MISSINDI
02-20-2005, 06:48 AM
Thought the Giada fans (myself included) might be interested in this interview. Jamie Oliver interview posted separately. Enjoy. :)
Ciao, Bella!
A Conversation with Giada De Laurentiis
Food Network shining star Giada De Laurentiis combines the cooking chops of Mario Batali, the passion of Nigella Lawson, and the graceful beauty of Natalie Portman--all in one package. Her debut cookbook, Everyday Italian, which was one of our hottest customer pre-orders months before its release, is a gorgeous affair--packed with easy-to-prepare Italian favorites, from antipasti to dolci. In a Seattle-to-Los Angeles phone call, Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons (who still can't decide whether the Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage and Toasted Hazelnuts or Orecchiette with Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Rabe is his favorite dish in the book) caught up with Giada to talk about her book, her family, the Food Network, guilty pleasures, and the ultimate romantic dish (we've even included a link to said romantic dish in the interview below).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com: With the wealth of Italian cooking titles out there what sets Everyday Italian apart from the other titles in this popular category?
Giada De Laurentiis: Well, I think what Everyday Italian does is that it's very simple, very quick recipes that I basically grew up eating that you can put on the table in about 30 minutes. If you know a few basic things you could make different sauces; you can also make things on the weekend and freeze them and pull them out during the week and feed your family. They're very simple, easy recipes that you can feed a family of four.
Amazon.com: Do you have any favorite Italian cookbooks or do you stay away from formal recipes and instead cook from your family history or tradition?
De Laurentiis: You know, it's funny. I do cook mostly from recipes that I grew up eating but I would say that probably my favorite cookbooks are Asian cookbooks. I think it's because the ingredients are so foreign to me--to what I know--and it just really intrigues me. The presentation, the flavors, and colors, really intrigue me.
Amazon.com: Do you have a favorite Asian cookbook?
De Laurentiis: I like all of Nobu's stuff. There's an Everyday Chinese cookbook.
Amazon.com: When I first got the galley a few months ago I was dying to make every dish. I just got a finished copy and it's really gorgeous. The photography and design really bring everything together. I was wondering, if a reader was going to make just one recipe from the book which one would you recommend?
De Laurentiis: Oooh... One single recipe, huh? Chicken Piccata is unbelievable and so easy. I've had a lot of people stop me on the street and tell me how incredibly easy it is. And I would say, also, my Baked Ziti. It's one of my favorite dishes.
Amazon.com: Good to know. Is it indeed "everyday Italian" at your house or do you make other cuisines throughout the week?
De Laurentiis: I mostly make Italian, I hate to say. My husband is my guinea pig.
Amazon.com: Well, that's a good job.
De Laurentiis: (Laughing) Oh yeah.
Amazon.com: What do you order when you do dial up take-out?
De Laurentiis: Chinese. My favorite. I'm also starting to love Indian food. Italian food I mostly make on my own. Of course when I go to New York I always go to Babbo--Mario's restaurant, which I adore. But other than that I really try and go out and taste other types of cuisine. Because I think it stimulates me to create more Italian dishes that are infused with a lot of other cultures.
Amazon.com: Going back a few years, what are some of your favorite memories from hanging out at your grandfather, Dino De Laurentiis's, Beverly Hills restaurant?
De Laurentiis: That is where I first realized that I was going to do something in food. I didn't know that I would become a chef, per se...
Amazon.com: Were you high-school age? How old were you then?
De Laurentiis: I was twelve.
Amazon.com: Twelve? Wow.
De Laurentiis: Very young. I was very impressionable. The place in Beverly Hills was huge, first of all. Especially to a 12-year-old. I'm sure it wouldn't be that big today if I were to walk in there and it would still be there.
Amazon.com: Physically it was impressive?
De Laurentiis: Very impressive. Downstairs it was very similar to a Dean & Deluca, where there was a pizza area. Then there was a panini area. A pasta area. You could get lasagna to go, baked ziti to go. Eggplant Parmesan. All of those types of dishes--to go. My grandfather brought in chefs from Naples--that's where he was born and grew up--and these guys were unbelievable. I was very, very, very impressed. And I fell in love with the whole cooking world--in a way that was different than cooking with my family. I realized on a grand scale what chefs had to offer. And the looks on people's faces--the amazement, the awe. The sheer happiness of putting this food in their mouth. At this time in the 80s, people, especially in Los Angeles, didn't understand Italian food the way I think that they're getting it now. True Italian food. People thought they were in Italy. My Grandfather basically brought a piece of Italy here. It didn't really catch on the way it should have, but I think today people really understand--or are starting to really understand--Italian food.
