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At last week’s preview event I had the opportunity to speak with all three of Eataly’s public faces—partners Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, and Joe Bastianich—each of whom has a different take on what Eataly is about and what it aims to accomplish (and be profitable at). Those interviews will appear here for the next three days; first up is Joe Bastianich. As a food celebrity he’s best known as one of the judges of MasterChef, along with Chicago chef Graham Elliot and Gordon Ramsay. But talking to him it becomes clear that he’s the one most focused on the business vision of Eataly and readiest to talk about why it makes sense to take a chance on a massive market devoted to fine Italian foodstuffs in Chicago. Tomorrow I speak with Joe’s mother, Lidia, about Eataly’s mission to improve Italian food, and on Wednesday, Mario Batali will share his chef’s perspective.
Joe Bastianich: What’s worth doing once is worth doing ten times, especially in a city like Chicago.
Little things. We’re going to do an Italian beef sandwich. We’re going to do a fried whitefish in the Fritto restaurant. Obviously the beer is going to be a homage to Chicago. And then at the end of the day, the flour for the pasta is local. The eggs are local. The barley for the [in-house] beer is local. The beef’s coming from Iowa. And there’s a lot of sensibility of the heartland of America in sourcing these products.
Chicago has an Italian culture in place, with some stores, though not necessarily in this area. What are people going to see here that they haven’t seen in that little Italian grocery?
You feel good about the salumi, then?
