Dodging knives at culinary school, winning over bullies with her cooking, and trying to light Bobby Flay's competitive fire. She's an inspiration to many in the kitchen, but for Giada De Laurentiis, it hasn't always been an easy ride.
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00:00 Dodging knives at culinary school, winning over bullies with her cooking, and trying
00:05 to light Bobby Flay's competitive fire, she's an inspiration to many in the kitchen.
00:10 But for Giada De Laurentiis, it hasn't always been an easy ride.
00:15 Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis was born in Rome in 1970.
00:19 When she was seven years old, De Laurentiis and her family immigrated to the United States,
00:23 settling in Los Angeles.
00:25 But early life was no picnic for De Laurentiis, as she had a difficult time adjusting to American
00:31 culture.
00:32 What made things especially hard was the fact that De Laurentiis did not speak any English,
00:36 and she struggled to learn the language.
00:38 As she shared with Redbook,
00:39 "I had a very tough childhood.
00:41 I came here from Italy in the '70s and didn't speak a word of English."
00:45 Her family only spoke Italian at home, which made learning English more challenging.
00:50 As De Laurentiis explained to Business Insider,
00:52 "My family takes their culture very seriously.
00:55 So even when we moved to the U.S., we still lived very Italian lives."
01:00 According to Hudson Mod Mag, De Laurentiis had such a hard time learning English that
01:05 she was forced to repeat first grade.
01:07 "Spaghetti."
01:08 "Oh, you say spaghetti?"
01:09 "Spaghetti."
01:10 "I'd never heard anybody call it that.
01:11 I thought it was spaghetti."
01:14 On top of having to learn a new language and assimilate to a new culture, De Laurentiis
01:19 also dealt with bullying at school.
01:21 As she explained to Business Insider, her Italian name was something that alienated
01:25 her from the rest of the class.
01:27 Not only was she not seen as cool, but she also put up with some pretty intense bullying
01:32 due in part to the fact that she had a hard time speaking English.
01:36 She told Redbook,
01:37 "The kids at school tormented me.
01:39 Truly it was horrifying the names they called me, and the teachers never really did a thing
01:43 to stop it."
01:44 But De Laurentiis was resilient, and eventually learned that she could win her classmates
01:48 over by showing off her cooking skills.
01:50 She learned to cook when she was a child, and the kids at school were impressed.
01:54 As she told Redbook,
01:55 "I'd bring things to class that I cooked at home, and my classmates were like, 'Wow, this
02:00 is amazing!'
02:01 And that girl with the funny name cooked it."
02:03 After the horrors of grade school faded, Giada De Laurentiis went on to expand her cooking
02:08 education at culinary school.
02:10 She attended the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, but she soon found it was not all
02:15 that she'd dreamed it would be.
02:16 As she recalled to Time,
02:18 "I hated it for the first two months.
02:20 I was lonely.
02:21 I had never been away from my family.
02:23 It was rough, and school was rough."
02:25 To say that the school was rough seems like an understatement given the way De Laurentiis
02:29 and the other students were treated by the instructors.
02:32 As De Laurentiis recalled,
02:33 "The chefs were so hard on us.
02:35 For an American girl who's used to teachers that are nice to you, they were evil.
02:40 They threw stuff at us, sauces, knives."
02:42 As wild as that sounds, De Laurentiis claims it was par for the course at the time, explaining,
02:47 "It is a different mentality.
02:49 They were treating us the way they were treated coming up, and they were letting us have it.
02:53 Nobody can prepare you for that, but it's not like that anymore."
02:56 Despite the initial challenges and the teacher's behavior, De Laurentiis graduated and soon
03:01 kicked off her impressive career.
03:03 Giada De Laurentiis grew up with three siblings, Dino, Eloisa, and Igor De Laurentiis.
03:09 Giada was particularly close with her brother Dino, so she was absolutely devastated when
03:14 he died in 2003 from melanoma at the age of 31.
03:19 Giada told Entertainment Tonight that she and Dino shared a passion for the culinary
03:23 arts and even lived next door to one another.
03:26 Although Dino was two years younger than Giada, she looked up to him, saying,
03:30 "Really, we felt like he was my older brother.
03:33 He was the person I turned to for everything.
03:35 When something great happened in my life, when something bad happened, I would talk
03:39 to him two to three times per day."
03:41 Aside from the heartbreak of losing Dino, his death had further repercussions.
03:46 In fact, Giada had reservations about starting a family because of the loss of her brother,
03:51 admitting to Redbook,
03:52 "My brother's passing made me afraid.
03:55 I think because I was afraid that we could have a child and lose him or her too."
03:59 Giada has dealt with her brother's death by speaking out about the dangers of melanoma
04:04 and urging people to get regular skin cancer screenings.
04:07 "Melanoma can happen to anyone.
04:10 Anyone.
04:11 Every hour someone dies from melanoma.
04:13 It doesn't have to be someone you love."
04:16 In May 2003, Giada De Laurentiis married anthropology designer Todd Thompson.
04:21 While the marriage seemed like a happy one, with the couple welcoming their daughter Jade
04:25 in 2008, the tabloids could not get enough of De Laurentiis.
04:29 She was plagued by rumors that she had cheated on her husband with the likes of singer-songwriter
04:34 John Mayer, former Today host Matt Lauer, and fellow chef Bobby Flay.
04:39 In her 2011 interview with Redbook, De Laurentiis vehemently denied that anything had happened
04:44 between Mayer and herself.