Amazon.com: What's your take, then, on the current Los Angeles dining scene? Do you have any favorite joints?
De Laurentiis: Oh, absolutely. Giorgio's in Pacific Palisades is run by a mom and pop. It's very celebrity driven, it's very exclusive, but the food is top-notch. And then, Nobu, obviously--in Malibu. Suzanne Goin's restaurants--A.O.C. and Lucques. They're fantastic. Those are some of the regular places that I go to.
Amazon.com: When you worked at Spago was it at its height of being a scene then?
De Laurentiis: Absolutely.
Amazon.com: What was that like? I mean, you were behind the line...
De Laurentiis: (Laughing) I was behind the scenes, yeah. It was unbelievable. We did about 800 covers a night. I worked the dessert station. I can't tell you how many burns-- The pressure--it's unbelievable.
Amazon.com: Especially when you know who the food is going to...
De Laurentiis: Yeah. Unbelievable. And we'd have star after star after star walking in there.
Amazon.com: Were there firm rules about not mingling with the celebs?
Amazon.com: You can't even look their way a lot of the time.
Amazon.com: You mentioned in your intro that you worked as a food stylist on photo shoots. Do they still employ a lot of those tricks to make the food look more appetizing? Can you still do that? Put glue for milk in a bowl of cereal?
De Laurentiis: A lot of people ask me that question. Magazines like Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Living--all of those types of magazines--they don't actually use fake things. All of it has to be edible. If you're going to make something look shiny or glisten you use olive oil. You use vegetable spray. You'd never use glue or things that are unedible.
Amazon.com: So no turpentine on the roast chicken?
De Laurentiis: You'd never do that. The only time that gets done is for, sort of, cereal ads. You know, big companies... Things like that. Otherwise, the food magazine business--with food styling--it all has to be edible. Of course, in my cookbook--everything was edible
Amazon.com: Mario Batali wrote the foreword to your book. I was curious, how do you think you'd fare in an Iron Chef match-up against him?
De Laurentiis: Oh my gosh. I don't think so.
Amazon.com: He'd mop the floor with you?
De Laurentiis: I'm not sure I could keep up with Mario. Mario's a pretty special guy. I could try, but I'm not sure I would do very well.
Amazon.com: Your transition from Paris-trained chef to Food Network star really seems like an overnight Cinderella story. Can you tell us a little more how that came to be?
De Laurentiis: I spent a year and a half in Paris learning how to become a chef, basically. Then I moved back to Los Angeles and I worked with a French chef at the Ritz Carlton and then I went to Spago. And I realized that as much as I love this I wasn't able to survive. I needed to find a way to make this something that I could do long term and not get burned out. So I started my own little catering company. And because my family's in the movie industry I had a lot of high-end client--celebrity clients. So I went around and did private meals and catering and then it started to get a little boring, like things sometime do, and I started to do a little food styling. And I had a friend who was doing magazine styling on the East Coast. So when she would come out to the West Coast she'd hire me as her assistant. I did a few shoots for Food & Wine magazine, Martha Stewart Living, and a few others. Then it was--after 9/11--that year at the Oscars my grandfather was getting a Lifetime Achievement award. Food & Wine asked me to do a family spread--lunch with the De Laurentiises--and I could do all my family recipes. So I got my whole family together; we went to my grandfather's and I made this whole meal. I styled it and we all ate together. And they ran it in Food & Wine. And literally, a week after it hit the newsstands I got a call from the Food Network.
Which was nothing I'd planned. In fact, I had worked very hard to stay away from the camera. My whole family is in the movie industry and I just thought, you know it's not for me--I want to do something completely different.
Amazon.com: You're a natural, though.
De Laurentiis: Somehow it all came around. My family always teases me about that.
Amazon.com: So there really is an overnight quality to it all.
De Laurentiis: Yeah. It's been a very interesting and, actually, fun ride.
Amazon.com: I'm sure you don't have the time, but other than your own program, do you have a favorite show on the Food Network? Or is that impossible--
De Laurentiis: No, I don't think it's impossible. Ina Garten. Love her. Tyler had a show called Tyler's Ultimate which I really enjoyed. I thought it was a lot of fun. And then Anthony Bourdain used to have a show that I really, thoroughly enjoyed as well.
Amazon.com: Do you listen to much music when you cook?
De Laurentiis: A lot of music.
