Transcript of Giada DeLaurentiis: The Secret Ingredient is Joy

Think about when you're on the go or you're eating and you're stressed out. How does your stomach feel? I don't think it matters if you ate a light meal or a heavy meal, you're probably not gonna feel well. If we can be laughing and having fun and enjoying the people that we're around while we're eating, we will feel better. That piece of the longevity piece is just as important as the food you're putting on the table.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged. And today, I have a guest that I'm going to open up to because she has no idea how she has personally changed my life. I'm talking about from Food Network kitchens to building lifestyle empires. She has redefined what it means to be a modern culinary force. She's a bestselling author, an Emmy Award winner, and a true entrepreneur. Please join me in welcoming the visionary, the authentic, the Giada De Laurentiis. Giada, how you doing today, dear?

I'm great. How are you? Thanks for having me.

No, thank you for being here and just thank you for being present and the person that you are. Um, so I'm gonna let you know something. That you don't know that I'm probably gonna get in trouble for, and I'll just have to deal with it because, you know, Robert Irvine is my best friend, right?

Yes.

But I didn't start watching Food Network or Robert Irvine until you, like, you are the person that brought me into the food culture. Um, and it was simple. It was because One, your presence was amazing, but two, it was like you were storytelling and teaching me personally, like, how to make really cool dishes. And I got to appreciate all the different things that you brought to the table. So, Zata, thank you more than you know.

Well, thank you for watching. I think, honestly, I'll be— when I started my journey on Food Network, I was incredibly shy, and it took me a long time to get comfortable to tell those stories and just comfortable cooking and talking at the same time. I think— I'm not sure that everybody— I mean, maybe now they realize it, but it's difficult to storytell, be comfortable, and follow a recipe and make it look easy and not stress if things, you know, are happening that shouldn't be happening. You know, you also have a lot of people watching you that are not really watching you. They're sort of looking at their phones while you're doing your demo, and they're reading a magazine, and you're just like, who am I talking to? I'm talking to a black screen. I've got nothing to look at. Like, there's a black hole there, and there's nothing, nobody behind it. So I think in the beginning days, it was very difficult. So the fact that, that, uh, over the 20-some years that I was doing it, it became impressionable and somehow really connected people is, is really a gift. I could never have imagined.

Well, it totally is you and you totally have a gift. And I'm glad that you said that you make it look easy because, you know, I have all of your cookbooks, right? Like all of them. And the first few times that I tried to make something, I was like, it's not as easy as she made it look on TV. Like there's patience.

Oh man.

Like, Like cooking taught me patience. No, no, no, no, no, no. The cookbooks totally make it easy to follow through. I'm talking about when I was watching what you were doing on TV and it was like, let me try to replicate it that way.

Which is why we, that's why I did cookbooks, right? Because people kept saying to me, wouldn't it be great to have it written down? I'm like, why? You can just watch the show and write it down. It's cheaper that way. And people are like, no, no, no. If it's in a book, then there's a photo and we can revert back to it. And you can give us little like hints that maybe we missed on the show. So that's That's why we did the cookbook. So it makes me happy to know that it was helpful.

No, totally helpful because trying to follow you on TV, I was like, nah, I, like, I can do it, but I can't do it in 30 minutes.

Right?

Like, I can't do it that way.

Well, there's a lot of editing as we all know well, right? Like, you only see the good stuff.

Yep. Giada, again, honored to have you here. And I always ask my guests this first question about their "become." Right? That thing that's deeper than your why. Like, if I were to ask you, what's your why? I'm sure I'm gonna get your family, your friends, and, and giving back. But then when I say, but why are those things important? That sentence usually starts with, well, because, and I care about that moment. And, and what the world probably doesn't see is all the humanitarian things, the philanthropy that you do and, and how you give and give and give. And so what's your because for that today? Like, why does Giada continue to do the things that you do?

