Giada De Laurentiis' Least Favorite Vegetable Is An Unexpected Culinary Staple

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Believe it or not, even professional chefs are allowed to have their own preferences and tastes. There's a whole list of seven foods Guy Fieri doesn't touch. However, you don't often expect famous food personalities to despise a food so central to the type of cuisine they're known for cooking. But such is the case with Giada De Laurentiis, who avoids peppers — yes, all kinds of them — as much as she can.

De Laurentiis was born in Rome and grew up in a huge Italian family, and peppers are often incorporated into dishes from the country. Calabrian chiles get their heat thanks to the specific climate of the Southern Italian province from which they get their name. And those pepperoncini peppers on your sub sandwich are likely Italian in origin. But despite their popularity in the cuisine of her heritage, De Laurentiis doesn't eat peppers if she can help it.

"I am not a lover of peppers," she told EatingWell in early 2025. "Any kind of pepper, whether it's red, yellow, green. I stay away from peppers partly because they don't like me." Although De Laurentiis didn't elaborate further, peppers are nightshades and can cause intestinal discomfort or increase inflammation for some people. But just because she doesn't eat them doesn't mean she doesn't know how to prepare them. She is a professional, after all.

De Laurentiis said that even though she prefers not to eat them, her family is the opposite, so she ends up cooking them often. "My family eats a lot of peppers," she told EatingWell. "We grill them, we make them as a relish, and I actually have pepper recipes in my book ["Super Italian"], but I personally stay away from them."

One of the marks of a good chef has to be the ability to prepare foods that you personally don't enjoy but that are popular and versatile, especially in the cuisine in which you specialize. De Laurentiis has published recipes for peperonata, a dish of stewed peppers and onions, Calabrian chile crisp, stuffed peppers, sausage and peppers, and more.

And even if she doesn't partake herself, Giada De Laurentiis knows exactly which spicy condiment you should add to everything. She shared her appreciation for Tutto Calabria's crushed Calabrian chili paste in a video on Instagram. She calls the paste "the star of Italian cooking that makes everything spicy but absolutely delicious." She continues, "It's kind of like using Tabasco or any other spicy sort of chili pepper sauce," and goes on to say she uses it on pasta, chicken, and really "just about everything."