Inducted in 2017
Restauranteur; Television Personality; Media Executive; Author
Father of Two Prep Graduates

Born in 1968 to Italian immigrants and restauranteurs Felice Bastianich and Lidia Mattichio Bastianich, New York City native Joseph Bastianich grew up in the restaurant business, and quite literally, at that.  He spent his boyhood in Bayside, Queens along with his younger sister, Tanya. With their parents working long hours back in the kitchen and out in the dining room of the family's trattoria, the Bastianich children would come to consider their parents’ workplace a second home from a very early age — even sleeping on flour sacks in the storeroom on particularly late nights.

Joe attended Sacred Heart Academy, his Bayside parish grammar school. A diligent and hardworking student, he was soon proving himself diligent and hardworking outside the classroom as well — clearly his parents’ example had left an impression. By the time Joe was twelve, Felice and Lidia had already begun to make names for themselves on the New York food scene as the proprietors of Felidia’s on Manhattan’s East Side. And so, in addition to his paper route and other neighborhood odd jobs, it was only natural that Joe would put in hours at the restaurant after school and on weekends sweeping up, washing dishes, or bussing tables.

Taking a series of summer courses as part of what was then known as the Early Admissions Program, Joe was able to skip the eighth grade and found himself crossing the Whitestone Bridge to attend Fordham Prep in September of 1981. As Joe himself has noted, his Shea Hall years were a transformative period in his life, opening up for him for the first time a world outside of Queens and his parents' restaurant.

Though he continued to work at Felidia’s throughout his high school years, Joe also found time to leave his mark on the Prep with the Photography Club, with some of his work immortalized in the yearbook and other student publications of the day.  Looking back, he has always spoken fondly of the camera squad’s moderator in the mid-1980s: Mrs. Suzanne Henry, recently retired at the time of Joe’s 2017 Hall of Honor induction.

Joseph Bastianich would graduate the Prep on June 7, 1985, receiving commendations for excellence in Italian and religious studies along the way.

Joe could have easily slipped directly into the restaurant business straight out of high school, but that was never his parents’ wishes. The Bastianiches believed in the value of education, and that their children should have the opportunity to discern their own paths in life. And so, after leaving Rose Hill, Joe would matriculate at Boston College to study business, earning his degree in 1989.

The finance major would put in some time on Wall Street, believing he would find his life’s calling in the markets. In the end, however, he could not escape the “genetic” lure of the culinary world. As Joe once told the New York Times, after two years as a bond trader, he simply “snapped.” “I missed the people,” he added,

“the excitement. A restaurant is not a job; it's a way of life. And if you've ever felt that pulse, been a part of that life, it's hard to do anything else.”

By 1993, after spending some time in Italy, Joe had found a sense of clarity and purpose, and he dove headfirst into the family business. With his mother, Lidia, as his partner, he opened Becco in the theater district to rave reviews. It was followed in 1998 by renowned restaurant, Babbo in Greenwich Village. Babbo’s opening was lauded by critics, and continued to enjoy the reputation as the premiere New York establishment for high-end Italian cuisine even at the the time of Joe's Hall of Honor induction.

With an appreciation of good food and a profound respect for his Italian heritage, Joe has built upon all that he learned from his parents, including his experience in the media industry working on his mother’s PBS cooking series. He has grown the Bastianich family business into an international empire with restaurant locations in the United States, Europe and Asia; Manhattan’s flagship Eataly artisanal food marketplace; television series on both sides of the Atlantic; and books including cookbooks and a New York Times bestseller: Restaurant Man.

Joseph is married to Deanna Damiano Bastianich, who was involved in the business end of the fashion industry when they met in the early ‘90s. They were married in 1995 at St. Ignatius Church on the East Side, and have three children: Miles, Ethan, and Olivia. Following in their father’s Rose Hill footsteps, Miles is a member of the Prep Class of 2018 and Ethan, the Class of 2020.

Joseph Bastianich has remained close to Fordham Prep and to the people who were important to him during his time at Rose Hill. He has been generous with his time and talent, hosting Prep events and making himself available to the school community. Together with his mother, Joe and his wife, Deanna, have been instrumental in establishing the Bastianich & Friends Scholarship Fund, ensuring that other hardworking young men have the same opportunity at the transformative experience that helped shape the boy from Queens decades ago.