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Emmy Award-winning and New York Times best-selling author Giada De Laurentiis has become a household name. With an impressive background of culinary training and a unique, personable charm, she is a globally revered celebrity chef who continues to prove her skill and accessibility not only with her expanding presence beyond Food Network but also with the great success of her cookbooks, brand alliances, food products, recurring role on NBC’s Today and most recently, her Las Vegas restaurant, Giada.Born in Rome, Giada grew up in a large Italian family where the culture of food was a staple in and of itself. As the granddaughter of film producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada consistently found herself in the family’s kitchen and spent a great deal of time at her grandfather’s restaurant, DDL Foodshow. After graduating from the University of California in Los Angeles with a degree in anthropology, Giada’s passion for cooking remained. She eventually made the decision to commence a culinary career and began her professional training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, specializing in both cuisine and pastry. She subsequently returned to Los Angeles, where her training included positions at the prestigious Ritz-Carlton Fine Dining Room and Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills. She later founded GDL Foods, a catering company in Los Angeles.Giada’s career started on Food Network in 2002 when she was discovered by a network executive upon reading an article about her and the De Laurentiis family in Food & Wine magazine. Since then, Giada has earned an Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and has become one of Food Network’s most recognizable faces. Her Emmy Award-winning, daytime cooking show, Everyday Italian, features quick, healthy and satisfying Italian dishes. Her primetime show, Giada’s Weekend Getaways, debuted in January 2007 and followed Giada to popular destinations in and around the U.S. as she explored the cities’ most notable restaurants and activities. Giada at Home, her hit TV series, premiered in 2008 and shows Giada in her kitchen where she plans and prepares meals and parties for family and friends. Giada can also be seen on Food Network in Giada Entertains, Giada’s Holiday Handbook, the Daytime Emmy Award-Nominated Giada in Italy, as well as judge and mentor alongside fellow chef Bobby Flay on the highly popular series Food Network Star.The foray into cookbooks was an obvious decision, allowing Giada’s loyal viewership to reference, prepare and share their favorite recipes. Giada’s first book, “Everyday Italian,” showcases many of the delicious recipes from her cooking show of the same name. Her second book entitled, “Giada’s Family Dinners,” quickly became a New York Times best-seller as did her third cookbook, “Everyday Pasta,” which was released in April 2007. An eagerly-awaited fourth book, “Giada’s Kitchen,” hit bookshelves on September 30th, 2008 and did not disappoint. In the first week of release, “Giada’s Kitchen” landed at #2 on the New York Times best-seller list and has maintained a top 10 ranking ever since. De Laurentiis’ fifth book, “Giada at Home” debuted on March 30th, 2010 and landed in the #1 position on the New York Times best-seller list. “Weeknights with Giada,” was released in March 2012 and followed the trend of all her cook books before it by landing on the New York Times best-seller list as well. Her book “Giada’s Feel Good Food” hit shelves in November 2013 and the New York Times best-seller list the same week. Most recently, she released Happy Cooking on November 3rd, 2015 which also became a New York Times best-seller. In Happy Cooking, Giada conveys how she is happiest in the kitchen and is able to balance indulgences with clean eating and keeping things easy, sharing nearly 200 recipes and helpful advice on everything from hosting a potluck or holiday meal to what to pack along for lunch every day. All of Giada’s cookbooks have been published by Random House/ Clarkson Potter.Another exciting venture Giada has sailed into is a series of adventure books for young readers which explore some of Giada’s favorite cities around the globe as well as some of her favorite youth-friendly recipes. The series debuted in September 2013 and is titled “Giada De Laurentiis’s Recipe for Adventure” published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. The cities explored in the adventures thus far are Paris, Naples, Hong Kong, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, Giada is a correspondent on NBC’s Today, where she highlights current trends in travel, cuisine and lifestyle.In June 2014, Giada opened the doors to her first restaurant, Giada, on the Las Vegas Strip. The restaurant is located on the second floor of the first ever boutique hotel on the strip, The Cromwell, and features breathtaking views of the Bellagio fountains and Caesars Palace. The menu features authentic Italian cuisine with a refreshing California flare.In 2012, Giada partnered with The Kitchen Community, a nonprofit whose mission is to connect children to nutritious food, to install a Learning Garden at Foster Elementary School in Compton, California. Along with students, teachers and members of the local community, Giada planted numerous vegetables and herbs throughout the garden. The school continues to maintain the plants and regularly incorporates them into the students' meals. She also pays regular visits to the school and stays engaged in the garden’s long-term sustainability.Giada is also an ambassador for Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Melanoma Research Alliance and is involved in Alex’s Lemonade Stand which raises money and awareness of childhood cancer causes.Giada currently resides in Los Angeles with her daughter, Jade.