I think that my because is connected to, you know, after the many years of doing what I do, which is cooking on television and putting out cookbooks and Um, understanding what people are looking for and how they want to be connected to a community. And cooking to me is, is a community. And I think that over the years, from the actual cooking to the cookbooks to the restaurants, there's, there's so much noise in the food world with whatever kind of whether it's products, and we're learning new things every day about our food source. And to cut through that noise and sort of give people direction and some, and have them trust somebody that they're gonna help them sort of weed through all of that information has led me into, you know, doing what I do on Jodzy with my Italian products and really helping people understand how to use these products, what they should look for, even if they're not buying my products, and how to better their lives. And that's really the because, because I don't think that will ever stop. I think that we will always be curious. We will always want to do better for ourselves and we'll always be evolving.

And so I learn so much and I find that it resonates when I share it. And so I just want to answer and help people through the struggle of, of from all the noise that goes around in the crowded marketplace of all different marketing that is happening every single day around us. And I just want to help them feed their families and feel well.

And you do amazing at that. And, and that's, you know, again, right before our call, I was talking to Robert and I was even telling him, I think one of the things I appreciate the most about Jada is this, is that you feel care in everything that you do. Like, I feel that you care. I feel that you're putting others first and I feel family, right? Um, not just the TV shows, but when you look at what you're doing as an entrepreneur, when you look at the conversations that you have, it's just like you genuinely care so much about others. And to me, that makes you one of the greatest humans that I know.

Oh my goodness. I'm blushing. I think I do care a lot. Yes. I grew up in a family who— I think because I'm an immigrant to this country and I came here when I was 7 with my family from Italy, my family taught me to truly care about the people around me. That, you know, if you create that community, that's the community that will get you through. Any hard time. You know, we need each other. I think we've, we've lost that a little bit with all the social media. I think there's wonderful things that social media has brought us. It's connected us in one way, but also alienated us in others. And I, I think there is no greater, um, gift we can give each other than to spend time in the kitchen cooking for each other. And, um, I, I think that yes, I do care. And I do care as to what I do and how the messaging goes out and how people receive it. And I care about feedback and I think all of those things make us better. Are they exhausting? Yeah, they're exhausting. And sometimes I'm like, I also need my quiet time where it's just me on my own to sort of reboot.

And I think we all do. But yeah, I truly care. I do. Maybe to a fault at times.

But I, I see that because I feel like I'm the same way. And sometimes we care more for others than, than either we should, or sometimes than they do about themselves or the mission that they're trying to push. So I totally get it. I get what you're saying there. Um, I wanna move to something else.

I think people can see that. I think people see that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wholeheartedly. Yeah. Wholeheartedly.

Yeah.

So I wanna give you some, some praise and give you your flowers on what you've taught me personally about food. And again, I'm gonna get in trouble because Robert taught me how to make eggs, even though I don't eat eggs. But here's, here's the unplugged truth. You taught me how to appreciate pasta because growing up for me, like I wasn't a huge fan of pasta except spaghetti. So I always associated pasta with spaghetti. Sure.

Many people do.

So watching Giada and then the, the first cookbook that I got from you, I got to truly understand what good pasta was like. So I'll tell you the reason I didn't like pasta was because I was cooking it way too long. So I didn't know what I was doing with making it, but then understanding how to, my words, commingle it with other foods and ingredients and understanding the essence of the right oils. Uh, like you opened my mind to so much. Like when, when did you know that that was a thing for you of, of how to teach others how to appreciate Italian cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine, but Not what we think of here in the States when pasta is spaghetti for the most part.

Well, I, I think, I think the way you see pasta is very much where, how a lot of people for a long time saw pasta. And there's probably still people out there that still see it that way. I, you know, I grew up cooking and I grew up in an Italian family and my family imported a lot of the ingredients that we used because in the '70s when I moved here, We didn't have ricotta cheese. We didn't have mascarpone cheese. We didn't have really barely any, any pastas. Um, no jarred sauces, barely tomatoes, no olive oils. Like all of that stuff didn't exist. I think people don't realize that. And that was only what, 50 years ago? So there, we've come a really long way, but so we imported everything. I didn't think what I, what I was doing was that unique. Yes. Did I see at school that people ate differently than I did? Yeah, but I don't know. I think when you're a kid, you feel like everybody lives the life you live at home.

Right?

