Like water for chocolate, celebrity chef Giada DeLaurentiis packed 150 foodies into a Beverly Hills museum on October 28 for ‘An Evening With Giada.’ The event focused on the Food Network star’s various cooking shows, cookbooks, and live ‘Today Show’ spots. The ‘Everyday Italian’ author pulled an everyday L.A. crowd into the Paley Center for Media, multiethnic and hungry for Italian fare prepared in the first episode of DeLaurentiis’ latest series, ‘Rock the Block,’ a screening of which kicked off the evening. In the pilot, DeLaurentiis (in what appears to be a simulation of her Pacific Palisades kitchen) prepares a three-course menu: the chicken-and-shrimp skewers with pancetta chimichurri; Italian fried olives; orecchiette with greens, garbanzo beans and ricotta salata; and blueberry-and-mascarpone turnovers. The show’s premise is how to prepare quick, inexpensive Italian fare for outdoor parties, and as she revealed during the Q & A session, DeLaurentiis did not merely hire extras for the party sequences, she peopled them with her friends and neighbors (presumably Palisadians) and their babies and kids (DeLaurentiis herself has a 7-month-old daughter, Jade). Indeed, the outdoor scenes appeared to be near the Via bluffs, where a bench honors her late brother, Dino A. DeLaurentiis, who succumbed to cancer in 2004 at the age of 31. (Palisadian-Post, April 10, 2008.) During the interview, conducted by Paley Center Director Barbara Dixon, the petite DeLaurentiis, with her beaming smile, chestnut hair and short black dress, charmed the audience. The genial granddaughter of Italian movie producer Dino DeLaurentiis (the 1976 remake of ‘King Kong,’ Sam Raimi’s ‘Army of Darkness’), said that her yen for cooking came from her Italian family”primarily her mother, aunt and famous grandfather, who opened short-lived restaurants in New York and Beverly Hills in the 1980s and staffed buddies from Naples as the executive chefs. Born in Rome, DeLaurentiis moved to America when she was eight years old. As a young adult, after majoring in anthropology at UCLA, she decided to buck the de facto DeLaurentiis profession (‘Everyone in my family is in the movie business’) and move to Paris to attend Cordon Bleu and pursue a cooking career. Upon her return to Los Angeles, she struggled with her own catering business, and finally became a private chef. ‘Ron Howard was my first client. But I got bored’not because he was boring!’ said DeLaurentiis, 38, eliciting laughs from the audience. Her career took off after a profile on the DeLaurentiis family in Food One magazine grabbed the attention of Food Network executives, who offered DeLaurentiis her own program. The opportunity forced her to come out of her shell, which she did with the encouragement and coaching of her late younger brother. DeLaurentiis spoke about the behind-the-scenes of her shows: how she and her staff create the episode themes and recipes and run them by Food Network executives for approval. She offered an interesting philosophy on why the plethora of cooking shows in recent years: September 11. ‘People started looking at our families,’ she said. ‘We would not go out, we would entertain at home.’ One perceptive fan asked DeLaurentiis how much of her wardrobe comes from Anthropologie. The connection: her amiable husband, Todd Thompson, a clothing manufacturer with Anthropologie who cheered her on from the front row in a red plaid shirt, blue jeans and glossy black shoes. Inevitably, when an audience member asked DeLaurentiis which of her grandfather’s films are her favorites, she offered two answers: ‘Orca’ and ‘Flash Gordon.’ She facetiously added that the famed film producer was proud of his granddaughter and ‘shocked and amazed that he didn’t have a direct hand in making [her career] happen.’ Another attendee wanted to know what her favorite cuisine was outside of her specialty Italian. ‘I love Japanese food. It’s dainty, it’s colorful and it’s meticulous. It’s almost a piece of art.’ In fact, DeLaurentiis was quite nervous and self-conscious before taping a ‘sushi party’ episode because of her lack of experience making Asian food. Her husband was put on the spot when asked what dish of hers he favored. From his seat in the audience, Todd vouched for her pasta with sausage and peas. DeLaurentiis added that her hubby was the prime beneficiary of all of the food created for her shows. ‘I don’t have any hard time getting rid of the food,’ she said, laughing.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
