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Lidia Bastianich, sorry, but kind of boring. I mean, I love Lidia, but you can fall asleep watching her. And Mario Batali? I love Mario to death… but he’s not romantic or sensual. Those are the things I bring to the table.
All men want to be treated like kings in a relationship, and I think if women don’t indulge that sometimes, their men are likely to stray and look for someone who can give that to them.
Every time I think I have something under control, it changes and I don’t have it under control. I think it takes several years to get there. Jade is 19 months old, so right now I’m on alert all the time. And as a mom I think you’re constantly worrying about things.
These days it’s cool to be ethnic and to be different, but when I was a kid, it was not cool – at all. My friends would come over and my mom would make crepes with eggs, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and spinach. And they’d be like, ‘What is this?’
If people are made to feel uncomfortable in the kitchen, they won’t go in there. That’s why I think children learning to cook can be such a wonderful thing.
I think children learning to cook can be such a wonderful thing. It can help build confidence, make them feel good about themselves. It helped me build my ego and even start to get acceptance at school. I’d bring things to class that I’d cooked at home.
It helps immerse yourself in what you potentially want to do. Being involved, learning firsthand and observing the craft and absorbing all you can, makes it easier to define what you want. It will also ultimately make you a better Chef. Culinary school, or even a single class, is a great bet too.
I think it can be hard for any man to sometimes be upstaged by his wife. So when I’m home, I work very hard to be Todd’s wife and Jade’s mother. I have no problem going back to those traditional roles. I try to be Giada, the young girl that he met 20 years ago and fell in love with.
My goal is to make Italian food clean and accessible and beautiful and tasty, with simple ingredients that people can find at a local grocery store, because people don’t want to go to a gourmet shop in search of items that will sit in their pantry for years after they use just a teaspoon or pinch of them.
I think you can tell the food is close to my heart, too, because I’m doing what I do best.