r/foodnetwork • u/string0123 • 27d ago
NO SPOILERS Giada De Laurentiis talks about having to re-write a forward that Mario Batali wrote for her first cookbook, because he said her success came from having “big boobs”
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u/AffectionateJelly976 27d ago
Holy smokes. I cannot imagine what that was like for her. My mom LOVED her and bought that cookbook. We cooked a lot of her recipes growing up. We watched her show. What an awful experience. And the comments here are HORRIFYING.
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u/cajo63 27d ago
I think that was a horrible thing to say.
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27d ago edited 27d ago
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u/foodnetwork-ModTeam 27d ago
We're really pretty libertarian about what gets posted here. Somehow your post was either blatantly racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive to nearly anyone who would read it.
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u/Kindly-mom2025 27d ago
I had no idea that Mario was such a dipstick. I looked up to him for years. That was such an insult to Giada, and I am so sorry that he subjected her to his misogynistic crap.
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u/22Yohan 27d ago
“Two months after a judge found him not guilty of charges of sexual misconduct, disgraced chef Mario Batali has settled lawsuits with two women who sued the chef for allegedly sexually assaulting them.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but attorneys for both women told Reuters that the “matters have been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.” Unless any new victims come forward, or any additional lawsuits are filed, these settlements likely mean that the six-year-long legal saga that followed allegations from multiple women that they were assaulted by Batali is over.”
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u/babyyyyydeeeee 27d ago
Fun fact from back in 2010ish. I worked at a fancy hotel spa / salon in Vegas. Very tacky, very young blonde girl comes in to get her hair done. Wants to charge it all to her room. Gives me the room and the last name is Batali. I say I can’t charge it to this room, it doesn’t match your ID. She starts throwing a fit. Gets on the phone and hands it to me. It’s Mario Batali telling me to put the charge through for his very good friend 😒😅. This girl was definitely not his wife, the whole thing was very sugar daddy and so gross.
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u/MoreCarnations 27d ago
Am i on the incel sub
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u/FlatMind6965 27d ago
Well considering the last time I watched the Food Network every commercial was about hair loss for men and erectile dysfunction-I am going with yes.
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u/Lizziedeee 27d ago
I was surprised and disappointed.
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27d ago
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u/foodnetwork-ModTeam 25d ago
We're really pretty libertarian about what gets posted here. Somehow your post was either blatantly racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive to nearly anyone who would read it.
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u/GalliumStallion 27d ago
So what did she mean by “we know what happened afterwards” to Mario?
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u/FlatMind6965 27d ago
He is cancelled in every way imaginable & very lucky he did not go to jail (unfortunately, but completely unsurprising).
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u/AnyMark3114 Good Eats 🍽 27d ago edited 27d ago
There is no disputing that what Batali said is horrible - nor is it surprising given what has come to light about him…
But notwithstanding that Batali had a lot of clout back then, I’m side-eying the decision to proceed with even an edited version of the foreward.
It’s enabling the horrible behavior. To be clear, this doesn’t stop at Giada, but the editorial team at the publishing house.
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u/Sad-Influence-7122 27d ago
23 years ago was a very different time. Women who spoke out were labeled “difficult to work with”. Not that it’s much better now, but it is slightly better. The option to rip him to shreds in real time at least exists in 2025. Back in the early 2000’s Giada would’ve been blacklisted.
Edit: just read through the comments. I retract my comment. Clearly we haven’t evolved past the early 2000s.
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u/GoDiva2020 27d ago
You are a million percent CORRECT! 💯
At least now she can speak. Before 2010, not so much. Women were not 🚫 and still not believed when we tell others about our experience. 😔
Also if her tiny little frame were flat she likely wouldn't have had much of a following back then.
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u/AnyMark3114 Good Eats 🍽 27d ago edited 27d ago
To clarify, I wasn’t suggesting that she rip him to shreds or even speak out against him. It’s understandable how that would have caused unfair blowback to her as she was early in her career.
I also am turned off by many of the comments in this thread.
My point is that it was clear that the behavior was inappropriate and hurtful to her. So it just seems the better approach would have been to professionally decline the foreword completely.
To me it comes across as enabling behavior for her publisher to: recognize that it was clearly inappropriate, do the clean up for the awful behavior and still use his name.
I’m unsure of who the other big names in the industry were at the time. And it’s noted that it was Italian focussed….
