CAESAR'S PASTA SALAD WITH GIADA DE LAURENTIIS

Hey everybody, Rachael Ray here. In every class for our very first cooking camp together, we're gonna cook together. Not just us, but a lot of my friends. You guys are gonna learn so many great techniques. You're gonna have so much fun. And at the end, you get to eat and share with all the people you love. And you know what I love? Everything we're doing together is gonna benefit the Boys and Girls Club of America and a brand new scholarship project. So we're doing well for others while we're making great food and doing well for ourselves and the people that we love. Thank you to all of our sponsors for making this possible. Game on, let's turn up the heat. Welcome to Rachael Ray's Yummo Cooking Camp. My name is Randy. And now I wanna welcome our camp director who'd like to say a quick hello. Campers, how about a big round of clapping spatulas for camp director, Rachael Ray. So I texted, I thumb typed a couple of people asking them if they could make time to be counselors for all of you guys. I was so excited when Jenna said yes. Man, she's a great mom. She is an amazing chef. She is gonna show you guys something so delicious today and so easy that every family can do. And I know you're all excited. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, Jeet, for doing this for us. Here is your camp counselor of the day. Time to introduce our guest camp counselor. I'm really looking forward to this one. Everybody, please welcome Giada De Laurentiis. Giada, welcome to Cooking Camp. Hi, guys. All right. Hi, guys. This is so fun. Really looking forward to today's cook-along. And we know there's a lot of steps, a lot of stuff going on. So why don't you tell us what we're gonna be doing today? Well, it's pretty easy, but it's a Caesar pasta salad. And I was hoping that Jade would be here to help me because it's one of her favorites in the summer. But unfortunately, she's out and about. So we're gonna do it just us. And I think for me, this is a really easy and fast dish to make. And what I love about it is that a lot of the stuff can be prepped in advance and you just dress it right when you wanna eat it. And it makes a great picnic idea. You can eat it at the beach or at the park or whatever. It transports really easily. And I love it for lunch or even a light dinner when it's super hot outside. So we can get started if everybody's ready. Are we ready? Yeah, tell us what ingredients we should have in front of us, Giada. Okay, so what I've got in front of me is I've got some stale bread. And it's pretty stale. I was picking out a couple of what's growing on it. So this is easy enough. You could use whatever bread you want, whether it's gluten-free bread or it could be a ciabatta or it could be a baguette, anything you want that's been sitting. So it's kind of dry. And I've got some garlic. I've also, I've just pretty much got all my ingredients. My romaine, actually, believe it or not, you guys, I only was able to find one head of romaine yesterday. So I am substituting the other head of romaine with a little arugula, which is also fun. You could do whatever lettuce you like. Some corn and a block of Parmesan cheese. And I've got my pasta water boiling. And I suggest that if you haven't done it already, you should get your pasta water boiling. But some of you may have already cooked your pasta because in the recipe it says to have cooked and cooled pasta. But I was gonna show you every step of the way. So I did not cook my pasta yet. Shall we get started with the croutons first? Let's do it. All right, so I've already, I already did some of my croutons in advance, but I'm taking my bread and I'm just, it kind of depends on how you like your croutons. Do you like big croutons or little croutons? I gotta say, I like big croutons. So I like to make them kind of big. You could also rip your bread if you want to. It really doesn't matter. I think that's what makes this recipe so much fun is you can kind of do whatever you want. So you can be creative or as creative as you want. So I have a little sheet pan here and I've already heated my oven. So if you haven't started heating your oven, you should turn your oven on 400 degrees. It's gonna take a few minutes to get these little guys nice and crispy. And I love making my own croutons. It's super easy and it's a great way to use leftover bread. So you just do this. And if you don't want to eat the bread at all, you could also substitute with nuts. So you could use walnuts or almonds or pine nuts or any kind of nut, something for crunch. I think that's the fun part about all this. I just happen to be an addict when it comes to homemade croutons. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna add olive oil just all over them, just to give them a golden tan. So think about this like going to the beach. You put a little bit of suntan lotion and or you can put sunscreen. Well, this is kind of the same thing. This is gonna make them nice and golden brown. Then we put about a cup or so, really as much cheese as you want. It depends on if you like your breadcrumbs cheesy or not cheesy. So again, another sort of step that you can do on your own. And I really like to grate my own cheese, guys. It's a rare occasion that I buy pre-grated cheese. I really like to buy my own cheese and grate it. It just kind of, it's just, it gives it more flavor if you do it a la minute. And plus I love the rind because I save them for all sorts of things, soups, stews, just to add flavor. So I put them in the freezer to do that. Then a little bit of salt and we just kind of toss it all together. There we go. Toss all the bread. So it's all coated with a little Parmesan cheese and a little bit of olive oil. And then spread it out so that- Can you use other types of cheese other than Parmesan? Yeah, you can use pecorino. You want a dry cheese if nothing else because the wet cheeses like mozzarella, those, they'll get really clumpy. I mean, they'll be good, but they'll be kind of clumpy. So any dry cheese, like a parmigiano, pecorino, anything like that will work really well. Even a hard cheddar will work really well. All right, let's put them in the oven. 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or so, just until they're golden brown. So while those bake, should we do the pasta next? Because really the pasta should have already been done, but I thought it'd be fun to show you these fun little shapes. And funny enough, now my pasta's not boiling. Well, it's starting to. It was boiling and boiling and boiling. And then I decided to add some more water because I was afraid it would be enough water because pasta needs a lot of water to swim in. And now, of course, that we're ready to go. It's not boiling. I'll tell you what. By the way, Randy, happens to me all the time when I'm doing demos. Hey, you know what, this is perfect timing because I know there's somebody who would like to pop in and say a quick message with everybody. So we have a special guest that wants to just say a quick hello. So why don't we say hello everybody to Delicious Miss Brown from Food Network, Kardia Brown. And she will give us a quick message while you're boiling that water. Hey guys, it's Kardia Brown from Food Network's Delicious Miss Brown. And I hear you guys are in summer camp right now. So I wanted to give you some tips that I found useful in the kitchen when I was your age. So you know what? The best thing I can tell you is to practice. Practice your craft, hone in on your craft. There are gonna be times where you're gonna mess up in the kitchen. You're gonna mess up a recipe. You may burn something. Trust me, at my age, I am still burning and destroying things. And that's okay. That's the art of cooking. You're gonna mess up. But the great thing about it is that you can try again and keep trying until you perfect it. And even when you perfect it, keep doing it. That's the great thing about cooking is it's doing what you love and finding the happiness and the joy in creating. That's what being creative is all about. So I encourage you just to keep doing what you're doing, do what you love, and keep practicing. And don't get discouraged because you know what? It happens. You're gonna keep messing up things until the end of time. But it's okay. Keep at it. And I love you guys. Have fun in summer camp. And remember to watch Delicious Miss Brown on Sundays. All righty. Thank you. So cute. She's 100% right. The more you practice, the better you get at it. It's like anything in life, right, Giada? That's right. How's your water looking? It's going. Oh, great. Perfect timing. There you go. So now we're gonna dump a bunch of salt in it. And I mean a bunch. See? What type of salt? Oh, I'm doing coarse kosher salt. So that way it melts really nicely. I use mostly just kosher salt and sometimes sea salt. But I like the texture of the coarse kosher salt. I'm now, you know. Anyway, this is the pasta. So what I think is really cute is that it's got lots of colors in it. See? So it makes this pasta salad really fun. I think for a long time, people thought of pasta salad as an afterthought. But I think it's something that is really great and easy to make. And I think for kids especially, really fun. So we can cook whatever pasta you want. But I like these little tricolored fusilli. But you could use any shape. What are the names of a couple of other pastas that might be good for this recipe? You could use penne. You could use regular fusilli. You could use, oh, you could even do, which is fun for kids. I used to do this when I was a kid. You can take a spaghetti or a bucatini and cut them up and dump them in there and just make a short little pasta. You could use migatoni, medievigatoni, or even easier, because migatoni tend to be so big. Do you want more? Oricchiette works. Should I continue? Wagon wheels works, rotini. Anything else? That was an encyclopedic study of the shapes of pasta of the world. Thank you for that. All right. So now we're going to let that baby cook. And while the pasta's cooking, we're going back to the stove. I mean, we're going back to the counter. And I think we should make the dressing. You guys want to do the dressing? Does that work? Let's do the dressing, yeah. Perfect. Okay, so I like to make the dressing in the same bowl that I'm going to serve it in. Again, one less thing I have to clean. So you just make the dressing in the same bowl, decide what bowl, and start there. We're doing a quarter cup of Greek yogurt and half a cup of buttermilk. So the combo of the