04:46 She claimed she hadn't even seen Mayer in three years and that they'd only had a brief
04:50 encounter, but the rumor was enough to do some damage.
04:53 As De Laurentiis explained,
04:55 "I was shocked, and not so much for me, but for my husband and family."
04:59 De Laurentiis also denied having an affair with Lauer, with whom she was accused of sharing
05:04 a very cozy dinner and being flirty during a Today segment.
05:07 And she was adamant that a night out with Bobby Flay was completely innocent as well.
05:12 In a statement to Gossip Cop, De Laurentiis said,
05:15 "My longtime friendships with my co-workers Matt Lauer and Bobby Flay are exactly that
05:20 — longtime friendships."
05:22 Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay share a very close friendship.
05:26 The two met in 2004 at a food convention and have appeared together on popular Food Network
05:32 shows, Iron Chef America, and Food Network Star.
05:35 On the Behind the Plate podcast, De Laurentiis gushed about her pal Flay, saying,
05:39 "He's one of those guys you can call in a pinch and he will get you out of it.
05:43 He's special in that sense."
05:45 But the friendship went through a rough patch, and it all stemmed from a TV appearance.
05:49 De Laurentiis and Flay teamed up against famed chefs Rachel Ray and Mario Batali for Iron
05:55 Chef America in 2006.
05:57 De Laurentiis and Flay lost, which De Laurentiis took very seriously.
06:01 Flay's reaction bothered her, as she explained,
06:04 "We lost and he thought it was funny.
06:06 He didn't think it was any big deal that we lost.
06:08 I did not talk to him for eight months.
06:10 I did not.
06:11 Nothing.
06:12 Silence."
06:13 She went on to explain that she had worked hard preparing her dish, and felt as though
06:17 Flay half-assed it.
06:19 Flay's attitude following the loss angered De Laurentiis further, explaining,
06:23 "He didn't say, 'Hey, I'm sorry that we lost,' or, 'Hey, you know, we'll do it again.'
06:27 He just, like, walked away, and I thought, 'You're a jerk.'"
06:30 Luckily, the two patched things up, and are on good terms today.
06:35 In 2010, Giada De Laurentiis suffered another devastating loss, when her grandfather, acclaimed
06:41 film producer Dino De Laurentiis, died at age 91.
06:45 As she told The Hollywood Reporter,
06:46 "My grandfather was a true inspiration."
06:49 Dino De Laurentiis was legendary in the world of film, having had success both in Italy
06:54 and in the U.S.
06:55 He was involved in the production of over 500 movies, such as 1976's King Kong and Bill
07:02 & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and was nominated for over 35 Academy Awards, garnering his
07:08 first win in 1957.
07:10 While Dino De Laurentiis was likely an inspiration to many, his granddaughter Giada shared a
07:15 special bond with him, and his death was difficult for her.
07:19 Despite having lived a long and successful life, the elder De Laurentiis would be sorely
07:23 missed by Giada, who said of her grandfather,
07:26 "He was my biggest champion in life, and a constant source for wisdom and advice.
07:31 I will miss him dearly."
07:34 In 2013, there was a lot of drama simmering at the Food Network.
07:37 It mostly involved TV personality and chef Paula Deen, but Giada De Laurentiis suffered
07:42 as a result.
07:44 Deen came under fire after it was revealed she had been using racial slurs in the workplace.
07:49 Deen's behavior resulted in a federal discrimination lawsuit, and during a deposition, Deen admitted
07:54 to having used a racial slur to describe Black people.
07:58 It was enough to get her fired from the Food Network, with her show, Paula's Home Cooking,
08:03 ending after being on the air for over a decade.
08:06 The network replaced Deen's slots with De Laurentiis' shows, which Deen's fans did not
08:11 like.
08:12 As De Laurentiis told Access Hollywood,
08:13 "Her shows got replaced by my shows, so we have a lot of people not happy with me right
08:18 now, as if I had anything to do with it."
08:21 De Laurentiis' remarks came after Deen's fans took to social media to criticize De Laurentiis
08:26 for not sticking up for Deen, as the two women had been friends.
08:30 But De Laurentiis was unwilling to get involved, and she dealt with plenty of internet hate
08:34 for her choice.
08:36 In 2014, Giada De Laurentiis and her husband, Todd Thompson, announced that they had decided
08:42 to end their marriage.
08:43 De Laurentiis and Thompson began dating when De Laurentiis was just 19 years old, and in
08:48 addition to the various rumors of infidelity, the couple's relationship withstood its fair
08:53 share of challenges.
08:55 While there was no clear reason for the split, De Laurentiis revealed her new celebrity status
09:00 might have had something to do with it.
09:02 As the Food Network star said in her 2011 interview with Redbook,
09:05 "I think it can be hard for any man to sometimes be upstaged by his wife."
09:10 De Laurentiis took to Facebook to announce her split from Thompson, writing in the post,
09:14 "Although our decision to separate comes with a great deal of sadness, our focus on the
09:19 future and overwhelming desire for our family's happiness has given us the strength to move
09:24 forward on separate yet always connected paths."
09:27 The exes now co-parent their daughter, Jade, who turns 16 in 2024.
09:32 Meanwhile, Giada found a tried and true way to cope with the pain of her marriage ending.
09:36 "I found myself cooking a lot more, but not on television as much as just for myself and
09:41 for my family and for my daughter."
09:43 - De Laurentiis