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Millions of home cooks and foodies know the name Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, the chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author whose cooking shows have guided us through the intricacies of Italian cuisine since 1998. Her PBS series, Lidia Celebrates America, winner of three James Beard awards, has been turning the camera toward the country’s diverse culinary landscape for the past 14 years.
Now Denver is part of that landscape, with a spotlight on SAME Café, the nonprofit restaurant on East Colfax Avenue that operates on a pay-what-you-can model. The name itself is an acronym for “so all may eat.”
Bastianich and the Lidia Celebrates America film crew recently came to the Mile High City as a stop for this season’s “A Nation of Neighbors” episode, which PBS describes as honoring volunteers dedicated to fighting hunger, sharing meals, and uniting communities in several cities.
Bastianich says she’s been to Denver before as part of PBS fundraising efforts, and she’s visited other nonprofit restaurants (such as Jon Bon Jovi’s JBJ Soul Kitchen in New Jersey) in the U.S., but she was impressed by how closely SAME Café works with the community to stock its kitchen and prepare meals.
“Not only do they put out good nutritional food, but one of the things that I learned about SAME Café is that the neighbors…grow vegetables and they bring them here, and they use these vegetables to make healthy, seasonal food,” she says.
Bastianich had a chance to cook in the cafe’s kitchen, so she demonstrated one of her classic recipes: spaghetti aglio e olio. “It’s a simple recipe that, when all else fails and it’s the middle of winter and you don’t have vegetables, you just need spaghetti, olive oil, and garlic—it’s everybody’s favorite,” she says. “And what’s good about it is that, as a chef, you can add to it. It’s a very versatile dish, and it’s inexpensive and flavorful.”
Not only is SAME Café spotlighted for its mission of providing meals and work opportunities to people experiencing food and housing insecurity, but it also played host to the nonprofits from other cities featured in the episode. SAME Café executive director Carrie Shores says part of the filming involved a group dinner where all of the other directors came together in the restaurant’s dining room over food to discuss current issues facing food-based organizations.
“The construction here has really made it difficult for us and business has been down as much as 30 percent,” Shores says of the East Colfax Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project that has closed lanes and restricted traffic for months outside SAME Café. “Having Lidia come here and show what we’re doing is such a big thing for us right now.”
In addition to SAME Café, the episode includes volunteers providing disaster relief meals in parts of Los Angeles hit by last winter’s wildfires, a free grocery store in San Francisco, and a lunch program in Portland serving the elderly Japanese community.
“A Nation of Neighbors” debuts as part of Lidia Celebrates America on PBS. Check the Rocky Mountain PBS schedule for airing times or stream it on the PBS website or the PBS app.
