Food Network star and celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis recently sat down for an interview with recipe developer Samah Dada, in which she reflected on an uncomfortable moment involving a cookbook foreword written by a fellow chef.
In the interview, De Laurentiis, 54, said when she wrote her first cookbook Everyday Italian back in 2005, famed chef and restaurateur Mario Batali was asked to write the foreword, being that he was a "legend in the Italian space."
De Laurentiis had expected something warm and supportive from her colleague. But when she read what he submitted, she was moved to tears by what she felt was a deeply inappropriate comment.
"He's basically saying that I've gotten to where I've gotten, and had this little but of success that I'd had, because I have big boobs," the Emmy-Award-winning chef revealed, adding, "And that if he had the boobs, he would even be much further."
"He said that in the foreword?" Interviewer Dada asked. "He did," De Laurentiis confirmed, “Because I'm, like, a joke, right? To him, it was like a little bit of a joke.”
She then said, "So I called my editor, and I was in tears. I'm like, clearly I can't use this. So now what do I do?"
De Laurentiis's editor suggested that they rewrite the foreword before the cookbook would be published. "So we rewrote it, but I will never forget that," the former Giada At Home host said. "That's basically what a lot of people figured: cute girl with big boobs, and so that's why they're watching her."
The internet seemed just as upset about Batali's comments as De Laurentiis was. In the comments section of the TikTok snippet, someone said, "The hurt in her voice is still so raw." Another person said, "The gag is, he’s not even relevant anymore!" A third person added, "The culinary world is brutal for women period. They work faster, harder and longer to attain any kind of leadership unless they start their own business. You don't have to like her but mad respect for her hard work and tenacity."
On Reddit, fans shared the same sentiment. "They should try inventing a man that’s not terrible," said one person. A second commenter replied, "You can tell she was holding back tears telling that story!"
Since the incident, De Laurentiis has gone on to publish 10 more cookbooks, while Batali has largely retreated from the public eye following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
