Always ready with a smile, Food Network personality and "Today" show correspondent Giada de Laurentiis invites fans into her world daily.
She didn't plan on being in front of the camera. After studying cultural anthropology at UCLA, she headed to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She hoped to run a hotel restaurant.
In 2002, Food Network executives came calling. Today, she has developed a following as much for her food as her style.
She shares tips and recipes in her latest cookbook, "Giada at Home" (Clarkson Potter, $35). She also has a new line of products, exclusively at Target.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Todd, and 2-year-old daughter, Jade.
Q. Do you remember the first dish you mastered?
A. I made my first pizza dough with my grandfather. . . . We started it, let it sit and rise, go out and play, then rise, go out and play. . . . We spent the whole day playing and hanging out.
Q. You warn against turning a home meal into something from a restaurant. Are people overthinking dinner parties?
A. People think that when they have people over, it has to be top-notch and fabulous. We're overthinking it.
Most people are so happy to be invited over, and that you took the time to make these dishes. It doesn't have to be gourmet.
I always tell people to stick to what you know. Make that the best you can make it. That's all people expect.
Q. Your grandfather's family owned a pasta factory in Italy. How did that influence your own line of foods?
A. Several things I really wanted to have, in following the steps of my grandfather. My own sauces, pastas, vinaigrettes and coffee. . . .
My grandfather made his own pasta and went door to door to sell it. Then in the '80s, my grandfather had a shop and sold his own pasta. I'm the next generation. . . .
My tomato-basil sauce is honestly one of my favorite things in the world. I use fresh tomatoes, really rare in a jarred sauce. . . . Extremely affordable at $2.99 a jar.
Q. What's your favorite item from your line at Target?
A. The Mezzaluna knife. That was something my grandparents and my mom used a lot, but you couldn't find it here. . . . It is used in Italy and a lot of different places, usually to chop herbs. A handle on either side, that's usually a traditional Mezzaluna.
Q. Is this the career you imagined?
A. Never in a million years. I went off to Le Cordon Bleu because I fell in love with food. . . . I thought the best I could do was maybe run some kind of a restaurant in a hotel someday.
Q. What's your secret to staying healthy?
A. Small portions. I eat my food, but I eat little portions. I work out. I do a lot of yoga. . . .
When it comes to cupcakes and desserts, it is a little different. Eat half the cupcake. That's hard for people to understand. It's not going anywhere, even if you eat half of it now and the other half later. . . . That's the way to do it.
Q. Which chefs have inspired you?
A. I do love Lidia Bastianich. I think she has done a wonderful job with Italian food and explaining the different regions. She's kind of the grandmother of Italian foods. . . .
When someone is super-passionate about what they do and what they're teaching, it's kind of contagious.
Q. What do you tell people who want to be a celebrity chef?
A. People think it's very easy, what we do. . . . If you can cook a couple eggs or make a tuna sandwich you can be a chef.
None of us are actors. We're not trained to have these big personalities. . . . We're cooks, and we all love our craft and our food. It comes through in our . . . love of food, and that's what holds the audience. . . .
If you want to be a chef, start cooking.
Q. What would you do if you weren't a chef?
A. I'd probably be in politics. Isn't that weird? I'm fascinated with politics, how much control we do and don't have. . . .
I've been watching Jamie Oliver and his "Food Revolution." It's incredible how much control the government has over what our kids eat.
- Kristine M. Kierzek
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