Amazon.com: What kinds of things do you like listening to? The radio? Specific artists?
De Laurentiis: I listen to my iPod. I listen to a lot of U2. I actually listen to Green Day.
Amazon.com: So you plug it into speakers, I trust?
De Laurentiis: Yeah.
Amazon.com: I guess it would be hazardous otherwise--if you're cooking.
De Laurentiis: It really motivates me as well when we're shooting because we shoot such long days and the music really keeps me going and the whole crew going.
Amazon.com: You've heard of this book, French Women Don't Get Fat?
De Laurentiis: (Nervously) I have.
Amazon.com: I think you have a sequel in the works--How to Eat Like an Italian Woman and Stay Skinny is in your future. Forgive me for asking--
De Laurentiis: You know, everyone asks me--
Amazon.com: How do you stay skinny when you're surrounded by all this food?
De Laurentiis: I don't overeat. I didn't grow up in a family where it was about stuffing your face. We ate really great food--rich food--you'll see there's food in my cookbook that's not low-fat by any means, and I'll be the first to tell you that. But we didn't overeat anything. You know, I'd have a little plate of pasta but I wouldn't eat a huge bowl. It's all about portion control.
Amazon.com: So do you have any guilty pleasures in your pantry?
De Laurentiis: (Weakly) Chocolate. I'm a chocoholic.
Amazon.com: High-quality stuff or just Hershey's?
De Laurentiis: Anything. I'll eat anything. My producer for my show a lot of time just goes to the store and gets me bags of semi-sweet Hershey's chocolate chips. We keep them in the freezer and I eat them all day long.
Amazon.com: So that's why you're so high energy?
De Laurentiis: (Laughs) Yeah.
Amazon.com: I tend to ask this whenever I have the opportunity to speak with a chef--mostly for personal reasons. What's your suggestion for a simple yet sophisticated dish every urbane guy should have in his cooking arsenal to impress the ladies?
De Laurentiis: My Penne with Vodka Sauce. Somehow it always works. I've given it to a lot of my friends who are trying to woo women, or impress women, and it works every time.
Amazon.com: Good to know.
And finally, not to get morbid, but what's your death row last meal?
De Laurentiis: I think for me it would be a dessert. Of all of my desserts... my Chocolate Tiramisu.
Amazon.com: Nice. Go out with a bang.
De Laurentiis: Absolutely.
Ciao, Bella!
A Conversation with Giada De Laurentiis
Food Network shining star Giada De Laurentiis combines the cooking chops of Mario Batali, the passion of Nigella Lawson, and the graceful beauty of Natalie Portman--all in one package. Her debut cookbook, Everyday Italian, which was one of our hottest customer pre-orders months before its release, is a gorgeous affair--packed with easy-to-prepare Italian favorites, from antipasti to dolci. In a Seattle-to-Los Angeles phone call, Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons (who still can't decide whether the Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage and Toasted Hazelnuts or Orecchiette with Spicy Sausage and Broccoli Rabe is his favorite dish in the book) caught up with Giada to talk about her book, her family, the Food Network, guilty pleasures, and the ultimate romantic dish (we've even included a link to said romantic dish in the interview below).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com: With the wealth of Italian cooking titles out there what sets Everyday Italian apart from the other titles in this popular category?
Giada De Laurentiis: Well, I think what Everyday Italian does is that it's very simple, very quick recipes that I basically grew up eating that you can put on the table in about 30 minutes. If you know a few basic things you could make different sauces; you can also make things on the weekend and freeze them and pull them out during the week and feed your family. They're very simple, easy recipes that you can feed a family of four.
Amazon.com: Do you have any favorite Italian cookbooks or do you stay away from formal recipes and instead cook from your family history or tradition?
De Laurentiis: You know, it's funny. I do cook mostly from recipes that I grew up eating but I would say that probably my favorite cookbooks are Asian cookbooks. I think it's because the ingredients are so foreign to me--to what I know--and it just really intrigues me. The presentation, the flavors, and colors, really intrigue me.
Amazon.com: Do you have a favorite Asian cookbook?
De Laurentiis: I like all of Nobu's stuff. There's an Everyday Chinese cookbook.
Amazon.com: When I first got the galley a few months ago I was dying to make every dish. I just got a finished copy and it's really gorgeous. The photography and design really bring everything together. I was wondering, if a reader was going to make just one recipe from the book which one would you recommend?
De Laurentiis: Oooh... One single recipe, huh? Chicken Piccata is unbelievable and so easy. I've had a lot of people stop me on the street and tell me how incredibly easy it is. And I would say, also, my Baked Ziti. It's one of my favorite dishes.
