Joe Bastianich

Beginning with almost Dickensian roots, working in his parents' Felice and Lidia's Italian restaurant in Queens, washing dishes, cleaning the sidewalk, and touring the jungle-like meat markets of the Bronx, Joe Bastianich's life charts a culinary adventure that ends with this nice Italian boy becoming one of America's premier restaurateurs - as well as a noted winemaker, bon vivant, street-level philosopher, and eventually, a marathon runner..

Joe's story begins with him learning the ropes of the restaurant racket at the feet of his father, an ultra-pragmatic "restaurant man" who saw no glamour in his business. After college (and sometime following the Grateful Dead, and - God forbid -drinking beer!) Joe found himself working on Wall Street, where he used his knowledge of wine to level the playing field with the so-called "masters of the universe." After just a year working in finance, Joe ditched his suit and tie and went head first into a life of food and wine, buying himself a one-way ticket to Italy, where he spent the next year traveling the country in a beat-up Volkswagen, working in restaurants and on vineyards, digging himself deeper into his rich heritage.

Upon returning to New York, he partnered with his mother, Chef Lidia Bastianich, to open Becco, which quickly became a New York City favorite for its home-style pasta and eye-opening fixed-price wine list.

Soon after Joe became partners with the irrepressible Mario Batali, and is now the less-publicly-vociferous but equally important power behind some of New York's best restaurants, including the legendary Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, Lupa Osteria Romana, Esca, Casa Mono, Bar Jamon, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria and the much storied Del Posto.

Along the way has conquered Las Vegas with Enoteca San Marco, where he has mastered the simple pizza rustica, as well as B&B Ristorante and Carnevino, spectacular restaurants, mind-boggling in scope and style. In Los Angeles, he and Mario's collaborations with Nancy Silverton, Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza, have become legendary celebrity haunts, as famous for their food as for their A-list clientele. Closer to home, Joe and Mario's Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, NY, opened to a warm welcome by the local community.

Because great food should never be enjoyed without equally outstanding wine, Joe ventured into his ancestral Friuli-Venezia Giulia to create the acclaimed estate, Azienda Agricola Bastianich. In Maremma, Tuscany, he, Lidia and Mario established the wine estate La Mozza s.r.l., where they also bottle a delicate olive oil from groves in the Colli Orientali and Trieste. Joe teamed up with California winemaker Steve Clifton and Argentine enologist Matias Mayol in the Malbec-growing region of Mendoza to create Tritono, his first venture into New World wine. Most recently, he acquired Agricola Brandini, in Barolo, La Morra, which produces modern-style wines with minimal human intervention and is certified organic.

Few others can claim as much gravitas as Joe Bastianich in pairing great wine with great food. His books on Italian wine, Vino Italiano, and its companion buying guide, written with sommelier and journalist David Lynch, are recognized as the ne plus ultra of the genre. Slated for release this fall, his third book, Grandi Vini, an opinionated tour of Italy's 89 finest wines, will no doubt be the go-to source for the best Italy has to offer. Joe is also a regular guest on the Today Show, where he shares his down-to-earth expertise.

He has received Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional Awards from Bon Appetit magazine and James Beard Foundation, and in 2008 the James Beard Foundation honored him once again by presenting he and Mario with the much revered Outstanding Restaurateur Award.

Currently a judge on FOX's reality TV hit, MasterChef with Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot, Joe shares his expertise in deciphering culinary talent to search from among thousands of amateur home cooks to find America's first MasterChef.

For Joe's next venture in the world of Italian food and wine, he has teamed up Italian retail pioneer Oscar Farinetti, Mario Batali, and Lidia Bastianich, to bring Eataly, the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world, to New York City. The marketplace will be the city's ultimate destination for food lovers - an extravaganza that will include a premier retail center for Italian delicacies and wine, a culinary educational center, and a diverse slate of boutique eateries.

When Joe is not working the dining room at one of his many restaurants or in Italy tending his vines, he can be found at his home in Greenwich, CT, playing guitar and spending time with his wife, Deanna, and their three children, whom he counts as his greatest achievements to date.