Giada De Laurentiis Spilled The Tea On The Chef Myth That Irritates Her Most

Most recognize Giada de Laurentiis from any one of the many shows she has hosted on Food Network from "Giada at Home" and "Giada's Weekend Getaways" to "Giada in Italy" and "Giada Entertains." The Emmy award-winning chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris has also penned nine cookbooks and a children's book series and was one of the first female chefs to open a restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.

In 2016, de Laurentiis launched the website Giadzy, where she sells authentic Italian products that she and her team have personally sourced from across Italy, including organic puttanesca sauce, spices, sweets, and pasta brands. She also uses the platform as a way to tell the stories of the products and the families who make them.

Most recently, after more than two decades of teaching viewers about Italian cuisine on Food Network, the celebrity chef has signed a deal with Amazon Studios for a multi-year unscripted screen production. In a discussion with Haute Living about what the future holds for her, de Laurentiis details how she feels about the pervasive myth that "you can't trust a skinny chef."

Despite her impeccable credentials and a decades-long career on the premier television network dedicated to all things food and cooking, Giada de Laurentiis says she still gets questioned about the concept of "trusting a skinny chef."

"I mean, listen, it's been the No. 1 asked question my entire career. In the beginning, it annoyed me a lot. I just felt like I fit the stereotype of 'you can't trust a skinny chef.' Like, if you're skinny, you must not know how to cook, and you must not eat, so you don't know anything about ingredients," the celebrity chef told Haute Living. She notes that the frequency with which she gets asked about the antiquated saying has decreased in the last few years, but she nods to misconceptions about Italian food culture as one of the reasons why people may have a mistaken expectation of what an Italian chef should look like.

"Americans haven't quite grasped yet that Italian food is not heavy and fattening; it's actually a lot lighter than you think it is," de Laurentiis told Haute Living before adding that pasta as a main course is not standard in Italy and that entrees are often fish-based.

That said, if you're still interested in how de Laurentiis manages to maintain her petite frame, take a look at the inscription on the chandeliers of her eponymous restaurant, Giada: "I eat a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything," (via CNN).