Giada De Laurentiis Admits She Was ‘Very Fearful’ to Leave Food Network

Despite being fearful of saying farewell to Food Network after 21 years, Giada De Laurentiis‘s departure has brought her happiness and a feeling of fulfillment.

The television host and chef personality cut ties with the network in February 2023 and signed a multi-year deal for unscripted series production with Amazon Studios. She has also been exploring entrepreneurial endeavors with her own lifestyle brand, Giadzy.

Earlier this week, De Laurentiis sat down with Rebecca Minkoff on her podcast, Superwoman, to discuss why she ultimately decided to leave Food Network and how she has been changing things up since then.

“I would switch gears without knowing it every seven years,” said De Laurentiis. “So I did Everyday Italian for seven years. Then I got pregnant, and I was like ‘Okay I can’t do that show anymore. I got to do a reincarnation of the show because I’m now pregnant. I’m a different person.'”

She added, “I was lucky enough to be at a period of time at Food Network where that was okay and they were open to those kinds of suggestions because the landscape hadn’t really been fully discovered yet, and so I think they were just more open to the talent.”

Related

Play the TV Food Shows Crossword

The 53-year-old Italian American chef shared with Minkoff a few of the many milestones she had hit in her career while working at Food Network, including on the show Giada at Home, which ran for nine seasons. But after trying primetime, night-time and various themed shows, De Laurentiis explained that she knew it was time for her to try something completely new.

“I just decided that at a certain point, and it took a while for me to make this decision because I was very fearful of leaving Food Network,” she shared. “Because when you’re a big fish in that pond and then you get out, who knows what’s going to happen next. But I really started to become interested in the entrepreneurial journey and I realized I couldn’t do both.”

De Laurentiis then shared with Minkoff that raising a child, going through a divorce, and working full-time at Food Network, all while exploring her own business ventures felt like “the world was crumbling around me.”

“So about two and a half years ago, I was like ‘I’m going to make the jump, and I’m going to put my energy into doing Giadzy,'” she said. “I’ll still do TV. I have a deal with Amazon, so I still do a little bit of that, but it’s definitely not the schedule I used to keep.”

When Minkoff asked her if she misses her career at Food Network, De Laurentiis responded, “No,” but then followed her answer by saying, “I should say yes, but it’s not. I think it’s because I got burnt out. I really worked so hard for so long, I got burnt out. I need excitement. I get bored, and if I’m getting bored, my viewers are getting bored.”

De Laurentiis’s company Giadzy sells hand-picked Italian products sourced from small family purveyors across the country.