Extreme Cooking

Learn about Giana De Laurentiis - the Most Popular Female Chef

Giada De Laurentiis is the recipient of an Emmy Award and a New York Times best-selling author. Her name is now familiar to almost everyone. Giada De Laurentiis is a globally revered celebrity chef who continues to prove her skill and accessibility not only with her expanding presence beyond Food Network but also with the great success of her cookbooks, brand alliances, food products, recurring role on NBC's Today, and most recently, her restaurant in Las Vegas called Giada. She has an impressive background of culinary training and a unique, personable charm. 

Early Life

Giada De Laurentiis was born into a family that has a long history in the entertainment industry. Both of her parents are in the entertainment industry; her mother is an actress and her father is an actor and producer. Veronica De Laurentiis is her mother, and Alex De Benedetti is her father. Her grandfather, Dino De Laurentiis, was a well-known movie producer, and her grandmother, Silvana Mangano, was a well-known Italian movie star. Both of her grandparents were in the entertainment industry.The De Laurentiis family emigrated to the United States when Giada was only seven years old. Soon after, she and her family made Los Angeles their permanent home. The new country that De Laurentiis moved to did not exactly extend the warmest of welcomes to her. She later explained that she "didn't speak a word of English, so the kids at school tormented me." She was bullied because of her language barrier. "It was horrifying the names they called me, and the teachers never really did anything to stop it," the victim said. "It was never really stopped."A source of solace for De Laurentiis was her family and the enthusiasm they all shared for cooking. Her great-grandfather had a business selling pasta in Italy, and the majority of the time on Sundays, her family would have lunch at her grandfather's house. There, De Laurentiis participated in the preparation of the meal, often taking responsibility for the gathering's dessert course. In addition to that, she frequently stopped by the restaurant that her grandfather owned, DDL Food show.

Career Beginnings

Career Beginnings
In 1996, De Laurentiis received his bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. But in the end, she made the decision to go back to the kitchen and follow her heart. After relocating to Paris, De Laurentiis attended the illustrious Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts. After that, she moved back to Los Angeles, where she found work at two renowned establishments: the Ritz-Carlton Fine Dining Room and Spago, which is owned by Wolfgang Puck.GDL Foods was the name of the catering business that De Laurentiis launched after she struck out on her own. She was able to attract some well-known customers, such as the director Ron Howard, and build a successful business. De Laurentiis also had a career in the food styling industry on the side.She was asked to write about the traditions that her family has with their Sunday dinners by a friend who works at Food & Wine magazine. The article served as a springboard to a new career path for the individual. When a Food Network executive saw De Laurentiis's piece, he encouraged her to create her own series for the network, which she did shortly thereafter.

Venturing into Business

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But more than just a TV personality, De Laurentiis is a savvy businesswoman who runs an empire that includes two restaurants in Las Vegas and another one that will open at the Horseshoe Casino in Baltimore the following month. She has her own line of cooking utensils, pastas, and sauces that are sold exclusively at Williams Sonoma. Her ninth cookbook, titled Giada's Italy, was recently published. And at this point, she is concentrating her efforts on snack foods while also looking for a way to give back to the community in light of her achievements.

Simply7, a snack food company, and Giada De Laurentiis collaborated to create a line of ready-to-eat popcorn, which they debuted at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California. As a result of the use of red and blue corn in their production, these products contain higher levels of antioxidants than the conventional white and yellow popcorn. Ingredients such as parmesan cheese that has been aged for ten months and sea salt that has been hand harvested from the "Salt Road" in Sicily are used in the line, which also incorporates Giada De Laurentiis' signature Italian flair. But more than just producing a line of popcorn, De Laurentiis wanted to find a way to give something back to the community.

When De Laurentiis and Simply7 first started talking about working together, she inquired as to whether or not all of the red and blue corn that would be used in the production of the products could be obtained exclusively from female farmers in the United States. Fund Her Farm was established by De Laurentiis and Simply7 as a means of lending assistance to the community of female farmers operating in the United States. The initiative will donate an amount that has not yet been determined from the sales of the popcorn to organizations such as Annie's Project and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. These organizations run programs that assist women in expanding their acreage and learning the business side of farming. The amount of the donation has not yet been determined.

Fame and the Food Network for Giada de Laurentiis

Giada was "discovered" in a magazine article that focused on the de Laurentiis family as a whole as well as each member's separate interests. This was made possible by the success and notoriety of the de Laurentiis family. After reading the magazine, an executive from Food Network saw the potential for a fruitful pairing between the network and the chef, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Early on in her TV career, her bubbly personality and attractive appearance served as a double-edged sword, as viewers questioned her culinary prowess because of her youthful and alluring appearance. But in the end, both her enthusiasm for Italian cuisine and her ability to make the most of the ingredients she used were recognized as genuine qualities. Since that time, her stunning good looks have been a significant factor in her meteoric rise to fame as a food blogger.

To sum up

The fact that Giada was born in Rome and that her grandfather was a restaurateur was enough to instill some early culinary credibility in a young lady whose education in the kitchen took a slightly different path than that of most celebrity chefs. Adults who have a passion for cooking that just won't go away can take inspiration from her story and change their careers to reflect that passion. Her early experience in the kitchen gave her a sense of ease, and her later experiments in the kitchen demonstrated both a talent and a passion for preparing delicious food.

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