Giada Pasta Chain Restaurant
You can grab a sneak peek at her NYC pop-up
She may not be able to craft focaccia worthy of Nicole Kidman's standards, but if there's one thing we can trust Giada De Laurentiis with making, it's an expertly prepared (and authentically pronounced) bowl of pasta. But even if you don't own a single one of her cookbooks, you can still sample the Italian chef's food: through her latest project, a fast-casual pasta chain.
"I've been wanting to do a fast-casual for forever," De Laurentiis tells PopSugar. "I've learned from having a restaurant in Vegas that people love pasta and they love pasta at all different price points."
The Food Network star is testing the waters first at a pop-up dinner at Chefs Club Counter in NYC this weekend, where ticket holders can get a sneak peak into potential menu items for the chain, including rigatoni tossed with pork ragù and fusilli with lemon and pea Alfredo. If all goes well, the chef would most likely start her chain with locations in the Midwest, PopSugar reports.
It's just one of the many projects De Laurentiis is juggling: Aside from her current Las Vegas restaurant, she plans to open another Vegas restaurant, in addition to one in Baltimore.