The Bossticks - Giada De Laurentiis On Eating Healthy, Exposing Food Myths, Ingredients To Add & Avoid, & Cooking Like A Pro

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

#812: Join us as we sit down with Giada De Laurentiis – an Italian-American chef, television personality, & bestselling cookbook author. Rising to fame as the host of Everyday Italian on the Food Network, Giada has become a culinary icon, starring in multiple TV shows, opening celebrated restaurants, & launching Giadzy, her Italian food product line. In this episode, Giada takes us behind the scenes of her early days at Food Network, reveals insider secrets to signature dishes, shares her approach to creating nutritious yet indulgent pasta recipes with high-quality ingredients, & reflects on her journey in the competitive culinary industry!   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To connect with Giada De Laurentiis click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at [phone].   This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential   Head to the HIM & HER Show ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of Michael and Lauryn's favorite products mentioned on their latest episodes.   Discover the Italian approach to healthy eating with Giada De Laurentiis' latest cookbook, Super Italian! Visit giadzy.com to learn more about Giada, purchase her Italian food products, & get access to all of her favorite recipes!    This episode is sponsored by YNAB   TSC Him & Her Show listeners can claim an exclusive three-month free trial, with no credit card required at YNAB.com/skinny.   This episode is sponsored by Nutrafol    For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code SKINNYHAIR.   This episode is sponsored by ShipSkis   Go to Shipskis.com and use the code SKINNY to get 20% off your first shipment and save yourself the hassle this ski season.   This episode is sponsored by Hiya Health    Receive 50% off your first order. To claim this deal you must go to hiyahealth.com/SKINNY.    This episode is sponsored by Dr. Diamonds Metacine    Visit DrDiamondsMetacine.com to learn more about the InstaFacial(R) Collection and use code SKINNY at checkout for a free sample of award-winningInstaFacial(R) Plasma with any purchase of $200 or more.    This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential   Optimize your daily beauty routine. Shop Mouth Tape at ShopSkinnyConfidential.com.    Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Skinny Confidential, Him and Her show. Today, buckle in, buckle up because we have an absolute legend. on the show, especially if you're a fan of the food world. She's an Emmy award-winning chef, New York Times best-selling author, and Food Network superstar who made Italian food sexy on American TV. But what you might also not know is that Giata de Lorenta is a total badass entrepreneur, businesswoman, and wellness advocate. On this episode, we're talking about all things food, wellness, ingredients, how to decipher what to eat, what to put in your body, how to make healthy

choices, how to build a career in food, and much more with that. Giaata, welcome to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. I did this post earlier, and sometimes I post things that I guess are considered controversial, but for me, not so much. And I was saying when I go to places in Europe and I eat pasta and gelat and all these things, I'm fine and I don't feel guilty and I don't feel like I have to work out a million times to work it off.

And I was saying here in the U.S., I have to be really careful. And I wonder with your background doing what you do, how people can figure out, you know, what is healthy and clean and what is not? Because it feels like a real exercise for a normal person like myself to try to figure it out. Yes, and I get that all the time. Why is it the when I go to Italy? I eat all the pasta, all the pizza, all the bread. And I don't gain weight. And a lot of times I lose weight.

How is this possible? And then I come home and things are a little different. And yes, things are different. And it's a multitude of reasons. I would say that when you are on vacation, your mind thinks differently. Okay? That's number one. I think number two, you move more.

You're walking around more. You know, we live in Los Angeles. We spend most of our time in cars. Let's be honest. We don't walk really very far at all. Even if we could, we still don't. It's a mentality. So movement is another.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, it's the quality of the ingredients. In Italy, we don't mass produce food the way that we do here. Our crops aren't genetically modified like they are here. So there's a lot of differentiators. There's a lot of family-run businesses that have been running it on their land for X amount of years that have not sold to big conglomerates, right? So they're still doing it the old way, in quotations. And I think that has a lot to do with the quality of the food. In this country, sadly, for many reasons, our food is, a lot of it is poisoned in a way.

To be direct and clear. I think that we're working on it. I think that it was done for good reasons, not bad reasons. We were trying to feed a population that feed everybody equally. And to do that, you had to make a couple of sacrifices, right? And kick the can down the road a bit and say, We'll deal with this problem 40 years from now. We're there.

And we have to deal with the problem because, you know, people are getting sick. And look, women can't get pregnant. Congratulations to you. But a lot of women cannot. There are multiple reasons why this is happening. This isn't just like all of a sudden what's happening. This has been, you know, creeping up on us. And now we have finally exploded.

And I think people are interested in understanding how to buy products. I think they're very interested, but I also think, you know, sometimes I'll talk to my parents, it's older generation. And they're skeptical. They don't believe that this is, in many cases, maybe they do now. But in many cases, they don't believe that maybe some of our cleaning supplies or our food supply should be looked at and we should pay more attention to the ingredients and where it comes from and all that. And I think it's because people learn to live with some of these symptoms that just become normal, right? I always say like it's strange to run around with this much inflammation as a young person. A lot of young people can hang about inflammation.

That's strange, right? Yes, people don't like to change, number one, right? And secondly, I have a lot of, you know, the older generation that says, I'm fine. Look at me. And I've been doing this. Or I've been eating McDonald's or whatever. Yes, but if you think about how you grew up, you probably grew up a lot cleaner than your kids are growing up and your grandkids are growing up. And I think what people don't realize is that it's generational.

So the toxicity level, the bucket, as I call it, overflows generation after generation. We are, right now, your baby is absorbing whatever you grew up on and whatever your mom grew up on. And I think we don't realize that that is how interconnected we actually are to our ancestors. So when you go shopping yourself for the past 10 years, what are you looking for? What are your requirements? Well, I grew up being a little differently because I immigrated here from Italy when I was seven. And my parents brought a lot of ingredients over. And we're always importing stuff.

Yeah. So pastas and tomatoes and olive oils, all of these foods, they would bring them in because they weren't. I grew up in the 70s. And I moved here in 1975. You couldn't find olive oil. You couldn't find, pardon me, gano to gano. You couldn't even find decent pasta. Nothing.

