These Are Giada De Laurentiis' Favorite Italian Restaurants In The U.S. - Exclusive
America makes no secret of its deep love affair with Italian food. You can find restaurants in virtually every city in the country slinging red sauce and serving up any and all iterations of Italy's vast regional cuisines. Of course, this is largely attributed to Italian influences who have showcased and popularized the country's rich culinary traditions. One of the more prominent figures is chef and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis. The Rome-raised chef continues to lean into her roots, celebrating all things Italian in all aspects of her career.
De Laurentiis frequently travels back and forth from Italy, whether she's visiting family, seeking some culinary inspiration, or testing products for her provisions shop, Giadzy. So it's safe to say the chef can get her comfort food fix right from the source quite often. When she is here in the States, one can only imagine how outstanding a restaurant has to be to get a stamp of approval from De Laurentiis.
Speaking exclusively with Tasting Table, Giada De Laurentiis said her restaurant Giada at The Cromwell in Las Vegas is undoubtedly one of her favorite spots for authentic Italian food. And we can attest to just how good De Laurentiis' namesake restaurant is, serving up heaping bowls of famous lemon spaghetti, Tuscan favorites like veal chop saltimbocca, and a crowd-pleasing brunch menu. Of course, this isn't De Laurentiis' only Italian favorite in the U.S. When she's totally off the clock and dining out in her own neighborhood, there's one particular taste of home De Laurentiis keeps coming back to.
Giada De Laurentiis gets her Italian food fix in Los Angeles
Even chefs need a night off from cooking sometimes, and when that's the case for Giada De Laurentiis, she can head to one of her favorite restaurants, which happens to be nearby. "I also love e. baldi in Beverly Hills," De Laurentiis told Tasting Table.
The restaurant, run by chef Edoardo Baldi, who grew up in the Italian countryside, calls itself "a little taste of Tuscany in your backyard." It features a simple, seasonal, ingredient-forward approach, with recipes that are directly inspired by the time Baldi spent cooking with his mother and grandmothers. The menu highlights a range of Italian flavors and techniques that have drawn an ever-growing crowd since e. baldi opened its doors in 2006 — including his family's meatballs in fresh tomato sauce, tartufo-and-truffle pizza, several fresh lobster dishes, and a long list of tempting pastas, including the sweet corn agnolotti made famous by Baldi's father, Chef Giorgio Baldi.
With its longstanding legacy and rustic-meets-modern culinary style, the restaurant is known for being a tough table to snag at lunch hour and a local favorite among Hollywood's elite. De Laurentiis is among a number of famous actors, TV personalities, models, and producers who have been spotted here getting their Italian food fix for more than a decade. And if it's got this kind of approval from De Laurentiis, there's no doubt that a meal at e. baldi will transport you to the Mediterranean with every bite.
See the latest from Giada De Laurentiis by following her on Instagram.