Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiis Recalls Awful Experience With Mario Batali originally appeared on Parade.
Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis opened up about a past experience she had with chef Mario Batali.
“This is a person we’re not supposed to talk about but I’m going to,” De Laurentiis said on a July episode of “On the Menu.”
She recalled a time in 2005 when she was writing her first cookbook and wanted Batali, 64, to write the foreword.
“He’s really the main guy I had worked with. He’s a legend in the Italian space. I felt like his stamp of approval would’ve been huge for me,” De Laurentiis, 54, said.
Batali obliged, writing a foreword for De Laurentiis, but what he wrote ended up making her cry — and not in a good way.
“I realized, ‘Ah, he’s basically saying that I’ve gotten to where I’ve gotten, and I’ve had this little bit of success that I had, because I have big boobs, and that if he had boobs, he would even be much further,'” she recalled, adding, “because I’m, like, a joke, right? To him, it was like a little bit of a joke.”
De Laurentiis’ editor re-wrote the foreword and sent it over to Batali who approved it. His original words were not ever published. Nevertheless, the memory has stuck with De Laurentiis ever since.
A clip of the interview was shared on TikTok where fans reacted.
“The hurt in her voice is still so raw,” one person noted.
“You can see the pain in her eyes, even still. How awful to carry this around,” someone else said.
“Excuse me! He said WHAT?!?! Absolutely not!!!” a third comment read.
De Laurentiis has had a wildly successful career in the cooking space since that time. In addition to being on television, she’s written more than 10 cookbooks.
Batali, who has also had wild success in the cooking world, was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, with several women making allegations against him. In 2019, he pled not guilty to indecent assault and battery after a woman accused him of “aggressively kissed and groped her while they were taking a selfie at a Boston restaurant in 2017,” according to PBS.
At the time, Batali took a step back from his business.
“I apologize to the people I have mistreated and hurt. Although the identities of most of the individuals mentioned in these stories have not been revealed to me, much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted,” Batali told Eater. “That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility and am deeply sorry for any pain, humiliation or discomfort I have caused to my peers, employees, customers, friends and family.’
In 2022, Batali was acquitted on the aforementioned charges, per The New York Times.
Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiis Recalls Awful Experience With Mario Batali first appeared on Parade on Aug 14, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
