Q & A: Joe Bastianich
In town to help launch Carnevino steakhouse, the restaurateur talks to Vanessa Yung about quitting Wall Street and giving his diners a warm hug
"My family came from Italy and they moved to the United States after the second world war. In Italy, they made wine and had restaurants. In the US, my father worked as a waiter and they opened their first restaurant in New York City in 1968, the year I was born. I would go to the restaurant after school. I used to work in the kitchen, do my homework downstairs and we'd eat dinner at the restaurant every night."
"I'm not a good cook, I'm not a chef. I learned more about how to run a restaurant."
"The restaurant industry used to be one very difficult job. [In the US] It was a job for immigrants - Italian, Chinese and Greek. But now it's different; it's more about glamour, media and celebrity chefs. So it's definitely gone through a big evolution over the last 40 years."
"It was my genetic prerogative to be in the restaurant business - I had to go back to it. My family didn't want me to work in a restaurant. My father always said I had to do something else - go to college, get a good education and get an important job. I did that and then realised I really wanted to work in the restaurant industry. My mother and father were both very supportive of what I wanted to do. I quit [Wall Street] and moved to Italy for two years.