IntroductionIf the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that life involves a series of pivots. Certainly, that has been true for me and my journey through the world of food and cooking.
I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be involved in the food world in some capacity, although it took me a while to articulate it—even to myself. When I was a kid, new to this country and feeling a bit like a fish out of water, mealtimes with my extended family were the best time of the day, and when we weren’t eating we were talking about food and thinking about what we’d eat later. That might seem a bit extreme, but I didn’t know any different. I thought everyone cooked with their grandparents, and loved food the way my family did.
In my teen years, I haunted the aisles of my grandfather’s incredible gourmet food destination, DDL Foodshow, where patrons could buy everything from prepared foods to pastries, pizzas to pignolis. Working there after school, seeing how excited people were by the ingredients my grandfather imported to the United States, many of which were not available elsewhere in this country, instilled a huge respect in me for the power of food, specifically Italian food, to enrich people’s lives. I knew then that I wanted to do something that would let me have that feeling every day.
When I announced to my family that I was heading to culinary school in Paris after college, their reaction was not exactly ecstatic, but to their credit, they kept their doubts (mostly) to themselves. And a good thing, too, because there were plenty of days when I returned to my tiny Parisian apartment, exhausted from a day of babysitting soufflés and folding puff pastry, wondering exactly what I was doing there! But the pride I felt when I received my certification from Le Cordon Bleu gave me the confidence to know I had what it took to make it as a chef.
When I returned to Los Angeles and began working in restaurants, and then later as a private chef and caterer, I gained new insights into the way food impacts us every day. I saw how a good meal could turn a bad day around, and how a simple occasion could be elevated into a memorable one, all through food. I would happily have continued down that path indefinitely if Food Network hadn’t come calling and offered me the chance to bring my distinctly Californian take on Italian cooking to a wider audience. Growing up in a family of filmmakers and actors, I’d never seen myself as a performer, much less a “personality,” but when those opportunities present themselves, we owe it to ourselves to make the most of them. For twenty years, I had the privilege of coming into people’s homes in a different way, sharing everything I’d learned about cooking—and learning what kind of dishes my audience loved best.
Three years ago, I pivoted again, this time into the world of food retail. With my website, Giadzy, I’ve been able to continue and expand upon the legacy of my grandfather Dino, getting back to the fundamentals and introducing quality Italian ingredients to this country in a different way, with a much greater reach than my grandfather was able to have with his two stores back in the day before e-commerce. Spreading the word about Italian culture and artisanal products is so important to me. Immersing myself in these unique foods has brought me closer to where I’m from and who I am, connecting the dots between me and my family. And I feel more myself than I ever have before.
Through it all, everything I’ve done in the food space has reflected one fundamental formula: Good Cooking = Technique + Ingredients + Ambience. And as a woman now in my fifties, I find that health needs to be part of that equation as well. If my years of cooking on TV primarily represented the technique part of the equation, and my catering and restaurant years were all about creating an ambience through food, I am excited to be focusing more than ever before on the power of ingredients. It’s my goal with this book to show how choosing your ingredients wisely and well is the starting point not just to better meals, but to better health.
Copyright © 2025 by Giada De Laurentiis. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
