Giada De Laurentiis was born in Italy and was bullied after moving to the United States at 7 years old.
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When Giada De Laurentiis’ family settled in Los Angeles, she “didn’t speak a word of English” and was bullied at school as a result, she later recalled to Redbook.
Speaking to Insider in 2019, she added: “My family takes their culture very seriously, so even when we moved to the US, we still lived very Italian lives. We spoke Italian at home, we only ate Italian food — and let me tell you, back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, people were not as proud of their unique heritage as they are now.”
However, she found solace in spending time with her family. Every Sunday, the De Laurentiis family would gather for a traditional Italian meal at her grandfather’s home, and she would usually help with the cooking.
“The way that I learned to connect with my grandfather was on a food level,” she told First We Feast in 2016. “I couldn’t get enough — of food, of the smells, of hanging out in the kitchen and asking questions. Sundays my grandfather would have the whole family over and we would have a big spread. And when I say a big spread, I mean it took hours to eat lunch. A lot of us kids would fall asleep at the table, it was so friggin’ long.”