Giada De Laurentiis talks about her new cookbook, Eat Better, Feel Better, her career and her decade-long health journey, and filming ‘Bobby and Giada in Italy’. Giada talks about the personal health issues that inspired her latest cookbook, and her favorite nutritious recipes from the book (Plus, what she typically eats in a day unless she’s traveling, when all bets are off). Giada also talks about her childhood, and how growing up in a family of filmmakers influenced her career in both food and television. And Giada shares her most memorable moments filming with Bobby Flay in Italy and the things Bobby does that drive her crazy.
Giada De Laurentiis talks about her new cookbook, Eat Better, Feel Better, her career and her decade-long health journey, and filming ‘Bobby and Giada in Italy’. Giada talks about the personal health issues that inspired her latest cookbook, and her favorite nutritious recipes from the book (Plus, what she typically eats in a day unless she’s traveling, when all bets are off). Giada also talks about her childhood, and how growing up in a family of filmmakers influenced her career in both food and television. And Giada shares her most memorable moments filming with Bobby Flay in Italy and the things Bobby does that drive her crazy.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/giada-de-laurentiis-on-filming-in-italy-with-bobby-flay-her-decade-long-health-journey
[MUSIC PLAYING] JAYMEE SIRE: Happy Friday, foodies, and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. Of course, this is the podcast where we dive into all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host Jaymee Sire and today on the pod we have a well-known Food Network favorite to talk all about her new cookbook and of course, her wanderlust inducing show on Discovery Plus. Of course, I'm talking about Giada de Laurentiis.
And I first met her on the set of Food Network Star. I got to be a guest judge along with Jemele Hill many, many years ago at this point. She was also a guest judge on Iron Chef Showdown when I was the floor reporter. So I'm excited to talk to her today, especially about just her health journey. Because I don't think a lot of people realize how much she has struggled with her health and eating over the last decade.
She has a brand new cookbook out. It has beautiful photos, beautiful recipes. I definitely have my eye on this mushroom toast recipe in there with some sauteed mushrooms and Tuscan kale, and of course, a runny egg on top. I'm always a sucker for that, and really a sucker for any kind of toast. So if you haven't checked out her cookbook, I highly recommend you doing so. But of course, you know her from hosting your favorite Food Network shows like Everyday Italian, Giada at Home, Giada Entertains, and most recently, Bobby and Giada in Italy for Discovery Plus. And that's just to name a few, guys.
She is also the author of 10 New York Times best selling cookbooks, including her most recent one that I was just alluding to, Eat Better, Feel Better-- My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out. We have so much to talk about. So let's get right to it. Here's Giada.
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JAYMEE SIRE: Giada, welcome to the pod. Thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing today?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: I'm doing all right. Now that we figured out all the technical stuff, we're good. Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well, you are joining us from a soundproof closet, which is, I think a first on Food Network Obsessed. But you sound great, so maybe that's going to be the new wave of podcast recordings. I might have to try that out.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: If I was a professional podcaster like you, maybe I would have a better setup. But I got to say, all the clothes and the shoes, they kind of work as a padding.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, they absorb the sound.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: It's my COVID closet.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, you and I first met on the set of Food Network Star. I got to be a guest judge, but that was a long time ago. A lot has happened since then. Namely, you have a brand new cookbook out. I know you've been so busy with your virtual book tour. I have a copy of it. It is Eat Better, Feel Better-- My Recipes for Wellness and Healing, Inside and Out, already a New York Times bestseller. So congratulations on that.
It is inspired by your journey to really take control of your health. I imagine there's a lot of people listening who might be dealing with similar issues that you experienced. Can you share a little bit more about what you were going through and why it inspired you to write this book?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Yes. So my book is sort of it's been in the works for quite some time. It's my journey from my 40s to my 50s. Because I just turned 50 last August. And it really started in my late 30s after I had my daughter, Jade. I started on the network-- oh, my gosh, I don't know, maybe two decades ago now. And I would say I although I come from a large Italian family and I grew up on a strictly pretty much a Mediterranean diet, I think I sort of drop that Mediterranean diet when I started working a lot.