Greek yogurt and the buttermilk, the buttermilk is more, it's more liquidy, right? And the yogurt is more dense. So together they create this sort of tangy, thick dressing. Usually I don't add that much garlic, but for this one I'm going to because we didn't add the, there we go. You want to smash and peel your garlic or you could just peel it with your fingers. And I like garlic in my Caesar dressing. So it depends kind of if you like it or you don't. If you don't like garlic very much, then just put a little bit or leave it whole. So we're just going to mix that up. And we're also going to add about a quarter cup of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil to this. And you just kind of whisk it together. If you don't have a whisk, you could use a fork. It's basically just to mix it all together. There we go. Extra virgin olive oil right in there. And you can start to see the dressing comes together. And I don't know about you guys, but Jade loves herself a creamy dressing. Just loves it. So just kind of mix that around and we're going to, there we go. Coming together. You can see it coming together. Giada, we got a lot of questions that came in about trying to make this recipe dairy free. Is that something that's possible or should we skip to another recipe? No, I think that if you want to do something dairy free, you can. I would do maybe, you know, there's a lot of dairy free yogurts out there. The buttermilk is going to be a little tougher, but you could just do the olive oil with a little Greek yogurt, some lemon juice and always add mustard for a little more of a bite. So that always works and just leave out the buttermilk. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but there's like all sorts of dairy free yogurts these days that I think people are okay with. When it comes to Parmesan cheese, that's a little tougher, but I know that vegans, there's certain vegan Parmesan cheeses that people like, but you don't need to use the cheese if you don't want to use the cheese. You know, you could just leave it out, add some mustard, add some mustard and some lemon juice. That adds a lot of flavor and changes it a little bit. And the dairy free yogurt could still make it creamy. You still get that creaminess. Love that. There you go. That's how you do it campers. But for me, I like my cheese. And so I'm just grating a bunch of Parmesan cheese now into the dressing. What's that? Sophia asked if you wanted to add a little spice to the salad dressing, what would you add in? What would you toss in there? I would personally add some Calabrian chili paste. Just a little bit of that oil that it's in. You know what I mean? But remember, it's super spicy. So you just gotta go a little bit. That would be my favorite thing to add. Red pepper flakes won't give it a lot of bite unless you actually eat the red pepper flakes. But you know what you could do? You could do, like I have here, olive oil with some red pepper flakes, put it in a bottle and let it sit for like a day or two and it creates a spicy olive oil for you. Then you can make homemade. And then you can use this to make your dressing. Great, wow. What do they call it? When Italians make something spicy, what do they call that? Arrabbiata. Angry. Super angry. Like that. Love that passion. Well, we're very passionate people, as you know, Randy. All right, guys, are we ready for some corn? Summertime is all about fresh corn. And when you get fresh corn, a lot of people don't know that you can eat it raw. But you can. When it's super sweet, it gives you that nice, sweet crunch. And I love it. In fact, I think when you, if you are able to see the actual corn underneath all the husk, if you were to take your finger with your nail and just kind of pop it, you can see water spurting out, which is the juiciness, like that creamy silkiness inside the corn. And that's what you want. You want them to pop with lots of liquid, basically. And that is sort of, tells you that the corn is fresh. But what you want to do is cut the ends off if you can. Stand it up so you get sort of a solid, there we go, like that. So you can kind of stand it up like that. And then run your knife all the way down against the center of the core and have all the kernels come off. There we go. Just like that. And that's how you get it in the corn. Hey, campers, this is the time that if you're not comfortable using the knife like this, ask an adult or somebody next to you to get a hand and wash their technique to practice sometime later. And then we just take the corn and we put it directly into the dressing. And I like my corn raw, just like this, especially in the summertime when it's fresh and sweet. But if you didn't and you wanted to cook it, you could. A little bit of butter, a little bit of salt, and a little, like a tablespoon of water, and you could just saute it. You could even add a little sugar if you really want to make it super sweet. Or you could use frozen corn, but just make sure if you use frozen corn, you give it a second, like dump it into the pasta water to reheat it. Or again, saute it with a little bit of butter, just to give it a little more oomph. But all of those are obviously things you could do. And I did a little more corn here. I like my corn, a little more