Giada de Laurentiis
If you've seen the show then you know the name and you know why I'm writing this. Last weekend, my family was sitting around talking about food and food shows and my father, who just recently got a satellite dish, asked, "Who is that good-looking chef ..."
And before he could finish the sentence, the rest of us exclaimed, "GIADA!"
Giada de Laurentiis is her name and she is host and chef of the program called Everday Italian on the Food Network. You'll have to pardon me, but the web is extremely lacking in information on Giada, so some of my facts may be a little scarce. Giada is Italian in background but you wouldn't know it by the way she talks and acts. She is, quite possibly, the whitest, most whitey cracker of an Italian that you'll ever meet. But when she says the Italian words, the accent flows forth making you believe.
The show is just her and the occasional guest cooking in her kitchen as she cooks and shares her passion for her family's food. According to Food Network, Giada was trained in Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and has worked with such famed chefs as Wolfgang Puck in Los Angeles.
I've seen the show a number of times and I'm still not sure what exactly she cooks on that show. Why? Because every time I turn it on, I'm greeted with a tight sweater full of cleavage. Giada is a very beautiful woman, and is probably has earned some success of her show due to her beauty and low cut shirts. I've heard and seen some comparisons to Nigella Lawson. I suppose so, but Nigella is a bit more voluptuous than Giada, who tends to be more more on the trim side. I have also seen comparisons to Natalie Portman, a comparison that I agree with.
In all seriousness, Giada does cook a lot of simple, home-cooking type of Italian style dishes and she does it all so effortlessly in a nice white kitchen every day on her show. She uses fresh ingredients and tends to keep the recipes and instruction very simple, something that I really respect from a Men in Aprons perspective.
Her books are available on most book seller sites and you can catch her show Everyday Italian on the Food Network weekdays.
Everyday Italian
Giada's Family Dinners
Everyday Pasta