And we were used to eating a certain way. So my family would bring it in. Family members would go and literally fill her suitcases and bring it in for everybody. And that is how I ate. So I didn't eat fast food. I didn't grow up on TV dinners. That's what most of my friends grew up on. And I think that over time I started to realize that some of the treats that all my friends had that I really like, like, I was a huge lover of Oreo cookies, Milano cookies, lemonade.

all the things that I didn't get because that just wasn't part of who we are in our culture. And I started to realize over time that I did not feel good as I grew older. And I started to realize that a lot of the packaged products as I was a cook and started to educate myself and ingredients were filled with preservatives and fillers and gums and all sorts of things. Sugars, you know, remember the big, well, you guys are younger than me, but when I was a kid, well, teenagers, snackwells was the thing was the dessert right because it had no sugar. What was snackwells again? At the green box? Yeah.

They had, it was a non-sugar dessert, right? Because we were on this no sugar craze in that generation. And so what they replaced it with was all sorts of ingredients that were, you know, synthetics, basically. We were eating plastic is basically what we were doing. Flavored. Great. And that's what was happening.

And so generation after generation, as you continue to eat those kind of foods, people get sick and babies get sick. And when babies start to get sick, that's when people wake up because that can't be happening. Yeah, I think there's a real moment going on right now where that awakening is starting to happen. And people are just kind of sick and tired of being sick and tired. When in your life did you figure out that you wanted to pursue a career in food? Well, I grew up in a family of producers, movie producers. My family was big in the movie business.

But my grandfather, who was a big movie producer, grew up in Naples. selling his mom and dad's pasta from door to door until World War II. And he was one of seven kids. And so during World War II, Naples was bombed. He was a young, I don't know, maybe he was 17. He went into the war, as they all did. But his parents lost their pasta factory outside of Naples. So at that point, he moved to Rome.

He wanted to be an actor, but he was too petite as I am, as you can see. Little guy. Little guys don't make it as actors, especially in those days. So he became a movie producer. and he became a very successful one. Any films we would know? Oh, yeah. I mean, my grandfather made over 600 movies.

So La Strada, that's an Italian movie with Fellini, Conan the Barbarian. He started Arnold Schwarzenegger's career. King Kong with Jessica Lang, like, huge, huge movies. He produced the original June by David Land. Yes, who just died, sadly, yes. Okay, there you go. There you go. There you go, there you go.

Taylor's a big movie buff back there. There you go. So anybody who's a big movie buff knows my grandfather. He started in Italy, then he moved to the States. I was seven at that time. And in Italy, when the patriarch of the family moves, I'll move, right? You're like little ducklings. You all kind of follow.

So my parents followed and all us kids followed. And I was seven when we moved here. And my grandfather's goal was, although he was making all these movies, he wanted to start these, like in Italy, is really what it was. It was called DDL Food Show. It was in the 80s. He did one in New York and Trump Tower. and one in Los Angeles in Beverly Hills. It's crazy.

I know. Look much like Italy with little restaurants mixed into the grocery. And he had all his buddies he grew up with, the pizayolos, the pasta makers, everybody, the butchers. He brought them all over to run these two stores. And I was, at the time, I was 12. So in Beverly Hills, I would go after school and I would just run around there and just be amazed at what I saw. and the look on people's faces when they walked in,

because you have to remember in the 80s, it was the heyday, right? There was a lot of money in this country, but people didn't know this kind of food. They just didn't, unless you traveled a lot, which most people didn't. It just wasn't part of the culture to travel outside the U.S. And so people were just amazed with the aromas

coming out of that place and what they could buy and the sounds of people talking. So I realized, oh, I want to do this. Whatever the hell this is, this is the reaction. I want. And so as I grew up, I ended up going to college and I was the first of my family to go to college and then I realized I want to study food. I would like to be some kind of French pastry chef. I love sugar. I love desserts. Sadly for myself, that is my biggest vice. And so I went to culinary school in Paris. Not just any culinary school being modest, but go on. Yes. Well, because in my book,

Italian food wasn't that special because I'd grown up. on it, so I felt like it was very pedestrian in a way, but I wanted to be a, you know, a famous pastry chef because I love desserts. Is French culinary school, like, is that what everyone aspires to, or at least at the time, is that where you, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Like the major leagues. It is the major leagues. Having said that, the difference between American culinary schools, which are very popular now, and French culinary schools is at the time, they didn't teach you business at the French culinary schools. They just taught you technique. And I did both savory and pastry, but the pastries was like these giant sugar sculptures,

like really amazing things that you're never going to use in your real life unless you work for, you know, Alain Ducas in Paris, where in the U.S., they do teach you business so you could run a restaurant. I didn't get that part. So anyhow, I did that for a few years, and then I moved back home to Los Angeles, and I worked for Wolfgang Puck.

I worked for different chefs. And that is how the love of wanting to cook happened. But in my family, cooking was what grounded us. My grandfather left a lot to make movies. So when he was home, we would all be together and cook. And he loved to cook. And when I was little, my first memory of cooking basically is making pizza dough. And then we had an outdoor pizza oven. And my grandfather would give us a bunch of toppings and us little kids would sit on the counter and we'd all make our own pizzas and we'd eat it as we made it. And I think for me, that tactile experience just, I don't know, it just, it just, transcended for me. And also, I think, coming from a very large Italian family, women, we don't get a lot of attention other than having babies. And I felt very empowered in that space because I happened to be good at it. So I got a lot of attention for doing it in my family. So how did you start to mix the business in with it? The business kind of just came. I was private chefing and working for Wolfgang Puck at Spago.

and on the side I started doing a little bit of food styling just because I'd been to Paris so I loved how to I just loved creating art right and I wasn't really doing that in the restaurant business or private chaffing because you're making fried chicken every day so basically I ended up working on a magazine food and wine magazine and having some food styling friends and I ended up doing an issue of food magazine right after 9-11. 9-11 changed the food game for everybody. Basically, when 9-11 happened, people started to realize, okay, they got scared of going out. It's basically what happened. So people wanted to stay home and cook. And that's how Food Network exploded. And I did that issue, and I got a call from Food Network to put myself on tape because they loved the recipes in this issue.