corn, like that, there we go. And when I did this, when I do recipes like this, you know, you can add lids. You could always add grilled fruit in there if you wanted to. You could add cherries. You could take whatever's in season and dump it into this particular recipe. And you know, you can kind of make it your own. And I think that's what makes cooking so much fun, when you can kind of put your own creativity into the dish. So once you've perfected it, then you go ahead and add whatever you want to it. I'm checking on our pasta campers. How's your pasta? Ooh, our pasta's ready. Oh, it's fast. And I'm checking on our, check on your croutons. Make sure they don't burn. Oh, you got a lot going on, campers. This is a time to move around from space to space in your kitchen. What I do is I like to take a spider, some kind of spider like this. You could do it with a spoon that has holes. But what I don't do is I'm not gonna go and drain this in a colander. I'm actually gonna do it this way. I find that it's a lot safer, quite frankly. When I was a kid, I remember my mom was pregnant from my youngest brother, and she went to dump a big pot of water for pasta into the sink. And unfortunately, she missed the sink and it just burned her arm. So I'm always like, I always think twice before I go do this, make sure my path is clear. But when you're doing, you know, for Jade, I always say to her, don't do that. Just kind of take a spoon with holes in it, anything like this, and just put it either in a bowl or in a pan or on a sheet pan. And don't move the water until it's cooled. And that way, also, if you need it for your pasta dish, you've got it right there. You can dump it down the sink. What texture should that pasta be cooked to? Well, I like al dente. But actually, for pasta salad, you're getting me good, Randy. You're not even trying. For a pasta salad, I sometimes go a hair underneath al dente only because as it cools, it continues to cook, right? And so sometimes if you overcook it in there in the pasta water, it'll be really mushy in here. And you don't want the pasta to fall apart when you make your salad, because most of the pasta salads have some kind of acid as a dressing. Like we have buttermilk and yogurt. It's tart, so it'll start to kind of cook the pasta more. So you want to undercook it a little bit. And then you just let it spread out like this. And you want to cool it because if you put this hot pasta water into the, if you put this hot pasta into the dressing, it'll separate the buttermilk and the Greek yogurt. That's why you want to let it cool completely. So now it'll cool quickly because we put it on a sheet pan like this, so there's a lot of room for it to breathe. And see how pretty that is? Isn't that pretty, Randy, the colors? I think it's more fun for kids too. Should we get started on our lettuce? Let's see what you got going on with that lettuce there. All right, so I've got some romaine that I washed. And well, actually I was going to chop it, but actually I don't have to chop it. So we can just take it and you guys can just tear it. Tear it any size you want. It kind of depends. Some people like it a little smaller. So if you like it smaller, you can always use a knife and chop it up. I like texture in my salads. So we're just going to kind of break it. And like I said, I only found one head of romaine. I don't know. I don't know why that was, but I guess that's all they had yesterday. So I am subbing the other head of romaine with a little bit of arugula. And for me, arugula is my favorite lettuce anyways. So I'm going to add a little bit of that. So you guys can add whatever lettuce you like, but obviously traditionally in a Caesar salad, it's romaine because of that lovely crunch. There we go. Make sure you wash the romaine really well and dry it. The reason why there's no romaine in your area is because campers ran out yesterday to buy it all in anticipation of today's segment. You should not be surprised. Do we have anybody from LA? I didn't hear you call out LA. Yeah, we have a lot of LA out there. Yay, yay LA. Awesome, okay. Just rough. So those are what? Sizes are like just kind of rough, all different sizes, right? Basically? Yeah, because I'm tearing them. So if I was chopping them, they'd be a little different. I just, I think it's fun to play with your food a little bit here, and this is a nice way for the kids to sort of do something with their hands rather than holding a knife the whole time. So it's really good to just tear it. Plus feeling the texture of things makes you learn about the freshness. So you can hear that. See that? Yeah. And you can learn a lot from just using your hands. It's a texture thing, you know? Beside just looking at it. We did a lot of water content in this romaine, so it's very fresh. Super crunchy. Probably why I couldn't find more than one head. It's all fresh and everybody bought it. There we go. Okay, so the romaine's all in there. I'm gonna put a little bit of arugula, but it doesn't look like I need a lot. There we go. So now, I'm gonna take these out. Do you want me to answer some questions, Randy, while we wait for our croutons? And the rolling of the pasta? Absolutely. And right before I do that, let me just say Kat, Layla, and Juan in Chicago, three