Giada De Laurentiis is an Italian-American celebrity chef and television personality. She is best known for her Food Network television program "Everyday Italian", and her three best-selling cookbooks.
Biography and Career:
Born to Veronica De Laurentiis and Alexandro De Benedetti at Rome, Italy in 1970, Giada's strongest relationships from the time she was a young girl were with her mother and her grandfather, eminent film producer Dino De Laurentiis. Both of these people were very traditional Italians, and began instructing Giada in the culinary arts early in life. She also went door-to-door marketing the products of her grandfather's Naples-based pasta manufactory, and in doing so, met many of her grandfather's associates, some of them internationally renowned chefs of their time; this, Giada says, is what originally inspired her to become a chef.
Giada moved to the Southern California, in the United States, when she was seven years old. She graduated from Marymount High School, an elite Los Angeles all-girls Catholic school, and matriculated to the University of California at Los Angeles. She graduated UCLA in 1996 with a bachelors degree in Social Anthropology. She proceeded to further her education in pursuit of a culinary career, attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France for the particular studies of cuisine and pastry, and returned to immediate employment in the United States as a chef at the Ritz Carlton Fine Dining Room, as well as Wolfgang Puck's Beverly Hills restaurant Spago.
The Food Network contacted Giada after she gained some minor notoriety for an article she wrote for Food and Wine magazine in 2001. She was apprehensive about getting into television; she never wanted to be involved in show business, having been enlightened to its realities by her parents and grandparents. But she signed on for her first and (still) most popular show, "Everyday Italian", which started airing in 2003, and became an instant success; her connatural charisma, beauty and intelligence communicated themselves perfectly through her relaxed and informal show, certifying her as one of The Food Network's most remarkable personalities. Since, she has done a few other television programs (all for the Food Network), including "Beyond the Bash," "Giada's Weekend Getaways" and "Giada in Paradise," and has published three New York Times Best-Selling Italian cookbooks.
Giada is currently a spokeswoman for Barilla, the world's largest pasta producer, as well as World Kitchen, Inc. In 2003, she married her decade-long sweetheart, Todd Thompson, a designer for Philadelphia-based fashion company Anthropolgie.
The Reason I Wrote This:
I just have to get this out. It doesn't really fit into this writeup anywhere, but it should be noted "as my opinion" (although it is quantifiable fact!) that Giada De Laurentiis is the most beautiful woman in the world -- or at least she stands among them. Watch her television shows, and I guarantee that you'll have a desire to pick up your chef's knife and cutting board, and get to work; it's strange what an angelic smile can do.
References:
www.giadadelaurentiis.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giada_De_Laurentiis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marymount_High_School
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex