Resourcefulness resurgence: 'Lidia Celebrates America: Changemakers' showcases chefs, farmers and entrepreneurs striving to change the future of food

Lidia Bastianich knows her way around the kitchen.

The award-winning TV host, author, restaurateur and chef is back with a PBS special, “Lidia Celebrates America: Changemakers.” It will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also be available to stream on the PBS app.

Resourcefulness resurgence: 'Lidia Celebrates America: Changemakers' showcases chefs, farmers and entrepreneurs striving to change the future of food

In her upcoming PBS special, Bastianich shines a national spotlight on progressive chefs, farmers and entrepreneurs around the U.S. striving to change the future of food — whether by increasing local access to produce, creating communities that teach people to grow vegetables, reviving Indigenous ingredients for healthful Native cuisine, or introducing the American palate to sustainable ingredients such as insects.

Bastianich said for the special, she traveled to Minneapolis, Stockton, California, Inglewood, California, and Middletown, Virginia, to visit those who work hard to change the availability of healthy food in their communities and to alter the way we perceive food in America.

“In ‘Changemakers,’ I meet with inspiring and passionate Americans who are trying to improve our lives by helping us attain better access to nutritious food, and by reconnecting us with nature and our environment,” Bastianich said.

Born in Pula, a small city on the southern tip of the Istrian Peninsula in present-day Croatia, Bastianich grew up in a poor community where food was scarce.

When it came to cooking and eating, she and her neighbors demonstrated a remarkable spirit of ingenuity and of sharing.

Resourcefulness remains a fundamental part of who Bastianich is today, a chef bolstered by the belief that food is increasingly being wasted and increasingly scarce.

“Our approach to food needs to be increasingly rooted in using local and available products, cooked with less waste,” she said. “With 1.3 billion tons of food going to waste each year, that’s enough food to feed two billion people.”

Bastianich is intent on getting out the critical message that “when we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport and package it.”

Bastianich said being able to highlight the work of each chef has been an amazing task.

In Minneapolis, she met with James Beard award-winning chef and restaurateur Sean Sherman at his most recent undertaking, The Indigenous Food Lab Market, a teaching kitchen and market for Indigenous foods, and also at his upscale restaurant, Owamni, which focuses on Indigenous food, flavor and culture.

Also in Minneapolis, she stopped to talk with Claire and Chad Simons, who strive to make edible insects more accessible to the American palate with their company, 3 Cricketeers. She said insects represent sustainable protein and are consumed by 2 billion people worldwide.

She also stopped by the 3 Cricketeers’ test kitchen to taste-test a new pasta made with cricket powder and cricket pesto.

Bastianich then travels to Middletown, Virginia, where she met up with chef Kari Rushing, who is on a mission to change America’s perception of Appalachian cuisine.

Her restaurant, Vault & Cellar, marries the resourcefulness of Appalachia — making do with what you have — with the refinement of fine dining.

In the special, Rushing prepares cabbage steak and “rabbit food,” incorporating rabbit, braised greens and roasted carrots.

The TV host then travels to Stockton, California, where she spends time with Patricia Miller, who works with Centre Plate, LLC helping to run an aggregated community supported agriculture (CSA) for local farmers that grows healthy food and educates families with recipes and container farming instructions. Miller is also co-founder of the Black Urban Farmers Association (BUFA) of Stockton.

Staying in California, Bastianich travels to Inglewood, where she volunteers to distribute fresh produce with the Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI), which strives to improve access to healthy foods across Inglewood by delivering free produce to pop-up markets, schools and medical clinics.

Every Friday, SJLI brings produce to their distribution center, giving away up to 15,000 pounds of produce to community food banks, churches, nonprofits and individuals.

“We need to take steps toward ensuring a more secure food future for everyone, and we need to do it now,” she said.