sisters that have been cooking side by side. So happy to have you guys. And Eden, who's cooking with her aunt in Toronto. Thank you so much for joining us. So yeah, Giada, look, a lot of people are, a lot of questions about your travel, where you travel around the world. Here's a question for you. If you had to settle in any city in Italy, which one would you pick and why? That's a hard one, I know. I don't wanna put you on the spot, so. Well, let's see. I was born in Rome, and I have my mom in Rome. So I guess I would say Rome, if I had to settle there. But I will tell you that I've spent some time in Montalcino up north, and it is stunning in Tuscany. And I don't know, I think I'd have to split my time. And then of course, I need a little beach time in Capri. So I need to move around. And I'm just that kind of person that needs the energy of different places all the time. Like, I love the beach, I love the mountains. It's sort of, the landscape sort of energizes me. So I'd say probably Rome is home base, easy to get to, you know, all the places. And then a little of time in Tuscany for some great red wine, those vineyards, you know, you can't beat that view. And then a little bit of dipping my toes in the Mediterranean, that never hurts. Italy is a great country for that. So many places to go to. Lots of landscape. Yeah, a lot of different settings and easy to travel. So campers, if you get a chance, if you haven't been there yet, make sure you put that on your list of top destinations. Travel the entire- Well, you know, Randy, Rome is the number one destination in the world. Wow. Yeah. That's impressive. Now, I don't know if it's still gonna be like that when we're done with all of that going on. But pre that, for years and years, it was Rome is number one, Florence number two, and Paris number three. Wow, that's why I never could get a place on the Spanish steppes. You can now. Right, I could have it to myself. Yes, you could. Exactly, exactly. Camille wanted to know- I'm just tossing everything. Yeah, while you're tossing it, Camille asked what school you went to to study cooking and what sparked your curiosity about cooking in the first place? Wow, that's a long answer, but I'm gonna try to give you a short version of that answer. You know, my grandfather's family had a pasta factory in Naples before World War II. And he grew up selling his parents' pasta and sauces door to door. That was the job of all of the kids. There were 10 of them and they all did that. And so he was the one that sort of sparked, that's what we did on Sundays together. And I was really, I'm the eldest grandchild, but also I think I was the only one that was so overwhelmed by food in a sense of just pure passion. And he and I would do all sorts of things, from make pasta, I mean, from make pizza dough from scratch to just taking fresh ricotta and smearing it flat and adding sugar and cocoa powder. And that would be my snack. So there were so many elements of what we did together. And I think that's what really sparked it, plus the stories. To me, I think I am a storyteller, but I come from a storytelling family and I was consumed by the stories of food and the flavor and the aromas that I think it just took me over, basically. And then I went to school in Paris, believe it or not. I know that sounds a little odd, but for me, I grew up with Italian food. So I thought, why would I go to Italy instead of Italian food? For me, Italian food was like a hamburger is for a lot of people, you know, barbecuing a hamburger. So I wanted to be a pastry chef. I wanted to create beautiful sculptures out of sugar and ice. So I went to Paris and then I worked in French kitchens for a long time. And then I came back full circle to Italian food. Sometimes your destiny is your destiny, whether you try to run from it or not, I guess. I'm checking on the breadcrumbs, hang on. Okay, but you got to tell us, did you ever make, let's see, did you ever make any of those sculptures out of sugar and ice? I sure did, I sure did. Wow, maybe we'll see a cookbook in the future. I don't think anybody wants to do that, I really don't. Sugar work is, it burns your fingers pretty bad. You have to keep it real hot. For a long time, we used to use gloves, but yes. In fact, I should dig up some of those pictures because I think people would be pretty impressed. You know, in ice you have to use, I mean, a lot of gadgets, it's not for kids. So, but it was fascinating, the fact that you could create such beautiful things. But that's really what food is all about. So I guess that's the long answer, I guess, to the question. I think we're kind of ready for the pasta. What do you think? I think we are. It's cooled, so we can just take it and just dump it right on top, just like that. There we go. And like I said, most of the components to the salad can be done in advance. You can prep all your lettuce in advance, you can cook your pasta in advance, you can make your dressing in advance, and the crouton. So I feel like it's really great in that way. I think I'm just going to add that because my bowl's a little. Wow, that is beautiful. There you go, start tossing it all together. And see how fun this is? This is great for picnics. You want to bring this to somebody's house. I don't