January 24, 2025 • 34 mins
This week, Rachel Zoe is joined by the incredible chef, author, restaurateur and entrepreneur - Giada DeLaurentiis. Giada is truly a game changer in the food industry and has built an extraordinary career that continues to expand and grow! Her latest cookbook, Super Italian, is all about cooking with nutrient rich Italian superfoods to create beautiful and healthy meals.
Pre-order Super Italian at the link below before its release on March 4th, 2025.
https://shorturl.at/ZMGDs
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi everyone, I'm Rachel So and you're listening to Climbing
in Heels for your weekly dose of glamour, inspiration and fun.
Emmy Award winning television personality chef, Restauranteur and nine times
New York Times best selling author Giada da Laurentis is
on the pod today. I have watched her career from
(00:30):
afar for so many years and absolutely love and have
so much respect for the career she has built in
this field. Her latest book, Super Italian, is all about
cooking with nutrient rich Italian superfoods to create the most
beautiful and healthy meals in true Italian style. She is
such a game changer in the industry and I cannot
(00:53):
wait for you to hear more about her unbelievably incredible story.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So let's jump right into it. I'm very excited to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I've obviously known your career and I've known of you forever,
and I'm just so excited. I'm so excited about what
you do a but be just excited about what you're
doing now, and so I want to kind of dig
into it because I think you're such a fan base,
and I didn't realize you were you're born and raised
(01:24):
in California, right, No, actually born in.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Rome, Italy and moved to that state. That track, see
that tracks to me. The born and raised in California
really threw me. I moved. I moved to New York first.
My family's in the movie business has been for a
very long time, and so my grandfather was a movie
producer in Italy and my grandmother was a movie an
actress and together they created like this empire in Europe
(01:49):
and in Italy. Then they moved over to the States
because that's what you know. Of course, that's the dream,
that's the dream and make an US. So they came,
and of course my mother being his eldest daughter, they
took all the kids and grandkids with them, because you
follow the PATRIARCHI yeah, So we moved to New York
(02:10):
first for a couple of years, and then we moved
to Los Angeles, and I did go to school in
Los Angeles, but I was seven when we immigrated into
this country. On it so a little bit American, but
like via via Italy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
But film, but film and entertainment. Okay, also just obviously
coming from the heritage that you do that food is
what nine percent of the altar.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
My grandfather's family had a pasta factory before World War Two.
My grandfather, being one of eight kids, would go door
to door and sell his mom and dad's pasta, so
they would dry it on the roots. So there were
these apartment buildings outside of Naples in Tornent Siata, which
was like the perfect culmination of the way that the
ocean air Mediterranean hits the land, and they would leave
(03:02):
all the pasta up there and it would dry, and
they would sell dry pasta, and so my grandfather would
do that. He was an awesome salesman. And that's what
that that side of the family did for a long
time until then my grandfather went into the war and
he was stationed in Capri and he defended Caprick even
(03:23):
the romance of like being stationed in crapriy like, yeah,
they lost everything, as a lot of these things do,
because Naples was heavily bonded, of course, and then when
the war was over, he basically just trecked his way
to Rome. He really was so enamored. He really wanted
to be an actor, so he was enamored with going
to Rome to become an actor. But he found out
(03:45):
soon enough that he was too short and not handsome
enough to be in those days actors would him, you know.
So he ended up marrying my grandmother, who was Miss
Rome at the time, and together she would star in
as movies, he would produce them, and my grandfather made
over six hundred movies in sixty years. Was this Sophia
Laurent time, Yes, my grandmother and sophil Urn exactly the
(04:08):
same time my grandfather made movies with Fellini. My grandmother started,
that's what I was going to ask yah, all these
movies and maybe here and started making movies in America.
Conan the Barbarian like all of these famous movies. I mean,
he created Arnold Schwarzenegger pretty much. I mean, so he
created a whole legacy here in the States. And I
was seven. All moved right At the end of the day.
(04:31):
Food was sort of that was sort of what held
us together. My grandfather traveled a lot on movie sets.
All of my family worked on movie sets, and so,
you know, we lived in Los Angeles, but on Sundays
was our family gathering and my grandfather would make pizza
and pasta. From when you learned from a kid and
when I was a Lenin. He opened these gourmet shops
(04:55):
much like in Italy is called d dal Show, one
in Trump Tower, New York, and one here in Beverly
Hills and the Flats, and I would go there as
a kid and just be enamored because it was something
that you know, we hadn't Americans hadn't seen before, these stalls,
pasta stalls and pizza stalls and all sorts of ingredients
(05:17):
imported from Italy. Now you have to remember, this is
like the late seventies, early eighties, so it's not did
not exist. It exists, especially not in Los Angeles where
I live. In New York. It kind of did, you
know a little bit more, but not Angelina's. So I
was always just fascinated. And he didn't just open these stores.
He also brought all his buddies in that he grew
(05:37):
up with, the pizza yarros, the pasta makers like these
were all guys from Naples that he imported into lost
angeous scatter, all this Italian talking. I was just I
think what I loved was not only the the aromas
in the place, but watching people come in and just
they're jaws dropping and just being like, oh my, what
is this place, and I loved it. And you know,
(06:00):
he kind of merged food in Hollywood together. You know,
he would do all his movie preiers in his restaurant,
you know, in this space. It was just a magical time.
But anyhow, for me, that was when I first realized,
how do I do that? How do I meet people
right have that expression or that sense of awe when
(06:21):
they want space? And so, you know, I grew up here.
I went to school at UCLA, and then I left
and went to Paris and went to cooking school for
a couple of years, and then I moved back. I
went to the cooking school, I went to the Court
on Blue and in Paris. Yeah, I mean, that's like the dream.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It's like in fashion, It's like I went to Central
Saint Martin's in London. It's like, that's that where you went.
It's like the dream.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's right, I'm.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Going to be a Michelin Chap, right, That's what I
thought I wanted to do, And honestly there was and
your family supported that obviously, because they didn't they did it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
They didn't listen. My family, God loved them. My Grandpa's
like just get married and a bunch of kids. What
the hell are you doing? Like, why this man is
a man's work. You're not You're too small, you're too skinny,
you're too little. Nobody wants to in the kitchen. You're
a distraction. What are you.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Doing with pood?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And there was no nobody really, there was no plan
for me. I'm a woman, like not mental.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And you come from a complete food and entertainment family and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
This is just twenty five years ago. And tell me
how many women were even in the food business at
that point. I mean not, I meanan, it doesn't so
I wasn't crazy for him to Martha Martha, that's it.
