Giada Pamela De Laurentiis

Biography
Giada Pamela De Laurentiis was born August 22, 1970, in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of Veronica De Laurentiis and Alex De Benedetti, and granddaughter of film producer Dino De Laurentiis and Silvana Mangano, a noted Italian actress from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s.

At age 7, Giada De Laurentiis and her parents moved to Southern California where she attended Marymount High School and later graduated from UCLA with a degree in social anthropology. Academic life, however, was not for Giada. She enlisted in Paris’ prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school and specialized in pastry and cuisine. After graduating, she returned to Los Angeles to work in some of that city’s best restaurants, among them Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and the Ritz Carlton Dining Room.
At age 7, Giada De Laurentiis and her parents moved to Southern California where she attended Marymount High School and later graduated from UCLA with a degree in social anthropology. Academic life, however, was not for Giada. She enlisted in Paris’ prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school and specialized in pastry and cuisine. After graduating, she returned to Los Angeles to work in some of that city’s best restaurants, among them Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and the Ritz Carlton Dining Room.
In 2003, Giada De Laurentiis married her long-time sweetheart, fashion designer Todd Thompson, a clothing designer with the Anthropolgie company. The two had been dating since 1991.


In 2003, Giada De Laurentiis married her long-time sweetheart, fashion designer Todd Thompson, a clothing designer with the Anthropolgie company. The two had been dating since 1991.

giada de laurentiis on behind the bash
Undaunted, the network ordered a second season of Everyday Italian and Giada De Laurentiis’ stock began to climb. In 2005, the Food Network introduced Giada in a new format -- Behind the Bash -- where she took viewers behind the scenes of some of the biggest weddings and events in the U.S. to witness the catering process firsthand. The following year, she appeared on a special episode of Iron Chef America in which she and Bobby Flay competed against -- and lost to -- Rachael Ray and Mario Batali. The 90-minute episode was a roaring success for the Food Network. It scored the highest ratings the network had ever received in the 18- to 35-year-old bracket.


Career
De Laurentiis, a self-proclaimed chocoholic, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France with aspirations of becoming a pastry chef. After returning to the United States, she became a professional chef working in several Los Angeles restaurants, notably the Wolfgang Puck-owned Spago. She later worked as a food stylist, and was contacted by Food Network after styling a piece in Food & Wine Magazine in 2002.

Her cooking program, Everyday Italian, has been broadcast on Food Network since 2003. On her Chefography (a Food Network biography program), she admitted that she never wanted to be in her "family business" of show business. She felt very uncomfortable in front of the camera when she first began hosting Everyday Italian, but has since become more relaxed and open on air. When the program first aired, Food Network received emails accusing the network of hiring a model or actress pretending to cook instead of a real chef.