know, it's just, to me, this is a very versatile dish and it allows for a lot of creativity. And you can't go wrong, right? So you can kind of pick and choose all of the ingredients that you really want. You can change the dressing. So I think that's why I kind of, I picked this recipe. I thought it was something that kids could really have fun with. It looks like a recipe that's just about ready for a closeup or a cookbook. Well, I tried, you know, because they can't be here to taste it, Randy, I really want them to sort of get drawn in by the colors and the textures. They can't smell it. They can't taste it. So I got to work all the other angles, right? Yeah, you've done a great job. Listen, mentioning the fact earlier that that's one of Jade's favorite salads. There are a lot of questions that came in about what is your favorite thing to cook with Jade when she's around the house hanging out? Jade loves to bake because I think she likes to stick her finger in the batters, you know? So we do a lot of baking together. We made a peanut butter banana cake. For a friend of ours whose birthday it was and then dropped it off for them. So we've been baking a lot and a lot more cakes and things that we really weren't doing before. Before it was cookies and cupcakes, but now we've become, she's really gotten into making different frostings and layering cakes and all sorts of fun things. So that's one thing. And then I think pasta, she really likes to do her own pasta dishes. Sometimes it can get a little tricky because it's hot water and she gets a little nervous in a frying pan when the oil gets hot, she like starts to step away and starts saying, mom, mom, oil's going everywhere. So she gets a little scared. But I think through coaching, I really want her to sort of be able to be comfortable in the kitchen making certain dishes. I would say she's not as advanced as Ava Guarnaschelli, Alex's daughter, not that advanced, but she's getting there. Great. She used to be really into it. Then she stopped, now she's back in. So, yeah. Well, it's nice to have a living professor. So she knows where to find it. Listen, do you have any pets, Chiata? We had a question. Ooh, I do. From Fairfax, Virginia. Do you guys wanna meet, do you wanna meet some of my pets? I have a dog who's not here, but I have two cats that are very fun. Come, I'll show you. Oh, wow. Let's check it out. Luna? Oh, you knew exactly where to find her. Can you say hi? Oh my gosh, what a treat. She's a Bengal cat. Her name is Luna, and usually she is all over the food. But for some reason today, she's tired, I guess, and she's sleeping because it's overcast here in LA. So, I think she wants a nap. So that's Luna. And then we've got- Driving through beautiful coloring. Holy moly, wow. Yeah, she's stunning. And then here's Bella. Oh my gosh. Bella, can you say hi? Can you say hi, Bella? Oh, beautiful, beautiful creatures. Yeah, they're really good little girls. One of them has, I mean, the Bengal has a ton of energy. So, she likes to crawl. Do they get along well? Some days. Some days you guys get along, right? I think it's taken some time. Luna's the newest addition. It's been a year, so I think she's, you know. And then I have this cute little dog who, you know, he, sometimes he likes them and sometimes he doesn't. So, I have a whole family of animals, basically. Wow, that's very cool. Keeps you company. They're my children, as well as Jade. I love that. There we go. And then, so now what we do, guys, is we just top it with the croutons. And you see how they're crunchy and they sort of have these little crusts of Parmesan cheese. Wow. Nothing like it. So, I would just put them right on top. There we go. And that is my pasta ginger salad. Wow. Should we take a bite? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Let me ask you, somebody was asking if the croutons can be kept overnight out on the counter or do they have to be refrigerated? No, no, no. You don't have to refrigerate them. Overnight on the counter, you're good to go. Or you could also put them in an airtight container. That would keep them fresher longer. You know? And will they- But no fridge. A few days? Yeah, yeah. Will they last for a few days? Yeah? Sure. Put them in some kind of Tupperware container, glass or, I guess, plastic. And then, yeah, as long as they're airtight, they'll last for a long while. But don't put them in the fridge because the humidity from the fridge will destroy the crispiness. Right. You know? It'll make them kind of soggy. So, no fridge. Okay, well, we can hear through your mic that crunchiness. It would be a shame to destroy all that. No, right. Well, that's the whole point, right? Are we going to take a bite? Randy, I wish I could give you some. Oh, I wish I could have some. Unfortunately, I'm on the other coast, the other ocean side, Miami, Florida. Okay, here we go. It might be a little big. How'd you do? Ooh, I like it. Nailed it? I just got all of those flavors. The corn's really sweet. If you guys like corn, this is the time of year throughout the entire country. Go get some fresh corn. And raw, you can really taste that sweetness. And it's just, it's just got all sorts of like sweet stuff coming out of it. It's just, it's absolutely divine. I mean, I happen to love