And it's difficult to eat well, sleep well, all the things that we needed to take care of ourselves when you are on the road a lot and you work a ton, and you're never really home. And I think it caught up with me at the end of my 30s. I think that having my daughter pushed me over the edge and really gave me a wake up call. And I struggled mainly at the beginning with horrible sinus infections, like chronic. I was on antibiotics every month for two years straight. And I was beside myself.
I knew they weren't good for me. I had no other option. Every time I got on a plane, I was sick. So in my destination, wherever that would be, I'd have to find a doctor, get a steroid shot, and get myself through it. Because the sinus infections were so bad that I couldn't work. I couldn't be in sunlight. I couldn't be in daylight. I had to be in complete darkness because the pain in my eyes, I couldn't keep them open. And I had just so much pressure.
The sinus infections I had were so far up that at the bummer was is that the antibiotics, unless you took like 10 rounds in a row, never really kill the infection. And it was chronic, and bad, and I would go to the doctors and they'd say, well, you have a small child. She's in their first years of preschool. You're going to get a lot of infections. You're going to get-- and I kind of didn't buy it. And I think that after two years, I just had enough. I was at my breaking point emotionally, physically.
When I ate, I didn't feel good. Not only bloating, but just like stomach pains. I think that the antibiotics probably broke down my microbiome, which I talk in my book, which is that good bacteria that eats all of that flora and all-- it's just the perfect ecosystem in my gut was not there anymore because it had been killed off. And I just felt like it was a horrible vicious cycle. So I started to go to multiple functional medicine doctors and acupuncture, and doing all of these more Eastern medicine influence things that I started to realize where my issues were.
And my issues with my immune system, my hormones, , and truly it was my gut. And my gut was so, so off. It I had no microbiome left, no ecosystem left. And so I realized, OK, I've got to start rebuilding that. And little by little, that'll feed everything else. It'll rebuild my immune system and we'll get there. And I think it was just a way a philosophy of looking at your whole body as a whole rather than just a sinus infection. It took me a long time, Jaymee. We're talking like years and years to get myself back in action.
But I did it, little by little. And that's why like three or four years ago, I was like, I would really love to write a book about this. The only issue was that it's a departure. It's not so sexy. I try to make my books fun, and sexy, and romantic, and all those things that get people excited about cooking, especially because that's really what the Italian whole lifestyle is about. My publisher was like-- oh. And together, we went on the journey and they supported me and we did it.
But it was a long journey and I was very nervous to let this book-- to publish this book. Even though I felt like COVID had changed our mentality a little bit about our wellness, and gotten us really to wake up and realize that we really need to take care of ourselves. Anything anytime you do something that's a little different than when people think of, you've got to be careful for the backlash. So I'm so excited to hit the New York Times, and I'm still on it a month later. So it just shows me that a lot of things are timing and maybe just doing what you really feel like you need to get out there is helpful. And maybe somebody will find some helpful tips in there.
JAYMEE SIRE: Absolutely. I think-- I mean, health is sexy. We got to normalize that, right?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Especially for us women. We really need to make it sexy. I'm trying to do my best. It's just-- I think some of the beginning parts of the book, I think some people were like, oh, wow, she's going to talk about that kind of stuff? But I felt like if I didn't, it wouldn't resonate. You got to tell the truth about things, so.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I mean, I think it's real and I think that that's what people really gravitate towards, especially right now. And you mentioned the beginning of the book, because I think that that is really interesting to me because the very-- I would say like the first third of the book is really going into these struggles, these building blocks for the recipes themselves. And you don't really get to the recipes until a little bit later. Why was that so important to you, the way you structured this book?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Well, I felt like I could do one of two things. I could just put out a healthy cookbook and just give you a ton of healthy recipes, not really explain much other than the head notes and see what happens. But I felt like there was no basis for me to write a healthy cookbook without the story behind it. Because truly, most of my books have a lot of healthy recipes in them. They also have a lot of decadent recipes because that's Italian food. It's a balance between the two.
But I think that if you ask a lot of people, they'll be like-- oh, no, Giada is more of a healthy Mediterranean diet Italian chef and cook with her recipes. They don't think of me as like all I do is decadence. So I wanted to really differentiate the books and really tell you that I'm going to tell you the journey. And in order to do that, I need to spend hundreds pages doing that. I just said to my publisher, I need a third of the book to just be straight talk. No recipes involved. We can do sidebars, and pictures, and stuff like that, but the recipes have to come later.
