- A few years ago, I went to PBS, and I said, "I would like to do a show, 'Lidia celebrates America.'"

(gentle upbeat music) It is our honor and pleasure to be here today because I know the price and the value of freedom.

(gentle upbeat guitar music) I've left my big city home behind to discover real small-town America through its food.

Like this?

- Lidia would go, and she would visit with the family that had been chosen for those specials.

(gentle music) - I am Dr. Barbecue.

Welcome.

Greetings.

- Pleasure, Doctor.

- [Shelly] Lidia encourages viewers to embrace different cultures through food.

- L'Chaim.

- [All] L'Chaim.

- [Shelly] You can have a really good time.

- I'm excited!

- Wow!

- and eat well while you're doing it.

- This is my kingdom here.

- I see.

- Come on, come on, come on.

- It's beautiful.

- We cook together.

We eat together.

And then we talk.

Let me have the jacket, and let's get serious here.

- I can keep my pants on?

(Lidia laughing) - For her, it's really all about people creating a better food experience for themselves.

- What do you have here?

- So, we have Swiss chard.

- Lidia's like, "I've learned so much.

"I've lived such a life.

Why would I hold it for myself?

"I need to give it to everybody.

"Everyone needs to like, if they want it, here it is."

(gentle upbeat music) - Mmm!

Perfecto!

Everything is kind of dancing.

Mmm!

Mmm!

Good.

Really good.

This is good.

Now when you share food together, you're family.

So we're family.

- Yes.

- Okay - Love it.

- Buon appetito.

(somber music) (alarm blaring) - And then the pandemic hit, and everything came to a stop.

We weren't sure what to do.

- So we were still trying to produce and create for the viewers.

That's what she does.

That's what she loves to do.

- Here we are in my kitchen.

I'm here with my grandson Lorenzo, and... - My son Lorenzo, who had been sent home from college would mask up and go in and help her shoot some videos.

- Hi Olivia.

How you doing?

- Hi, I'm good.

How are you?

- Everybody was doing things through Zoom.

It did present its own challenges, but what was great is we got some really intimate moments with her mom telling stories.

- Do you know what my mother tell me?

She tried to teach me how to do pasta, and she said to me, "You have to know seven different pasta "or there was nobody will marry you."

(Lidia laughing) - It was nice to have that perspective from Erminia, and she was so sweet.

She was dressed up in her like house dress.

Like it was just, I was like, "Yes, this is all the feels."

I was like, "I'm in my nightgown too, directing.

"This is great.

Like let's do it together Grandma."

(Lidia speaking in foreign language) I'm blessed because most of my life I spent close to my mother.

But the pandemic gave me that extra two years to really nurture her and be with her and reconnect in many different ways.

Because, you know, as she was getting older, I realized that the time, you know, I had with her was limited.

(gentle music) - And when we did lose her, I think that was something that we didn't want to admit.

I didn't want to admit, I guess you could say.

I still talk about her in the present tense 'cause I'm just like, "Nope, we're good."

Like she's just with us all the time.

It's totally fine.

(gentle music) - Till this day, I mean she's gone two years, and at the end of the shows, there's a tribute to her.

We have little clips where she sang.

(Erminia and Lidia singing in foreign language) - And people just love it.

Still love it.

I love it because, you know, she certainly deserves.

She was part of the success.

- Alla salute.

(glasses clinking) - Alla nostra salute.

- Alla nostra salute.

(glasses clinking)