But remember the ship Martha got sorry, I sure do
you can say anything? Yeah you remember that's Oh you
(07:48):
go to the top. Oh yeah, We'll just pull you
right back down where you belong, lady.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And story of my life throughout my whole adult life,
so my whole my whole life, but my whole career
for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And maybe somebody and really there was probably a man
that helped you get there, because you wouldn't possibly have
the talent to do that on your own, right, And
so I think then my grandfather was just all of
them were just like she's lost her mind. But let
just let her do her thing. It'll last a couple
of years and then she'll be done and she'll get
married and that'll all be done. And that did not
(08:20):
happen then. So you can ask you a question. When
you went to.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
The cooking school at the Cordon Bleue, were you like
one woman?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Was it like was it like Julia Childs or she
was like the only female. There were other women, But
there were a lot of Asian women because it part
of their dowry when they get married. Korean Japanese livercook. Yes,
it's part of the culture. So they send these young
girls to all of these different specialty schools so that
(08:51):
they have all of these talents because they're more desirable.
So I went to school with a lot of those
kind of women, right, or older women who had a
new career path. There were begin there were a couple
of older American women who had worked on yachts, and
they were much older. They probably in their fifties at
that point. I was in my twenties so or yeah,
(09:13):
early twenties, So I think that's pretty much it. Otherwise
it was all men. It was not twenty something women.
With a dream. Wow. Okay, so then what happens? So
you graduate and what happens I come back here. I
had the time becoming my husband and now my ex
husband okay, and I came back here and I worked
for Wolfgang.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Puck okay, Spago by the way, great, great first job
by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, well I worked. I worked at also at the
Ritz Carlton in Mere del Rey for a French chef
for a litt while because I wanted to be able
to continue to speak French and hold myself and so
and then I went to Wolfgang and I spent some
time working for his patry chef shrery Yard there. But
like you know, my parents were like, listen, you're barely
(09:59):
making any money, right, ho heard of supporting you? I mean,
I'm making five bucks an hour and I'm working, Like yeah,
they're and it's you know, first round. Kitchens are not collamorous.
They're hellholes. They's harnered, even the nicest ones. Yes, and
you get a lot of you know, it's just yep. Anyhow. Yeah,
(10:20):
So I did that for a while and then I
started becoming a private chef. So I started cooking privately
for people like Ron Howard and his family because they
spent a lot of time here shooting show shooting movies.
So I would cook for their family. And then I'd
had other few ways. I started a catering business for myself.
I thought, okay, I'm going to make more money that way.
And as I grew that, I got a I got
(10:40):
a call I did. I started doing on the side
some food styling for some friends, and nine to eleven happened.
And after nine to eleven, the food industry switched. And
you know, especially in New York, people weren't going out
to eat anymore. Well I remember I lived there. They
wanted to gotten at home and learned how to cook.
(11:01):
It was the first time you see a shift in
the American culture. Were really interested in cooking at home
and interested in learning how to do that. And so
Food Network started to grow based on that. So I
got a call from a you know, one of the
heads of Food Now were just saying that we saw
so backing up, I was doing some food styling for
(11:23):
some friends who lived in LA and for different magazines.
I had met a lady who did the creative She
was the creative director of Food and Wine magazine who
to be and her in this special Chef's issue. My
granther was getting a Lifetime Achievement award at the Oscars
that year. So I got right family together. I cooked
a meal, I rate the recipes, I did all that stuff,
(11:44):
all stuff that I had, recipes that I'd had from
my clients because I write menus and cook for them,
and yeah, did all that. And he saw it in
Food and Wine and he was like, can you put
yourself on tape? I want to see if you have
any personality at all, because a lot photos you know
as well who gregs to talk of course, then you
(12:06):
So I did a little demo tape. My brother, who
has now passed away, shot it for me, and at
the time he was a cameraman and he it for me,
and I just did like a three minute reel making
paste lebichamel, and then they just said, okay, let's let's
start this. Let's try to do this little Italian show
for you, and we called it Everyday Italian. I remember it.
(12:30):
I was. I was a food network junkie.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh really, Oh it was like I used to have
it on and sometimes mostly just not even watch. It
was like calming for me in the background when I
lived in New York and then probably when I moved
out here, but that my life was so busy, I
just you know, but it was always on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I always had it on. It was calming for me,
that's all. Well. Yeah, so, I mean I started that,
and you know, it was a departure for them because
a lot of their shows were shot in New York
and I was like a need to be in LA
with my family, like I can't be And we shot
it in La in a house, which was totally different
(13:09):
than what they usually do, which is mostly studio mostly
people like Emerald. Yeah, yet, why are you batally? Like
those are the chefs?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They had to remember well right and wore their little
outfits and their chef yet is Clotwan and the whole
b Yes? And I was the opposite. I was more
like Martha and like a sure casual and much like
Rachel Ray and in the Garden. We all started at
the same time, and it just we had an audience
that was mostly women wanting to really learn how to
cook at home, and it just kind of exploded. Rachel
(13:40):
I didn't ever plan it. I just thought I'm like
catering on the side, because this doesn't pay hit. Sure,
of course, my family was like, you're nuts. What is
fucking cable anyway? Are we talking about watch that? Nobody
watches that. That is raide our name, that's and I thought, well,
let me just try it. Let's just try. You guys
don't have any I have no plan for myself. There's
(14:02):
no a ish for me. You guys have here. Yeah,
so let me just I'm on my own here, so
I'll just try it. And that's it. So the first
season was rough. Yeah, I was very shy. I was
always a very shy person. So then you know, we
try to season two and it just grew and grew,
and then honestly, I've been on a treadmill ever since. Books,
(14:23):
restaurants like it all just kind of came and I
just thought, I've never planned any of it. And the
opposite of Martha, who planned everything, I just kind of
went on a roller coaster and I just kind of
figured it out as I went along. And I mean,
and you know what, I'm familiar. That's hard work. But
it's also like sometimes I do believe that the stars
you're in the right place at the right time. I mean,
(14:44):
there's a lot of talented people out there, but don't
always resonate on camera, or don't engage people enough, or
I don't know what it is. I would agree with that,
I would, I would say.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I don't say this very often, but it's funny
because as they listen to you, you sound like me
when I'm in an interview, which is like, I'll just
be like, I didn't plan anything, and I learned it
as I went. I just wanted to be the best
to what I was doing, and I took the different
you know, the different roads.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That seemed right in the moment, right, and.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
You know, ultimately, I think for you, I gues in
some ways the stars align, but the stars don't align
if they're not right, if that makes sense, like they
aligned because it's working right. There's no accident in my opinion,
because you can get there. And like you said, you
(15:37):
did a first season, it was rough. In this day
and age, they probably would have canceled you after three
apps A right, it was a different time. And I
think you know, and I always say, and I'm curious
if you agree, So.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You as a pro reach you were the first people
didn't even know that was and what a stylist was
and all this stuff, and I'm like, yeah, but you
don't stand being the first is hands down the hardest
because there is no book and there's nothing to compare
yourself to and there's nothing, which which in many ways
I think is healthy, because you're not looking at the others.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Right, there's no roadmap. Theres no roadmap, and you're like, like,
bring the white direction, no idea, you're blind, correct, you're blind.