And I really wanted the book to be separated like that. So the people when they got it they could be like, oh, this is the reading part, this is all recipes. Because the other option also was to mix everything in. Like the reboot for instance, has a specific recipes section. And I felt like it was just easier to say-- this is the part that tells you the journey, these are all the recipes. If you want to skip the journey, go to the recipes. If you want to skip the recipes, go to the journey or read the whole thing together, which is really what should happen. So that was really important to me. I felt like I couldn't put this cookbook out without really and truly digging deep into my journey and being as honest as possible.
JAYMEE SIRE: You mentioned that three day reboot, which you talk a lot about in the book. So for anyone that hasn't picked up a copy yet, we highly recommend you do. But this is a period of elimination that you essentially give your body a chance to kind of rest and reset. Can you talk a little bit more just about how you discover that and why it benefited you so much?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: So I discovered that through my acupuncturist and then some Ayurvedic food recipes. It's called punch of karma, but it's a whole week series. It's an Indian tradition, Ayurvedic Indian tradition, where you eliminate things and you actually don't eat a lot of things. It's very simplistic. Figure out what ails you, and what your body doesn't like, and what causes inflammation through food items, is by eliminating them little by little.
So it was important that I started to learn that. Now, usually, what you do is you take one ingredient at a time, wait a period of time, and then you can reintroduce it. I just eliminated all of it, all dairy, all gluten, all sugar, obviously, alcohol, and caffeine. And I was very addicted to sugar, very. And I'll explain in a minute like how addicted.
So I eliminated those things because my acupuncturist told me that she thought it would be helpful and I had had a little break. And I thought, OK, I can do this. If I'm not traveling, I could probably do it. I tell you it was very difficult and I only lasted three days in the beginning. And then I started to do it a little bit longer and I did it in increments.
And it was hard to figure out what really upset me because-- or upset my gut because I eliminated everything so I didn't really know. So slowly, I had to reintroduce and figure it out. The sugar and the caffeine were so hard because I lived on sugar for years. And anybody who knows me well knows I eat a lot of chocolate chips and I loved sugar cubes.
Now, white sugar cubes dipped in an espresso, so it's sugar with a side of espresso. And I would pop those anywhere I was, so the chew of it. And I think, and also little jams, in hotel rooms, you can get toast and jam, and they give you the little containers of jam. Well, I would eat all the little containers of jam. Forget the toast, I didn't care about the toast.
And I'm saying that's the addiction that I had. And that really gave me a ton of energy. I could have. I could work for a few hours and then I would crash, really hard crash. And then I'd have to pick myself up. Now, when you're young, you can pretty-- you can live like that, a little bit. But as you get older, that stuff just kind of catches up with you and then it stops working.
And caffeine was the same. It just gave me these horrible, vicious ups and downs. And that broke my immune system. That started to wear down my gut because my organs were working so hard. In the process of elimination, I came up with a three day reboot.
If you're just looking to feel lighter, less puffy, sleep better, get rid of some of that fog-- and I wanted to make sure that, first of all, it was doable, and I think three days, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, is doable for a lot of people, and also that it was food. Because you've seen a lot of reboots that are all liquid, or just greens, or-- I just wanted people to be able to eat.
Because if you can't do that, then I can't live on shakes alone, and I can't live on liquid alone. I can't think. I get really, I just get sick. It doesn't work for me. I get headaches. So I wanted food. So that's what I decided to do. So you could do a shake.
I have a green shake. I have one with like almond butter and strawberries. I have different ones in there. And then quinoa is fine. There's poached salmon in there. There's a lot of things that have body that you can eat. And I wanted those kind of recipes.
And I even break it down for you. So I give you the whole recipe and the days to do it, the way to plan out the menu. So I tried to make it as simple and easy as possible so that you didn't have to do a lot of work except make the recipes, which are really very simple. I mean I always tell people, there is no culinary creativity here. It's like as basic as we can possibly get.
JAYMEE SIRE: I'm curious where you're at with the sugar addiction now that you've been through this journey. Are you still eating-- I would imagine you're not still eating sugar cubes.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: So I always tell people, it's a journey. And I will say COVID was really hard because I was on a really good trajectory, and then COVID hit. And I, like everybody else, was making banana bread, and cookies, and everything under the sun. And I think there was more alcohol consumed by everybody than there probably was five years prior.