Right. Yeah. So as I grew up, I started to realize, oh, I am different. And I, I, I knew I was different even at a young age because I ate lunch by myself for many years, for a long time when I was very little, because my mother would give me chocolate sandwiches or leftover pasta. And the kids were like, you're weird. You're just frigging weird. And we don't wanna be around you. So I did realize it, but I, I, but I didn't at the same time. It was so much ingrained. Ingrained in my food and in my lifestyle and culture. And so I think, I think that, um, it didn't, it didn't dawn on me until I started doing some stuff for Food Network and until I started Everyday Italian and I got feedback that like, this is great. We didn't know this. Tell us more. And I thought, you didn't know that? What do you mean you didn't know that? And I think you, you don't realize it when you live it every single day. You don't think it's that unique. And so it was the people who watched my shows and the feedback I got that taught me, oh, people don't know this.

And I should repeat it 20 times. I should tell people they should put a ton of salt in their, in their water for their pasta, because that's the first step to seasoning it. I should tell them that the pasta should be al dente and how to see, how to test that. Like all these things that I thought, if I just say it once, we're done. But in learning to be a good teacher, you realize repetition is the way people learn. You repeat yourself and you repeat yourself and you repeat yourself, and eventually it sticks, right? And so it was really feedback. Like, I didn't, I didn't know it until I got feedback from everybody. And I'm sure that you doing your podcast, you get feedback and you realize, oh, I should do that more because people like that, or they learned a lot. I already knew this, but they clearly didn't. So feedback from, from followers and from people who were foodies is really how I learned it.

So speaking of feedback, I want to give you even more praise. Like, this is like me just gushing over Jada right now, but Jotsi.

Yeah.

Your direct-to-consumer, and for everybody that's watching or listening, I have links to Jotsi. in the show notes, in the descriptions and social, just click the button. But I love the entrepreneur side of you, but more importantly, the products that you have. This e-commerce brand is so fire. Like, I'm constantly ordering stuff. I shouldn't admit it, but I, I, I don't care. I'm admitting it.

Why? You can admit it.

Yeah, I'm constantly ordering, uh, and I do a lot of cooking, right? Like I do a lot of gatherings with family and friends. And so Everybody's like, oh, so, so this new sauce that you got, did you get it from Jossie? And so now they're going on there too, just because you've made it so accessible and it's amazing products, amazing ingredients. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about what made you want to start that and be that true entrepreneur that was budding inside of you the whole time.

Yeah, I, you know, um, Again, it's when I was doing my shows, one of the feedback that I kept getting was people kept asking me, well, what brand of olive oil are you using? What brand of pasta? And you know, when you do these kind of food shows, you're not allowed to show any brands and you're really not allowed to talk about brands because everything is white labeled, right? For marketing advertising purposes. And so I realized that people really wanted some guidance. They wanted to understand. So if I'm going to spend the time and energy to make your dishes, I really want to use the right the products that are going to deliver on that promise that you made when you made that dish. And so that's really what led into, into Giadzy. And, you know, I realized that a lot of the products were products that I had been using from my parents, that I had learned from my parents, that we either imported or now you could find. And a lot of them were purveyors in Italy that were small farmers that were producing this stuff. And so I just decided, you know, during COVID I'm like, people can't get stuff.

I'm gonna start importing stuff and making kits with the products that I love, that I use, and put them along with my recipe and then ship them to people. And that's how Jodzee really started. I mean, it started earlier as a blog, but this is when the marketplace really started. And what I started to realize is the things that people loved were the olive oils, the tomatoes, the pastas. And so I started to really hone in on those products and really make it streamlined. And what I realized as well is that gluten-free pasta was becoming the home run. And that was the sort of, yeah, that was sort of the front runner. And Mick, I'm not a gluten-free, I'm not gluten-free. I have gluten-free people in my family, I do, but I am not. So I was really surprised to see it was gluten-free pasta. And again, that only came about because so many of my followers were like, We want a great gluten-free pasta, one that holds up to the sauce, one that is great the next day, where people aren't coming over and saying, oh yeah, that's gluten-free, where they can't tell. So I'm not making multiple dishes to make everybody happy in my family or in a crowd of friends when I'm having a dinner party.

And so that's— I worked really hard to kind of source that. And that became what became, you know, the number one product on the site. And now, you know, we've launched into retail and the retailers Consumers are craving this gluten-free pasta, where I think there might be a hole in the marketplace as to, yes, there are other gluten-free pastas, but they don't deliver on that promise that it's gonna be— you're not gonna be able to tell the difference between the two, and that it's clean without fillers and gums, which a lot of gluten-free pastas have, sadly. And from Italy, and bronze cut, and slow dried, and all of the other things that matter in the end of the day to make a great pasta that now people have, you know, learned about.

Yeah. So I almost got into an argument with family that didn't believe that it was gluten-free because again, I don't, I'm not gluten-free by any stretch of imagination either. But when I made it for myself first and I was like, this is freaking amazing because I've had other gluten-free pasta and it was like, okay, it's okay. It'll do if I have to. Right? Like, that's me. But that, and then the nickel-free tomato sauce, like people were arguing with me that this is not gluten-free. I had to go get boxes and show and pull up your website. Like, I promise you, this is it. And everybody was so blown away that now whenever I have a get-together, I could be on the smoker smoking something and people want your gluten-free pasta. Like, okay, great. We'll have burgers and pasta.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with it. But yeah, I think that it's really blown me away. And it's— I've eaten a lot more gluten-free pasta in the last couple of years, all having to do with the fact that it is just so great when you cook it and you just cannot tell the difference. I would also say that my pasta— do you know what passata is? Have you tried the passata? If you haven't, I should send you some. Yeah, the passata is also, um, and the cherry tomatoes, those are also some of my favorite products just because it's again, just tomatoes without sugar. A lot of passatas in this country have a lot of things added to them. They're naturally sweet. They have no skin and no seeds, which is something my daughter really likes because I found that here in America, people like smooth sauces where in Italy we like chunkier sauces. We like the texture of the tomato broken up and the skin and the seeds, like, but here they don't. So the passata is like drinkable. It's that good.

It really is. And so here's what I'm going to do. I usually do this at the end of the show, but I want to do it right now because we're talking about it. Because I know you are a giver. I'm going to be a giver too, because I support you so much. Here's what I'm going to do. The next 20 people that message me on, let's just choose Instagram because I know that you're on Instagram too. The next 20 people that message me, Jiazi, and I'll have the links there. I'm going to give like a $100 gift card so that they can go order some stuff because I want to create so many raving fans of what you do. So I'm essentially giving out $2,000 that's going to go straight to Jiazi because you're going to love the products. Like I promise you the gluten-free, the oils. The pastas, like I was never a rigatoni fan, but I love yours. I love it. I didn't like the thickness before, but I, I just, I love it.

I know, I get it. I get it. The shapes though, I think are what also make us unique. Do we have spaghetti? Yes, we do. We have, we have a lot of, you know, the regular shapes, but to me, the uniqueness are the shapes that I grew up with. The nodi marini, the mezzi rigatoni, the casarecce. The orecchiette, the stelline, like those are the ones that to me shine. They just do. And they make eating pasta regularly much more interesting.

Totally agree. So again, if you're listening, if you're watching, message me directly on Instagram, @jiahtzee. I'm going to give you $100 to go spend. And then I want you to tell Giada what you love, like what'd you purchase, what'd you love, and how you're doing. Like film yourself. Like we're going to like. Just trust me.

I love it.

All I can tell you is trust me.

I love it. I love it. Thank you.

Absolutely. So I'm going to move to the segment I call Hot Takes because you gave me the hottest take ever when you told me you don't like cauliflower rice. I don't.

I don't. And the funny thing is I like cauliflower, but I don't like cauliflower rice. I also don't like red peppers or green peppers for that matter.

Ooh.

And I don't like coconut either. So coconut cakes, anything with coconut, I don't touch. So like, there are things—

I'm allergic. If you ever want to kill me, give me coconut flakes. I can drink coconut water, but the flakes—

Well, then how can you drink coconut water?

Because it's the actual flakes. Like, I'm allergic to the actual— whatever enzyme is in the flake. The protein of the flake, like, can't process it. My throat closes up, but coconut water, totally fine. Weird. Okay.

Okay. Weird. That's okay. Fair enough.

Yeah. I mean, Jonathan Simon.

Yeah. I'm not allergic to any of those things, so I don't think you'd kill me, but I would not feel well. I'll just say that. But yeah. Yeah. Cauliflower rice. It's not that I won't feel, I don't know. There's something weird texture-wise with cauliflower rice. I just, I've never been. It's not my thing. Is it yours?

No, not at all. I just got into doing like cauliflower crust on pizza. You can, you can hate me for that too, but that's all I got into.

I'd rather just not eat pizza, to be honest. But I guess that's like saying, you know, if, if you're not gluten-free, you might as well not eat gluten-free pasta. I don't know. But I think, I think that it hasn't been It, it just hasn't been perfected just yet. I will just say the texture's a little strange and my stomach never feels good afterwards. So I don't know what the heck they're putting in that cauliflower crust, but my stomach does not like it.

Like, trust me, it's not my favorite thing, but if I have cauliflower or anything, I can—

You can do the pizza. Okay. All right. Fair enough.

Another hot take that you've had that, that truly resonates with me. You said, enjoy your life and like who you eat food with. And like, food is so much more enjoyable when it's great company. And I didn't really start to appreciate that until I was reading that statement from you. And it made me pause and say, you know what? All the family get-togethers and we have good food, but like, I started making food like the center point because of you. Um, you truly enjoy those moments better. The food tastes better when you're around people that you enjoy. Talk to us a little bit about that and why that's so important.

You know, um, in my last cookbook, when I was writing about, um, food and one of the ingredients I was talking a lot about, um, just ingredients that have nutrition, right? Like, 'cause I think we forget that we need, we need to add some nutrient-dense ingredients to things like capers, let's say, or anchovies, or even olive oil, or garlic is one. One of the ingredients that I think we kind of forget is that la dolce vita, the enjoyment of our life, and who we eat with and who we sit down at a table with. Is a big part of the joy that kind of drives the body and helps the body to break down food and the way that it absorbs food. I just, I think that people still, and they're getting better at this, but I think a lot of times, think about when you're on the go or you're eating and you're stressed out, right? How does your stomach feel? I don't think it matters if you ate a light meal or a heavy meal, you're probably not gonna feel well. And it has a lot to do with the type of enzymes and the way your body reacts to the nervous system.

You know, they're all so interconnected to each other that if we can be laughing and having fun and enjoying the people that we're around while we're eating, we will feel better. Longevity is— that piece of the longevity piece is just as important as the food you're putting on the table, right? So if you're sitting down with your family and there's a lot of arguments and things going on, chances are your body's not going to absorb that nutrition in the same way that it would if it was enjoyable. So I think it's really— I always tell people it's really important to think about who you're eating with, um, and how you're eating the food, like not over the sink in, you know, under 20 minutes or under 10 minutes, which is really— or a bite here and a bite there, but actually allowing the time to sit down and enjoy each other. And that is part of the Italian lifestyle. We really do, uh, you know, we really put a lot of effort into that, and we think about each meal. Like, we eat breakfast and we think about what's lunch and what's dinner going to be like, who's going to be at the table, how are we going to set the table, what are we going to eat.

Like, we put a lot of stock into that, and I think that is part of our longevity and happiness piece.

Amen, amen, completely. You always have so much going on. I wanna give you the floor to, to talk about what's new. Like what all do you have coming up? Where, where in the world is Jada gonna be in the next 5 minutes? Right? Like the floor is yours. Like what all do you have going on? What's new with Jada?

Well, I'm on the East Coast, so I'm gonna spend some time in New York right now working. Yeah. And then I will be in Chicago next week to open another restaurant outside of Chicago in a town called Aurora, which, um, for those people who know, yeah, you know, Chicago is—

I don't know where you're based, Mick, but I'm in South Carolina, but I'm in Chicago quite a bit.

Yeah. So this is in Chicagoland, as I've been taught to say.

Yeah.