But they wanted to see whether or not I had any personality. And you'd never done television before this? No. No. No. And my family's in the first. business. And also because my family's in the movie business at that time, TV isn't what it is today. At the time, TV was seen as not so great. Correct. Especially cable TV. Really? Yes. It's kind of like think of, think of podcasting at the very beginning or social media at the very beginning stages, right? People are like, what the hell is that? Yeah. That's lame. We're not going to do that. That's below us. Now podcasting, social media, it runs everything. I remember my mom watching you, me being little watching you on TV being like, wow. I probably was about 15. Yeah.

Yeah, probably. I mean, I've been doing it for over 25 years. Because it had to be around 2001, 2002. Yeah, very beginning of my career. The reason I, you know, everybody remembers where they were during 9-11. And I remember we were walking. We were freshmen in high school. And I was walking on the campus, because we're in California. So the time was different. And then that was going, I mean, everyone like, everything shut down. But that's how I can, it's like one of those things where you, No, I remember watching her on TV. No, but I'm saying the reason I can recall the date is because... Oh, how old we were.

Yeah. Yeah, I remember watching you and thinking, wow, so that's crazy that people didn't take that seriously. Yeah, but, you know, it takes time. It takes time. Yeah. So I think, so yeah, back in 2001 is really when it started to explode. And that is one of the reasons that it shifted. Like all these big things that happened to us, like COVID, like all, they shift the mentality of how people think and work.

I mean, podcasting, I think, really blew up because of COVID. Yeah, we've been doing this a long time. You're right. Yeah, but if you think about what happened then, people got locked in and they were like, oh, I found you guys because I don't have anything else to do. And now I love you and I'm going to follow you and listen to you forever. It killed the community. You know, it's funny because I do this show, but then we run this business.

And in the early days prior to COVID, you'd have to like get on with people and explain to them why they would listen to a podcast, why they would invest, why they would guess. You never really like argue for the medium. And now like those days, especially after the election, regardless of how people feel about it, like these are mainstream channels now. But COVID in particular, people lost the commute and they're all at home. And unlike other mediums, you could just like sit in your house with a microphone. Correct. And so a lot of people came in.

And yeah, I was, I hate to say it was like good because I was such a bad time. But it was beneficial to the medium. But there's always there's always great things that come out of these horrible moments and, like. And it's about harnessing those, right? When did you notice the momentum with the Food Network? After my first season, I did 18 episodes that were terrible. I must have lost, and I'm already little. I must have lost like 10 pounds.

I was so nervous. But you also have- Big toe? Where did you lose eight? Well, the thing is is that I was, I was super shy. And so this medium was really hard for me. Because unlike this, where you can just talk and not work, worry. That one, there were people firing questions at me all the time. Why are you shooting that way?

Open up. No, don't close. Don't chop like that. I have to see the, no, use your other hand. I'm like, how the hell am I supposed to get through a recipe? Teach it to you. Make it taste good. Have fun while you're yelling at me to open up. Hold the knife with their left hand. I don't know. I can't, I don't use my left hand to chop. Like this doesn't work. So there was a lot of stress associated with this process that took me a long time. And I wasn't an extrovert. So, to me, this was terrible. I hated it. That's a lot of people like looking for like, I feel like

trying to solidify their job. Meaning like... Yes, but I didn't know that at the time because I was young and I was... They need to like have value and so they add value by like giving you something to do. That's right because we do this and it feels like sometimes you forget that there's going to be people that later tune in and listen to a watch. But we did a commercial one time. This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It was like a two minute thing.

By the way, he slept in the commercial. Not really was my role That was the role He was sleeping They put all these blankets It was hot as hell I was like I did all the acting

He was sleeping You're not sleepy Your eyes are shut too tight He goes this is so hard I'm like you slept Out of control No because these people They like get another blanket

And it was 18 blankets For this is ridiculous So how did you start to get into it If you had all these people Trying to micromanage you Season 2 They said Well pick you up for season 2

But you need to loosen up So figure out How you're going to do that My brother was an editor and a cameraman at the time. And so he followed me around, much like, you know, reality shows today. Like a vlog?

Basically. Yeah, it didn't exist at the time. But we would go places and he'd follow me with his camera and he'd be like, you have to talk to me. You have to look at me. You have to engage it with me. Like, look at me. So he basically prepped me

and we spent a whole summer three months follow me everywhere. The grocery store, the clean, anybody that would let us film. But remember, it's a camera because at the time our phones were not what they are today, right? So you couldn't use those. So some giant, the big giant was.

It wasn't giant, but it was, it was not a phone. Let's just leave it at that. But it was so anyway, and he had to mic me. It's all fine. Anyhow, three months of that with him on me every day. And I loosened up. And I started to realize, okay, I can do this. I can talk to you.

I can feel comfortable. Because, you know, there's a lot of, you feel uncomfortable. Like, do I food in my teeth? Like, am I smiling weird? You forget, you know? So anyway, that's really. helped me a ton, a ton. So that was really the turning point. And at that period of time, what was the business that you could build around that medium? Because now there's so many

different ways. I mean, you've got books and restaurants and there's all these. At the time, it was the Wild West, so nobody knew what the business was around it, right? So I started with a show, which is different than most people in my business, because most chefs start with restaurants. And then from restaurants, they go to books. And then from books, they go to shows. And that's how I started with a show first. So from there, I went to books. And then from books, I went to restaurants. And from restaurants, I went into everything else.

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Again, that's spelled YNAB.com slash skinny. Check it out. I have changed my hair. My hair used to be short, blonde, fried. It was shedding whenever I would. I would take a shower or wash my hair even when I would sleep. And I've done it by being very meticulous about how I take care of my hair. So now I do scalp massage and I do it with like a serum.

