(upbeat ambient music) - Coming up next on You Oughta Know, from Lydia's Kitchen to yours.

Lydia Bastianich is here to talk about her new cookbook.

Plus we meet the sound artist behind this immersive exhibition at Pennsbury Manor, and see how the community came to the rescue to keep this historic mansion open to the public.

Welcome to You Oughta Know If you live to eat like I do, you are going to love this next story.

At La Cucina, you can enjoy a meal while learning how to make it so you can also serve it at home.

(upbeat ambient music) - Cooking is very much an art.

When you eat, your eyes make a decision before it ever enter your mouth.

So if it looks pretty, you are definitely more engaged.

My family did have restaurants in Italy, (indistinct) in Italy and I had to spend a lot of my summers there in those places while visiting our family.

So food has always been an integral part of our whole life.

And then I was able to translate that into the cooking class experience.

Initially it was classes open to the public, and the more classes that we had, there was a lot of desire to host private cooking events.

Over in this station, we're gonna make tomato bruschetta.

One thing you have to promise is that you're never gonna say brusheta again.

(people laughing) All right, bruschetta.

(upbeat ambient music) There's a distinction between Italian cooking and Italian American cooking.

So South Philly is Philadelphia's Italian American hub.

They're gonna be making handmade ravioli, chicken parmesano.

They're gonna make broccoli Rob which is a great educational piece because a lot of people don't know what broccoli Rob is.

And then for dessert, they're gonna make Tiramisu.

Each private class features an appetizer.

We almost always have a handmade pasta course because that's my thing.

A vegetable, a protein, salad, dessert.

We have people who come in here and they go, "Oh, I don't cook, I don't cook."

And then they leave and they're like, "Look, I'm cooking."

(Anna chuckles) So that makes us happy 'cause we feel like we really did our job.

The bartenders that we use have extensive wine backgrounds because people BYO and then they can get some knowledge also about the wines they're drinking.

Our goal, other than to teach you how to cook, is to be comfortable.

We select recipes that we know people will go home and do again.

Things that are delicious, but easier to execute.

They may want to go and impress their family, their friends with.

It's so much more than cooking.

The table is a place where every culture gathers around.

And, you know, coming out of the pandemic, we have have the opportunity to bring people back together, and that makes for a really joyful experience for my wonderful staff who all share the same passion.

And for the guests here, they leave and they are inspired, happy.

You see people engaged with each other, especially in public classes where they're interacting with people that they may have not known someone of that culture, they may have not known someone from that area.

They're making friends here in addition to learning to cook.

Not everyone here grew up in a household where we sat around the table and it was the primary gathering, arguing, discussion place.

People are looking for that, especially if they didn't grow up from it.

I think on a personal level, the value is that we feel that we're contributing to the greater good of humanity.

I am really blessed that I have a staff who really all believes that.

- We are excited about our first guest.

Many of you know her from Lydia's Kitchen, seen here on WHYY TV 12.

Lydia, welcome back to You Oughta Know, the one and only Lydia Bastianich.

(Shirley laughing) - Well, thank you, thank you for having me.

And you know, I come to this station regularly because it was my first launching station.

- And it's an honor.

- Thank you.

- And look at your career, it's incredible.

16th cookbook is out.

- Right.

- And this new cookbook co-written with your daughter, dedicated to your mother called "Lydia's: From Our Family Table to Yours".

Can you tell us about this book?

- Yes, certainly.

You know, when you 16 books and each one sort of, okay, what really I wanna tell my audience that sort of buys them and watches the show.

And I get a lot, 25 years on on PBS, I get a lot of questions, a lot of emails on the family because I film in my home, the studio is my house.

My mother lived with me, my daughter lived down the block.

And so the kids would come in and out, kids, grandkids and so on.

So the viewing audience got to know the family as they were growing.

And one of the questions that I got along, "What is Joe's favorite food?

What is Tanya's favorite food?

What does grandma love?

What do you cook at home?"

And so this is a book, a compilation of all of those recipes.

But you know, also what?

I lost my mother two years ago.

So it's a dedication also to grandma.

- [Shirley] Is there a recipe, because they're so deeply personal to you, is there a recipe that when you're making it, you think of your mother or when you're preparing it, you can feel her in the kitchen with you?

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, because food does that to me.

It has a, well, food has a strong recall kind of sense.

And the dish, the recipe, chicken and potatoes, that goes back to my grandmother, so five generations we still make it.

