Knowing what hard work it is, his father did not want Bastianich to follow him into restaurants.
"You want to be an accountant, white collar, something important," he says.
Thin, with a close-cropped beard and wearing jeans, Bastianich gives off an air of intensity, which isn't surprising. No one becomes as successful as he is without that.
He channeled that intensity, for a little while, into finance. "If you grew up in the '70s and '80s, anyone who made money was on Wall Street," he says. "It was less wanting to work on Wall Street and more an acute fear of poverty."
After that brief stint, he moved to Italy and traveled. When he returned, he borrowed $80,000 from his mom and grandmother and opened his first restaurant. He's not visibly awed by his latest stint.
"The world of food professionals, who are camera ready and are not chefs," he says, "is pretty small."
The vintner and restaurateur is a no-nonsense, smart guy who does not suffer fools -- gladly or otherwise. Like Cowell and Ramsay, Bastianich is an expert in his field.
A judge on Fox's "MasterChef," Tuesdays, Bastianich can spot a cook who can be molded into a chef. Perching on a stool at the bar of the Manhattan eatery Babbo, one of several esteemed restaurants he and Mario Batali own, Bastianich reflects on a life spent in restaurants but not at the stove.
He grew up in Queens, and as a kid would travel with his dad to the markets in the South Bronx and load vegetables onto a truck. He cleaned the sidewalk in front of his family restaurant.
"I would go there after school, and do my homework, and go to sleep on the tomato boxes," he says.
Knowing what hard work it is, his father did not want Bastianich to follow him into restaurants.
"You want to be an accountant, white collar, something important," he says.
Thin, with a close-cropped beard and wearing jeans, Bastianich gives off an air of intensity, which isn't surprising. No one becomes as successful as he is without that.
He channeled that intensity, for a little while, into finance. "If you grew up in the '70s and '80s, anyone who made money was on Wall Street," he says. "It was less wanting to work on Wall Street and more an acute fear of poverty."
After that brief stint, he moved to Italy and traveled. When he returned, he borrowed $80,000 from his mom and grandmother and opened his first restaurant. He's not visibly awed by his latest stint.
"The world of food professionals, who are camera ready and are not chefs," he says, "is pretty small."
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