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Make sure you use the code Skinny so they know we sent you. When did you start to have a nose? Oh my God, there's a business here. After my first cookbook, and I think they printed 20,000 books, and I sold 150,000 books before the book dropped. Wow. And I did not have books on Book Tour for the first six weeks, and they had to take them from China and produce them in the U.S.

because we could not get them fast enough. Did you even have social media then? No. No. Wow. So that is when I realized, oh shit. Yeah. Something is happening here that I couldn't have imagined.

It was crazy to think about it. Oh yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere you want. Everywhere. Everywhere you could possibly. Because they felt like you were in their home.

Correct. And so unlike actors where they're not sure how you're going to be because they've only seen you act and shows. or movies, pretending to be somebody else. With me, they felt like they knew who I was. I was in their home. And they knew my family, everything around me. And especially when I had my daughter on top of that,

then they really felt comfortable. So they would come and wait for me outside the toilet in like an airport, like everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Everywhere. I'm sure that was exciting for you. It's really fun. Let me tell you. So anyhow, yes.

Yeah, and that's when I started to realize I was on a treadmill. And I was like, oh my God, am I going to get off? Like, how is this going to work? And I think me being from the family that I'm from, I've seen a lot of actors come and go because my family is behind the scenes, right? So I watched all of that and I thought, okay, this is a limited time only kind of thing, right? The window is short. So I just was like, okay, let's do this.

Let's see what comes out of it without ever having any plan. I didn't have a plan. How did you know how to build the team around you? That took some time. Yeah. And still to this day, I have a much smaller team than people think. I don't have a giant entourage of people. What's your team?

My immediate team is probably five people, and then the restaurants are bigger, but they're not my immediate team. And then I have a lifestyle platform, Jodzzi, and that is a bigger team, again, that is managed. But my internal team is small. So how did you learn how to conceptualize that? I never wanted an entourage. I don't like entourage's.

I also don't like to have to ask 10 different people who's handling what. I want people to manage. I want just a few people that I have to manage. I don't want to, I just, I've never been good at that kind of thing. I think that for me, I like a core team and I like, believe it or not, I have a lot of women. I have a lot of young women. around me. That's really the team that I have. I have a couple of guys as well to help me with my restaurants because I feel like I need some men around me.

Nice to keep one or two of us around. I do. And I have a couple. And my agents a man and my lawyers a man. So I do have them. But my immediate core team are all young ladies. And how are you doing all of this with children? Because I'm sometimes getting overwhelmed doing what I do with my two kids. It's not easy. Is this your third kid? Yeah. Wow. Okay. I keep telling him. Three's a lot, right? Yeah, it's a lot. See?

I never said it. Don't, don't start. I never said it wasn't. It's a lot to have three. It's a lot to have three. You are an active participant. But the thing is, the thing is that for a woman, it's always different than a man, right? Like, women, it's all falls on us.

Like, regardless of whether you work or you don't, you're still in charge of the kids. And you're still always going to have that responsibility where guys just don't, sadly. But you do help a lot. But you guys might be different. but that's what happens. I'm not going to say he doesn't help. I'm going to use this moment to be like a no comment moment. Listen, I think it's beautiful.

I think when all things, other things go away, that will be your biggest joy in life. But it isn't without its hardships. I guess that's what it is. So for me, it was learning that I could not do all of it. So as much as I wanted to take care of my daughter and I wanted to be the primary person to do all it, I just couldn't. I did drag her to a lot of places. She traveled starting at like five months.

And that's good for her. Yeah. And she's a great traveler now. I'm sure. But I had to realize when I cannot be there, I have to find the right people who love her as much as I love her to take care of her. And I have to be okay that she might run to them from time to time. Yeah, I mean, doing what we do. That was heartbreaking. That were moments where I was like. The reason we're a little late today is we were walking out the door and our son was crying and How old is your son? He's two and a half. My daughter's five.

Yeah. Girls tend to be a little better at that. They don't want you to go to work. Yeah. So you just had to kind of learn that this is what it is and it's a moment and go with it. Yeah. And then you would bring her whenever you could. Yeah.

That's just the way I did. She didn't want me to go to work either. She hated it when I would leave. Hated it. And I would pay for it when I came home. Yeah, they make you pay. What does our friends say? they say a little measured adversity, like a little...

Yeah, it's a little measured adversity is good for them. Yeah. Well, I think it's good for them to be able to love many different people in their lives. I think that's a gift. It is not... It shouldn't just be you and the kid all the time. I think it really helps them grow up and socialize if they can love a lot of people. Plus, you learn like in life, it takes a lot of different people to feed you.

One person isn't going to feed everything that you need, right? So it's good for them to learn that at a young age. Even if it's a little hard, the younger they are, the better. I mean, I grew up with a mother who worked all the time, still does. And I remember her leaving when I was a kid. But I'm grateful for it now because it kind of set an example of work ethic. And also, like, in my marriage now, I'm used to a woman that works and has her own thing. And it's like, you know, so I look back and maybe at the time it was challenging, but I'm grateful for it now.

Yeah. Because you get to see it. I think that's what happens, right? We grow up when we start to realize, oh, okay. that makes sense. I get it now in a way you can't when you're young. So as you continued to grow your career, what were challenges that came with it? There are a lot of challenges. I'm in a business that is a male-dominated business and I came about it in a different way than a lot of people that had done it before me. Even though a lot of people, there weren't many people that had done it before me,

it still was a little unique and I think that comes with, you know, some criticisms along the way. I also I think people felt I didn't look the part of a cook or a chef that I was too little, it was too thin, I made me too pretty, so I had to battle a lot of those stereotypes. You were like on that network. Yes, yes. You stood out. Correct. You did.

I get it. Young, beautiful, vivacious, like warm. Who were the other people that? It's different. Wasn't it like Emerald? Who was the competitor? Emerald. Emerald.

Emerald. Emerald. Emerald. Emerald. It was Mara Battali who was doing the Italian, right? So they really were looking for someone who could do Italian, but not the same way he was doing it, which was very chefy. And do you guys know who Mari Battagli is? Okay, good.