Amazon.com: Good to know. Is it indeed "everyday Italian" at your house or do you make other cuisines throughout the week?
De Laurentiis: I mostly make Italian, I hate to say. My husband is my guinea pig.
Amazon.com: Well, that's a good job.
De Laurentiis: (Laughing) Oh yeah.
Amazon.com: What do you order when you do dial up take-out?
De Laurentiis: Chinese. My favorite. I'm also starting to love Indian food. Italian food I mostly make on my own. Of course when I go to New York I always go to Babbo--Mario's restaurant, which I adore. But other than that I really try and go out and taste other types of cuisine. Because I think it stimulates me to create more Italian dishes that are infused with a lot of other cultures.
Amazon.com: Going back a few years, what are some of your favorite memories from hanging out at your grandfather, Dino De Laurentiis's, Beverly Hills restaurant?
De Laurentiis: That is where I first realized that I was going to do something in food. I didn't know that I would become a chef, per se...
Amazon.com: Were you high-school age? How old were you then?
De Laurentiis: I was twelve.
Amazon.com: Twelve? Wow.
De Laurentiis: Very young. I was very impressionable. The place in Beverly Hills was huge, first of all. Especially to a 12-year-old. I'm sure it wouldn't be that big today if I were to walk in there and it would still be there.
Amazon.com: Physically it was impressive?
De Laurentiis: Very impressive. Downstairs it was very similar to a Dean & Deluca, where there was a pizza area. Then there was a panini area. A pasta area. You could get lasagna to go, baked ziti to go. Eggplant Parmesan. All of those types of dishes--to go. My grandfather brought in chefs from Naples--that's where he was born and grew up--and these guys were unbelievable. I was very, very, very impressed. And I fell in love with the whole cooking world--in a way that was different than cooking with my family. I realized on a grand scale what chefs had to offer. And the looks on people's faces--the amazement, the awe. The sheer happiness of putting this food in their mouth. At this time in the 80s, people, especially in Los Angeles, didn't understand Italian food the way I think that they're getting it now. True Italian food. People thought they were in Italy. My Grandfather basically brought a piece of Italy here. It didn't really catch on the way it should have, but I think today people really understand--or are starting to really understand--Italian food.
Amazon.com: What's your take, then, on the current Los Angeles dining scene? Do you have any favorite joints?
De Laurentiis: Oh, absolutely. Giorgio's in Pacific Palisades is run by a mom and pop. It's very celebrity driven, it's very exclusive, but the food is top-notch. And then, Nobu, obviously--in Malibu. Suzanne Goin's restaurants--A.O.C. and Lucques. They're fantastic. Those are some of the regular places that I go to.
Amazon.com: When you worked at Spago was it at its height of being a scene then?
De Laurentiis: Absolutely.
Amazon.com: What was that like? I mean, you were behind the line...
De Laurentiis: (Laughing) I was behind the scenes, yeah. It was unbelievable. We did about 800 covers a night. I worked the dessert station. I can't tell you how many burns-- The pressure--it's unbelievable.
Amazon.com: Especially when you know who the food is going to...
De Laurentiis: Yeah. Unbelievable. And we'd have star after star after star walking in there.
Amazon.com: Were there firm rules about not mingling with the celebs?
Amazon.com: You can't even look their way a lot of the time.
Amazon.com: You mentioned in your intro that you worked as a food stylist on photo shoots. Do they still employ a lot of those tricks to make the food look more appetizing? Can you still do that? Put glue for milk in a bowl of cereal?
De Laurentiis: A lot of people ask me that question. Magazines like Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Living--all of those types of magazines--they don't actually use fake things. All of it has to be edible. If you're going to make something look shiny or glisten you use olive oil. You use vegetable spray. You'd never use glue or things that are unedible.
Amazon.com: So no turpentine on the roast chicken?
De Laurentiis: You'd never do that. The only time that gets done is for, sort of, cereal ads. You know, big companies... Things like that. Otherwise, the food magazine business--with food styling--it all has to be edible. Of course, in my cookbook--everything was edible
Amazon.com: Mario Batali wrote the foreword to your book. I was curious, how do you think you'd fare in an Iron Chef match-up against him?
De Laurentiis: Oh my gosh. I don't think so.
Amazon.com: He'd mop the floor with you?
De Laurentiis: I'm not sure I could keep up with Mario. Mario's a pretty special guy. I could try, but I'm not sure I would do very well.
