In Naples the surname DeLaurentiis is associated above all with football, in Hollywood it is linked to cinema, but there is a member of the talented Neapolitan family who has found his way into a different field: signature cuisine. IS Giada De Laurentiis, daughter of actress Veronica DeLaurentiis and niece of Silvana Mangano and producer Dino. Fifty years old wonderfully worn, a physicist who does not betray the passion for food, Giada began her television career fifteen years ago, on the American thematic channel Food Network, with the program Everyday Italian, with which he also won an Emmy, the Oscar of television.
Now on Food Network (from 11 May every Tuesday at 22:00, channel 33, also available in streaming on discovery +) Giada conducts, together with her friend and colleague Bobby Flay, a program entitled Bobby&Giada in Italy, a food and wine journey in the Italy of taste that starts from Rome, the city where Giada was born and where she lived the first seven years of her life, before the family moved to America, to New York and then to Los Angeles.
Giada, why the kitchen? Your mother is an actress, your grandfather Dino and his uncle Aurelio are famous producers, have you ever thought about your film career?
“The fact is that food, in addition to cinema, is also deeply rooted in family roots. My grandfather Dino was the son of a pasta maker from Torre Annunziata and before the Second World War my grandfather Dino’s job was to sell pasta made by his father. Then, with the war, the great-grandfather lost the pasta factory and my grandfather decided to try cinema. He wanted to be an actor but he was too small and not handsome enough, and so he used his qualities as a pasta seller to produce films. He married a beautiful actress, Silvana Mangano and together they made films and became famous in the world ».
But food remained a family passion.
«Exactly, an even more important passion when we moved to the States. Cooking was our way of being in contact with our roots, our way of understanding who we were. When you move to another country, the risk of losing your past is real. Many people leave their culture behind in order to assimilate to others ».
His grandfather didn’t allow it.
“Indeed. Food, even more than cinema, is the definition of who we are. My aunt was very good with recipes, but my grandfather cooked by throwing everything into the pot. My mother, who had four children, is not passionate about cooking but she knew how to put a dinner on the table very quickly. I took something from all of them. ‘
Did your daughter, Jade, also inherit a passion for food?
“When she was little we cooked a lot together, now she’s twelve and that’s when you’re most interested in social media, like any pre-teen today.”
Let’s talk about the series, Bobby & Giada. She talks about her Rome starting from food, Bobby does the same thing from her most American point of view.
“We really liked the idea of ​​contrasting the different ways we have, Bobby and I, of seeing Italy and its food.”
During the first episode she gives Bobby a disquisition between the difference between white pizza and focaccia. A subtlety difficult to grasp for an American.
«What we wanted to do is explain to non-Italians the enormous variety of our cuisine. The same dish, which now belongs to the tradition of the whole nation, does not taste the same in different cities. You don’t eat the same pizza in Naples and Rome ».
You shot before the pandemic, in September 2019
“What happened next made me appreciate our wandering around the streets even more. That being able to travel without restrictions, meet people and shake hands. Thinking about it today were precious gifts. I am happy to have had the opportunity to spend time with a dear friend who I have not seen for a year now ».
After Rome you went to Tuscany.
“We talked about the differences between city life, which is faster and more frenetic, and that in the countryside, where the pace changes completely. We explored vineyards and cellars. The pace is much slower and quieter in the countryside, and the food is also different ».
The pandemic then stopped you.
“We would have liked to explore other places, go to the Amalfi coast, to the south, but we didn’t have time, maybe we will do it in the future”.
Americans love Italian cuisine, but is there anything about their cuisine that we Italians could learn to appreciate?
“Above all we should bring down prejudices. American cuisine is not all about hamburgers and hot dogs. Even in the States there is a regional cuisine that is very good and that few people know, the Cajun cuisine of the southern states for example. And then the American culinary culture, just like its population, is a melting-pot of different traditions and recipes. Anyone who comes to this country brings its traditions, but then adapts them by creating a different cuisine that can be very fascinating ».

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