It's really long.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And that's why I say to you, like, I don't
think it was luck because I think there was a
blindness to it, and I think with that blindness came
the which is a little bit how I went into it,
like what do I have to lose?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And I think for you it was sort of like
you didn't have someone you were following, right, and you
you clearly were driven by the passion for what you
were doing. And because there were so few women, you know,
I think I think that presents its own issues because
I think today we know there's multiple seats for women
(16:58):
at any table, mostly even over the last five years,
there's I would argue to say, there's ten x more
spots for women in any field, right, agree, And even
so much that men in some industries are trying to
bring in women so that they can check a box
right now.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Doesn't mean you don't have to hold your own, but
it just means there are more spaces.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So I think, I think in what you were doing,
it's very intimidating, especially knowing that your very powerful Italian
family was not really supporting what you were doing.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Right, My guess is my question is I'm curious, like
at what point was there this inflection of I probably
should stop doing this and choose something else, or was
there not?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Because once you started the show.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
It just kind of all went from there all the time,
all the time, all the time, and still right, yes, yeah,
all the time all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I'm always wondering if I'm I think too that because
the journey is sort of blind, y'all know, Like should
I take a right now? For sure I go left?
Is it time to reinvent myself? Or is do I
just stay on the same journey to you on? Like,
I don't know? And I think you know. For me,
(18:26):
when I did Food Network, I started when I wasn't
married and I didn't have a child. Then I got
married right on my show and then I got Then
I had a child. Watched me be pregnant on the show.
They watched me have my daughter, they watched my daughter
grow up. And so then I got divorced. And then
I was like, should I just quit all together? Because
my career and I just created a family on this
(18:47):
show that now doesn't even freaking exist, and I have
to be honest about the fact that it doesn't exist.
Like all of these moments in my life, I just
don't want to do this anymore. I don't want don't
want to be seen anymore. I don't I just want
to you want to disappear for a There's a lot
of insecurity. I think it's an It does a lot
(19:07):
of name and you never know if you're making the
right choice, and yes, and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Also your identity as a mother, like those decisions become
very different when you have your child.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Because I also had.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
In mind during my filming and I you know, you
start to be like, who am I? Can I still
be that person? I'm you know, I'm projecting out there,
and part of you just wants to go Can I
just escape with my child or my children?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So I just go dark? Can I go dark for
a year?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Pause, pause, I want to raise my kids, like we don't.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like, is that an option for us? I don't know.
I mean like those were all things like can you
come back? You're older, Like it's it's all this stuff,
Like I'm in my fifties, so I'm like, oh my god,
how long do you have? I mean, I know Martha's
eighty something, but let's be honest, that's happened a lot
of women. That's just now.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
He is no special bird. All she is and she
is and has always been. And you have to spend
absolutely and from what I can see, are you a
virgo or leo virgo?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You're right on the CAUs. Yeah, I am. Nice job
that's saying yeah, which is why I which is why
all the thing that, all the all this that that's going.
I'm like, yeah, she's oh man saw me. You don't know?
And still to this day, Rachel, I don't know. You know,
(20:26):
I left Network two years ago, and who knows was
that the right choice? Was it not? I don't know.
I just feel like you do what you think is
best at the moment, and you write it out and
you see how it all comes together. I feel like
some of us are a different era, you know what
I mean than the talkers that they are doing. I
mean food is exploded on social It really pops that.
(20:50):
I'm a different generation, right, I exploded in your different
medium when people was exploding. So like, I feel like
it's just you know, weird. Daughter have any interest in
what you do? Absolutely not. Yeah, I don't wants to
sing and dance and by the way, last dance. She
wants to be on stage, by the way, but that's.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
In your DNA, right, I mean you are on stage,
it's in a different media.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
A different way. Yeah, yeah, but no, she's not in
a food She could care less, not at all. In fact,
I think for her, she's trying to find her own identity. Yeah,
of course, and I think that's the number one way
to do so is to just come and say that's
my Please don't think that that is me. I am
a totally different person, and I get it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I do want to talk about what's now because now
I think you're taking the brand and launching like all
different sort of like products, right and doing like a
full like even more like leaning into that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Is that correct? Yeah? So I think that for most
of the time that I've been cooking. I've been teaching
people about the way Italians eat, and I do this
in my restaurants as well, like for instance, in Las Vegas,
and had a restaurant there for ten years, and I
really make it vegetable forward and with the pasta before. Yes,
I mean, I can't even tell you what I had
(22:15):
to go through on that one ten years ago when
I didn't want to highlight steaks all the time, or
I try and do it in my house and it's challenging,
so you can't even a met Yes I can. Yeah,
so I think, you know, with vegetable forward and teaching
people to eat smaller meals by pasta dishes in Vegas,
in the beginning, it was really rough. People were like,
(22:36):
what the hell is this small portion? Sure, it's how
we eat. We eat antipines, then we eat a small
portion of the first course is past then and we
move on to fish or meat and vegetable. Like everything
is small portions. We don't eat a giant bowl of
anything including that. So teaching people about portion size was
a big thing when I started, and also clean ingredients
(22:57):
and that Italian food isn't just spagin meatballs. Of course
we eat so many different types of food, and a
lot of it is really clean. They don't have fillers,
they don't have a lot of gums, they would have
artificial flight. Like we don't eat out of packages. I
did not grow up eating out of packages, and I
grew up here.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
See now, Okay, So how many times have you heard
the following, Oh my god, I spent two months in
Europe and I came home and lost ten pounds, but
I ate everything.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
How many times have you heard that? I can't tell you.
I have heard that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Since I was a little kid and my parents would
come home because I would go to sleep away. They
would ship me off for summer and go to Europe
and they would come home and be like, Daddy, and
I ate pasta and pizza and gelato and this and that.
We both lost ten pounds. And I'm like, imagine that.
And as I got like literally once I hit my twenties,
(23:53):
I was like, because.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There's no chemicals in the food.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
There's no it's not process They're eating fresh food, you know,
And it's like this is not hard, but yet it's impossible.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Right, yeah, in this tree, it's yes, almost impossible, Like, wow,
we just eliminated red dye number three after knowing it
causes cancer for the last forty years. Cool. Exactly. Your
battle is real, my friend, Your battle is real. So
I need, I think, are my shoes and cookbooks and restaurants.