Ask Chef Marc Murphy where he grew up and he'll fire off a list of cosmopolitan destinations — Milan, Paris, Villefranche, Washington, D.C., Rome and Genoa — "and that's before I turned 12," he'll explain. This dizzying list of hometowns served as an excellent education in French and Italian cuisine, though as a teenager this was not his first passion. When the reality hit that he didn't have the funds to become a professional racecar driver, Marc followed his brother to the Institute of Culinary Education. After graduation he apprenticed at restaurants in France and Italy before returning to New York, where he landed a job as a line cook at Terrance Brennan's Prix Fixe. He stayed there for almost two years, working his way through every station in the kitchen and forging a professional bond with Brennan’s Sous Chefs Joseph Fortunato and David Pasternak. Eager to return to Europe, Marc flew to Paris and landed a position at the one-star Le Miraville, where he stayed for one-and-a-half years. Afterward, he staged at the famed Louis XV in Monte Carlo, where Executive Chef Alain Ducasse was so impressed with Marc's skills that he personally made arrangements for him to work with Sylvain Portay at Le Cirque once he returned to the States. Marc still considers Portay to be his greatest teacher. "Sylvain was above all concerned with coaxing out the most-vibrant, interesting flavors any ingredient had to offer, yet he insisted on minimal manipulation," he recalls. Following Le Cirque, Fortunato tapped him to work as a sous chef at Layla, Drew Nieporent's Middle Eastern fantasy in Tribeca, where he met consultant Georges Masraff. When Masraff joined forces to open Cellar in the Sky at Windows on the World, he recruited Marc to serve as executive chef. After receiving critical acclaim, including a two-star review from The New York Times, Marc headed uptown to serve as executive chef of La Fourchette, where NYT critic Ruth Reichl awarded him another glowing two-star review, citing his "open desire to transform food [so that] in his hands, even a simple green salad ... looks like a ruffled hat in a painting by Renoir." In March 2004 Marc opened his first solo enterprise with Landmarc [Tribeca], which won rave reviews both for its eclectic French and Italian menu as well as its highly untraditional wine list. Following its success, Marc opened Ditch Plains in the West Village in 2006 serving casual, beach-style cuisine such as lobster rolls, fish tacos and the infamous ditch dog, as well as other comfort food favorites. In 2007 Marc was given the opportunity to open another Landmarc restaurant in the pres­tigious Time Warner Center, where he brought his bistro-style cuisine midtown. In October 2013 Marc opened Kingside at the Viceroy New York hotel on New York's iconic West 57th Street, serving his interpretation of New American cuisine. Marc's restaurants now fall under the Benchmarc Restaurants by Marc Murphy name, where he acts as executive chef and owner. In addition to the restaurants, Marc also heads up the company's catering division, Benchmarc Events by Marc Murphy, where his signature style of accessible contemporary cuisine transcends the boundaries of what is offered in his restaurant locations. Today Marc's involvement in the industry moves beyond the restaurants as well, with a regular role as a judge on Food Network's top-rated hit Chopped as well as appearances on other hit series such as Guy's Grocery Games, Beat Bobby Flay and Worst Cooks in America. Marc also appears on The Rachael Ray Show and The Today Show, among others. He is the president of the Manhattan chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, a board member of City Harvest, Culintro and Passport NYC at the 92nd Street Y Culinary Camp, as well as a member of the Food + Finance High School's Industry Advisory Board, a member of the Leadership Council for Share our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign and the national spokesperson for Share Our Strength's Dine Out For No Kid Hungry. In 2012 Marc joined the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, where he takes part in public diplomacy programs that engage foreign audiences abroad as well as those visiting the United States. Marc's first cookbook, Season with Authority: Confident Home Cooking, was released in 2015.