And I think with Emeril, he wore a chef's hat. They were all wearing chef's outfits, right? Like they were very professional. And it was, and they Food Network had a lot of women watching housewives who didn't, couldn't relate to these guys or felt intimidated by the way that they were teaching, right? And so they were looking for people like myself, like Rachel Ray, eventually Eina Garden, the three of us, that could really speak to a different group of people that these male chefs could not speak to. But the top three were probably Emerald. They were Amari Battagli and Bobby Flea. Those were the three pinnacles

of what was happening on the network at the time. No, Martha Stewart. She wasn't on there? Martha Stewart was separate. She was not on Food Network. No. Okay. She wasn't really like considered a chef. Correct. She was more of a homemaker. She was more of, she did a lot of gardening. She did a lot of catering, but she didn't actually, she wasn't known as a chef per se. So if you were like the new girl on the show and like everyone was like, they were skeptical. Right. What did you do? What did I do? Yeah. How did you handle it?

I tried to make friends with everybody. That's a good strategy. Yes. And I try. And I also, I think what I also. hopefully made them feel is that I was just beginning. And I was a beginner at all this and they were and they were sort of the pinnacles. And so almost like I'm your sous chef in that kind of term. I am not here to take your job. I'm not here to go beyond you.

I am here to learn. To learn. You're not a sous chef right now. No, but at the time I felt like that would disarm the situation. I was looking to diffuse and disarm. I was not looking to go up against them and be in their faces and be like, I'm better than you. I actually didn't think I was better than them anyway. So at the time, I was like, I'm just lucky to be here.

I know I don't fit the mold. I felt very insecure about that. And so I think I was battling my own insecurities. And so the best way for me to diffuse the situation is to make them feel above me. And did it work? It did. So are you friends with all of them now? Yeah.

To this day. Yeah. So when I opened Vegas, which was my very first restaurant, I never had a restaurant before. And it was a giant restaurant for a girl who's never had one. Okay. I leaned on Bobby Fleigh to help me because he had a deal already at Caesar's Palace. And he helped me navigate all of the pitfalls. He's smart, huh?

Yeah. So it helped. It helped to sort of have these people on your side and not, they didn't feel intimidated by me. That was my whole goal because I had to do that for my audience. because I was getting fan mail all the time about how, oh, you put an actor on or you put some kind of young model on to pretend like she can cook. This girl can't cook. Look at her. She can't look like that and know what she's doing. It's not possible. So I think anytime that happens, you have to find a way to disarm them. So what do you do? You either go up against them or you try to like, hey, this is just my version of things. Try it. You like it. You like it. Great. You don't. That's okay too. And it's a week. conversation rather than an eye conversation. Of all the things you've done, really smart, going on TV, writing books,

chefing, opening restaurants, what has been the most challenging? The restaurant business. The restaurant. I knew you were going to say that. My dad was a restaurant owner for 25 years. My whole childhood. It's rough.

It's terribly difficult. It's just a lot of ups and downs. And they're highs and lows and high highs. And they're high highs and low lows. Yeah. And it's so much of managing people. And like when you're not there, you don't know what's going on and there's alcohol and employees are drinking the alcohol. It's a lot. It's a lot. And it's managing people, you know, the world of food and cooking used to be mostly, hey, a lot of people who didn't go to college, people who couldn't find their way in life. Right? This wasn't, this was sort of, it's like artists, right? A lot of them were not mainstream.

And so you're dealing with a lot of people who, you know, battle a lot of demons. And managing people that battle a lot of demons is really, really hard. I'm sure your dad could vouch for that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the restaurant business by far is the hardest. And it has only gotten harder. And so I guess then why do it?

Good question. Because I ask myself that every day. No, no, because I think about these things. And I imagine that obviously it's a great source of pleasure when it's working. And maybe that's the reason. But it seems like with the other things you're doing, you would maybe do better as well as like maybe have an easier time. So I don't know.

Totally. So I was just wondering. By the way, that's exactly right. My friends will go and they'll build a big company and it takes so hard. And then they'll sell the company. And they're like, now I'm going to take all this and open a restaurant. I'm like, oh, that seems right. Why?

Why would you do that? I think for me it was because it was. an extension of my brand, right? So when they watched the shows and when they went and they bought the books, they didn't actually go to a place to feel and touch, right? Do you know what I mean? So I think for me, opening Vegas was a way to have an extension of my brand where people could touch and feel. And because I realized that on a lot of my book tours, people wanted to just get a hug or just touch me and be like, are you actually real? And do you really? And do you really? really look like you look on TV?

Like that was the first, that's what everybody wanted. They came up and they were like, looking at me. Oh. I can confirm you do. You look. Oh. You do. You're littler than you look on TV and you're this.

I don't know how you eat all this pasta and you look like this. But that's what everybody wanted to see. So I thought, I'm going to open something where people can come and they can feel me even if I'm not there. Right. So that was, and it's, and I think I realized I'm in the experience game. Yep. Yes, I'm a teacher.

And yes, I'm a cook and I'm all these things. I'm truly just in the experience game. So that's what people want. That's why I do it. But will you keep doing it? So I opened one in Scottsdale. I'm going to keep doing it. It's just if you ask me the toughest part of my job, that's it.

You know what? I think you should open it in Austin. We need some more Italian there because that's where we live. Wait, you don't live here? No, no. So about half the company is over there. And we live there now. But where do you live?

In Austin. Oh, you guys live in Austin, Texas. I'm not here. So you just fly here, do some podcast. We grew up here and we opened this here and then, you know, I come here, we come here regularly. We come here for work. Well, why not just do it there? We do it there too.

Oh. Oh. You should. I was like, why didn't she make the trip? He's actually not wrong about that. There's not. But you guys have some good food in Austin. No, we have great food.

But I try to think there's like a few good at times places, but. I keep hearing Dallas. Everybody's always like, go to Dallas. Go to Dallas. Go to Dallas. That's always like, where. Austin, you would stand out like that. You don't like the Dallas people as that's happening here.

I like the Dallas people, but I felt like I was already here and kind of like ran around here, and Dallas felt like, you know, like another city. I wanted something a little different. But Austin. People love Austin. I've been awesome many times. I have some friends that live there. They love it there.