I started that path and so then now we got
(24:23):
to be hard. It's got to be hard in restaurants
in the US.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I can especially in Vegas, by the way, which was
my very first restaurant.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean, La may be easier, yes, but you know,
I was awered this thing in Vega and I'm already
on screen and I feel like it's dinner and a
movie kind of thing. And this makes for my brand
and it worked because in years and it's fabulous, but
a lot of a lot of baying my head against
(24:53):
the wall. It's like guys. So anyhow, with Super Italian,
which is my latest cookbook, I decided that I was
because the one I did before Super Italian was Eat Better,
Feel Better, because I had through some chronic issues with
my health and so I had to really reboot the
way I thought about eating and it was pretty strict,
and so that one came out during COVID strangely, but
(25:15):
really going through my forties and explaining to people like,
this is what happened to me. This is my hormone
situation after I had my daughter. This is you know,
the overwork that the cortisol levels like like every just
what Bisberg. And so I went on this journey for
a really clean, clean lifestyle, and I really started to
be very rigid with the way I ate. And then
(25:39):
in my fifties I started to realize I can live
that way.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
The balance is what Italian's I mean, that is why,
that's how I grew up. All balance you here, but
you have to decide what kind of pasta you're going
to eat. Of course, how is the po where's the
pasta come from? In the pasta? How much cost? With
what right? This book is more about taking the superfoods
that Italians have eaten joyed forever, tinfish, olive, oiled capers, orbs, citrus,
(26:08):
you name it. I have a whole list, and then
infusing them in all of our favorite dishes so that
you can enjoy the food that you like. But it's
all has a nutritional value that is heightened instead of empty,
which is how a lot of Americans eat. You know,
a lot of us eat empty food. Oh, yeah, teaching
people day every day to eat food that is like
(26:30):
I have a sheep pamlasagna, you know, but I've added
a lot less cheese and that broccoli rab mixed in
with the meat and everything else so that you have
more things that are nutrient dense. Right. I think that
the whole idea is like eating dishes. Even this pasta
seccina that I love that it's very popular right now
(26:52):
where it's kind of a burnt spaghetti that you huh differently,
you don't cook it in a pot. You cook it
in like a round skillet. Wait, can I pause?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I love when you speak Italian, Like as soon as
you mentioned food, you become Italian.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I'm obsessed, so amazing because it's crispy. So then I
put sardines on top of it, or you put anchovies,
you know. I do these garlikey bread crumbs that have
and mix it like all of these tricks to make
the food taste really good but also be nutrie and debts.
And that's what this book is about. But it's fun
and it's you know, it's sheep haan chicken palm, but
(27:26):
with my garlicy bread crumbs that have all of that
anchoby in it so that they taste really amazing, but
they're also something that you all everybody loves.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You know, you know what you're going to have to
do now right what You're going to have to tech
talk it. You're going to have to instagram rails it,
You're going to have to hire all the twenty something
to start making.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
All of yes cleik. And then with Jozzy, I brought
in another element where you can actually buy pasta that
is has no fillers, that is straight from Italy that
have them in my kitchens. Oh you do great, Yeah,
so you can start to see the quality. It's about
quality ingredients and we have to eventually get to the
(28:08):
point where we value that, you know, we value the
quality of what we're putting in our bodies and teaching
people about that and making it sexy and fun and cool,
because I think that's really the only way that people
will well, it should be like, you know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
It's like, at the end of the day, I think
there's always been so much focused historically on dress like
a French girl, eat like a French girl, look like
a French girl. And I know, for me, I've always
been so incredibly attracted to like the natural glamor of
Italian women, you know, French girl for me was always cool,
(28:48):
but Italian women were always glamorous, you know. And I
really think that is something that you can and should
infuse into the brand because a are so beautiful. But
I think beyond that, it's sort of like, you know,
making it so relatable and desirable to this generation because I.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Think there is there has always been.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
That sort of real authenticity in Italian lifestyle and food
and cooking and women, right, and I think there's not
enough emphasis in my opinion on that. You know, there's
so much on French women, and I don't want to
underflay that from a style perspective, but I think for me,
(29:37):
when I think of Italian women, it's like, you know,
the natural tan, the gold jewelry, the kaftans, the prints,
the gorgeousness sitting on their boats and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But like lists, but it is effortless and it's almos
like al Janita, right. It's also that like how they
express themselves, how they need their lives correct. We're more relaxed,
We're yeah, we take long naps in the middle of
the day. We entre espresso with a biscupt like we enjoyed,
(30:11):
and we enjoy everything, but not to an excess. It's
not about like overdoing everything. It's just everything in balance,
everything in moderation and spreending it with people that you
love in places that you love. I mean, I grew
up with my families like, no, we're eating dinner together,
we're gonna together, we're gonna talk, we're gonna discuss and
(30:35):
this like this just vibaciousness that's in just because we're
so we're very passionate people about everything that we do.
And I think that is probably why people love Italian
food and love traveling to Italy. Italy is the number
one ostination for you know, for crafting. I know, and
(30:55):
so I'm I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I'm such a fan. I love what you've built. I'm
so excited for what you are still doing and still
building because.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
This is not easy. It's not easy.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And and and I see you and I feel you,
and I really I really do.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And what markable yourself? Rachel, I don't think there's a
soul who doesn't know who you are. Earlier and she
was like, oh I know who she is. Ah, Like
she's just ever, You've done an amazing job. Truly. It's
it's you know, you pioneered something that is that was
never seen to be, something that was glamorous or special,
(31:35):
like you know, and I think you've made people see
that and people really appreciate and respect all the hard
work you've done and that taps off to you. That
is not a freaking easy thing to do. So thank
you right back. And I think we're pretty kindred souls.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I think in different fields, but I think probably looking
at things from a very very similar vantage point. Absolutely,
and listen, and that's why I'm saying, like when you
were speaking about the struggles, they're real and valid. But
I do think it keeps that sort of like passion
going the desire to I think, just remain authentic and
(32:16):
still do what we do.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
But still there's.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
So much to teach people, and I think it's trying
to figure out the different lenses in which to teach it,
you know, yes, and how.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
They can absorb it, right, you have to take it
so that they enjoy watching it, they want more, and
that is always a tricky thing to do with.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, changing times, God help me, Thank God for your
sixteen year old daughter yeah, But a lot of the
times she's like, by the way, I have a fourteen
year old son, and I'm just like, okay, like you
shoot the content on this.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Well, you got to do this, you got to do that.
Let's do this together. I don't know what I'd do
without her. I think you guys can crush it on
TikTok together. Way. Yeah, yeah, now that's back. Yeah she
can sing and you can cook. Yes, And that way
people would learn to hear that, right, that would.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I mean, I'm telling you, thank you so much to
Giata for being on the pod today. She truly has
made her own way in the food industry and clearly
has so much passion for her work. I feel like
(33:30):
she's still just scratching the surface, and I think, like
so many of us, just trying to keep her authentic
passion new and fresh for the younger generations, and how
to embrace that while still remaining fully authentic and true
to yourself and what you know and love. So all
(33:51):
just so interesting, and she's so beyond inspiring and fascinating.
So I hope you loved this episode as much as
I did. Thank you so much for listening to Clymian heals.
If you have not already, please subscribe to the show
on Apple, podcast, Spotify, the iHeart app, or wherever you
get your podcasts. You don't miss a single episode this season.