it. I would just add a little more salt. And sometimes you just don't know that until you've done it. Right. There we go. Any more questions? Yeah, Nikki in Nashville wants to know if you grow your own herbs, because I guess she sees some herbs there on your back counter. Or do you typically buy them in the store? Well, Nikki, I used to grow my own herbs. I'm sort of in transition between homes. So this is as far as I'm getting right here. But I like to do all sorts of different herbs and just grow them in pots until I move into my new house where then I'll have herb garden again. But otherwise, yes, I do like to grow a lot of herbs and strawberries and blueberries and lettuce, like arugula, romaine, chard. I like to grow a lot of my own stuff. But sometimes it becomes a little hard. So Stephen in Seattle said he saw recently you posting some things about working on a new cookbook. Yes. And he's curious as to what the subject matter would be on this book. Is this your 10th book coming out? Or? This is my 10th book. Yes, it comes out March, 2021. And actually, I just finished shooting it about a couple of weeks ago. So it's, you know, this cookbook's a little bit different. I'm trying to teach people how to take better care of themselves. So it's got a lot of stuff that I do, like acupuncture and yoga and recipe batch cooking. So cooking big batches of like lentils and greens and showing people how to put meals together so they don't have to cook every single night. And I talk a lot about like boosting immunity and what ingredients do that for you. It's not a diet book or a weight loss book, but it's really just a book about understanding what foods you're putting into your body and how to put them together into really great recipes. So there's a lot of stuff that everybody will be like, oh yeah, that's Jada. And then there's a few things that, you know, might be a little surprising. I have some desserts that don't use conventional regular processed sugar. So there's a lot of different things in there, but I think it'll be a fun journey. You know, it's my food journey from the age of 40 to 50, because I turned 50 in like three weeks, may I say. So it's a journey of that kind. Well, we definitely have to treat our bodies with respect. So it sounds like a book that's really going to help us fulfill that important lesson. Another question here that you have restaurants, TV, books, a mother, relationships, how do you balance it? And when you get into bed at the end of the day, are you just exhausted? I try to take it one day at a time. You know, I think all of us at this point are taking it one day at a time since we don't know what's around the corner anymore. And, you know, I ask for help. I'm not afraid to ask for help. I have a great, you know, group of people that work with me to help me get it all straight. And I take time out. Like I know when I get super tired, I used to get sick a lot, like just sinus infections from traveling and not taking care of myself. And I learned that over the last 10 years that when my body says I need a break, I better listen to it. Because if I don't, it will stop me in my tracks. So, you know, I think I take breaks when I need them. I don't feel bad if I say no to things, which I used to feel bad about. And I listen to myself. And I think that's the most important thing is just listening to yourself. So that's what I do. And, you know, we take it one day at a time. Great lesson. Well, we're not trying to bring your birthday on anytime sooner, but we are getting a lot of people now that you've mentioned it, wishing you an early happy birthday. Oh, yeah, thank you. So this might be a birthday month-long celebration or maybe even two months, who knows? Another question wants to know, a viewer wanted to know, do you listen to music while you cook? And what type of music do you typically like? It depends whether I'm by myself or if Jade is with me, because if Jade is with me, she likes pop artists, like lots of Taylor Swift, some Justin Bieber, not a ton. So she has me listen to a lot of that kind of music. If I'm on my own, I go for things like, this is gonna age me, but Fleetwood Mac, The Police. But I like, you know, I like contemporary music as well. My parents used to listen to a lot of Julio Iglesias and things like that. So every once in a while, I listen to Gypsy Kings or Julio Iglesias. Just kind of bring me back to when I was a kid, because that's a lot of what they listened to. Here's another question, interesting question. Wanted to know if you, when the weather's nice, do you prefer to eat inside or outdoors? I prefer to eat outdoors all the time. That is one of the beauties of living in California is that we can eat outdoors a big portion of the year. So I will always choose outdoors over indoors. I just, I don't know. There's something about eating in nature or outside that feeds me somehow, feeds my soul somehow. I really like to be outside whenever possible. Great, well, Jenny wants to know what your favorite food to make for breakfast would be. What's your breakfast look like, Giada? I make a lot of pancakes and waffles. That is Jade's favorite. Lots and lots and lots with all different things inside of it. Her favorite's chocolate or Nutella. So we do a lot of that. I think