But there's like Sanis. What else is there Italian? Oh, yeah. Because there's not an Italian restaurant I can think of and be like, that's the Italian restaurant. Huh. That's interesting. That's actually a really good. You should look at Austin.

Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff opening over there now. I think it like, we kind of, I mean, we weren't the earliest, but we moved in 2020. And I feel like now there's a lot more people there. And the infrastructure is getting more and more built out. Some people are excited about that. Some people are not I'm excited.

But there's a ton of like kind of restaurants that you'd expect in Texas, but not a ton of Italian. I'm trying to think we're Sammy's and where else? Sammies is the big one. Red ash. Yeah. Red ash is like wood fire Italian like steak. That's really, it's not a lot of Italian. Well, is there a market for it?

That's, I'll do some research. I think. the restaurant, do long it takes me to make a reservation? I will just be there. I will do it just for you then. Just for the two of you. If we have people come into town, I have to call a month and a half. Yeah, I heard about that.

I had a time for reservations because you can't get a reservation in Austin. Huh. You cannot. And I am not joking. Even a place that doesn't have good food. There were so many companies and people that moved there. And like I said, now the infrastructure is kind of catching up. But Austin used to be a small town.

It is no longer a small town. You cannot. Denver is the same thing. There's a lot of these towns people complaining like, hey, guys, come on. There's so many of us. There's not enough businesses. Crush it. Okay.

I need to know how you look like this and eat all this Italian food. Are you like, do you work out a lot? Is this just genetics? What? Well, partly genetics. My mother's little. I'd say partly I also do a lot of yoga. I do a lot of, like I try to get between like 10,000,

steps a day. Wow. How do you do that with everything? You just walk while you talk on the phone? Sometimes. Okay. Take zooms on the treadmill or whatever. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I walk my dogs a lot. Not right now. But usually. I think, you know, movement is a big part of what I need to keep going. I also, I don't, I mean, I eat, but I eat four small meals a day. I don't eat giant meals. I wouldn't have the energy to do what I do if I ate big meals all the time. So I eat small, four to five sometimes small meals all day. And it seems based on your book that you're specific about what you're eating with the ingredients. Yeah. So, you know, I grew up on pasta clearly.

And so for me with this book, the biggest chapter is the pasta chapter. Yeah. The idea, though, being that we infuse nutrient dense ingredients in these foods that we love. And you'll see some of the recipes in my book in the pasta chapter don't use a whole box. a whole pound of pasta. They use half, half a pound of pasta. And then there's greens, there's protein, there's all other things that are nutrient dense and enhance the flavor of it, but you still get your pasta.

And so it's getting, it's just being smarter about how you're eating and what you're eating. And what kind of pasta are you eating? Are you eating a pasta that's high in protein? Are you eating a pasta that is, that uses clean ingredients? You know what I mean? Where is it come from? Is it extruded by a bronze dye or, you know, is it cut by bronze dyes?

Is it, you know, is it slow-dried? Because those are the things that matter and the type of pasta that you're eating. On a reverse question, the audience is not going to like if I don't ask this question. What brands? Because they're going to want to know which brands to go by. I think more than brands to go by, look at the ingredient list and look at the pasta. Does it say slow-dried on it? Does it say bronze cut?

What should you not say? Yeah. What do you want it to say? Is it super yellow? Is it super smooth with no ridges? These are the things you got to look for. Is that good or bad if there's ridges? The ridges are good.

You want a porous. You want a pasta that has like a texture to it, not a smooth pasta. So if you think about the Teflam pans that we use, things slide off of it, right? Those are the type of extruders that when you're mass producing pasta, that's what they're using. What does that do? It puts a lot of heat on the simulina flour and it dries it really fast so they can make lots of pasta and sell tons of it, right? When you do that, it changes the chemical reaction of the actual wheat of the simulina, Durham wheat that they're using. So it spikes your glucose when you're eating it. Right. So you want a pasta that has texture. Look for something that has texture, ridges. You want to look for something that is a darker color. I mean, yes, a lighter color, not a darker. color. A lighter color. Yes, and not smooth. Not a smooth pasta. You don't have any brand that you like. I hate to say brands because then like I'm going to get killed in the marketplace, but I will tell you that I, Jodzzi makes a pasta that we import. Yes, we do. But there are others that are good

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Well, I'm overwhelmed when you tell me all these different things. I know. But then that's why I keep asking for a brand to know that you created it is helpful. But you don't want to be smooth. No, look made in Italy too. Look for that too. It needs to be made. So is your pasta made in Italy? Yes. So you get all the points that you were talking. about you don't have to worry about it. Yes. That takes it right. Yes. But I just, I don't want it to just be like, oh, go get, yes, go get Jodzi pasta because it is the best one. They sell it. Well, you guys don't have Arawan in Texas, right? No, but I'll all order it and post-baked them. But there's other stores in Texas. I'll have to tell you which ones they are. Okay. But anyway, until we get

into Whole Foods, then everybody will have it. You can buy it on Amazon. But once you have the pasta, my pasta, you'll start to understand what you're looking for. Because there's a texture difference. It cooks longer as well, right? So you cook, how do you cook your pasta? Well, I cook it al dente because if you cook it what does that mean you're talking you know what it means no i don't no i don't but the tiny bit al dente just means in true italian is at the bite so if you bite into it there's just ever so slightly it's it still has it's toothsome right so you bite into it has a little bit of of pushback it's not like super soft so how long are you doing remember a pasta that cooks really fast within like four or five minutes unless it's fresh unless it's fresh pasta that's different

But if it's dried pasta and it cooks super fast It's a no-no It's a no-no Yeah Because it's loaded with emulsifiers and fillers and gums I'm just going to use your pasta to give to them

So just so you know Yeah, we have really fun shapes Which is also another reason I did it Because I grew up on really fun shapes That I couldn't find And when my daughter was growing up I was like, there's no fun shapes I have to bring them in from Italy

So I started this company just to do that So I do olive oil I do pasta I do seasoning salts It hits all your things that you like. The olive oil. Like the olive oil

has high polyphenols. It's all monocultural. One olive from northern Italy. Not olives brought from all over the world. No, no, no. One olive from one area.

