Chatting up TV's pretty chef, Giada De Laurentiis (2024)

There’s your soft-bodied chef spouting crusty conventional wisdom like, “Never trust a skinny cook.”

And then there’s Giada de Laurentiis.

Pint-sized and immensely pretty (especially by TV-chef standards), De Laurentiis is a Food Network star and bestselling cookbook author. And she’ll be in San Diego - fighting against your fat-chefs-are-trustworthy biases, doing a cooking demo, and signing her “Everyday Italian” cookbook - at Sunday’s free Sicilian Festival.

Here’s De Laurentiis on the demands of doing TV, and how looking good and liking food aren’t mutually exclusive.

Q: You do around two “Today Show” appearances a month. What do you think about Meredith Vieira leaving?

A: It’s so sad. I love Meredith. But that’s a really tough job. I don’t even have to get up at 4 a.m. like she does, I only have to do it once or twice a month.

She wants to spend more time with her family and that kind of time, it slips away so fast, so fast. I’m really excited for Ann (Curry). God knows that woman deserves that job. She’s been there for 13 years. She kinda got passed over a little bit when Katie (Couric) left. I’m very excited for Ann, I know she’s absolutely thrilled for it and I’m sure nervous. I mean, sitting next to Matt (Lauer) is not an easy thing. It’ll be a fun, new dynamic.

But of course, I’m sad to see Meredith go. She’s really an unbelievable role model for women and such a wonderful spirit, truly.

Food Network star and cookbook author Giada De Laurentiis makes a San Diego appearance on Sunday, May 22, at the Sicilian Festival in Little Italy. — Courtesy photo

( / Courtesy photo)

Q: You’ve got your own TV show (“Giada at Home”). I’m sure your production schedule must be nuts, too.

A: It’s gotten a little trickier, not only as I’ve gotten older, but having a little daughter. She’s 3 years old and it feels like yesterday she was born. Time slips by really fast and sometimes in a blink of an eye your kids are grown up.

Ever since I’ve had Jade, I’ve sort of made sure that I’m more careful with the choices I make, and when I’m out of town that it makes the most sense for me and my family. My husband and I make conscious decisions about who’s gone and when we’re gone, that we’re not both gone at the same time. That my daughter has some stability in her life.

I think it’s tricky for any mother who works full time and is a mom full time.

So yes, I totally identify with Meredith’s choice.

Q: You field as many questions about beauty as food. How has it been navigating kitchens (Note: De Laurentiis' career includes time in LA's Spago) and your TV career?

A: I do get a lot of beauty questions. It’s interesting. When I first started it was hard for people to accept the fact that I look a certain way and that I also love to cook.

First of all they think of (a chef as being) a man, especially in a restaurant kitchen.

Number two, I’m small, I’m petite, I’m short, I’m female and you know, slim. That is not sort of the stereotype that they anticipate. And so they tend to not want to trust me or think my food is any good and I’ve, you know, battled it for many, many years.

At this point I’ve been doing this for almost 10 years, and in the last few years …people have given me a chance and they’ve tested by recipes and I’ve always said, ‘I’m as good as my last recipe.’ If my recipe works and it makes you look like a star in the kitchen, then I’m doing my job. Because truly my job is to build confidence and then to get you cooking and then maybe to get you cooking Italian if possible - maybe teach you a coupla things about Italian culture and food.

I think that it’s been tough to navigate and balance, but I’m trying. Because I do think that you can look great and love to eat and love to cook. I think those things can all go hand in hand. I don’t think you have to look a certain way or act a certain way in order to be a good cook, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not true. And plus Italian food is actually good, healthy, fresh food.

Q: Yet so many people are afraid to eat carbs…

A: Extremes are never a good thing. You need to find some kind of balance in your life.

I don’t eat a lot, but I eat anything I want. I’m a chocoholic. If you ask me something that I crave every single day of my life it is chocolate, in some form. Do I allow myself to have it every day? Yes. If I go overboard one day, I scale it back the next. Can you eat pasta? Yes. You just can’t eat a pound.

When you go out to eat, eat whatever you want, but try to ask for appetizer-size portions. Or if you want to get a main course portion have them pack up half of it and take it home.

Our portions are so big. Europeans do not eat those portions, they just don’t. We consume too much.

Giada De Laurentiis’ cooking demonstration at the Sicilian Festival takes place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 22, at the Date Street Stage. A book signing follows in the Bella Sera Wine Pavilion. (Books sold on-site; and your personal Giada collection is also welcomed.)

keli.dailey@uniontrib.com; (619) 293-1541; Twitter @kelidailey