for me, my favorite is honestly a freshly baked piece of bread with some nice salted butter and some fresh jam. I've been making lots of jams while we've been in quarantine so I have a ton of jam. I like that and I like my chocolate croissant. I think those are my paraphrase. I just love a chocolate croissant or a chocolate cornichon. And a cornichon is an Italian version of a croissant. Do you actually make those from scratch yourself or is it too much? I have made them from scratch myself, yes. I mean, that's one of the reasons I went to culinary school in Paris so I could learn how to make really good pastry dough. Did I see that you made bagels the other day? Well, not the other day, but I did make bagels. I think it's now been six weeks since I made bagels. Well, you know, the other day when you're 50. Yeah, okay, yes, I did make bagels. It was the first time I'd ever made bagels with Starter and my own Starter and I was beyond thrilled. I've never made bagels from scratch and I know it's strange. I think people think that some of us make everything or we have at some point made everything but I had never done that before. So it was really fun and Jade, I love them which made me even happier and I made them, I didn't realize I was doing it but I was making them little ones and they just, they're so much fun. If you guys have never made bagels, buy some Starter at any bakery. A lot of them will sell you some Starter. Sometimes they give it to you for free and you can make your own bagels and it's really fun. You boil them first and you put them in the oven and they keep for days and they're a fun, fun breakfast. Yeah, that's something I've never tried before but it looked, I was inspired when I saw your pictures. They look pretty. Yeah, and you make a lot. I mean, it makes, recipes make a lot of them. So I was handing them off to my sister and to different friends and neighbors and just dropping bagels off. Otherwise, I just eat bagels all day. So it's really nice and people are always so surprised. So if you have time, get some Starter and make some bagels. That's great. Well, listen, here's the big general question and I think we'll let you go. You spent so much time and I'll say thank you to you right after you answer this but Jessica wants to know what advice you would give to aspiring chefs or anybody who's young and thinking about looking at food and beverage as part of their career path. I think that I would say the same thing that Ms. Brown said earlier, that just do it. Basically Nike says that too, just do it. Just, if it's cooking, then cook. If it's writing, then write about food. If it's photography, then photograph as much food as you can. If it's talking about it, talk about it. Do a little YouTube channel or some kind of little podcast. Even kids can do it and I think it's really fun. I think that you just have to, if you really wanna do something and master it, you just gotta do it. The more you do it, the more you practice it, the better you get at it. All of us, including us who have gone to school or people who haven't. We all get better by just practicing. I'd never made bagels before. The only way I was gonna learn is if I just did it. It didn't matter whether someone showed me how to do it. You have to get your hands dirty and do it yourself and I think that's the most impressive and even for someone like me, when I made the bagels, I don't know, I just was so proud of myself. I know it sounds ridiculous because I cook all the time, but I was really, I don't know, there's a sense of self that comes from accomplishing something that's really phenomenal. It really does do something for your mind, your body, your spirit, all of it and I think that's really important. So if you're interested in any part of the culinary world, I say just go for it. Don't let anybody stop you and do it. That's great and that's a great, great advice. Giada, I think you and I worked together for the first time in 2006 at Kids Kitchen. You are consistently one of the nicest people. 14 years. Yeah, one of the, well, I'm not gonna rush that 50 year birthday again, but you are consistently one of the nicest people in the business. You've always been so generous with your time or with your passion. We've loved watching your career blossom. It's continuing to grow and grow and grow. You're a dear friend of all of ours in the business and thank you so much for, once again, sharing your passion. Your cats, by the way, that was like a special attraction. Did not think we were gonna see the two of them and most importantly for really pausing in your busy schedule to be with us today. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure. I was honored to be asked. I told that, I said that to Rachel too. I'm honored to be asked, really. I can't think of a better way to spend my day than with all of you and all the kids. So thank you, thank you for the opportunity. Well, I know the campers loved it and Natasha, thanks for that very fancy camera work. You nailed that. Love those tight turns, the surprise angles. Thank you. Giada, thank you again and we'll be seeing you soon. Yes, definitely. Make that salad for somebody that you love. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you, campers. Goodbye, have a great day.