And papa johns pizza then, this year, I

Months papa johns pizza ago, John Besh suggested that while the influx of chefs may be good for the economy, the diaspora of native New Orleans residents meant the dilution of Louisiana's culinary culture. This may be what he meant.
We caught up with iconic restaurateur and MasterChef judge Joe Bastianich at the New York City Wine & Food Festival this week, in anticipation of his teaming up with Progresso Artisan Soups at the Grand Tasting , for a long chat about how the Italian-American culinary landscape is unfolding in the “post-restaurant revolution.” From the soft spot he formed for MasterChef Season 5′s most volatile competitor papa johns pizza Krissi Biasiello , to (his former employee) Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi’s take on a vintage red sauce joint, Joe unpacked for us the culinary significance of Italian-American culture, which tends to clash with more high-brow forms of foodie-ism.
And papa johns pizza then, this year, I’ll be a judge at the Burger Bash . I’ve been [to the NYCWFF before] as an exhibitor, when we were with Southern Wine and Spirits , in the Grand Tasting. But it’s been awhile since I’ve done anything. This will be the first year I’m kind of immersed in it.
Yeah, it’s papa johns pizza called Hungry , and it’s on USA Network . It’s the story of me opening my first restaurant, meeting Mario [Batali] and opening Babbo , and just kind of like a time and a place in New York, in the early ’90s, kind of prior to the restaurant revolution. You don’t remember New York in the early ’90s — it was a different kind of place than it is now — but I do. It was just a different kind of thing. It’s our story.
We’re still working on it. I’d like it to be, very much. Pre-cell phones, pre- Starbucks [a rep interjects: "Pre- Yelp ?", Joe chuckles] …Pre-Yelp. Pre-Internet. Pre-PCs. There might not have even been laptops in 1992…
It’s a tragedy. It was a shocking tragedy when we all heard about it. We’re all very sorry. We obviously spent four months with him, and then time afterwards. And when you get to know somebody with that kind of potential and talent, and just good humor he had as a person, it’s very sad to hear when that happens.
No, I think that, for the show to be successful, papa johns pizza you need to have the people who people love to hate, as well, and she’s certainly not, as we would say in Italian, sympatica . But she’s a real character, and she’s really part of the Italian-American landscape that coats this country, papa johns pizza and I think she represents it in a real way. I just like the realness of her. Her situation may not be the best, she may not be the most eloquent person, but she could cook, and she had a repertoire of recipes that represented who she was.
There was a very strong Italian-American theme. It’s something that I really like. As much as I’m Italian — I always try to explain to Italians that Italian-America is a completely different thing that has nothing to do with Italy. And I like that culture. It’s the culture that my wife and my wife’s family come from, and I grew up in a little bit, and I think [Krissi] papa johns pizza represents a part of that. And I like that.
It’s kind of funny, because the reason why I [teamed up with Progresso] fits into — it’s not far from the Krissi question, in the sense that like, I grew up in New York in the ’70s and Italian-American culture was always part of what we did, and Progresso was a brand that was always around our house growing up. My grandmother would use their canned beans and stuff like that to make her own soups. So when they came out with this Artisan line of soups, we tasted them, and I thought they were really good. And I thought it would be a story that I could honestly tell.
I like the product, I like the story, I like the history, you know, the Italian-American culture that comes along with it. It’s a real Italian-American success story, the Progresso brand, for 100 years in The States. I think the product’s really good. I think the world that we live in, the very egalitarian foodie-ism, there’s something about product like this — it’s homey, made with real ingredients, it’s accessible to a lot of people — that I think is worthy of mentioning and of talking papa johns pizza about.
I can’t even comment on that. All those guys work for me! Of course I like it. I think that the food is excellent and I think that they’re all very talented guys. I think that they did a great piece of theatrical restaurateuring.
I’m sure they’ll be defending papa johns pizza some lawsuits [chuckles] . Well, the guys [on the waitstaff] are great. For me, the best part of the experience was the waiter. It was this guy, his name was Joey, from Yonkers, totally like, out of central casting. It was great. He knew his shit, he was a great wa