It made sense for Giada De Laurentiis to speak to a room full of librarians. Her new series of children’s books, Giada De Laurentiis’s Recipe for Adventure, will be published starting in September. For her, the books were a “passion project,” rooted in her experience as a child. As an immigrant, De Laurentiis had trouble assimilating but she found that books allowed her to “travel in my mind and make friends.” She wanted to use cooking to replicate that experience for readers. Other than the fact that the books feature a brother and a sister, I know nothing else about them. That’s because she spoke for only 10 minutes about the books, before engaging in an hour-long lively, lighthearted, and honest question-and-answer session with the audience.
When Steve (last name not given) began asking his question, he mentioned that he was filming it so his friends would believe it actually happened. De Laurentiis quickly called him up to the stage and asked if a picture would help. Once that was taken care of, he asked his question: “What is your favorite spice to cook with?” While De Laurentiis’s was answering, one of the photographers went over to Steve to get his information. Noticing this, De Laurentiis playfully called Steve out for not even listening to the answer to his own question, which it turned out, was cinnamon and red pepper flakes (De Laurentiis later agreed with a tweeted joke speculating that Steve was a plant because the exchange was so funny).
When asked what she wanted her last meal to be, De Laurentiis said “A seven-layer chocolate cake. All of it. I’d eat the frosting off the top, then each layer, and leave the cake for last.”
A few other questions focused on cooking with family, as De Laurentiis often cooks alongside her daughter Jade or Aunt Raffy on her television shows. If there’s stuff to be plopped, or dumped, always let the young ones do it.
Then the library-related questions starting coming.
“What three cookbooks would you recommend for a public library?” “I have seven, do you have those?” she joked, before suggesting books by Ida Gardner, Martha Stewart, and Julia Child.
“What is your favorite book?” “The Outsiders.” She recalled reading it when she was teenager—a single, lonely teenager. “I imagined all those boys were my boyfriends.”
If only Ponyboy had been so lucky.
T.J. SZAFRANSKI (right, with Giada!) is virtual services reference librarian at Lake Villa (Ill.) District Library.
