Valentine’s Day has been chocolate day on the Food Network, so they’ve been doing a lot of stuff hosted by Giada De Laurentis, who I’d never seen but is apparently the host of a new series.
::shudder:: She gives me the heebie-jeebies. Am I the only one? I can’t explain what it is, exactly. She looks evil, like the villainess in a cheesy mid-80’s sci-fi movie who tries to seduce the hero away from his quest. She smiles too much, like she’s playing too hard to the camera; even Martha Stewart manages to seem more sincere. And she does that annoying thing where whenever she says an Italian word she says it in italics – she has no trace of anything other than a Californian accent, but if she says an Italian word, even in the middle of a sentence, she over-pronounces it. “Oh, I just love the taste of the prosciutto and the peas together.” Like that character Ana Gasteyer used to do on SNL, who would talk about her latina friend from Guadalajara.
She’s probably a nice enough person and all, and the peas & prosciutto did look pretty good, so I feel bad for just ragging on her, but ::brrrrr::.
Yeah, there’s something about her that bugs me, too. I once spent the better part of an afternoon trying to figure it out when they had a small marathon of her show.
Mumbling to myself on the couch:
“Hmm, the makeup? Maybe it’s too much? It looks like too much. Or is there vaseline on the camera? Or maybe the wierd skin color. It’s like it matches her hair…is she tan or not? She lives in California, maybe she tans, but I don’t know… it could just be the studio lighting…the voice? Is it the voice?? She seems to be a little tiny bit emotional, but mostly it’s barely above a steady monotone…even when she goes on about “Nona’s kitchen”…the whole personality maybe??? Cause I can’t seem to see what kind of personality she has, aside from polite small talk about food…it’s usually somewhat obvious from a person’s style what they’re like, but she’s so…bland? Is it blandness?? Is that what’s bugging me?..”
This went on for a couple of hours (about 4 shows, though I had seen it a few times before). I haven’t had the stomach to watch her since.
My conclusion- I don’t trust people who come across as such a “perfect” package. The whole deal makes me a bit uneasy- everything is too perfect about her show- her looks, her mannerisms, the setup, the little talks while she’s lounging around, the even tone of her small talk and encouraging words to her viewers, even the theme and logo… it just reminds me of another “perfectly” packaged product that ended up being completely false.
Burn me once, Martha Stewart, I will not be burned again!!!
Agreed, there is something creepy about her. She looks like she’s attractive, but something totally turns me off. Fairblue’s assessment is pretty good, but Martha doesn’t turn me off that way. Sure, Martha is “The Bitch” and “Miss Perfect” but I don’t think she’s creepy, she just goes completely overboard.
Maybe it’s the overly deliberate way she cooks. As though she’s doing each step after going over it 50 times with her director. “Ok, hold the peppermill at a 65 degree angle, then three short grinds, then place the mill down here.”
Didn’t mean to imply that I think Martha is creepy, if I did. I like her, actually. (Her onscreen personality, that is.) There’s something very soothing about Martha Stewart’s manner, like you wouldn’t even be nervous at all if she was going to kill you and dispose of your corpse, because you know she already has all the tools and equipment in place, and has studied every angle about the best and most efficent way to do the job. It would be a good thing.
And I totally didn’t suss out her inner bitch at all. It took other sources for me to be able to see it.
Is is just me? Everytime she puts food in her mouth, and makes all the over-the-top yummy noises, the camera cuts away before she actually *eats * the bite. Like there’s a spit bucket stage right. <<bleck>>
She’s got a big head. In one episode they had one of her sisters on and they looked very similiar, talked alike, and even made the same expressions when eating food.
The woman who bugs me the most is Rachel Ray. She’s hot, yeah, but she’s just as guilty of everything mentioned in this thread as Giada de Laurentis is. And, god… that laugh. Ugh.
You take that back right now! Rachael Ray is my imaginary girlfriend. Okay, one of many. She’s definitely in the top 5, easy. For starters, she’s genuinely hot, not like the could-possibly-be-hot-but-can’t-tell-underneath-all-that-creepy of de Laurentis. She’s not at all pretentious; she doesn’t claim to be a Master Chef but is sharing what she can do, and she’s not afraid to come out and say it when she doesn’t want to or doesn’t know how to do something. And she’s cute as a button, and seems to be really having fun making food. And her recipes aren’t bad, either – a little salad-heavy for me, but the stuff I have tried to make, I’ve liked. She’s just dreamy.
There was an episode of “$40 a Day” where she went to Atlanta (my hometown, close enough), and they had her eating barbecue and then up on stage at Fat Mack’s Rib Shack giggling her way through a blues song. I think I fainted.
Rachael Ray, cute as a button, seems like a nice person, but would have me slitting my wrists if I had to go out with her. Way too peppy and annoying. Her recipes are pretty good, though, I love her Tilapia with Tomatillo, and Red Onion-Tomato salad, yummy yummy.
I adore her too! Rachael can do no wrong in my book.
And how about that Lisa Loeb on “Dweezil and Lisa”? I know she’s a musician and not a chef, but this is NOT A BAD THING, especially because of those glasses!
Ms de Laurentis sounds like Italian is a second language for her - not that she is not fluent enough to pass as a native, but she does overpronounce everything. She also speaks with a Northern accent. Possibly she had vocal/speech training for her media career, and that sort of skews her in both English and Italian. As long as we are talking about Ray - compare the way she sounds with the de Laurentis babe. Ms Ray sound like a cook who learned to be a performer, Ms de Laurentis sounds like a performer who knows who to cook.
Is it me, or is de Laurentis always photographed with a wide angle lens?
After the postings the other day, I watched her show again. I think that another factor adding to the creepiness is her target audience - which seems to me to be the “aren’t we beautiful and sophisticated and sooo wonderful” rich bitch types. Not that some of her recipies are bad - some are really quite good, but she can be off putting. Getting back to Rachael Ray - much more earthy and definitely middle class.
… that’s okay – just slide her on over in my direction.