First pressing. All of that kind of stuff. In a dark bottle. Like really hands on. Yes. As I go to those places, some of them are family friends that we've had forever.

And some of them are producers that I've found in my travels. And I want people to know that like these things are not your enemies. It's just being smart about the purchase.

that you make, right? Like, there's a big conversation about seed oils these days, right? How do you feel about that? I mean, in restaurants, you use seed oils. You do. You can't fry with olive oil. You got to use something. So we do use them.

I just think, like, listen, these things aren't poison unless you use them every single day for every single meal. Then a yes, it becomes a poison. It also depends on the heat that you use it for, all of that kind of stuff, right? So if you use seed oils every once in a while, you're fine. Like everything. It's a balance. If you want to go to McDonald's once in a while, go. It's fine. It's when you start doing these things day in and day out every day, multiple times a day. That's when it becomes, that's when your bucket's going to be overflowing and your inflammation's going to go up and all these diseases happen and for your children. When you cook your pasta, how do you cook it? What's your way? Is there a way to cook it? I boil the water. Okay. I can do that. Bring it to a high boil. I add. I add. A ton of salt, a fistful of salt.

A fistful. Wow. A fistful. Yes, you want it to taste like the Mediterranean Sea. Pasta has no flavor otherwise. You know what happens otherwise? You finish cooking the pasta and you're dumping a lot of fat and a lot of sauce to try to season that thing. That is not what you want to do.

No. You want to season it in advance. Fistful. Go in there. What's the salt you're using? Go. Is it your salt? Cosher salt.

But is it, do you have a brand? Yes, Jodzzi has its own salt, but I wouldn't use that. That one's a finishing salt to season stuff. Okay. For pasta water. Just a kosher salt. Just kosher. Big handful.

Don't be afraid. It should taste like the Mediterranean Sea. It should taste salty. Okay. You throw the pasta in, okay? Just give it a good stir so it doesn't stick to the bottom. Didn't know that. Yes.

And then, and then. It's starving to death over here. Yeah. He's starving. Eight, nine, ten minutes. You're done. The box will say 11 to 12, but that's to really cook it. Okay.

And it takes time because the pasta, because it's slow dried, it's going to absorb a lot of water when it cooks. Pasta's that are dried quickly through like a teflon cutter, like a plastic extruder, those cook really fast, right? Because they're dried really fast. So there's nothing left for it to suck. So then what do you put on it afterwards? Oh, then you can put anything you want. You can put veggies on it. You can put sauce on it. I make sometimes a really easy lemon spaghetti with just olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, parm. I mix that all together and dump it on hot pasta. Okay.

It's not. Okay. That's the thing. It's not. Like, it just depends. My kid, when Jade was a kid, which till to this day, butter and parm, that's it. That's it. Or olive oil and parm.

But because you put the salt. It has a lot of salt. It has a lot of flavor. You don't have to add a lot. But when you don't, then you got a lot of fat. I'm basically a chef after this episode. Well, wow. There's so many few little.

People can change. It would be nice to get a home-cooked meal once in a while. I'm basically, I didn't know you put salt in pot. would be great. In the thing before you put pasta. Tons. Tons. Trust.

Trust. It will change your pasta game. Okay. It will change your pasta. Your kids will love it. Kids just love it. My kids have never. We're going to send you some pasta shapes for your kids.

You'll love it. I will literally do exactly what you said. Okay. She's going to go home now and be like, I'm a whole chef. This is what she does. Why did you decide? Hey, it's not a bad thing. You win.

I hope so. Let's go. Let's do it. You're a winner. I can do it all. You will win if that happens. I can do it all. That's true. You can.

Your new book, it's coming out super Italian. What inspired this? Why do a book? You've got so much going on. Well, this is book number 11, so it's a good question. So I feel like my books are basically a snapshot in time, right? Each book is a different time in my life. And at this point in my life, I am feeling like people really need to know how to create nutrient-dense meals with the foods that they like.

love. And to me, condiments are everything. So the beginning of the book is all condiments, that you can make an advance to just add to your food. So let's say you make a pasta. And I have a condiment for a garlicky breadcrumb topping. Okay. So I make, I make that. It makes for, it makes about two cups worth, right? So I sprinkle it on everything because it adds so much flavor. And what does it have? It has breadcrumbs. It has olive oil, lemon zest, anchovies. I love anchovies. Okay. So I take anjoice and melt them in there.

And I toast them all up in a pan and garlic. And then I use it to toss it on everything. So pasta, if you season it right with a lot of salt, just add olive oil or butter and these breadcrumbs on top. And you're done. You're making it really digestible.

Yeah, so these condiments are everything. So I make all of this stuff. And then I just use them in all the meals. And they create so much nutrient food to your regular food. And that is the whole trick of the book. And I think that is, if there's any takeaway with any of the recipes, it would be the condiments. And to have them ready to go in your pantry and you can make unbelievably flavored meals, but not just great flavor, but actually good for you.

Things that your kids, like things that are, will give you the vitamins that you need, the minerals that you need, the omegas that you need, that we don't get in our regular food, sadly. How are you getting all this stuff done? You've got 11 books, everything you have. Well, that's over a long period of time. But still, how do you get off? I didn't just do 11 books overnight. What's the day in the life? Like, are you up super early? Like, what? Yes. I am up super early. Yeah, what's your day? Well, 5.30 a.m. with the dogs, because I have four animals. And I have a daughter to get off to school. And, you know, you make breakfast and you do all of that. And then I work out. And then I start my day. What's your way of making breakfast for your daughter? Because my way might be different than your way. Your way is me. Yeah. No. Oh, you make breakfast. Yeah, he does. He does make breakfast all the time. Yeah, that's only thing I hear. Breakfast, I told you breakfast, French toast, and I can grill. But I'm going to make pasta.