I think the stress got all of us. And plus, we were cooped up in our houses. And I don't know what to do to relieve stress other than cook. That was really my anchor. And so I definitely have sweets. I mean, I have a 13-year-old daughter. So, yes, we have sweets. No, I don't eat sugar cubes anymore. And I don't eat jam straight from the container anymore. I don't do those things anymore.
And I do watch, definitely, alcohol, and even caffeine, to be honest. I always have it, but I'll switch from coffee to green tea to coffee to green tea, like, I'll go back and forth with the type of caffeine. So, yes, I still have sugar, and I substitute. Sometimes I do honey in my coffee. Sometimes I do coconut sugar. I try not to do white processed sugar, if I can avoid it.
But there are days like a few days ago, my daughter wanted these blueberry banana muffins. And she wants them regular. She's always like, mom, regular. Not gluten-free, not sugar-free, regular. So I used white flour and white sugar.
JAYMEE SIRE: And you're still here.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: And I'm still here. So, yes, I think we can eat those things. We just need to also think about times in our lives where we don't eat those things so that we can give our organs a break, and a chance to reset, so they're not always working so hard to process.
Because over time, it's like a car, you never tune it up, or a computer, you never turn it down, shut it off, what's going to happen? It's going to be like, nope, and shut itself down. So that's basically what happens to us. We're all machines. That's what I try to do in the book.
On top of, for anybody who really wants to go for it, then you can do the three-day reboot. But there's compromises. Like for instance, if dairy is an issue, substitute Parmesan cheese with Pecorino. I'm not a big cheese substitute person, because I feel like there's a lot of processed stuff in that, too.
So for me, Pecorino, it's a sheep's milk cheese. Much easier to digest than a cow's milk cheese. But it still get that same saltiness, right? And use less of these things. So a lot of my recipes have Parmesan cheese. I don't use cream or anything like that. But they do have things like Parmesan cheese, and I would say, substitute with Pecorino, if that's easier for you, or just use much smaller amounts.
Where I was using 2, 2 and 1/2 cups of cheese in a pasta, I'm now using 1/4 to 1/2 cup. And that's divided between four people. So imagine how much you're actually having. And for some people, that's good enough.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, I think it makes you feel like you're still-- you're not depriving yourself of the cheese, but it's just a lot less, and a little bit better for your gut, like you said. It sounds like routine is also something that's become very important. And you're kind of finding this new balance. What is a typical day for you at home, and then how does that differ when you're traveling as it relates to your eating and just overall wellness?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: So when I'm home, obviously, I can control what I eat. So much more. And I like to do batch cooking when I'm home, which I talk about in the book, as well, where I make a batch of brown rice, or a batch of lentils, or a batch of quinoa, which will be the carbs, or bake some sweet potatoes.
And then, greens. So I have greens that I can saute, or you can just steam a bunch of greens, or just a box of arugula, or spinach, or anything you can make a salad with. And then I cook some protein. Whether I grill some chicken, or I have a lemon oregano pounded chicken that I grill. Or I do my poached salmon under olive oil. I put in olive oil so it's very rich. And if you put some of that olive oil that you cooked it in, it keeps for much longer.
And I can crumble that on top of salads if I want. I'll cook some beans and keep that to make a soup really easily. So batch cooking is really important when I'm home, so that I can grab and go and mix up meals easily. And that's something I started doing when I had my daughter so that I could have meals ready to go.
And then, depending on whether I'm doing an intermittent fasting, if I do, I won't have breakfast. And I have either some warm water with lemon, because I like warm in the morning. I know not everybody is the same, but the warmth is really soothing to the inside of the body, which is why a lot of us like coffee. That warmth, it's comfort, right?
So I just do warm wad of lemon if I'm intermittent fasting or if I'm doing the three-day reboot. Otherwise, a hot green tea, or coffee, which is my favorite. I'm usually then won't eat breakfast if I've been fasting. But if I'm not, then I all have my chia seed pudding, which I can make in advance. Or I really also just like cooked brown rice with salt, olive oil, maybe a couple of almond slivers, and some orange segments.