And when I make it for my kids, my kids and grandkids, and they ask for it, it just brings the smell of rosemary, of the onion, of the potatoes caramelizing.

It just brings her back with us.

- The recipes are simple, but simple how?

- Well, they're simple, and actually in the Italian tradition because I think the Italian cuisine is basically based on the products.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's not how you can elaborate that product, but get the best product that you can, get it in season, get it regional or whatever, and then make it as simple as possible.

So it's easier to cook, and the food really shines, it's more pronounced.

- Mm-hmm.

- And a lot of times as chefs, especially if you're professional chef, you kind of the techniques, you wanna elaborate.

Well, I'm not about that.

I wanna communicate with my audience the simplicity and the deliciousness of the Italian food.

I talk a lot about the ingredients and what makes them special.

And hence the recipes that I put down, I think are quite doable.

And I get a great response.

People are able to duplicate kind of my recipes.

Maybe, you know, they say, "Oh, it didn't the first time."

Give it a chance.

You know, you need a little practice, two, three times.

But they'll bring the flavors, my flavors, the flavors of Italy, the flavors of Lydia's home into their home.

- What I think is wonderful about your show, you as a person and your books, is that they're not intimidating.

And I mean, I feel like I know you so well and we go back years and years.

I mean, you obviously (Shirley laughing) don't know me very well, but there's something about your presence that really crosses over to the audience.

And I do love that.

The recipes in the book, are some of them handed down or like, how do the recipes get handed down from one generation to the next in your family?

- Well, you know, I think recipes a whole is a reflection of a culture.

And I came to the United States as a young immigrant at 12.

So born in Italy, whatever the border, a little problematic in that we had to escape back into Italy.

But then I came to the United States, so I'm very American.

So I wanted to connect because there's such a, I understood that Americans loved the Italian cuisine, and I had it in my hands.

And I said, I says, "I got to kind of bring it to my adopted country, now my home."

- Mm-hmm.

- And my goal was to be really a conduit.

I loved cooking and all of that tradition, of those recipes and bring it to my new home.

- Mm-hmm.

- In a home, in my home, it's the tradition that is at the base, but then there's a little bit of evolution that does happen.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

The recipes that are requested most from your kids and grandkids, can you give me a couple of examples?

- Oh, absolutely.

You know, fresh pasta, gnocchi specifically, they love their gnocchi, they love a good bolognese sauce.

Chicken and potatoes is a famous.

Vegetables, as Italians use a lot of vegetables and we love it.

Swiss chard and potatoes.

Now Swiss chard is, now has become a known vegetable but it wasn't, you know, when I first came, but there was Swiss chard in markets, and it's very simple, you boil potatoes, you get the Swiss chard.

When potatoes have cooked, you throw it in the water and boil it together.

You drain everything when it's cooked, garlic and oil.

And you kind of rocky mash it.

- Yeah.

- All my kids, they love it, they want it, there's not a holiday without it.

(Shirley laughing) - And there's some Italian American recipes in the cookbook as well.

Why did you wanna include those?

- Well, because that's part of America.

You know, when I came here, I realized that the Italian food that was served in America was different than what the regional Italian food is in Italy.

But it has a history, has a great history that it is the food reflecting the immigrants when they came here.

And the immigrants when they came here, they didn't find their products, the traditional products, the olives, the olive oil and all that, so they made the recipes that they remembered with the products that they found, and the recipes change somewhat.

- Mm-hmm, well, I love your book.

The book is called "Lydia's: From Our Family Table to yours."

And you can purchase it now.

Lydia, whenever you can join us, you are always welcome here to our show.

And also the new season of Lydia's Kitchen premieres on Saturday, October 7th at 3:30 PM on WHYY TV 12.

Lydia, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

Pleasure being here.

(upbeat ambient music) - And speaking of premiers, check please Philly with host Kehlani Palmisano returns on October 12th at 7:30 PM on WHYYY TV 12.

An immersive sound walk created by a member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians can be experienced on the grounds of Pennsbury Manor, the estate of William Penn.

The self-guided outdoor experience reflects on the past and honors indigenous perspectives.

(upbeat ambient music) - The name of this large scale sound installation is Nkwiluntamen, which roughly translates to a sound that I long for, something that I want to hear, such as the sound of a drum.

- [Shirley] Nkwiluntamen is an immersive art and sound installation by Oklahoma based artist and Lenape descendant, Nathan Young.

