Chef Lidia Bastianich signs children's book on LI

Italian chef Lidia Bastianich is a famed TV personality, cookbook author and restaurateur -- and now she's written a second children's book, "Nonna's Birthday Surprise" (R.P. Kids, $16.95), aimed at getting kids to embrace seasonally available foods.

Here's what else Bastianich has to say about her new book, which is geared to ages 4 and older:

I've been telling my grandchildren stories about my life as a young girl in a quite different setting, a setting that is quite connected to food, to the Earth. I grew up in a courtyard. In this courtyard, we had ducks, we had chickens, we had rabbits, we had goats, we had pigs. I would tell them we had a baby goat, usually one at a time, even two sometimes. We used to put a red ribbon around their neck, and we used to play with them. The baby kid would jump all over. I would explain that to the children. How I would collect the different grasses with my grandmother for the rabbits, and feed the baby rabbits. And how ultimately, this was the food that we ate. It made them understand in a real way the connection to food. I felt, "I'm going to put this down. I'm going to record this."

If you have that broccoli cooking in the home all along, even when you were expecting, the flavors permeate, the odors permeate. Ultimately there comes a time, they see it on the table, they'll taste it. You can't shove it down their throat. You have to make them become friends, understand it, become part of their life.

SEE PHOTOS50 things every LI family should do in 2017

You get them involved in the preparation. You, as a parent, have to find the time to sit down and set the example. I think that cooking is such an easy way to build confidence in children. If they make something, a lemonade or something, and the whole family enjoys it -- "Wow, this is delicious" -- they say, "Gee, I made that. My family is drinking and eating that."

SEE PHOTOSLI restaurants where kids eat free