It's like my version of oatmeal, because oatmeal and oats don't do so well for me. So it's my version of a hot oatmeal, like a porridge-type-of-thing. If I need a snack, fruit, or an apple, something like that. Otherwise, for breakfast, I could always have a piece of toast, also, with almond butter. I really like that.
And then lunch, depending on how hungry I am, it's a salad or a soup. I like that. And then for dinner's the bigger one. So dinner, I love my Amalfi lemon chicken. I need a carb at night. I definitely need a carb at night. So either it's a sweet potato mash, or roasted vegetables with sweet potatoes, or even regular potatoes. Sometimes, it's pasta. If I make it for my daughter, sometimes, it's gluten-free, but she'll fight me on it. And with lots of veggies in it. I just make sure I put protein and veggies. Lots of them. And I eat more of the veggies and the protein that I eat of the pasta. So portions is super important, as well.
But that's like a regular day. And if I'm running around, then I make myself a little-- I have this quinoa nut granola thing that I make that has maple syrup in it, like high-grade maple syrup, and I snack on that if I'm on the go.
When I'm traveling, all bets are off. Forget it. It'll be almond croissants. It'll be multiple coffees a day. It'll be-- honestly, Jaymee? Whatever I want. With the knowledge that when I come back, we wrap that thing up. Go back to reboot.
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JAYMEE SIRE: Hey, guys. Jaymee here. We're going to take a quick break. But next up, we are chatting all things Bobby and Giada in Italy, so stick around.
I mean, I think that's the key, right? You found the balance that works best for you. And yeah, I think when you're traveling, there's no reason to restrict yourself, especially when you are back home in Italy. And speaking of which, as we kind of transition to Food Network Programming, because I could talk to you about food and nutrition all day, Bobby and Giada in Italy on Discovery Plus.
I watched it when it first premiered. It was a much needed little vacation to Italy at the time, especially with the cold weather here in New York, and also everything shut down and travel not really a possibility at that time. I just think it was shot so beautifully. It was a beautiful story. It was also just fun to see you in your element. And then you've got Bobby, who is a wannabe Roman. You guys are exploring together. Do you have a, as you kind of think back on that, a favorite moment from filming, either on or off the camera?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: There's so many. We laughed so much. I think some of my favorite moments are Bobby speaking Italian. I used to tease him a lot about it, and I think that that made him insecure about speaking Italian. And then he spent six weeks in Rome before we shot. That's how the whole thing came about. And he took Italian classes the whole time.
And his Italian really came-- I was really shocked at how well he was able to pronounce words. It's very difficult when you get older to learn a new language. That part of your brain, it goes to sleep. It goes to sleep if you don't use it at an early age. So I was surprised at how well he did. And I think some of my favorite moments are just him speaking in Italian. And I just remember gazing at him being-- just in shock, and I'd say to him, you're really doing so well.
Bobby is awesome, but he's a tough nut to crack. And you never really know what he's thinking. I feel like even I know him well and we spent a lot of time working together, but there's still a lot of moments where I'm like, what is going on in his head? I feel like we need to say, what is Bobby thinking? That should be a show that he can explain all the thoughts that go through his mind.
And he's fascinating that way. So I thought, oh, wow. And just how that resonated in it. I think those are my favorite moments. Plus all the meals we had. I mean, lunchtime was like two-hour lunches when we weren't shooting. And we would have multiple pasta courses and wine was flowing. Talk about a reboot after that.
We honestly lived it up. And so, I just thought, thank goodness we did that because a year goes by and we got nothing. And we may not have anything for another year. I don't know, I think also that viewers got to see it-- I got to see a side of Bobby that we wouldn't have otherwise seen. I mean Bobby and I shared a house in Tuscany. I mean, that should have been a show on its own to be honest.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes. I think people would love to see that.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: And the cooking. I know everybody thinks that Bobby and I, because we're such good friends, that we've cooked a lot together. We haven't. We really haven't. Either he cooks or I cook, but we never really spent time cooking together. And I think that was another fun moment.
I'm not going to tell you Jaymee that it was all glamour and all happiness. I definitely had my moments where I wanted to strangle him, and he knew it. So there were definitely a few moments where it was a lot of tension. You could ask the crew about that one. But for the most part, I thought, we did fantastic, and we worked through whatever the tension was.