- I'm using sound to express an idea of a story that's very complicated, as sometimes it's sad, at times, it also looks to the future.

- [Shirley] The installation is on the grounds of Pennsbury Manor, the estate of William Penn.

Penn purchased the land from Pennsylvania's indigenous people, the Lenape.

(upbeat ambient music) - For the most part, this is a living history monument to William Penn.

I wanna be respectful of the work that they've put into this living history space.

And I believe that sound is one of the most effective ways to do that.

Bringing a contemporary Lenape perspective to the space.

So I've done that through musicalizing the benches that are spread throughout the living history site.

The music changes, there is electronic music, there are stringed instruments such as violins, violas.

There are experimental electronic instruments played by indigenous composers.

(upbeat ambient music) - [Shirley] This art and sound installation is a first for Pennsbury Manor.

- This marriage of sonic art and a historic site is not an intuitive marriage.

And Nathan is that perfect bridge between the two of a descendant of the Lenape to introduce this new median to allow people to reconnect with the first people who were here.

- As indigenous people, we have a different idea of what music is, we think of sound differently.

- Mm-hmm.

- And the the work that we do in experimental music is considered as a genre called noise music.

(noise music playing) You'll hear natural sounds such as, you're probably hearing crickets right now.

- Yeah.

- That have been processed, but also we'll use sometimes you know the languages of our tribes as well.

- [Shirley] Visually, the benches bear Lenape colors that pair with signs Young created.

Using an algorithm, Young transformed the language and thoughts of his ancestors into prose.

- It's the story of the exile and the diaspora of our experience here, which originated here with the Walking Purchase.

- [Shirley] The Walking Purchase was a deal made between the Lenape tribe and Penn's sons in 1737.

The Lenape people agreed to sell as much land as a man could walk in a day and a half.

But the pens tricked the tribe by hiring fast runners to mark the territory, instead of walkers, cheating the tribe out of far more of their homeland than expected.

- We want to tell their story and it's not a happy story.

Nathan does not pretend to speak for every Lenape and so on, but his art is exposing 1000s of people through the course of the exhibition to this authentic Lenape experience in Lenape voice.

And it helps us remind people that long before Penn, there were people living here who were caring for the land, who were caring for the river, and the tribe is still alive and thriving.

They just don't live alongside the Delaware anymore.

- The significance of this opportunity to create an installation on his ancestral homeland is not lost on Young.

- We do not want to be remembered for being duped out of our land, for our land being stolen that we do not want that to be our legacy.

We want people to understand that we're human beings that are still alive today.

The goal of this installation is for people to walk away thinking about how difficult it might be to leave your homeland, and also to return to your homeland.

So ultimately I want people to feel a narrative that changes throughout time.

It's one part of a larger story I'm trying to tell of my American Indian experience.

- Nkwiluntamen, I long for it, I am lonesome for it, such as the sound of a drum runs Wednesday through Sunday afternoons through April, 2024.

(upbeat ambient music) (rhythmic clapping) - Come on Philly.

I need y'all clapping.

How are y'all feeling tonight?

♪ I was alone when I met ya ♪ ♪ How could I forget ya ♪ - You ought to know about this emerging singer songwriter from Delaware County, Devon Gilfillian.

Devin, it is an honor to have you here on our set.

- Thank you for having me, Shirley, thank you.

- When you first started out, you were kind of known for your cover songs, and now you have a new original album, and a lead track by the name "Love You Anyway", which I love the song.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Tell me what the song is about.

- The song is about, you know, going through the pandemic, going through 2020, the 2020 election, and feeling like I was separated from so many friends and family.

- Mm-hmm.

- Feeling like the world is super polarized, and there was no coming in the middle and there's no conversations that could be had to reconcile.

And I wanted to write a song that wanted to have that conversation.

And I truly believe that if we talk to each other, we speak to each other with love and understanding, we can get to a middle ground and still continue to fight the power, but also recognize each other's humanity over the politics and everything.

- I love the song because it's just positive, but also accepting of we all have differences and we are different people, but we can still have love.

- Absolutely.

- So I do love that message.

Is this the kind of music that you want to be writing and singing?

- Absolutely.

This is the music, I mean, I wanna make music that makes people think, and makes people reflect and makes people shake their buns, (Shirley laughing) and, you know, just I want people to come in to my show and feel better afterwards.

- Mm-hmm.

- You know.

- When you're on tour now, you're on tour around the country, and you sing "Love You anyway", what's it like being on stage and how's the audience reacting?

