At 28, Giada De Laurentiis Was Literally Living La Dolce Vita

In 1998, Food Network icon Giada De Laurentiis wasn’t dreaming about TV stardom — she was just trying to survive the kitchen in Wolfgang Puck’s Los Angeles hot spot Spago. “I had the late shift because I was the youngest in the group, and I had a lot of burn scars on my forearms from not being able to reach the salamander [oven] very well. As a young woman, I was really sexy to look at,” she says.

After graduating from the prestigious culinary school Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the then-28-year-old rookie chef was a pastry assistant at Spago, working under renowned pastry chef Sherry Yard.

“I actually wanted to be a pastry chef for a long time, but in the ’90s, pastries in LA didn't really exist, so I was doing savory food, and then I moved to pastries, which was my dream job,” De Laurentiis tells Bustle over Zoom.

Just five years later, De Laurentiis’ life would change when the Food Network approached her to host her own show, Everyday Italian, in 2003. “When I had an opportunity to put myself on tape for something so random, like a cable network that had just started for food, which my family thought was nuts, I took it, and it led me down this path,” she says.

It might not have seemed like a big transition for the chef, who grew up in a show-business family, but her natural shyness kept her out of the limelight. “That's why I chose to be in the kitchen, to be behind the scenes, because I'm a very shy person, and I came from a very loud Italian family,” she says. “[Being on TV] wasn't even in the realm of possibilities.”

Since then, De Laurentiis, now 55, has hosted over 10 food-related shows, earned two Emmys for Everyday Italian and Giada at Home, opened several restaurants across the country, and published 11 books. This summer, she’s teaming up with Peroni to launch its re-creation of Florence, Italy’s historic wine windows, where people can order a quick glass of vino from outside of bars. The Peroni Portals installation will debut in New York City on July 24 at The Parkgate in the West Village, with additional windows popping up in bars across the U.S. over the summer.

“I always tell people, when they ask me, ‘How do you get inspired?’ I'm like, I get inspired by travel,” she says. “That's the whole job, sharing that experience, that dolce vita, with as many people as we can.”

Below, De Laurentiis reflects on her surprising career journey, her experience as a woman in a male-dominated industry, and cooking for Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Take me back to 1998 when you were 28. Where were you living?

At the time, I lived with my boyfriend, who would become my husband, and I worked really long hours with no holidays or weekends off, so it was a lot. In those days, you got paid $9 an hour, and this girl wasn't making much to cover rent. So I was figuring out ways to make extra money, to figure out how I could cater on the side or work as a private chef, which I later ended up doing at 29 and 30.

I went to college, then I went to culinary school. I loved school, so I could stay at school forever. I wanted to go to hotel school in Switzerland after culinary school, and my parents were like, “No, you need to start working. You cannot spend your entire 20s going from school to school.” But it's a great way to figure out what you're going to do.

Since you were so busy, what did you do in your free time? What was the typical night out for you?

Well, I slept a lot. I had the opposite schedule from my boyfriend, and I would sleep in in the morning, and then I'd have one or two nights off, but they were never consecutive, sadly, so a lot of those times I'd have people over and cook. Sometimes I would practice the things I would learn at Spago. My friends, we were young. No one could afford to eat at Spago.

You brought the experience to them.

Honestly, that was the beginning of what I ended up doing on my shows, right? I just didn't know it at the time. That's why I think your late 20s are incredibly pivotal times. We just don't realize it [in the moment], because we're in it.

The culinary industry can notoriously be cutthroat. How did you handle getting negative feedback, or even rejection?

We always get rejection. That doesn't end. But I would say that I was never the stereotypical female in the kitchen. Let's be honest, there weren't that many females in the kitchen anyway. I feel like the kitchen is just a… people misbehave a lot. I'll just leave it at that. A lot of stuff goes on, and tempers fly, and inappropriate things are said and done. For me, I tried to lay low as much as possible and stay out of the fray. I loved pastries, where there were a lot more women, so at least in that department I felt a little more sheltered and protected, but I always say to people, “It's like playing a game of chess. You have to learn how to move the pieces just right.”

It's gotten a lot better in the 30-year span that I've been in it, for sure, but it's still a boys club. And so, how do you navigate that while getting your foot in the door, but not pissing them off? It can be tricky sometimes. I tried to lay low, learn as much as I could from everybody around me, and make friends, but not cross boundaries in the process. It’s stressful, but my family really helped ground me a lot of the time. They were my energy source. So when I felt like I was being depleted, I would go home, and get recharged, like a computer battery or something.

Looking back at that time, is there anything you would have done differently?

The only thing is I wish I could have been more confident in myself and my abilities. Sometimes I leaned on other people for that support. But part of me now looks at young Giada and wants to say to her, like, “Hey, the strength was within you the whole time. You just didn't know it.”

That leads into my next question. What advice would you give your 28-year-old self?

That it's all going to be fine. When we're in our 20s, we worry about the outcome, what's going to happen, and what you learn in your 50s is, just chill. The universe has got you. You're going to go on an adventure. It's not always going to be what you hoped it was, and it will have ups and downs, but overall it's worth taking every avenue that you're presented with.

Was there ever a career opportunity that got away from you?

No, I don't think so. I remember when I got offered to cook for Prince William and Kate Middleton, and at first I thought, “Oh, I can't do that. Like, I'm doing shows, and I have a young baby at home, and I have to go to Santa Barbara to do it, and I don't have the manpower.” And my husband at the time was like, “Just go do it.”

What do you think your 28-year-old self would think of you now?

Oh my gosh, she'd be blown away.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.