And I think because we both love cooking and food, but we are both so headstrong in the way we like to do things. I like a clean kitchen. The man makes a fricking mess, and he doesn't clean up after himself. And his answer to me was, if you don't like it, clean it. Like, why? It's not my mess. You clean it. This would go on-- I'm so-- I'm that person, I just can't focus, and do what I have to do if it's a mess. And he just goes everywhere, and just makes a mess in the hopes that somebody else cleans it. I'm like, hello, I'm not your-- I'm not cleaning up after you. Do it yourself. So I think there's a lot of those moments too.
JAYMEE SIRE I mean, I'm just like picturing the show. It's like a real world Food Network style, but also in Italy, which I think would be very interesting. So maybe, yeah maybe season two that's what you guys focus on. But I also loved-- one of my favorite parts also was that your mom made an appearance. And she obviously lives in Rome. How special was it having her involved in this project that was clearly so meaningful to you as well?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Well, it's funny because Bobby has always said that since he met my mother he's like, she's my favorite person in the world. And I'm thinking, really? There's so many people. What are you talking about? But you know what was fun is that the two of them really have a great time together. I mean I could just as well not be there. The two of them just, I don't know they just hit it off, it's like they've known each other in another life or something. It was a strange sort of phenomenon I hadn't seen before.
But that was really fun because they got along so well, and I haven't done a ton with my mother on camera. I did some shows but she's lived in Italy for seven years. And in that time she wasn't really here very much to do stuff on camera like I did with-- have done with my aunt Raffi. So it was really fun to be able to connect those dots and to bring her in. And she really helped us, just get the real Roman feeling. Like what is it really like to live there, since she was living there. Now since COVID, she's come home. I think she got too freaked out during the first lockdown. But I think that that authenticity was really-- I think it really was special.
I mean I was born in Rome but I moved when I was seven years old. So to bring back that sort of feeling of a local was really, really fun. And I think that was a special touch, and it made the show, I don't know, I think it gave the show a certain feeling that is hard to capture otherwise.
JAYMEE SIRE Yeah, no, I completely agree with you. And, and you really explored the you know the city center of Rome, but you also-- as you mentioned when to Tuscany do you prefer one over the other?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: They're totally different, but I love Rome. I love, I love the city vibe, I love the people, I love the food. I really love the food. I like the food Rome and South. That's my favorite type of food. I think the hills of Tuscany are fantastic. And it is so picturesque. But if I had to pick between the two I'd probably pick Rome. The food in Tuscany although fantastic is quite heavy. It's heavy in cheese, heavy in meats. It's just a different lifestyle, it's much colder. The borders are France and Germany and Austria and Switzerland. It has a different sort of feel to it. Although fantastic.
But Bobby and I were really-- we were really adamant about showing the two different sides. Now we miss the ocean, which is probably my favorite, which I hope someday we can do because it's truly phenomenal. And I know Bobby loves it as well. The Amalfi Coast is spectacular, and I've spent much time in Capri growing up because that's where my family had a house. But I just think that, that would be another whole thing. That and Sicily. But I'd say probably Rome.
But I will say, too, some of the other fun moments was Bobby driving. [LAUGHTER] In the car and they're tiny, but overall he did a fantastic job, but I will say I was a little bit nervous in the beginning. It was a big ordeal getting those cameras in there, and then us driving, paying attention. He was driving a car that-- it's an old old car, so it doesn't quite have all the functions. It's not as easy to drive as one of our automatic cars here. So it was tricky. But it was fun.
JAYMEE SIRE Well, it was a beautiful series. I do hope that there is a part two at some point. I think people will really enjoy seeing a second look into that, especially as you mentioned, on the coast and you also mentioned that you've been a part of this Food Network family for nearly two decades. It started with everyday Italian back in 2003. Even though, you do come from a family in the entertainment industry. We talked about your mom. Do you-- did you think that that was going to be your fate as well, or did this kind of just come about naturally?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: No. My grandfather made over 600 movies in 60 years, and it started in Italy. My grandmother was an actress and Miss Rome. I think, no. I had no interest in it. I was also very shy. I know that's seems weird now. But I was very shy. No, I wanted nothing to do it with it. I was very interested in food. My family also has-- my grandfather has a food history as well. But no, not at all. I ran from it. So this Food Network thing, which happened pretty early on in building a Food Network. At the time when I started it was Emerald, Bobby, mostly men, mostly in their chef's uniforms. So, no, I think maybe Rachel was on as well.
