I think her appeal is that she cooks real good

OK, I haven't actually seen Giada but surely she can't be as luscious as Nigella Lawson?

Abundanza!

She isn't shy about displaying her considerable assets while cooking (I've never seen her in anything but a V-neck, wrap or plunging top) and her producers always shoot her from above -- no dummies they (cleavage with a cleaver brings in those ad dollars!).

I have to agree with the poster above....
Giada always works a set of with "plum tomatoes".

Her gargantuan head and always present, big teeth scare me. It makes me think she's going to jump out of the TV at me and bite! She almost looks like a bobble head version of the real Giada.

1) Whoever went wrong with Italian? Especially Italian that has at least a little street cred.

2) Even with classic flavors, she occasionally injects some modern and fusion stuff in, to keep it interesting, fresh and dynamic. If any fans of Clone High are around, it's not like dining at the Olive Garden (in the words of Principal Scudworth, "like dining in the kitchen of a delightful Italian stereotype").

3) She has just the right amount of enthusiasm for her food for my taste -- more than the average Iron Chef; less than the spastic apoplexy of one Miss Rachel Ray

4) Her cooking generally doesn't rely too much on regional ingredients that are simply hell-to-find, or cost-an-arm-and-a-leg for the average suburban American. With Wegmans and Whole Foods, and even plain old supermarkets having gone upmarket these last few years, it's not as hard to find a passable knockoff of sopressata or pancetta or what have you.

Okay, you can close the post now. You have all the PG-13 answers you need. More would just overflow the container.

(Ms Lawson has similar appeal, and from another comment, 'has back' if I am understanding the vernacular correctly.)

I don't have cable but that woman and her teeth are scaring the bejeezus out of me.

1. Sara Moulton said the demographic at the Food Network are males between 17 & 35..hence the many V Neck tops on the female talent
2. Yes, I'll be snarky, she has a lollipop head ..it is too big for her body
3. She is rumored to be a real Diva-I'm being snarky twice in one post.

Bring back Sara Moulton Cooking Live!

The picture is scary – it looks like her teeth are about to come out of her head like the monster in Alien(s).

I don't have cable, but I think I finally understand why none of the current crop of TV chefs appeal to me. They are sober, unlike Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet.

How can they cook?

Isn't Barilla the pasta that has a chef in Italy eyeing the hot tomato he knows in the dining room and lovingly picks the perfect box of dry pasta from ten indentical boxes?

I always thought Giada was a lightweight. Now that I know she has an Anthro-Soc degree, I have validation.

My ex always made some sort of proclamation about the size of her head when I had her on, but I'm surprised no one has aired my complaint. No real person has a strong “accent” on 15 words in their vocabulary. She probably can cook pretty well, but plastic is unappealing in food and in person.

Moulton is on MPT

Still got it too

Dara - I don't think you are being particuarly snarky, since my son and my partner's daughter call Giada a "bobble head doll".

I think, she's attractive enough in a young smiley lots of cleavage kind of way. I even think she's a pretty good cook from time to time but she's no Julia Child, Nigella Lawson, or Sarah Moulton. I've found the best tv chefs are now on PBS. I rarely bother with FN anymore. Especially with all of the competitions - snore! Boring!

I find Giada to be absolutely beautiful, and watch all of her shows (and would watch even if the show was called Giada reads The Bridges of Madison County). However, I do think there is substance to go along with the style. I have used several of her recipes over the years, and they are usually a hit. I've also found that her travel show (Giada's weekend getaways) provides some excellent ideas for places that I normally wouldn' t consider going.

I read somewhere that she went to school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked at Spago for a time, so she isn't some vapid model that was picked off the street.

Thanks for a little more detailed explanation of her appeal. :-) EL

Nigella Lawson can lay down her apron! The last show I caught of her's was awful! She was showing how to make crispy calamari. If I ever did what she did... which was to dump the squid as a huge lump into a bag of crumb mix and barely toss it around I'd end up with crap.

If you're going to do food porn, then do it right... put Anthony Bourdain in tight jeans and no shirt stirring a vat of whatever.

