The beloved Lidia Bastianich--best-selling cookbook author, award-winning television personality, and renowned restaurateur--tells her heartwarming, emotional and revelatory personal story for the first time, with hallmark warmth and gusto.Lidia's story begins with her childhood in Pula, a small city in northern Italy turned Yugoslavian under Tito's communist regime. Despite the political climate and her family's poverty, she enjoyed a loving upbringing, spending time in the simple, rugged beauty of her surroundings: fishing, farming, and foraging, and learning about Italian cooking from her beloved grandmother, Nonna Rosa. When the communist regime began investigating her family, they made the difficult decision to flee to Trieste, Italy, where they spent two years in a refugee camp waiting for visas to enter the United States--an experience that has affected Lidia ever since. At the age of 12, Lidia started a new life in New York. As a young teenager, she began working in restaurants--the first step toward the creation of her own American dream. In this book, in vivid detail, she recounts her journey of fulfilling that dream. Supported by her close-knit family, and fueled by her dedication and endless passion for food, her drive ultimately led her to owning multiple restaurants, writing several cookbooks, and acting as host of her own television cooking show for twenty years. This memoir is an absolute must-have for the millions of Lidia fans who are eager to know her whole story at last.