It Turns Out Giada De Laurentiis Almost Didn't Specialize In Italian Food

Regular viewers of the news and morning talk show ‘Today’ will likely be familiar with Giada De Laurentiis. The chef is a regular contributor and guest-host on the show, as well as fronting plenty of other programs on the Food Network. In fact, many have fallen for Italian food all thanks to Giada De Laurentiis, with plenty thanking the chef for her talents.

Anyone familiar with Giada will know that she’s a star when it comes to Italian cuisine, which makes sense given her Italian roots. However, despite her skill with cooking these dishes, it seems that Giada De Laurentiis almost didn’t specialize in Italian food at all.

How did Giada De Laurentiis get her start in cooking?

Cooking is something that Giada has long been passionate about. She always enjoys seeing what creations she can come up with in the kitchen and has done from an early age. By the time De Laurentiis graduated from college, she was ready to turn her longtime passion into a career. That’s why she enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. However, while she was here, she didn’t necessarily have intentions of specializing in Italian food. No, it seems that something else caught her eye which nearly changed her cooking passions entirely.

Why did Giada De Laurentiis almost not specialize in Italian food?

According to Giada, Italian cuisine wasn’t initially her main focus because she “didn’t feel like tossing pasta.” In her eyes, that was below her as a chef - it was too simple. She wanted something more intricate and challenging that would really test her skills and prove she was the real deal. That’s why she turned her attention to French food. It was apparently De Laurentiis’ dream to become “ an unbelievable pastry chef,” with creations like sugar work sculptures a particular passion. Given her desire for French food over Italian food, it makes sense why Giada would go to study at a culinary school in Paris. However, her passion for this cuisine obviously didn’t last, given what the chef has made her name in.

What made Giada De Laurentiis decide to specialize in Italian food?

Giada hasn’t given much of an insight into why her ambitions changed. However, she has revealed that she learned to fall in love with Italian food, even if it took a while. It helps that she came to understand just how varied Italian cuisine can be. Although plenty of dishes from this country are relatively well-known, there’s actually a surprising number of ways that they’re made. Due to the availability of certain ingredients, the same dish can taste completely different depending on where you are in Italy. That’s something that inspired Giada on her professional cooking journey and prompted her to develop a deep enough interest to specialize in Italian food.

There’s nothing stopping Giada De Laurentiis from one day returning to her initial dream of becoming a pastry chef. She’s made enough of a name for herself that there are plenty of people who would probably love to try the French food creations she came up with. If the chef simply decides to stick with Italian food, though, she won’t be getting any complaints from us.