As for Giada, I think she's great. Yes, she's gorgeous. But the recipes she presents make sense. None of this lumps of squid in a ziploc bag.

I don't care what Giada cooks, as long as she stirs something and says "crust".

I have never seen her before. I don't watch the Food Network that much, every time I turn it on, that competition called "Chopped" is on.

cracks me when she said on one shows about eating the berries or grapes or something to "let them explode all over the inside of your mouth."....I swear I'm not making that up

I always thought that Giada was sitting around one day and said "Hey grandpa get me a show on the food network." However, it turns out she did go to Le Cordon Bleu and had a catering business in LA before the Food Network approached her. I enjoy her shows and have prepared many of her recipes and have found them to be easy and good. If you are looking for ideas for who to discuss next I suggest David Rosengarten.

I saw Giada at a food show last winter, and although I expected her to be a diva, she was totally down to earth, unself-conscious and wonderful with the kids in the audience who came on stage to cook with her.

True, she does flaunt her assets -- she told an interviewer her mother encouraged her to "enjoy what you have while you have it" -- but I gained a new appreciation of her after seeing her at that show. And she really can cook.

Mascarpone!

I do like the things she makes, and she is certainly easy on the eyes. BUT her voice is like nails on a chalkboard for me, and she talks with her mouth full. They need to send all the Food Network stars over to Miss Manners for a refresher on table manners.

I've tried three of Giada's pasta recipes, most recently the one with sausage and peas, and they haven't turned out to look like what she has produced. I end up feeling like I did something wrong, even though I've actually printed and followed the recipe.

The antithesis of TWO FAT LADIES...
which I enjoyed....and miss

Vive le difference! I love how one post generates pros and cons with as much exuberance as this one has. My SO (for lack of a better term) and I started watching Giada from the outset. I was turned off by her big head and big teeth, and pronouncing Italian words correctly (I know that's wrong to admit) so I asked my SO "what do you think?" He said "she's kind of creepy". Lest you think he was responding to what he thought I wanted to hear, the next several times the Giada show came on, he was the first to say "I don't want to watch it".

So, there are Giada lovers and haters (or, rather people who prefer to not watch her show). I'm glad I live in a democratic society.

MD, when I cook a recipe directly from the written word and it is not like the dish we have eaten at the restaurant where the dish originated my daughter always states the obvious, "Dad it's that talent thing."

Dara, Sara Moulton is on PBS (Sara's Weeknight Meals?) on weekends. I always enjoyed watching her, but just recently realized that she talks CONstantly. Sometimes it's a bit distracting.

My absolute favorite TV chef has always been Jacques Pepin. I'd watch him just make oatmeal--he's that charming.

De Laurentiis was born Giada Pamela De Laurentiis in Rome, Italy,

The double "i" in the middle of a word. Holy shiitake Batman.

She pronounces Italian words correctly. What else is she supposed to do.

That being said it is annoying when people revert to super-Italian locution or worse, paisan' Sopranos Italian, for single words or phrases. Yeah uh I'll have duh fresh MOOTZ-a-RELLLLLL,

That being said it is annoying when people revert to super-Italian locution or worse, paisan' Sopranos Italian, for single words or phrases. Yeah uh I'll have duh fresh MOOTZ-a-RELLLLLL,

Kinda like Guy Fieri's new pronunciation of his name?

That being said it is annoying when people revert to super-Italian locution or worse, paisan' Sopranos Italian, for single words or phrases. Yeah uh I'll have duh fresh MOOTZ-a-RELLLLLL,

Kinda like Guy Fieri's new pronunciation of his name?

If this is a second post, please accept my apologies. The blog is acting a little odd. At least it is on my end.

I dont understand how her friends can keep serious faces when she talks about something exploding in her mouth. I was just watching "weekend getaways" or somthing like that and she was sitting in between all her friends and she was like "i just bit into a peppercorn and i felt it explode in my mouth" o_0 .....Really? And her friends didn't give one weird look? That was so weird look worthy....Sometimes i cant stand food network