Coming from an Italian family of restaurateurs, Joe Bastianich naturally gravitated toward anything that had to do with Italian food and cooking from a very young age. He was born and raised in America but had his roots in Italy. His parents were immigrants in New York City and they started by waiting at tables in the city’s restaurants.
Joe had a middle-class upbringing. When his parents jointly opened their restaurant, Joe helped out by washing dishes in the kitchen and learning the tricks of the trade — cooking and running the restaurant business. A trip to the land that is internationally renowned for its Mediterranean cuisine — Italy– fascinated Joe and made him dive deeper into his native culture, cuisine, and wine. This inspired him to start his own food business and open signature restaurants in the heart of New York City back in America. This never came easy though. He spent a couple of years in Italy to imbibe the culture of the land before he had the nerve to pour out the Italian soul in food by opening restaurants in a spurt over the years across NY, the rest of the States, Singapore, Hongkong, and in Italy.
Joe is a familiar face on the American and Italian versions of the MasterChef series. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you are looking to connect with this man who wears many hats (he is also an accomplished musician, a reality show judge, an actor, and a best-selling author besides being an extremely successful restaurateur and winemaker). Given his stature and numerous professional commitments though it is hard to believe that he would be easily accessible. Following are the top three ways of reaching out to Joe and his team.
Through Manager or Publicist
It helps to study celebrities (in this case Joe Bastianich) before you approach them for anything official or commercial. If you are a business person, ensure Joe’s values coincide with yours before you decide to launch him as the face of your product and/or services. Dig facts and learn what his prices are to determine if he fits your budget. Draw up an interesting presentation that will convince him about how you could be adding value to his brand. Typically, wannabe celebrities look for media mileage, exposure, and money to build their public image. None of this is true for Joe though. He needs nothing and no one to further his brand or empire that already enjoys massive global popularity.
Joe would want to know how he could be contributing to your project and what could be the qualitative gains for both him and you. He will be a tough nut to crack as celebrities are expected to be guarded about business deals before signing on the dotted line. Dealing with celebrity skepticism and hesitations is part of the game, so develop a thick skin and take nothing personally if you want to finalize the deal. But for all these, you will need to approach his agency/PR/publicist directly, instead of the man himself. Busy that he is, he remains unavailable for the most part. In any case, for inquiries you can write to info@bastianich.com.
Make your message quick and impactful. If you can please Joe’s team, they will oblige you with contact information for further negotiations. Business deals are never sealed in the first meet; warm up with them and follow up eventually for updates. Do not come across as someone who is there to take something from Joe, but would rather be willing to add value to his brand.
Connect through Social Media Platforms
Understandably you have immense respect and admiration for Joe’s work, his talent, and his skills as an entrepreneur or MasterChef. You wish you could meet him in person for a quick chat. That’s what most of us would dream of, right? Alas! Much that we would hate to hear, but the fact is — celebrities (for the large part) do remain out of regular reach! But the good news is that they are everywhere on their social media handles these days.
Social media is a free gateway (though some celebrities are specific about maintaining a select list on their page, and activate filters to discard messages that appear irrelevant to them) to their inner world. You need not secure formal permissions from their PR guys to know them here in this territory.
If you wish to know Joe from closer quarters as an admirer, maybe you should start following him there. This is also the space they use freely and extensively to promote their activities – videos, photos, messages to their audience, or anything they believe their fans would be interested to know. Even if you are looking up Joe for commercial dealings/contracts or a cover interview, social media can fill you with relevant details. The following are links to Joe’s social media pages — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Write a Fan Mail
If you are thinking of writing to Joe, then there’s a method (rather, it would apply to any celebrity). Snail mails may be rare these days but a section of fans still prefer pouring their hearts out to their favorite stars through fan letters /postal mails. Also, official email IDs of celebrities may be hard to retrieve, some may be defunct. Celebrities do not like sharing their personal IDs with anyone because of security reasons; in that case, you are left with no option other than sending your messages to Joe’s representatives instead.
For starters, take care not to include anything offensive or upsetting in your message — keep it plain and simple. Send the letter in a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and ensure that you do not cross the permissible weight limit. Specify your request clearly in the letter (autograph, picture, etc). They will oblige as long as the request is modest and reasonable. It may take a while to hear back from them, but they do respond. Please note Joe’s fan mail address –
Becco (Restaurant)
355 West 46th Street
New York, NY 10036
United States
Here’s wishing good luck to you!