Amazon.com: Your transition from Paris-trained chef to Food Network star really seems like an overnight Cinderella story. Can you tell us a little more how that came to be?
De Laurentiis: I spent a year and a half in Paris learning how to become a chef, basically. Then I moved back to Los Angeles and I worked with a French chef at the Ritz Carlton and then I went to Spago. And I realized that as much as I love this I wasn't able to survive. I needed to find a way to make this something that I could do long term and not get burned out. So I started my own little catering company. And because my family's in the movie industry I had a lot of high-end client--celebrity clients. So I went around and did private meals and catering and then it started to get a little boring, like things sometime do, and I started to do a little food styling. And I had a friend who was doing magazine styling on the East Coast. So when she would come out to the West Coast she'd hire me as her assistant. I did a few shoots for Food & Wine magazine, Martha Stewart Living, and a few others. Then it was--after 9/11--that year at the Oscars my grandfather was getting a Lifetime Achievement award. Food & Wine asked me to do a family spread--lunch with the De Laurentiises--and I could do all my family recipes. So I got my whole family together; we went to my grandfather's and I made this whole meal. I styled it and we all ate together. And they ran it in Food & Wine. And literally, a week after it hit the newsstands I got a call from the Food Network.
Which was nothing I'd planned. In fact, I had worked very hard to stay away from the camera. My whole family is in the movie industry and I just thought, you know it's not for me--I want to do something completely different.
Amazon.com: You're a natural, though.
De Laurentiis: Somehow it all came around. My family always teases me about that.
Amazon.com: So there really is an overnight quality to it all.
De Laurentiis: Yeah. It's been a very interesting and, actually, fun ride.
Amazon.com: I'm sure you don't have the time, but other than your own program, do you have a favorite show on the Food Network? Or is that impossible--
De Laurentiis: No, I don't think it's impossible. Ina Garten. Love her. Tyler had a show called Tyler's Ultimate which I really enjoyed. I thought it was a lot of fun. And then Anthony Bourdain used to have a show that I really, thoroughly enjoyed as well.
Amazon.com: Do you listen to much music when you cook?
De Laurentiis: A lot of music.
Amazon.com: What kinds of things do you like listening to? The radio? Specific artists?
De Laurentiis: I listen to my iPod. I listen to a lot of U2. I actually listen to Green Day.
Amazon.com: So you plug it into speakers, I trust?
De Laurentiis: Yeah.
Amazon.com: I guess it would be hazardous otherwise--if you're cooking.
De Laurentiis: It really motivates me as well when we're shooting because we shoot such long days and the music really keeps me going and the whole crew going.
Amazon.com: You've heard of this book, French Women Don't Get Fat?
De Laurentiis: (Nervously) I have.
Amazon.com: I think you have a sequel in the works--How to Eat Like an Italian Woman and Stay Skinny is in your future. Forgive me for asking--
De Laurentiis: You know, everyone asks me--
Amazon.com: How do you stay skinny when you're surrounded by all this food?
De Laurentiis: I don't overeat. I didn't grow up in a family where it was about stuffing your face. We ate really great food--rich food--you'll see there's food in my cookbook that's not low-fat by any means, and I'll be the first to tell you that. But we didn't overeat anything. You know, I'd have a little plate of pasta but I wouldn't eat a huge bowl. It's all about portion control.
Amazon.com: So do you have any guilty pleasures in your pantry?
De Laurentiis: (Weakly) Chocolate. I'm a chocoholic.
Amazon.com: High-quality stuff or just Hershey's?
De Laurentiis: Anything. I'll eat anything. My producer for my show a lot of time just goes to the store and gets me bags of semi-sweet Hershey's chocolate chips. We keep them in the freezer and I eat them all day long.
Amazon.com: So that's why you're so high energy?
De Laurentiis: (Laughs) Yeah.
Amazon.com: I tend to ask this whenever I have the opportunity to speak with a chef--mostly for personal reasons. What's your suggestion for a simple yet sophisticated dish every urbane guy should have in his cooking arsenal to impress the ladies?
De Laurentiis: My Penne with Vodka Sauce. Somehow it always works. I've given it to a lot of my friends who are trying to woo women, or impress women, and it works every time.
Amazon.com: Good to know.
And finally, not to get morbid, but what's your death row last meal?
De Laurentiis: I think for me it would be a dessert. Of all of my desserts... my Chocolate Tiramisu.
Amazon.com: Nice. Go out with a bang.
De Laurentiis: Absolutely.