But I think Ina, Rachel, and I all kind of came in around the same time. And I was shy, so I didn't really want to do that. And I thought, my family's in the movie business. Why would I do a cooking show? This doesn't make any sense. It wasn't something I planned. It was not something I was terribly excited about, but over time I don't know I think I just decided, I'll just go on the journey. I was working for Wolfgang Puck, and I was-- I had a catering business. And I just thought, well, I'll try it and if I hate it I won't quit my day job. Because who knows?
And little by little it just sort of took off, and I just decided, all right, I'll go for this journey, and when it ends I'll just go back to doing what I was doing, catering and working in a restaurant. You know? I always think like, oh, well, if things don't work out, I guess I'll go back to a restaurant life or the catering life. I don't know. So it just sort of happened. And I'm super grateful because it was-- it's been a really fun, fun adventure. Hopefully, I'll keep going for a bit longer.
JAYMEE SIRE Yeah, I mean you're still on the journey, and you've seen this evolution throughout the years of Food Network. What has it been like just to see that change and that growth? Like from what you saw when you first joined to what it is now.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Well, when I first joined, it was very heavily based on cooking demos. Straight cooking demos. Really no lifestyle attached to it. I started to do some lifestyle in the beginning days of everyday Italian, and then my show really incorporate a lot of lifestyle. Aina and I really did that. And it started to resonate with people, and I think I wanted to really show that it's more than just the recipes of Italian food. It's an entire way of living. So if I can't do lifestyle as part of it, it doesn't really-- we're not really showing the true sort of Italian romantic life.
Our world in Italy revolves around, yes, food but family and sharing it, all of that kind of stuff. So I thought that was really important for me to really express my family and my heritage and my culture. A lot of shows really went that direction after that. On heavily lifestyle with a little bit less food, which is why they started cooking channel because they also wanted to hold on to that food. But I've really seen a lot of competition shows. I mean, we didn't have any, really, when I started. So lots of competition. Lots of travel shows which have been fantastic.
People have been able to virtually-- just by watching TV, learn about food in different cities, in different countries. And I just think that's-- it's so wonderful. It's expanded-- Food Network has done a wonderful job at expanding everybody's horizons in food and introducing them to cultures and ingredients and personalities. I feel like they've really been able to bring American food, American culture, and abroad really into our living rooms.
And nowadays you can find prosciutto at Walmart, which when I was growing up you-- people didn't even know-- they didn't know what ricotta was, they barely knew what mozzarella was. So I think it's really-- it's been a gift all around. And I a lot more people are interested in food and cooking than they ever were before. And a lot of it is because of Food Network.
JAYMEE SIRE Absolutely, I mean you talk about that lifestyle and bringing your family into it. We essentially got to see your daughter, Jade, really grow up kind knob right in front of the camera. She's a frequent guest on your shows, obviously, in social media, and also in the cookbook as well. What's it like having these episodes and books sort of almost like a time capsule of her childhood?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Well, it's a gift, right. Because every parent would love to be able to see that. And in fact, from time to time on my phone, little clips and snippets of the beginning days of Giada At Home, which is the show I started doing after I gave birth to Jade, and she was a baby and on set. And watching her grow, and how much she loves the camera. From day one, she loved being on camera, and eating on camera, and the whole nine yards.
And I think that's probably the biggest gift that I've gotten from Food Network. Is to be able to have that, and watch that happen. And be able to revisit it. I think I posted a little while ago, maybe on her birthday, a video of her singing from like a show I did when she was 3. And I mean, listen, I think that a lot of parents have the opportunity to video these days, but not quite like that. So much footage from every six months basically. And I think that that is something that has been really a wonderful, wonderful gift for me and for her.
JAYMEE SIRE Do you do you see her following in mom's footsteps?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Not in mom's footsteps. I don't think she's interested in food. She was when she was younger but she's not anymore. She loves to sing and dance. So she does theater. This year she's done a lot of virtual stuff. But she just got a lead in this theater group in Los Angeles to do Legally Blonde, so she is just-- that is her thing. She loves it for now. We'll see what happens. But for right now, she has the singing and dancing bug. But definitely not the cooking bug.