- It's honestly, it's been crazy to see people, people sing along like pretty much immediately.

And by the end of the song, everyone is singing and, you know, it's a pretty easy chorus, you know, I teach 'em, they learn it very quick.

But it's really magical to see everyone's voices like chiming along.

- You've been getting a lot of national attention, I mean, obviously Philly embraces you because you grew up in the area, but you've been getting a lot of national attention from shows like CBS Saturday Morning.

And so what is that like for you?

I mean, do you feel like, okay, I've made it now?

- You know, I feel like I made it because of I have everyone around me.

I love the people that I play these songs with, I do this music with.

And also it is a privilege to be here, to be on CBS Saturday and to get on television and get in front of a bunch of people.

So I definitely feel like I've at least, you know, gotten this far.

- Yeah.

- And I'm happy.

- Yeah.

And your music style, talk about that, describe it.

'Cause I know that you're pulling inspiration from a lot of places.

- Oh, yeah, I'm all over the place.

I'm like Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye and Pharrell and I grew up listening to hip hop and classic rock and psychedelic rock and you know, old RnB.

So I feel like if I threw all that into a pot, that would be who I am.

- Yeah, yeah.

And I love that, so you graduated from Westchester University where you played in a band and you graduated with a degree in psychology.

Does that help you with your songwriting in a way?

- You know, I feel like I now can understand why I'm so crazy and then I can, you know, I'm trying to analyze everyone.

No, no.

(Shirley chuckles) I do feel like it's made me more empathetic and more understanding of just the way people work and that's helped me as a songwriter for sure.

- Well, I do love your music, it really is beautiful.

Devin Gilfillian, and thank you so much and good luck on the rest of your tour.

- Thank you, Shirley, thank you so much.

- Philadelphia boasts several must see estates that are breathtaking.

The Glen Foerd Mansion is one of them.

And thanks to some concerned citizens, the historic site remains open to visitors and for special events.

(tranquil ambient music) - Philadelphia has this embarrassment of riches of historic homes.

How do you support yet another historic house?

The wedding development was just this sort of beautiful organic way of supporting Glen Foerd.

In addition to the weddings, we have creative programming, but our mission is education.

So through our boat building program, through our environmental programs, through our arts and culture program, our mission is to be a cultural resource in northeast Philadelphia.

And another part of that mission is to preserve the site for future generations.

As part of Fairmount Park, we are open to the public 365 days a year.

Roughly, there must be 50 to 75 people every day or more who walk their dogs, who just take a walk on the property.

So it's just this incredible beautiful respite hard up on the river.

And it is currently 18 acres.

And we are the last property in Philadelphia County on the river.

(tranquil ambient music) Charles McAllister purchased 80 acres in this whole surrounding area and he kind of developed it.

It had been an area where people would come for hunting and fishing and Robert Foerderer bought it in 1895.

(upbeat ambient music) This was a summer house, developed the property, built a carriage house on the grounds, did a lot of work on the landscape, then started the renovations of this building in 1903, so over a course of two years.

But he totally gutted this building down to the bare walls and made it into a grand classic revival.

There's a (indistinct) cellar downstairs in Glenford, and when you go down the stairs, there's a large wine barrel or beer barrel.

Everything here was part of the renovation.

I think the only thing left from the original building are the chandeliers in the drawing room and the dining room.

There are a number of outbuildings on the property under McAllister.

He built a water tower, four story water tower that had a large wooden cistern on top.

There's a boathouse that's right up on the Delaware River.

When Robert Foerderer passes away, he has two children, Florence and Percival.

Florence lived here her whole life.

She was quite religious.

She leaves the mansion to the church.

So the church takes it and they use it as a retreat for like 10 years.

And they sell it to a developer who's gonna build more apartment houses.

And the neighbors, they find a clause in the will that states that if the church doesn't keep it, it reverts back to the community.

The city steps in and takes ownership of Glen Foerd in 1984.

The neighbors suddenly are responsible for maintaining this site.

And so in this very natural and organic way, they start hosting weddings.

They cook the dinners in the kitchen.

They let the brides and grooms sleep in the rooms upstairs here.

So it was this really sort of natural, wonderful organic evolution of how to raise money.

So today we are one of the premier wedding venues in the region.

- A beautiful place for a wedding, isn't it?

(upbeat ambient music) Well, thank you so much for watching and for joining us, we will see you back here next week.

Goodnight.