(34:12):
Be sure to follow me on Instagram at at Rachel
Zoe and the show at clemiean Hills Pod for the
latest episodes and updates.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I will talk to you soon.
Hi everyone, I'm Rachel So and you're listening to Climbing
in Heels for your weekly dose of glamour, inspiration and fun.
Emmy Award winning television personality chef, Restauranteur and nine times
New York Times best selling author Giada da Laurentis is
on the pod today. I have watched her career from
(00:30):
afar for so many years and absolutely love and have
so much respect for the career she has built in
this field. Her latest book, Super Italian, is all about
cooking with nutrient rich Italian superfoods to create the most
beautiful and healthy meals in true Italian style. She is
such a game changer in the industry and I cannot
(00:53):
wait for you to hear more about her unbelievably incredible story.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So let's jump right into it. I'm very excited to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I've obviously known your career and I've known of you forever,
and I'm just so excited. I'm so excited about what
you do a but be just excited about what you're
doing now, and so I want to kind of dig
into it because I think you're such a fan base,
and I didn't realize you were you're born and raised
(01:24):
in California, right, No, actually born in.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Rome, Italy and moved to that state. That track, see
that tracks to me. The born and raised in California
really threw me. I moved. I moved to New York first.
My family's in the movie business has been for a
very long time, and so my grandfather was a movie
producer in Italy and my grandmother was a movie an
actress and together they created like this empire in Europe
(01:49):
and in Italy. Then they moved over to the States
because that's what you know. Of course, that's the dream,
that's the dream and make an US. So they came,
and of course my mother being his eldest daughter, they
took all the kids and grandkids with them, because you
follow the PATRIARCHI yeah, So we moved to New York
(02:10):
first for a couple of years, and then we moved
to Los Angeles, and I did go to school in
Los Angeles, but I was seven when we immigrated into
this country. On it so a little bit American, but
like via via Italy.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
But film, but film and entertainment. Okay, also just obviously
coming from the heritage that you do that food is
what nine percent of the altar.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
My grandfather's family had a pasta factory before World War Two.
My grandfather, being one of eight kids, would go door
to door and sell his mom and dad's pasta, so
they would dry it on the roots. So there were
these apartment buildings outside of Naples in Tornent Siata, which
was like the perfect culmination of the way that the
ocean air Mediterranean hits the land, and they would leave
(03:02):
all the pasta up there and it would dry, and
they would sell dry pasta, and so my grandfather would
do that. He was an awesome salesman. And that's what
that that side of the family did for a long
time until then my grandfather went into the war and
he was stationed in Capri and he defended Caprick even
(03:23):
the romance of like being stationed in crapriy like, yeah,
they lost everything, as a lot of these things do,
because Naples was heavily bonded, of course, and then when
the war was over, he basically just trecked his way
to Rome. He really was so enamored. He really wanted
to be an actor, so he was enamored with going
to Rome to become an actor. But he found out
(03:45):
soon enough that he was too short and not handsome
enough to be in those days actors would him, you know.
So he ended up marrying my grandmother, who was Miss
Rome at the time, and together she would star in
as movies, he would produce them, and my grandfather made
over six hundred movies in sixty years. Was this Sophia
Laurent time, Yes, my grandmother and sophil Urn exactly the
(04:08):
same time my grandfather made movies with Fellini. My grandmother started,
that's what I was going to ask yah, all these
movies and maybe here and started making movies in America.
Conan the Barbarian like all of these famous movies. I mean,
he created Arnold Schwarzenegger pretty much. I mean, so he
created a whole legacy here in the States. And I
was seven. All moved right At the end of the day.
(04:31):
Food was sort of that was sort of what held
us together. My grandfather traveled a lot on movie sets.
All of my family worked on movie sets, and so,
you know, we lived in Los Angeles, but on Sundays
was our family gathering and my grandfather would make pizza
and pasta. From when you learned from a kid and
when I was a Lenin. He opened these gourmet shops
(04:55):
much like in Italy is called d dal Show, one
in Trump Tower, New York, and one here in Beverly
Hills and the Flats, and I would go there as
a kid and just be enamored because it was something
that you know, we hadn't Americans hadn't seen before, these stalls,
pasta stalls and pizza stalls and all sorts of ingredients
(05:17):
imported from Italy. Now you have to remember, this is
like the late seventies, early eighties, so it's not did
not exist. It exists, especially not in Los Angeles where
I live. In New York. It kind of did, you
know a little bit more, but not Angelina's. So I
was always just fascinated. And he didn't just open these stores.
He also brought all his buddies in that he grew
(05:37):
up with, the pizza yarros, the pasta makers like these
were all guys from Naples that he imported into lost
angeous scatter, all this Italian talking. I was just I
think what I loved was not only the the aromas
in the place, but watching people come in and just
they're jaws dropping and just being like, oh my, what
is this place, and I loved it. And you know,
(06:00):
he kind of merged food in Hollywood together. You know,
he would do all his movie preiers in his restaurant,
you know, in this space. It was just a magical time.
But anyhow, for me, that was when I first realized,
how do I do that? How do I meet people
right have that expression or that sense of awe when
(06:21):
they want space? And so, you know, I grew up here.
I went to school at UCLA, and then I left
and went to Paris and went to cooking school for
a couple of years, and then I moved back. I
went to the cooking school, I went to the Court
on Blue and in Paris. Yeah, I mean, that's like the dream.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It's like in fashion, It's like I went to Central
Saint Martin's in London. It's like, that's that where you went.
It's like the dream.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's right, I'm.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Going to be a Michelin Chap, right, That's what I
thought I wanted to do, And honestly there was and
your family supported that obviously, because they didn't they did it.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
They didn't listen. My family, God loved them. My Grandpa's
like just get married and a bunch of kids. What
the hell are you doing? Like, why this man is
a man's work. You're not You're too small, you're too skinny,
you're too little. Nobody wants to in the kitchen. You're
a distraction. What are you.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Doing with pood?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And there was no nobody really, there was no plan
for me. I'm a woman, like not mental.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And you come from a complete food and entertainment family and.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
This is just twenty five years ago. And tell me
how many women were even in the food business at
that point. I mean not, I meanan, it doesn't so
I wasn't crazy for him to Martha Martha, that's it.
But remember the ship Martha got sorry, I sure do
you can say anything? Yeah you remember that's Oh you
(07:48):
go to the top. Oh yeah, We'll just pull you
right back down where you belong, lady.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
And story of my life throughout my whole adult life,
so my whole my whole life, but my whole career
for sure.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And maybe somebody and really there was probably a man
that helped you get there, because you wouldn't possibly have
the talent to do that on your own, right, And
so I think then my grandfather was just all of
them were just like she's lost her mind. But let
just let her do her thing. It'll last a couple
of years and then she'll be done and she'll get
married and that'll all be done. And that did not
(08:20):
happen then. So you can ask you a question. When
you went to.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
The cooking school at the Cordon Bleue, were you like
one woman?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Was it like was it like Julia Childs or she
was like the only female. There were other women, But
there were a lot of Asian women because it part
of their dowry when they get married. Korean Japanese livercook. Yes,
it's part of the culture. So they send these young
girls to all of these different specialty schools so that
(08:51):
they have all of these talents because they're more desirable.