Um, and Chicago, you know, people live so far out of the main city of Chicago. And so we're going to open up in Aurora and we open next week and I'm really excited. Been going back and forth between the two. And next week, finally, we open the doors, we take reservations. And so I've been working on this project and building it for over a year now. So it's been really— it's really exciting to see it all come together. And we're going to sell Jodzee products in it. Like, it's trying to bring all of the businesses together so that there's some kind of synergy between all of it, you know? And I think that's been sort of my mission is to bring these businesses together so they all feed each other. And it makes more sense that way instead of them all living in a silo on their own, you know? So that's, that's been my big, my big project.

I love that. I love that. So I'm gonna do another something. How about this? Because I don't know when it's gonna be, July or August, but I'm gonna be in the Chicago area.

Oh, great.

So I'm gonna bring some guests with me and we're gonna come experience the new restaurant.

Well, you gotta let me know. It's called, it's called Sorella. Sorella. So that means sister in Italian.

Nice. Maybe I'll bring my sister. How about that?

So Rachelle, you need to be—

yeah, Rachelle, you come with me. Maybe we'll even, we'll do something cool. Like I'll, I'll do some good social and maybe record some stuff there, but Sorella.

Yeah, let me know. We'd love to host you. We'd love it. So thank you.

We're gonna do it.

Yes, absolutely. I'm excited.

Me too. Me too. You've made my day. You've totally made my day. Again, I know how busy you are, so I'm not gonna hold you. You've been amazing. I'm gonna get you outta here on what I call my Unplugged Five. So rapid fire, 5 questions. Got it. Okay.

Ready? I don't know. Am I? I think so. I think you are.

I think you are. What's one tool in the kitchen that you can't live without?

Probably my santoku knife. Small enough that I can hold it, not so heavy.

Okay.

Okay.

Who's one person you've yet to cook for that you can't wait to cook for?

Who would that be? Actually, you know what? I've never cooked for Martha Stewart, and I do love her.

Ooh.

We're acquaintances, but we're not— You know, I've never cooked for her before, so I would like to cook for her. Okay.

What's something that you could teach someone to cook perfectly in 60 seconds or less? Not saying that the cook has to be done in 60 seconds or less, but you could walk them through how to cook something perfectly in 60 seconds or less.

Lemon spaghetti.

Okay.

Okay.

I love that. I love that. When the story in the book of Jotz is being told and written, what's one word you wanna make sure is in there?

Kind.

I love that. I love that. I love that. And if you were to start, this is the most important question of the day, by the way, if you were to start another Cooking show. How much do I have to pay to be your sous chef?

Free. I love sous chefs. I'll take anybody that wants to help.

There you go.

That does include the dishes though.

Oh, I'll hire somebody for the dishes. Don't worry about it. So everybody hates me because I still hand wash dishes. Like I rarely use a dishwasher. Like I, it's therapeutic for me to hand wash dishes.

So I don't, I don't disagree.

It probably will take longer than you want.

No, I don't disagree. Although I will say every once in a while, like you should put 'em in the dishwasher just for that intense heat that you probably aren't giving the dishes. But I, I actually agree that I think dishes are quite therapeutic. I just don't feel like doing it all the time. True.

Very, very true. Jada, I've been honored to have you on. Um, for everybody that's watching this, listening, again, we have links to all things Yada here. Click below, support, follow, uh, go to the, to the online store, uh, order some of these cookbooks. That's something else I'm gonna do. Uh, you tell me which one. Do you want Super Italian? Do you want me to order something else? So the—

Super Italian, I think is so helpful for people. There's a lot of great information in Super Italian. Yeah.

Okay. So the first set, you're gonna message me Jotzi, and I'm gonna give you $100 to go spend. Second set, I'm gonna buy the book. So the first 20 people that message me Super Italian, I'm gonna get you that cookbook. Wow.

My goodness. You are very generous. That is—

you've changed my life and perspective. On food so much that it's honestly the least that I can do. And I freaking love the product. So like, this is my way of saying, "Jada, I support you and I stand beside you." So it's the least I could do. Thank you.

And thank you for inviting me. This is really fun. It was a really great chat.

No, this has been awesome. You have been awesome. And for all the viewers and listeners, remember, Remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.