As one can watch on Food Network, celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis is a specialist in Italian food. Having studied at the famous French culinary art institution Le Cordon Bleu, the chef, who was born in Rome, Italy, is an enthusiastic advocate of the Mediterranean country's kitchen and lifestyle. She has even starred in a show, named "Giada in Italy," in which you could follow her on a trip to Amalfi Coast, southern Italy, a place renowned for the high quality of its seafood and happy people.
But neither all those credentials were enough to please Australian movie star Nicole Kidman, as she took part of a cooking segment on syndicated "The Ellen Degeneres Show." As she tried a small piece of an Italian Focaccia, a pizza-like dough flat oven-baked bread, she didn’t hide her distaste for the dish.
I really didn’t like it
"It's a little tough. I know you're not meant to criticize. But it's a little tough," she declared. Seconds later, as politely as it would be possible given the situation, she spat out the whole piece into a napkin she took from a counter.
Right after that, the spontaneous actress warned kindly, almost joking, that her example of questionable etiquette was not to be followed: "Don't let my kids see I did that!", she said.
With years of experience in front of the cameras, De Laurentiis has not taken the defeat. The charismatic always smiling celebrity chef, apologized for the food not being in its best condition: "It's been sitting there for like five hours!", she acknowledged.
Chocked with laughter
Shamelessly poking fun at the situation, Ellen Degeneres almost choked with laughter, literally, as she herself was chewing a chunk of the focaccia.
When everything seemed settled, the chef, who has also written several recipe books, taught them how to make the arancino, small fried balls prepared out of leftover risotto.
This time though, DeGeneres and Kidman didn’t seem up to spit the food out, but delivered a whole lot of jokes having the alleged "balls" as inspiration.
Cooking segment
Giada was on the show to promote the 13th season of Food Network Star, hosted by her along with celebrity chef Bobby Flay. It is a reality show in which 12 contestants compete for the award of having their own show on the network, controlled by Scripps Networks Interactive, which also holds HGTV, a home improvement cable channel, among other networks focused on lifestyle.
One of the main stars on Food Network, Guy Fieri, has gotten his position after winning the 2nd edition of the show, back in 2005.
