When it comes to hiring a chef for her restaurants, Lidia Bastianich looks beyond the resume of the person’s culinary career, prowess in the kitchen and good references. It is a lot more personal for her. She considers the person’s potential. Is he creative? Can he execute with precision at the spur of the moment? Will he be able to go the extra mile in preparing for special events? And importantly, can they collaborate together?

“This is not a solitary journey,” the restaurateur/chef/cookbook author says. “It’s a combination of following my philosophy of Italian homecooking that is presented in a seasonal way with locally sourced produce and being creative.” People who go to her restaurants know Italian food, the straightforwardness of it, and expect it, she says. To deliver it, she says her Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group has to be able to work with the chef. “We have to be able to dance together, shall we say.”