Joe Bastianich's Transformation Is Seriously Turning Heads

Top restaurateur and television personality Joe Bastianich was born with an enviable culinary pedigree. His mother, Lidia Bastianich, opened her first New York City eatery when Joe was a child, later becoming an award-winning chef famous for her Northern Italian cuisine. And her husband, Joe's father, Felice, grew the business as her partner. Julia Child was a friend. Despite his connections, Joe Bastianich initially balked at following in their footsteps, pursuing a career in finance. In her book, "My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food," Lidia Bastianich even recalls her son feeling embarrassed by the smell of fish and produce in their family station wagon, a result of trips back and forth from the market to pick up supplies.

Soon enough, however, Joe realized a career in food was his true calling after all. He and his mother eventually partnered with celebrity chef Mario Batali to open several top-rated restaurants and Eataly, a franchise of high-end Italian food markets in some of the country's largest cities. Bastianich later survived professional scandal when the New York Attorney General opened an investigation into his restaurants in the wake of the #MeToo movement. And to this day, he still appears as a notoriously tough-to-please judge on the reality competition show "MasterChef." In the meantime, he's pursued his passion for music and fitness, while also growing his family. Clearly, there are many layers to Joe Bastianich, a fascinating figure who's transformed over and over through the years. Let's take a look.

Joe Bastianich is still married to his wife of over 26 years, Deanna. Per their New York Times wedding announcement, they tied the knot in 1995 after meeting through friends, then moving in together just three weeks later. And yes, his mother did most of the cooking for their reception. Apparently, before meeting her husband, Deanna hadn't been much of a foodie, having "subsisted primarily on yogurt, popcorn, bagels and cereal." By the time she married Bastianich, enormous Italian weekend feasts prepared by his family had become the norm.

In the years since, they have welcomed three children: Miles, Olivia, and Ethan. And while Bastianich doesn't publicly share much about his brood, he does occasionally post about them on his social media to wish them happy birthday or hail their major life accomplishments, like completing college. In 2013, Bastianich told the New York Daily News their interest in the family business remained to be seen. "My kids are immersed in the food and wine world. I don't really shove it down their throats, but to the extent they want to participate in it, it's always around them."

These days, it's easy to see that Joe Bastianich is in great shape. But that wasn't always the case. By his own account, Bastianich used to be 60 pounds overweight and suffering from sleep apnea as a result. In 2006, he recalled being told by a doctor that both his cholesterol levels and blood pressure were dangerously high. The news worried him enough that he decided, on the spot, to lose the weight once and for all. At first, it wasn't easy. "I come from a family that loves to eat, not exercise," he told Runner's World. "Being fat made even walking hard." At first, just a few minutes walking on a treadmill left him winded. Gradually, his stamina improved. "I walked one mile, then two, then three. Then I began to pick up the pace and started running."

Just four years later, Bastianich was not only significantly slimmer, but he was running marathons. In 2011, he completed an Ironman World Championship. Of his family's reaction to his newfound fitness, Bastianich told Epicurious: ​​"They're incredulous." The key to everything, he added, was re-examining his approach to eating. "When I stopped looking at food as a reward or a celebration and began looking at food as energy to fuel my athletic ambitions, that really kind of changed the whole world for me," he says. "That was the real aha! Moment."

In 2010, the year Joe Bastianich turned 40, his father, Felice, fell ill, passing away later that year. To cope with his emotions, Bastianich started writing the book that later became his 2012 memoir "Restaurant Man." In the tome, he pulled no punches recounting his experiences in the New York food scene, which reportedly offended everyone from an Esquire food writer to the owner of Manhattan hotspot Le Cirque for their unflattering portrayals. "I didn't see the point in writing a fluff book," Bastianich stated. "If I was going to do it, it was going to be like me, completely honest."

Rather than a gossipy tell-all, however, he maintained the book was actually an homage to both his parents, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel it was "an unabridged story of what happened in my life, the good, bad and ugly. I think if you read the book you can understand what has made me, the son of an immigrant. People who left everything behind and worked hard, a sense of frugality and respect of earning money." He drove this point further home while speaking to Bon Appetit, explaining that his father "was very sick when I started writing the book, and I just felt that story needed to be told."

The #MeToo movement, which brought to light many sexual workplace abuses committed by powerful men, hit home for Joe Bastianich with a report from New York Magazine's Eater that was published on December 22, 2017. In it, multiple employees accused Bastianich's business partner, Mario Batali, of inappropriate behavior in their restaurants that included physical groping. Batali swiftly apologized for his past behavior and stepped away from both the day-to-day running of his businesses and his media commitments.

Bastianich issued his own statement, acknowledging there was more he could have done to stop Batali. "I'm proud of what our teams accomplish every day, and I've always tried to show respect for them and their work," his statement read. "I'm re-examining my own behavior to ensure that everyone I work with feels that respect." Two years later, with Batali facing criminal charges for some of his alleged conduct, Bastianich and his mother formally cut business ties with him altogether, going as far as removing Batali's products from Eataly. According to Vox, the Bastianichs also beefed up their human resource department and installed an employee hotline for reporting harassment. In 2021, following an investigation by the New York Attorney General, and Batali agreed to pay $600,000 to a group of female employees who claimed they had been sexually harassed while on the job. 

Covid-19 caused the permanent closure of countless restaurants in New York City, including two of Joe Bastianich's. Del Posto, his upscale Italian eatery that won a four-star review from the New York Times in 2010, finally shuttered its doors after 15 years. But there was a silver lining. Bastianich and his mother sold the space to a group that included Del Posto's longtime general manager, Jeff Katz, and executive chef Melissa J. Rodriguez. "Jeff and Melissa were the driving force behind the success and evolution of Del Posto," Bastianich said in a statement to the New York Times. "I am happy and proud that they will continue that evolution into the future."

Another Bastianich restaurant, Otto, famous for its pizza, had already closed as well, having temporarily opened for take-out during the pandemic, before closing its doors for good. At the time, Bastianich did not downplay the ruinous effect Covid-19 was having on the entire industry, telling Italian online food website Identita Golose: "My restaurants in New York are all closed. Or rather: in two restaurants we've placed a few tables outside, but it's very little, and on top of that here it rains almost every day. The other 15 are closed. Most of all: there's no opening date, we know nothing, and we can't make plans. It's a devastating situation." Felidia, Lidia Bastianich's renowned Italian restaurant, later closed for good in the fall of 2021.