June Blog
Giada De Laurentiis // Newsletter
June 2010
Message from Giada – Book Tour
On March 30th I began my 3 week book tour, across the country, for the release of my 5th cookbook – Giada at Home. 15 states, 24 cities, and 28 signings later…. I’m still standing! Even though I was a little worried about the intensity of the book tour, I managed to successfully complete it without getting sick or too worn down. Other than a few misplaced bags, the only disappointment was my original flight to San Francisco being cancelled and having to reschedule that signing. I was so excited reading all the great tweets about the SF signing and hated to have to change the date; But, it ended up being a great signing and I’m just happy I was able to make it up there!
Book tours are a really special time for me because it’s when I get to talk to my fans one on one. It definitely requires long hours and can get tiring, but it is so worth it.
In New Jersey, Chicago, Florida and DC I was surprised by the amount of baby Giadas I got to meet! In New Jersey there were at least 5! They were all so precious.
The one thing that always brought a huge smile to my face was getting to meet all the little kids that came to see me. I was lucky enough to receive many drawings from the little chefs; since Jade doesn’t draw yet, I hung some of their pictures up on my fridge at home. They’re so cute!!
About half way through the tour, Todd came to visit me in North Carolina. It was nice having him there. It was the perfect time too because I was in NC for a couple days but only had 1 signing per day. The funniest thing about North Carolina was during my signing every person was either wearing UNC blue or Duke blue. They kept asking me who my favorite team was… but to this day I plead the 5th….
During my time off, Todd and I went to the spa and had some awesome dinners! One was at the Umstead Hotel restaurant and one was at a place called Lantern in Chapel Hill. Walking up it looks like any casual restaurant, but I was blown away by how good the food was. It was very gourmet with a fun ambiance and great wait-staff! If you are ever in Chapel Hill and need a good restaurant you should give it a try. The wok- seared wild mushroom sandpot was my favorite. Todd really enjoyed the Shaking beef. I definitely hope to make it back there sometime.
Since the tour has completed I have been enjoying spending a lot of time with Jade. I really really missed her while I was away. Since the weather in California has been so great, we have been going to the beach together for picnics. Todd comes with us too, well, when we can pull him away from his kite surfing!
I recently started filming season 5 of Giada at Home. It is going to be a very fun couple months with really exciting new episodes! I’ll tweet and let you know how it goes!
