How Giada De Laurentiis Almost Ruined Thanksgiving

Today, Giada De Laurentiis is on TV screens and bookstore shelves. She even has her own restaurant in Las Vegas. Having grown up in Rome, the cooking queen credits her grandfather — legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis — for teaching her how to create perfect pasta. But navigating the kitchen hasn't always been so smooth for the chef. In a recent interview with Bravo, she reveals her most terrifying cooking mistake.

At the beginning of her career in the U.S., De Laurentiis worked as a caterer for a California family. The first meal she made them was Thanksgiving dinner. "I love cooking Thanksgiving," she told Bravo's The Feast. "It's actually, for me, one of the easier meals to cook because there's so much planning you can do in advance...."
 

But as the finishing touches were coming together, De Laurentiis tripped over the family dog and dropped the turkey.

"Once the turkey hit the floor, the dog got to it before I did. So, there was no longer a turkey for Thanksgiving, but lots of sides," she continued. "The woman I was cooking for had some pasta sauces in her pantry, so I whipped up some pasta really fast. It was one of my first jobs out of school. I was pretty horrified."

In preparation for this year's upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, think ahead by learning the 8 worst planning mistakes a host could possibly make and how to avoid them.