Giada de Laurentiis, Everyday Italian Chef

Giada de Laurentiis, of the Food Network’s Everyday Italian fame, is well known for her simple Italian dishes, appropriately tweaked for today’s more health-conscious and serious home cook. Her culinary fame is fueled by her television programs, bestselling cookbooks and signature Giada products.

Giada’s Culinary Education

Chef Giada’s culinary education took a slightly different turn than most celebrity chefs. But her story is a lesson to adult career changers with a passion for cooking that just won’t go away.

As she recounts time and again on her show, Giada grew up in a large Italian family in a kitchen that turned out traditional Italian dishes. She knew how to cook and loved cooking from childhood. Her grandfather, Italian film director, Dino de Laurentiis owned his own restaurant—DDL Foodshow—where Giada also spent developing years. But out of high school instead of culinary arts, she chose to study Anthropology. Her passion for cooking did not abate even with the distraction of a career.

Her formal culinary education took place at the world famous Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She majored in both cuisine and patisserie, Le Grand Diplome, as it’s officially called, or a combination of both classic chef training and classic patisserie or pastry cheffing. From this point on her story is a bit more silver-spooned than most chefs fresh from cooking school. Most likely thanks to her Hollywood ties, Giada landed a chef’s job with Wolfgang Puck’s famous Spago in Beverly Hills, renowned restaurant to the stars. She eventually launched her own private catering company.

Food Network, Television and Fame

But how did she end up in front a Food Network camera? Again, thanks to the fame and good fortune of the di Laurentiis clan she was “discovered” in a magazine article that highlighted the family and their individual pursuits. Her perkiness, prettiness and passion for Italian cooking have all contributed to her meteoric rise to food fame.

What Giada so far has not done is launch her own restaurants, a typical route for many celebrity chefs. She remains committed to her TV food scene and has since parlayed her Everyday Italian popularity to include other FN shows: Giada’s Weekend Getaways and the new Giada At Home.