Giada Pamela De Laurentiis (born August 22, 1970) is an Italian American chef, writer, television personality, and the current host of the Food Network programs Everyday Italian, Behind the Bash, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, and Giada in Paradise. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC’s Today. De Laurentiis is the founder of the catering business GDL Foods.
Personal life
De Laurentiis was born Giada Pamela De Benedetti in Rome, Italy, the eldest child of actress Veronica De Laurentiis and her first husband, actor-producer Alex De Benedetti, who was a close associate of his wife’s father, the film producer Dino De Laurentiis. Her parents were married in February 1970, just months before her birth. After their parents’ divorce, De Laurentiis and her siblings moved to Southern California, where Giada and her siblings took their mother’s surname.
Her grandparents are producer Dino De Laurentiis and Italian film star Silvana Mangano. Her siblings include sister Eloisa, a makeup artist, and brothers Dino Alexander, a Hollywood film editor, and Igor. Her stepfather is producer Ivan Kavalsky.
De Laurentiis graduated from Marymount High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology from UCLA (1996).
In 2003, she married Todd Thompson, a fashion designer for Anthropologie. The two had been dating since 1991. The couple’s first child, Jade Marie De Laurentiis Thompson, was born on March 29, 2008.
De Laurentiis was named number 96 on AskMen.com’s list of "The Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008." De Laurentiis, dubbed as "a petite powerhouse" by Town & Country magazine, stands "just under five feet two."
Career
De Laurentiis, a self-proclaimed chocoholic, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France with aspirations of becoming a pastry chef. After returning to the United States, she became a professional chef working in several Los Angeles restaurants, notably the Wolfgang Puck-owned Spago. She later worked as a food stylist, and was contacted by Food Network after styling a piece in Food & Wine Magazine in 2001.
Her cooking program, Everyday Italian, has been broadcast on Food Network since 2003. On her Chefography (a Food Network biography program), she admitted that she never wanted to be in her "family business" of show business. She felt very uncomfortable in front of the camera when she first began hosting Everyday Italian, but has since become more relaxed and open on air. When the program first aired, Food Network received emails accusing the network of hiring a model or actress pretending to cook instead of a real chef.
De Laurentiis began hosting Behind the Bash in October 2006. The program examines the catering process behind big event extravaganzas such as the Grammy Awards. In January 2007, a third De Laurentiis-hosted show, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, debuted on Food Network. On this show, De Laurentiis travels to a featured locale (such as Seattle, South Beach, San Francisco, Napa and Jackson Hole, Wyoming) and visits her favorite local culinary destinations.
On a November 2006 episode of Iron Chef America, De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay competed against, and were defeated by, Rachael Ray and Mario Batali.
In 2007, De Laurentiis appeared as a presenter on the inaugural Food Network Awards. In June 2007, she hosted a two-part Food Network special entitled Giada in Paradise, featuring the two locales of Santorini, Greece and Capri, Italy. De Laurentiis also made several appearances as a guest judge on the third season of The Next Food Network Star, which aired in 2007. Beginning in 2008, De Laurentiis will star in a new Food Network program entitled Giada at Home.
De Laurentiis is a spokesperson for the pasta manufacturer Barilla.
Giada De Laurentiis Loves Tomatoes
On average, this sexy television show chef uses two thirty-two-ounce cans of tomatoes every day. Over the course of a year, that’s…a lot of red sauce. And we’ve got the pictures to prove it.
In her crusade to show the world how much enjoyment can be derived from Italian cooking, De Laurentiis goes through a lot of tomatoes. An average of two thirty-two-ounce cans per day (as shown in the first slide), to be precise. So in a month that would be… well, you can see that in the second photo. "Canned tomatoes are packaged when they’re the ripest and the sweetest," she says, "so there’s really no reason to go with fresh."
Giada’s Homemade Sauce
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 small onions, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- 2 32-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
- 2 dried bay leaves
In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrots, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Sauté until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bay leaves, and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Season with more salt and pepper to taste.
Makes about 2 quarts.
How to get the sauce to stick to the pasta
"Before you strain the pasta, save 1/4 cup of the pasta water," says De Laurentiis. "Then drain the pasta, add a little Parmesan cheese, then add your tomato sauce — and then mix in the reserved pasta water. The starches in the water help the sauce stick. It comes out really nice and creamy."
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