Giada De Laurentiis

Nice Amazon interview w Giada De Laurentiis at link below. Don't know how the recipes are in her new Everyday Italian cookbook. I ordered it for the cover.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/...

[monavano]

I have to vent this because I wonder if I'm alone in thinking that Giada has become an insufferable biotch in her TV appearances.
She's often on the Today Show and lately, she's been almost confrontational. She berated Matt Lauer all during his hosting of her segment, constantly ordering to do this and that. Bobby Flay had a difference in opinion about how to keep things simple and seems incredibly defensive.
I can hardly watch her appearances any more. I don't know if it's her childish way of flirting, but she comes off acting like she's in grade school.

I just made her lasagne rolls (don't know if they are in her cookbook - link below) and they were FANTASTIC. Thanks for the book link as I will get it!

Link: http://www.foodtv.com/food/recipes/re...

I like her recipes. I've used them and had success.My daughters don't like her style, mostly her way too correct pronunciations of Italian. One daughter thinks the show is filmed and produced like "food porno". Sexy music in the background and zoom in closeups of cooking preparation. Kids these days! Go figure.

"[W]ay too correct pronunciations of Italian"?!?! I'm delighted antyime someone on that channel makes a serious effort to achieve an accurate version of a foreign language. Some of the French is bizarre. GDL and Batali are a breath of fresh air in that department.

I too appreciate it when one makes the effort to try and pronounce non-English terms in the way it's pronounced in the native language. This was especially apparent when I had my "creme brew-lay" epiphany. While I understand that people won't know how to pronounce the proper phonemes for a particular language if they weren't exposed to it at a young age, but you can really hear it when they try as opposed to trying to anglicise it.

While I do get the 'food porno' thing (and I'm not kid), and can't help but be aware of Giada's painstakingly 'correct Italian", I find it kindof refreshing.

In comparison............as popular as Emeril is, he either has a significant language/pronunciation problem or doesn't care enough to try to get it right, or his staff is afraid to correct him?. He's assuming the role of a TEACHER, for heaven's sake. His "hal-a-pee-no" (instead of "hahl-a-pen-yo") is just one of many that approach the sound of nails on a blackboard.

Emeril makes me laugh and laugh when he attemps some (not too difficult) French or Italian. I don't mind Giada's Italian, I'm just used to a more gutteral and rustic version.I grew up learning the "bad" words first with lots of hand gestures. You won't find them in any cook book but you'd hear them on the streets on Naples a plenty.

I also welcome her "proper" Italian pronunciations. Living in NYC I can't tell you how annoying it is (and I'm not even Italian) to hear the Americanized (or is it NYized) pronunciations of Italian words that are accepted as correct. People, there is no such food as galumah (just typing the way most here pronounce it), or proshoot, or moozzarell, or etc.

These pronunciations all make me cringe too, though I wonder if it's unfair or snobbish of me. There are all sorts of dialects in Italy, right?, and the people who speak one probably revile the pronunciations of those who speak others, so maybe some of the American pronunciations I dislike derive from some dialect rather than the standard (Roman?) dialect which I'm familiar with, or maybe they should be regarded as parts of a dialect that's legitimate in its own right.

The dropping of the last vowel is a Sicilian dialec thing which became a New York Italian-American thing. See thread linked below.

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

Re: Emeril
Watch his older appearances on TV, such as when he was a guest on some of the Julia Child series. You quickly notice that he's much more serious, almost studious, and the accent is nowhere near as evident. One realizes that his current TV persona is an amplification and to some extent an act - there's Emeril the person, and Emeril the TV character.

I heard a story that somebody was at one of his restaurants and asked him to do his "Bam!" schtick, and he looked at her and very politely but sternly replied something along the lines of "Ma'am, that's television. That's entertainment. This is my kitchen. When I'm here, it's serious. We don't 'BAM!' here."

Emeril was the speaker at my daughter's college graduation a few yrs. ago. Very serious and subdued. The grads would yell out "BAM" and he never responded.

Only problem is with her exagerrated correct pronounciations is that she doesn't always pronounce all the words correctly. She makes it seems she knows, so we take her word for it. Sorry I didn't make a mental note of these incorrect pronounciation of hers (and they were both Italian terms as well as English terms) I can't give examples unless I saw the shows again.

I see she is also using other ingredients that aren't typically Italian. I like that. One from yesterday or a few days ago was when she used herbs de provence in her pasta primavera.

[rasputina]

How can pronunciations even be too correct? If it's correct, it's correct. Especially when it's a language that you grew up speaking.

What is her grandfather's restaurant?

It was called DDL Foodshow & closed about 20 years ago.

Was it (in New York) on Columbus..behind the Planetarium?
If so, it was a beautiful space..maybe a little too pricey!
Very good "Italian" food (in comparison to the "Southern Italian-American" which I grew up with and still crave!)

I also put in a vote for correct Italian pronunciation..it's a pleasure for my ears!

Yes, the NYC DDL Foodshow was at Columbus & 56th; LA DDL Foodshow was on Beverly Dr in Beverly Hills.

"Giada De Laurentiis combines the cooking chops of Mario Batali, the passion of Nigella Lawson, and the graceful beauty of Natalie Portman--all in one package."

I think this is one case where the whole is less than the sum of its parts... or less than each part, somehow.

Compare her with R.R. and I'll give her a vote.

Oops, I think we're not supposed to do this...

I really like her style/approach to cooking.

My husband calls her "The Cooking Babe".