(light music) (bell rings) - [Lidia] Hi, I'm Lidia Bastianich and my book is "Lidia's, A Pot, A Pan, and a Bowl."

- A good cookbook tells a story.

What's the story of this cookbook?

- This is like, you can do this.

It is simple, you don't have to worry about cleaning thereafter, and you can get a great meal.

So it's sort of an empowerment with simplicity and, at the end, a delicious meal.

My grandmother had one pot, maximum two.

She didn't have 10 pots (indistinct).

I said, "Well, that's what I'm gonna focus on."

Focus on this one pot, one bowl, just one, so you don't have to wash or clean thereafter.

But foods can be cooked deliciously, just like my grandmother, whether you braise it all together whether you put it all in the oven, the vegetables, the potatoes, the proteins, and all of that.

So those are the kind of recipes that are straightforward, simple, and usually one pot.

There are the chefs that are innovative and, in a sense, they invent things and, you know, they show what they can do.

I feel more as a chef that is a conduit of a culture.

I go to Italy, to the source, I get the recipes there.

I don't invent these recipes.

They really have a place in the Italian culture.

They have a regionality, they have a seasonality.

And I try to capture all of that.

To make it uncomplicated, make it straightforward, and see how simple it could really be, and my success when I get those emails, "Oh, I did that," "I had a meal for all your recipe," "We did it.

We love it.

My kids get involved."

I love that because, you know, you communicated, I communicated to these people, and I kind of gave them the confidence to go and cook.

- I think there's only one thing left to say.

- What's that?

(J.T.

speaks Italian) - Brava.

Brava.

(J.T.

laughs) (both speaking Italian) - Thank you very much.

Grazie.

- It's been wonderful to have you.

- My pleasure.

Thank you, thank you.

Great questions.

- And thank you for watching a word on words.

I'm J.T.

Ellison.

Keep reading.

(bell rings) What is your favorite meal?

- [Lidia] Oh, I don't have one.

It's asking me, what's your favorite child?

(gentle music)