But it’s hard to believe there weren’t any other options. Especially if she could rely in part on her family name as it was. Isn’t that what helped her quest in the biz to begin with? Admittedly, I don’t follow her so I don’t know her story that well.
The bigger point is that perhaps this is an example of countless others where Batali behaved in such a terrible way. And this normalizing of his inappropriate behavior let him see what people would put up with. And perhaps led to more serious allegations that we know of now.
So it’s from that perspective that it’s all so off-putting to me. Not that she had to call him out publicly.
It gets a bit dicier (maybe victim-blaming) to also point out the elephant in the room…
Choosing to rely on his name at any cost to boost her book; even if it meant being demeaned initially in such a terrible way. Not everyone would take that route. But she did what she felt was best as her star was on the rise.
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u/womensrites 27d ago
i agree, she should have sent back the ripped up shreds of his intro, but she was new on the scene and he had tons of power
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27d ago
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u/JDLovesElliot 27d ago
How the fuck is that her fault?
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u/Which-Celebration-89 27d ago
You don’t think she has a say? She didn’t observe one episode of her own show? People are ridiculous.
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27d ago
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u/incognitohippie 27d ago
Even if all that were true.. for him to write that in the forward for her book… I’d cry too
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27d ago
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u/TVismycomfortfood 27d ago
This is a disgusting comment.
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u/SnooMarzipans1593 27d ago
Why is it disgusting? I’m not the first person to point this out. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/gnxo 27d ago
so it’s only disgusting if you’re the first person to say it? 😂
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u/Which-Celebration-89 27d ago
An observation isn’t disgusting. When Julia Childs had a cooking show she didn’t wear lowcut shits with the camera zoomed in on her chest. Giada did.
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u/PaladinHan 27d ago
You didn’t get the hint from the first downvoted comment so you doubled down?
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u/Shrimp1991 27d ago
Downvotes don’t mean anything to a lot of people. They’re more of a power trip for people. Just because you disagree with someone’s comment is no reason to downvote. Downvote my comment 500 times, I don’t care.
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u/mahrog123 27d ago
Ray Charles could see she does this.
The virtue signaling downvoting must be hard to do when your head is in a bucket of sand.
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27d ago
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u/DirkysShinertits 27d ago
It's up to her how she wants to dress. It's not okay for a chef to minimize and sexualize her.
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u/Chkparm1 27d ago
Horrible for him to write that. But the statement is kind of true…
Before you downvote it. Giada knows it too. You think her wardrobe choices weren’t planned and deliberate?
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27d ago
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u/foodnetwork-ModTeam 27d ago
We're really pretty libertarian about what gets posted here. Somehow your post was either blatantly racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive to nearly anyone who would read it.
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u/Dangerous-Target-323 27d ago
well he’s not wrong
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u/TheSucculent_Empress Good Eats 🍽 27d ago
It’s clearly for the way she pronounces “MUUUTTSSuhREEEELLLLLLLLL”
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u/Chef_Mama_54 27d ago
Any Italian food word. She’ll be going right along speaking perfect English and as soon as she is pronouncing any Italian food product here it comes. So predictable.
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u/Ki11bot9000 27d ago
He's not wrong though. I can't remember a single other thing about her.
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u/BBMcBeadle 27d ago
Not her 800 teeth?
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u/ladyscientist56 Cutthroat Kitchen 🪓 27d ago
That and her huge fake smile are the only things I know about her lol
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u/SnooMarzipans1593 27d ago
Maybe it’s just the camera angle but her face looks weird here, especially her nose.
I am curious though was it producers who told her to wear outfits that showed a lot of cleavage or was that her choice?
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u/BongwaterFantasy 27d ago
She wore blouses with bras. That’s what a lot of women do.
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u/Chkparm1 27d ago
Wasn’t just that. She had blouses that were unbuttoned one or two buttons too low to show her cleavage.
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u/SnooMarzipans1593 27d ago
She was obviously proud of her boobs because she showed off cleavage quite frequently.
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u/BongwaterFantasy 27d ago
The point has flown so far over your head it’s now in Europe.
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u/SnooMarzipans1593 27d ago
What point? Why is it wrong to point out that Giada wore lots of clothes that showed cleavage? I didn’t say anything about it being good or bad. I’m just making a factual statement. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/Shrimp1991 27d ago
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, this is the most obvious thing I’ve read today.
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u/Princessss88 27d ago
wtf are these comments
That’s gross of him to say.