He makes eggs too. By the way, we have, in Italy, we eat pasta for breakfast because we put pasta with all the leftovers, or we take the leftover pasta, throw an egg in it, makes it together, and put it in a frying pan. So I do that for my daughter a lot. She loves dinner for breakfast. She's not a huge breakfast, breakfast, American breakfast person. She's more like, give me leftovers for dinner. So if it's pasta, I beat the egg, I throw it on a little bit of pasta, and I throw in a skillet, and I get it nice and warm and critical. She likes it crispy, so she eats it that way.

That sounds actually pretty easy. It doesn't sound super... No, and you have your protein and your carbs and whatever else was in there, and that's it. You're good for the day until lunchtime. There's nothing... She's great. It sounds good. There's no sugar.

I love how your pasta too has all the checking points. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. Easy. So what are things that you avoid in your ingredients? Or it's like all of it's on the table, you just make sure it's nutrient dense? I try not to use a lot of pre-packaged.

foods. That's really what I try. Like I really try. Like I don't not buy them because I have a daughter who loves chips and loves popcorn and loves it. So I buy things, but I do it smartly and I don't buy a lot of it.

And I try to really, even with her, teach her not to eat out of bags all the time because I think we've really gotten used to everything out of a bag all the time. Like, we as a society, just stop with all the plastic, putting all our food in plastic all the time. Because we literally are to turn into plastic because that's what's happening. And I see that you guys have glass bottles of

water, which is great. It's a great first start. Out of all of the chefs that you've worked with that are these famous chefs, who's the coolest? Oh, we're going to put you on the spot. Who's the worst? Who's your favorite? Well, I have a lot of favorites, though. They're all different. Okay, well, I'll ask you this. Who's the most talented and who's your favorite? Oh, gosh. That's even like a harder. That's even harder. I know they're all talented, but like, who do you just really, like, who resonates for you? I talk. to Bobby Flay probably the most. Okay. Yeah. I would say that I, in fact, we just had these fires in LA. You guys don't live here anymore, but we just had these terrible fires. I was evacuated.

I went to my families for like one night and realized I can't do this. So he called me and he was like, hey, my house in LA, you can go stay there if you need to. A godsend. The man is a godsend because I have four animals and a kid and, you know, I love my family, but it can be hard to hang out with your family like that when you know you're not used to it so anyhow i talk to him the most and then i would say martha stewart's pretty rad like i definitely would say to you well i the way i treat our relationship is i am your sous chef forever doesn't matter what levels i ever get to in this life i will always and forever be your sous chef and that way she's okay i think that she appreciates that probably correct because she is the master yes and she deserves it she deserves it she deserves it

That woman has worked her tail off in a way that is, you know, and has paved the way for women in many, many different businesses, not just food, not just whatever, lifestyle. So her, I would say Ina Garden is lovely. I just finished her book. She's a sweetheart. She's a sweetheart. And has been through a lot. Yeah. And I think Rachel Ray is the hardest worker I have ever met. Wow.

Truly. And comes from, you know, doesn't come from much. And has really worked her tail off. to get to where she is. It's pretty spectacular. And then I would just say, talent-wise, oh, God, I mean,

there's Jean-George who I just love. What about Wolfgang? I like Wolfgang. He's tough, though. Yeah, I bet he's tough. I was going to say, when you were telling you. But I learned a lot from him

in the sense of like, we would, he would be in the kitchen, and he would just stick his finger in every pot. And you would watch the people in the restaurant at Spagos just go, oh! Did he just do that?

He has to try it. And he real, And he would go around and say to people when they would say to him, you stuck your bare finger, your bare finger in my food. He'd be like, yeah, and that's why it tastes so good. My spit is everything. And in my mind, I'm like, every time somebody would say to me on the network, whatever, you can't take, you can't do that. You can't stick your fingers in the food. I'm like, why not?

That's what gives it flavor is my spit. So I learned a lot from Wolfgang of like, don't take people's shit. Just, you know, they love your food. That is why. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. It's just, it's really fascinating. So I feel like you can pull little things from a lot of different people. You've had a lot of amazing people around you and they've had you. So it's cool. The ecosystem that you guys have is amazing. What's next for you? What are you working on? What can we expect to see? Restaurant in Austin. A restaurant in Austin. Please. My next cookbook is super Italian that comes out March 4th. I have an Amazon show and potentially another one. Oh, with Evan Funky. Do you guys know who Evan Funky is?

Is that? Okay. He's a big L.A. chef. You'll know who he is. So it's in the back of your mind right now. In about a year from now, you'll be like, oh, Evan Funky. Would we know a restaurant that he's done? There's Funky in Beverly Hills.

There's Felix and on Abacinney. And there's Mother Wolf, which I don't think he's open one in Texas yet, but I bet you it's close. My buddy John Carly used to work at Mother Wolf. Okay, yeah, and Mother Wolf. Felix is the pasta restaurant that Joe Rogan loves. Yeah, exactly. He talked all about that on his Instagram. Yeah, we know who he has.

We know his space is. So you're going to do a show with him. Yeah, he's pretty spectacular. Cool. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah, he's great. I love him.

He's fabulous. Where can everyone find you on Instagram, pimp yourself out? I don't know. Ladies, what is my handle? I don't know. It's my name. No spaces.

Okay, see, like, some people have underscore and whatever. I don't, I mean, I post on it, but I don't memorize what it is. What is it? John DeLarentis? It's your name.

Oh, but is there an underscore or anything else? Okay, so it's Jada De Laurentis. I don't know. I mean, okay. Come back on the show when you and Evan's show launches. Yes, that's a great idea. Yeah, together. Come together.

Yeah, we'd love it. That would be so fun. We could do him and her. Yeah, maybe you could like travel out to Austin and I'll make me have to come all that. I might be a chef next time. Invite me out to Austin. You didn't invite me here. No, I'm just kidding.

No, no, we're here. I'm happy to do this show. But maybe next time that maybe you'll come out. I'm going to send you some pasta shapes for your kids and then maybe we can do something in Austin. How about that? You'll come out and you'll explore and it'll be inspired. You'll be like, oh, man, like, we need to get something out here right away. Okay.

Kind of around sixth in Colorado. That's where the office is like right. With that work for you. Yeah, like right around that area. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me.