Giada De Laurentiis

Giada: (About cooking at home for guests vs. cooking on TV) It's a chance to talk to the people I'm cooking for. When you cook on television, you don't get that. It's really a lot of fun for me, filling their tummies with goodness.

Giada: (About her new show, Giada's Weekend Getaways) The show was a collaborative idea between the Food Network and myself. Travel shows are so popular that we decided to combine travel and food into a new show that offers ideas, food and great scenery.

Giada:(On why she became a chef) I grew up in the kitchen, mostly with my grandfather, my mother and my aunt Raffy. My grandfather's family used to own a pasta factory in Naples and they would go door-to-door selling their pasta. So his love of food came from his parents, which was then passed down to my mother and then again to me. Some of my best memories growing up are being in the kitchen with my family cooking. I also spent time at my grandfather Dino's gourmet store, DDL Foodshow, where he brought in chefs from Naples to cook. I thought of them as rock stars. I loved being there, and that made me decide to become a chef.