Giada Pamela De Laurentiis was born in Rome, Italy. Giada grew up in a large Italian family where the culture of food was a staple in and of itself. She is the eldest child of actress Veronica De Laurentiis and her first husband, actor-producer Alex De Bendetti.  As the granddaughter of film producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada consistently found herself in the family’s kitchen and spent a great deal of time at her grandfather’s restaurant, DDL Foodshow. Giada and her siblings moved with their mother to Southern California when she was a teenager.  She graduated from UCLA with a bachelors degree in social anthropology.

Giada studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with aspirations of becoming a pastry chef. After returning to the US, she became a professional chef working in several LA restaurants, including Spago. She founded GDL Foods, a catering company in Los Angeles. She later worked as a food stylist and was contacted by the Food Network after styling a piece in Food & Wine Magazine in 2002.Her cooking program, Everyday Italian has been broadcast on the Food Network since 2003.

On May 25, 2003, she married Todd Thompson, a designer for Anthropologie.  The two had been dating since July 1989. The couple’s first child, Jade Marie De Laurentiis Thompson, was born on March 29, 2008.

And today a personal dream of mine came true. I got to meet Giada – the woman who inspired and taught me to cook and entertain. She fostered in me a skill that has given me so much joy. She was even more beautiful and gracious in person.

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