JAYMEE SIRE That's fair, that's fair. We'll see where she ends up, maybe on screen, maybe on a stage. But as you kind of look back at all of your different roles and projects on Food Network over the years, do any have a special place in your heart or is there a favorite in all of the shows that you've done?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Well, I think Everyday Italian. Because that was the launch. And I remember the struggle of actually getting comfortable on camera. So Everyday Italian, probably because that was the beginning of it all. I think probably I love all the Italy shows. I mean that is my favorite thing in the whole world is to get to go there. Whether I'm cooking there, or, whether I'm traveling with Bobby I think that's just a gift. Because I get to go back and explore my culture and my people and my food and that just inspires me so much to do what I do. So I would say any of the Italy shows have been some of my favorite moments.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think that's a, I think that's a great answer too, because I think you also bring everybody else along with you, on those trips, on those rediscovering your culture. And the passion for your home country is very, very evident and very basically leaps off the screen. So I would have to agree with you on there, and unfortunately we are running a tad short on time, so I do want to end with a few rapid fire questions, and then we have one final questions to kind of top everything off. So rapid fire. Just first thing that comes to your mind. Best pizza in Rome?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Rochelle.
JAYMEE SIRE: And what do you get there?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Pizza Bianca with mortadella.
JAYMEE SIRE: Beautiful. Worst thing you've ever cooked?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Duck. Not my thing.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, duck. A favorite pasta shape?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Mezzi rigatoni.
JAYMEE SIRE: Smaller rigatoni. OK, favorite restaurant in the United States?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Giorgio is in Los Angeles.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do you get there?
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: The corn ravioli. Handmade corn ravioli in butter and sage.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, delicious.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Moment in your career that you are most proud of.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Opening Jada Vegas on the Las Vegas strip.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right, well, we have one final question that we asked all of our guests here on Food Network Obsessed. And that would be-- what would be on your menu for your perfect food day? So breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert, like your ultimate food day. We're not talking about reboots, or you're traveling, or maybe you're cooking at home, or whatever the case may be. There's basically no rules. [LAUGHTER] So whatever you want-- we want to hear it.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Seven layer cake, seven layer cake, seven layer cake, seven layer cake, seven layer cake. It is my absolute favorite thing in the whole world. With as much frosting as possible in between the layers of the actual cake. Jaymee, if there's nothing-- if I don't have to watch anything that's the one thing I frickin' crave. What do you think that is? It's sugar. So chocolate and sugar are the only things, and 7 layer cake is the thing I love the most.
JAYMEE SIRE: All right, so you're having seven layer cake for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: That's all I want.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, and any espresso or wine mixed in, or we just go in seven layer cake.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Mm-hm. [JAYMEE LAUGHS] Just that that's all I want.
JAYMEE SIRE: Oh, that's fantastic. I think that's I think that's the quickest answer we've ever had on the final question.
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: There's nothing else I want. There isn't. If I could have-- people have asked me, oh, well if it's your last meal, I'm like, that's all I want. If I'm stuck on a desert island, that's all I want. Everybody knows it, but it's the thing that I have to watch the most. I have to be careful. It's something I'm really, really in love with madly in love with that I can't really indulge in very often, because it just doesn't do well. It's dairy and sugar and wheat and everything else in it.
JAYMEE SIRE: All of the things. I mean I think it's actually it's a perfect final answer, because it brings this conversation full circle because we started off talking about your cookbook and your sugar addiction and we ended by talking about your sugar addiction. So I think it's a perfect way to put a bow on this wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us
GIADA DE LAURENTIIS: Thanks Jaymee.
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JAYMEE SIRE: What a fun conversation with Giada, and now I would like to be having an aperol spritz in Tuscany right now. Thank you very much. For more of Giada, be sure to check out Bobby and Giada in Italy. It is streaming now on Discovery Plus. And of course pick up a copy of her brand new, New York Times best selling cookbook, "Eat better, Feel Better: My Recipes for Wellness and Healing. It is available now.
As always, thank you so much for listening. Make sure you're following us wherever you listen to podcasts, so you don't miss a thing. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please, please rate and review. We do love it when you do. That that's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.
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