So I went to school with a lot of those
kind of women, right, or older women who had a
new career path. There were begin there were a couple
of older American women who had worked on yachts, and
they were much older. They probably in their fifties at
that point. I was in my twenties so or yeah,
(09:13):
early twenties, So I think that's pretty much it. Otherwise
it was all men. It was not twenty something women.
With a dream. Wow. Okay, so then what happens? So
you graduate and what happens I come back here. I
had the time becoming my husband and now my ex
husband okay, and I came back here and I worked
for Wolfgang.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Puck okay, Spago by the way, great, great first job
by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, well I worked. I worked at also at the
Ritz Carlton in Mere del Rey for a French chef
for a litt while because I wanted to be able
to continue to speak French and hold myself and so
and then I went to Wolfgang and I spent some
time working for his patry chef shrery Yard there. But
like you know, my parents were like, listen, you're barely
(09:59):
making any money, right, ho heard of supporting you? I mean,
I'm making five bucks an hour and I'm working, Like yeah,
they're and it's you know, first round. Kitchens are not collamorous.
They're hellholes. They's harnered, even the nicest ones. Yes, and
you get a lot of you know, it's just yep. Anyhow. Yeah,
(10:20):
So I did that for a while and then I
started becoming a private chef. So I started cooking privately
for people like Ron Howard and his family because they
spent a lot of time here shooting show shooting movies.
So I would cook for their family. And then I'd
had other few ways. I started a catering business for myself.
I thought, okay, I'm going to make more money that way.
And as I grew that, I got a I got
(10:40):
a call I did. I started doing on the side
some food styling for some friends, and nine to eleven happened.
And after nine to eleven, the food industry switched. And
you know, especially in New York, people weren't going out
to eat anymore. Well I remember I lived there. They
wanted to gotten at home and learned how to cook.
(11:01):
It was the first time you see a shift in
the American culture. Were really interested in cooking at home
and interested in learning how to do that. And so
Food Network started to grow based on that. So I
got a call from a you know, one of the
heads of Food Now were just saying that we saw
so backing up, I was doing some food styling for
(11:23):
some friends who lived in LA and for different magazines.
I had met a lady who did the creative She
was the creative director of Food and Wine magazine who
to be and her in this special Chef's issue. My
granther was getting a Lifetime Achievement award at the Oscars
that year. So I got right family together. I cooked
a meal, I rate the recipes, I did all that stuff,
(11:44):
all stuff that I had, recipes that I'd had from
my clients because I write menus and cook for them,
and yeah, did all that. And he saw it in
Food and Wine and he was like, can you put
yourself on tape? I want to see if you have
any personality at all, because a lot photos you know
as well who gregs to talk of course, then you
(12:06):
So I did a little demo tape. My brother, who
has now passed away, shot it for me, and at
the time he was a cameraman and he it for me,
and I just did like a three minute reel making
paste lebichamel, and then they just said, okay, let's let's
start this. Let's try to do this little Italian show
for you, and we called it Everyday Italian. I remember it.
(12:30):
I was. I was a food network junkie.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Oh really, Oh it was like I used to have
it on and sometimes mostly just not even watch. It
was like calming for me in the background when I
lived in New York and then probably when I moved
out here, but that my life was so busy, I
just you know, but it was always on.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I always had it on. It was calming for me,
that's all. Well. Yeah, so, I mean I started that,
and you know, it was a departure for them because
a lot of their shows were shot in New York
and I was like a need to be in LA
with my family, like I can't be And we shot
it in La in a house, which was totally different
(13:09):
than what they usually do, which is mostly studio mostly
people like Emerald. Yeah, yet, why are you batally? Like
those are the chefs?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They had to remember well right and wore their little
outfits and their chef yet is Clotwan and the whole
b Yes? And I was the opposite. I was more
like Martha and like a sure casual and much like
Rachel Ray and in the Garden. We all started at
the same time, and it just we had an audience
that was mostly women wanting to really learn how to
cook at home, and it just kind of exploded. Rachel
(13:40):
I didn't ever plan it. I just thought I'm like
catering on the side, because this doesn't pay hit. Sure,
of course, my family was like, you're nuts. What is
fucking cable anyway? Are we talking about watch that? Nobody
watches that. That is raide our name, that's and I thought, well,
let me just try it. Let's just try. You guys
don't have any I have no plan for myself. There's
(14:02):
no a ish for me. You guys have here. Yeah,
so let me just I'm on my own here, so
I'll just try it. And that's it. So the first
season was rough. Yeah, I was very shy. I was
always a very shy person. So then you know, we
try to season two and it just grew and grew,
and then honestly, I've been on a treadmill ever since. Books,
(14:23):
restaurants like it all just kind of came and I
just thought, I've never planned any of it. And the
opposite of Martha, who planned everything, I just kind of
went on a roller coaster and I just kind of
figured it out as I went along. And I mean,
and you know what, I'm familiar. That's hard work. But
it's also like sometimes I do believe that the stars
you're in the right place at the right time. I mean,
(14:44):
there's a lot of talented people out there, but don't
always resonate on camera, or don't engage people enough, or
I don't know what it is. I would agree with that,
I would, I would say.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I don't say this very often, but it's funny
because as they listen to you, you sound like me
when I'm in an interview, which is like, I'll just
be like, I didn't plan anything, and I learned it
as I went. I just wanted to be the best
to what I was doing, and I took the different
you know, the different roads.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That seemed right in the moment, right, and.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
You know, ultimately, I think for you, I gues in
some ways the stars align, but the stars don't align
if they're not right, if that makes sense, like they
aligned because it's working right. There's no accident in my opinion,
because you can get there. And like you said, you
(15:37):
did a first season, it was rough. In this day
and age, they probably would have canceled you after three
apps A right, it was a different time. And I
think you know, and I always say, and I'm curious
if you agree, So.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You as a pro reach you were the first people
didn't even know that was and what a stylist was
and all this stuff, and I'm like, yeah, but you
don't stand being the first is hands down the hardest
because there is no book and there's nothing to compare
yourself to and there's nothing, which which in many ways
I think is healthy, because you're not looking at the others.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Right, there's no roadmap. Theres no roadmap, and you're like, like,
bring the white direction, no idea, you're blind, correct, you're blind.
