(pic from MSNBC)
I've never been a huge fan of Giada De Laurentiis, a young woman who has an Italian cooking show on the Food Network channel. Sandra Lee is hysterical with her tie-died cupcakes, pre-shredded carrots, cocktail time, and matching tablescapes. Rachel Ray has really easy recipes & her man-hands don't bug me like they used to. We've even used recipes from Alton Brown's show, the Contessa, and Bobby Flay's grillin' show. Our last guest-in-town show-off meal was Amy Finley's Goat Cheese & Mushroom stuffed Chicken Breasts with fingerling potatoes -- her winning recipe for the Next Food Network Star. ...This summer, we watched a lot of food network. Back to Giada. One of the most striking things about Giada's shows is the amount of camera time spent on her cleavage (yes, the link takes you to cleav-shots). Don't get me wrong. Giada is a nice looking young woman. She could use a sandwich, but she's nice looking. Everyone who's ever chatted with me about Giada brings up her cleavage and it's almost impossible to miss. I realize that food network shows are often shot in such a way as to 'seduce' the viewer with the food (think: food porn), but the cleav-shots seem like such a silly way to make her show unique.
This past Sunday, friends of ours invited us down to Newport for dinner. Rosie generously cooked up a huge 3-dish gourmet vegetarian (thank you!) meal. Rosie's food was incredibly good and I know that at least one of the recipes came from Giada. [[update: all of the recipes were Giada's--veggie meatloaf (with checca sauce!), penne with roasted veggies, & the portobello parmesan]]. Unlike many of the other chefs on the network, Giada's love affair with pancetta typically prevents her from cooking vegetarian meals, but every once in a while, even pancetta-lovers remember veggies like me.
Here's my confession: While there are limitations when you only cook italian food, and typically meat-centered food, Giada is a great cook. I have probably (and it kills me to say this), but I have probably learned more from Giada's shows & eaten more meals from her recipes than any other chef/cook/cookbook author. I will still insist on the similarity between her & the older Steve Madden ads, but I am publicly giving in to the hype. She's great in the kitchen.
p.s. Nigella Lawson doesn't need cleav-shots to be super sexy.
4 comments:
I think Giada's producers should go for the whole nine and borrow a page from Italian news weather women: have Giada cook topless. Although it is a sanitation violation, it really gets to the point
All those dishes I made were from Giada -- the veggie meatloaf (with checca sauce!), the penne with roasted veggies, and the portobello parmesan. I'd say that while the 'loaf came out pretty well, it took me almost 4 hours to her 30 minutes, so I don't know if it's quite worth the effort. I would definitely remake the penne & portobello recipes. Giada's mom is vegetarian, so that's the reason for the dishes.
If you want to know my favorite personality, it's probably Paula Deen. She's hilarious! Sandra Lee like to booze-it-up, and Emeril makes some pretty complex-looking stuff. Giada's recipes have always seemed pretty approachable.
BUT I CANNOT STAND RACHEL RAY! YUMMO = BARFO!
I wonder who's mouth is larger, Giada's or RRay's. I guess you'd have two separate contests: one to measure width of smile, and another to measure volume of the mouth-cavity. :o
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