It's really long.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
And that's why I say to you, like, I don't
think it was luck because I think there was a
blindness to it, and I think with that blindness came
the which is a little bit how I went into it,
like what do I have to lose?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And I think for you it was sort of like
you didn't have someone you were following, right, and you
you clearly were driven by the passion for what you
were doing. And because there were so few women, you know,
I think I think that presents its own issues because
I think today we know there's multiple seats for women
(16:58):
at any table, mostly even over the last five years,
there's I would argue to say, there's ten x more
spots for women in any field, right, agree, And even
so much that men in some industries are trying to
bring in women so that they can check a box
right now.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Doesn't mean you don't have to hold your own, but
it just means there are more spaces.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So I think, I think in what you were doing,
it's very intimidating, especially knowing that your very powerful Italian
family was not really supporting what you were doing.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Right, My guess is my question is I'm curious, like
at what point was there this inflection of I probably
should stop doing this and choose something else, or was
there not?
Speaker 2 (17:50):
Because once you started the show.
Speaker 6 (17:52):
It just kind of all went from there all the time,
all the time, all the time, and still right, yes, yeah,
all the time all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
I'm always wondering if I'm I think too that because
the journey is sort of blind, y'all know, Like should
I take a right now? For sure I go left?
Is it time to reinvent myself? Or is do I
just stay on the same journey to you on? Like,
I don't know? And I think you know. For me,
(18:26):
when I did Food Network, I started when I wasn't
married and I didn't have a child. Then I got
married right on my show and then I got Then
I had a child. Watched me be pregnant on the show.
They watched me have my daughter, they watched my daughter
grow up. And so then I got divorced. And then
I was like, should I just quit all together? Because
my career and I just created a family on this
(18:47):
show that now doesn't even freaking exist, and I have
to be honest about the fact that it doesn't exist.
Like all of these moments in my life, I just
don't want to do this anymore. I don't want don't
want to be seen anymore. I don't I just want
to you want to disappear for a There's a lot
of insecurity. I think it's an It does a lot
(19:07):
of name and you never know if you're making the
right choice, and yes, and.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Also your identity as a mother, like those decisions become
very different when you have your child.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Because I also had.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
In mind during my filming and I you know, you
start to be like, who am I? Can I still
be that person? I'm you know, I'm projecting out there,
and part of you just wants to go Can I
just escape with my child or my children?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
So I just go dark? Can I go dark for
a year?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Pause, pause, I want to raise my kids, like we don't.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Like, is that an option for us? I don't know.
I mean like those were all things like can you
come back? You're older, Like it's it's all this stuff,
Like I'm in my fifties, so I'm like, oh my god,
how long do you have? I mean, I know Martha's
eighty something, but let's be honest, that's happened a lot
of women. That's just now.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
He is no special bird. All she is and she
is and has always been. And you have to spend
absolutely and from what I can see, are you a
virgo or leo virgo?
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You're right on the CAUs. Yeah, I am. Nice job
that's saying yeah, which is why I which is why
all the thing that, all the all this that that's going.
I'm like, yeah, she's oh man saw me. You don't know?
And still to this day, Rachel, I don't know. You know,
(20:26):
I left Network two years ago, and who knows was
that the right choice? Was it not? I don't know.
I just feel like you do what you think is
best at the moment, and you write it out and
you see how it all comes together. I feel like
some of us are a different era, you know what
I mean than the talkers that they are doing. I
mean food is exploded on social It really pops that.
(20:50):
I'm a different generation, right, I exploded in your different
medium when people was exploding. So like, I feel like
it's just you know, weird. Daughter have any interest in
what you do? Absolutely not. Yeah, I don't wants to
sing and dance and by the way, last dance. She
wants to be on stage, by the way, but that's.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
In your DNA, right, I mean you are on stage,
it's in a different media.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
A different way. Yeah, yeah, but no, she's not in
a food She could care less, not at all. In fact,
I think for her, she's trying to find her own identity. Yeah,
of course, and I think that's the number one way
to do so is to just come and say that's
my Please don't think that that is me. I am
a totally different person, and I get it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I do want to talk about what's now because now
I think you're taking the brand and launching like all
different sort of like products, right and doing like a
full like even more like leaning into that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Is that correct? Yeah? So I think that for most
of the time that I've been cooking. I've been teaching
people about the way Italians eat, and I do this
in my restaurants as well, like for instance, in Las Vegas,
and had a restaurant there for ten years, and I
really make it vegetable forward and with the pasta before. Yes,
I mean, I can't even tell you what I had
(22:15):
to go through on that one ten years ago when
I didn't want to highlight steaks all the time, or
I try and do it in my house and it's challenging,
so you can't even a met Yes I can. Yeah,
so I think, you know, with vegetable forward and teaching
people to eat smaller meals by pasta dishes in Vegas,
in the beginning, it was really rough. People were like,
(22:36):
what the hell is this small portion? Sure, it's how
we eat. We eat antipines, then we eat a small
portion of the first course is past then and we
move on to fish or meat and vegetable. Like everything
is small portions. We don't eat a giant bowl of
anything including that. So teaching people about portion size was
a big thing when I started, and also clean ingredients
(22:57):
and that Italian food isn't just spagin meatballs. Of course
we eat so many different types of food, and a
lot of it is really clean. They don't have fillers,
they don't have a lot of gums, they would have
artificial flight. Like we don't eat out of packages. I
did not grow up eating out of packages, and I
grew up here.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
See now, Okay, So how many times have you heard
the following, Oh my god, I spent two months in
Europe and I came home and lost ten pounds, but
I ate everything.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
How many times have you heard that? I can't tell you.
I have heard that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Since I was a little kid and my parents would
come home because I would go to sleep away. They
would ship me off for summer and go to Europe
and they would come home and be like, Daddy, and
I ate pasta and pizza and gelato and this and that.
We both lost ten pounds. And I'm like, imagine that.
And as I got like literally once I hit my twenties,
(23:53):
I was like, because.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There's no chemicals in the food.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
There's no it's not process They're eating fresh food, you know,
And it's like this is not hard, but yet it's impossible.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Right, yeah, in this tree, it's yes, almost impossible, Like, wow,
we just eliminated red dye number three after knowing it
causes cancer for the last forty years. Cool. Exactly. Your
battle is real, my friend, Your battle is real. So
I need, I think, are my shoes and cookbooks and restaurants.
I started that path and so then now we got
(24:23):
to be hard. It's got to be hard in restaurants
in the US.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
I can especially in Vegas, by the way, which was
my very first restaurant.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I mean, La may be easier, yes, but you know,
I was awered this thing in Vega and I'm already
on screen and I feel like it's dinner and a
movie kind of thing. And this makes for my brand
and it worked because in years and it's fabulous, but
a lot of a lot of baying my head against
(24:53):
the wall. It's like guys. So anyhow, with Super Italian,
which is my latest cookbook, I decided that I was
because the one I did before Super Italian was Eat Better,
Feel Better, because I had through some chronic issues with
my health and so I had to really reboot the
way I thought about eating and it was pretty strict,
and so that one came out during COVID strangely, but
(25:15):
really going through my forties and explaining to people like,
this is what happened to me. This is my hormone
situation after I had my daughter. This is you know,
the overwork that the cortisol levels like like every just
what Bisberg. And so I went on this journey for
a really clean, clean lifestyle, and I really started to
be very rigid with the way I ate. And then
(25:39):
in my fifties I started to realize I can live
that way.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
M hm.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
The balance is what Italian's I mean, that is why,
that's how I grew up. All balance you here, but
you have to decide what kind of pasta you're going
to eat. Of course, how is the po where's the
pasta come from? In the pasta? How much cost? With
what right? This book is more about taking the superfoods
that Italians have eaten joyed forever, tinfish, olive, oiled capers, orbs, citrus,
(26:08):
you name it. I have a whole list, and then
infusing them in all of our favorite dishes so that
you can enjoy the food that you like. But it's
all has a nutritional value that is heightened instead of empty,
which is how a lot of Americans eat. You know,
a lot of us eat empty food. Oh, yeah, teaching
people day every day to eat food that is like
(26:30):
I have a sheep pamlasagna, you know, but I've added
a lot less cheese and that broccoli rab mixed in
with the meat and everything else so that you have
more things that are nutrient dense. Right. I think that
the whole idea is like eating dishes. Even this pasta
seccina that I love that it's very popular right now
(26:52):
where it's kind of a burnt spaghetti that you huh differently,
you don't cook it in a pot. You cook it
in like a round skillet. Wait, can I pause?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I love when you speak Italian, Like as soon as
you mentioned food, you become Italian.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I'm obsessed, so amazing because it's crispy. So then I
put sardines on top of it, or you put anchovies,
you know. I do these garlikey bread crumbs that have
and mix it like all of these tricks to make
the food taste really good but also be nutrie and debts.
And that's what this book is about. But it's fun
and it's you know, it's sheep haan chicken palm, but
(27:26):
with my garlicy bread crumbs that have all of that
anchoby in it so that they taste really amazing, but
they're also something that you all everybody loves.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You know, you know what you're going to have to
do now right what You're going to have to tech
talk it. You're going to have to instagram rails it,
You're going to have to hire all the twenty something
to start making.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
All of yes cleik. And then with Jozzy, I brought
in another element where you can actually buy pasta that
is has no fillers, that is straight from Italy that
have them in my kitchens. Oh you do great, Yeah,
so you can start to see the quality. It's about
quality ingredients and we have to eventually get to the
(28:08):
point where we value that, you know, we value the
quality of what we're putting in our bodies and teaching
people about that and making it sexy and fun and cool,
because I think that's really the only way that people
will well, it should be like, you know, here's the thing.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
It's like, at the end of the day, I think
there's always been so much focused historically on dress like
a French girl, eat like a French girl, look like
a French girl. And I know, for me, I've always
been so incredibly attracted to like the natural glamor of
Italian women, you know, French girl for me was always cool,
(28:48):
but Italian women were always glamorous, you know. And I
really think that is something that you can and should
infuse into the brand because a are so beautiful. But
I think beyond that, it's sort of like, you know,
making it so relatable and desirable to this generation because I.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Think there is there has always been.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
That sort of real authenticity in Italian lifestyle and food
and cooking and women, right, and I think there's not
enough emphasis in my opinion on that. You know, there's
so much on French women, and I don't want to
underflay that from a style perspective, but I think for me,
(29:37):
when I think of Italian women, it's like, you know,
the natural tan, the gold jewelry, the kaftans, the prints,
the gorgeousness sitting on their boats and the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But like lists, but it is effortless and it's almos
like al Janita, right. It's also that like how they
express themselves, how they need their lives correct. We're more relaxed,
We're yeah, we take long naps in the middle of
the day. We entre espresso with a biscupt like we enjoyed,
(30:11):
and we enjoy everything, but not to an excess. It's
not about like overdoing everything. It's just everything in balance,
everything in moderation and spreending it with people that you
love in places that you love. I mean, I grew
up with my families like, no, we're eating dinner together,
we're gonna together, we're gonna talk, we're gonna discuss and
(30:35):
this like this just vibaciousness that's in just because we're
so we're very passionate people about everything that we do.
And I think that is probably why people love Italian
food and love traveling to Italy. Italy is the number
one ostination for you know, for crafting. I know, and
(30:55):
so I'm I don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I'm such a fan. I love what you've built. I'm
so excited for what you are still doing and still
building because.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
This is not easy. It's not easy.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
And and and I see you and I feel you,
and I really I really do.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And what markable yourself? Rachel, I don't think there's a
soul who doesn't know who you are. Earlier and she
was like, oh I know who she is. Ah, Like
she's just ever, You've done an amazing job. Truly. It's
it's you know, you pioneered something that is that was
never seen to be, something that was glamorous or special,
(31:35):
like you know, and I think you've made people see
that and people really appreciate and respect all the hard
work you've done and that taps off to you. That
is not a freaking easy thing to do. So thank
you right back. And I think we're pretty kindred souls.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I think in different fields, but I think probably looking
at things from a very very similar vantage point. Absolutely,
and listen, and that's why I'm saying, like when you
were speaking about the struggles, they're real and valid. But
I do think it keeps that sort of like passion
going the desire to I think, just remain authentic and
(32:16):
still do what we do.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
But still there's.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
So much to teach people, and I think it's trying
to figure out the different lenses in which to teach it,
you know, yes, and how.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
They can absorb it, right, you have to take it
so that they enjoy watching it, they want more, and
that is always a tricky thing to do with.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, changing times, God help me, Thank God for your
sixteen year old daughter yeah, But a lot of the
times she's like, by the way, I have a fourteen
year old son, and I'm just like, okay, like you
shoot the content on this.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Well, you got to do this, you got to do that.
Let's do this together. I don't know what I'd do
without her. I think you guys can crush it on
TikTok together. Way. Yeah, yeah, now that's back. Yeah she
can sing and you can cook. Yes, And that way
people would learn to hear that, right, that would.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
I mean, I'm telling you, thank you so much to
Giata for being on the pod today. She truly has
made her own way in the food industry and clearly
has so much passion for her work. I feel like
(33:30):
she's still just scratching the surface, and I think, like
so many of us, just trying to keep her authentic
passion new and fresh for the younger generations, and how
to embrace that while still remaining fully authentic and true
to yourself and what you know and love. So all
(33:51):
just so interesting, and she's so beyond inspiring and fascinating.
So I hope you loved this episode as much as
I did. Thank you so much for listening to Clymian heals.
If you have not already, please subscribe to the show
on Apple, podcast, Spotify, the iHeart app, or wherever you
get your podcasts. You don't miss a single episode this season.
(34:12):
Be sure to follow me on Instagram at at Rachel
Zoe and the show at clemiean Hills Pod for the
latest episodes and updates.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I will talk to you soon.
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