Giada De Laurentiis Is Taking On A Very Different (And Popular) Kind Of TV Challenge
Giada De Laurentiis is no stranger to TV. She's cooked on screen for decades and has won multiple Emmys for doing so. And while the celebrity chef — who trained at Le Cordon Bleu, has released 11 cookbooks, and owns 3 restaurants — is best known for cooking shows, she's also lent her voice to various shows and movies, including "Scooby Doo" and the "Tinker Bell" franchise (albeit in food-related roles). Now, however, she's hanging up her apron and dancing into an entirely new kind of TV show: "Dancing with the Stars."
"Dancing with the Stars," the popular dance competition reality show that pairs professional dancers with celebrities, revealed De Laurentiis' casting for season 35 today on Instagram. She'll be paired with Alan Bersten, which may just bring her some luck. The DWTS veteran won the show once in 2019 with "Bachelorette" Hannah Brown, placed second with Olympian Ilona Maher in 2024, and, in total, has made it to the finals five times (out of his 10 seasons).
De Laurentiis won't be the first celebrity chef to appear on DWTS, though she joins a pretty small group including Paula Deen in Season 21 and Rocco DiSpirito in Season 7. Both placed ninth in their respective seasons. If she can make it further than that, she's at least a winner out of the chefs that have appeared!
Giada De Laurentiis has been invited to Dancing with the Stars before, but now was the right time
DWTS has sought out Giada De Laurentiis as a contestant before. In an interview with E! News, she admitted, "Dancing With the Stars has come to me maybe 10 times over the years," and reported saying "no" each time. Her change of heart was apparently stirred by her daughter, Jade, who just started her first year of college. De Laurentiis told E! that her daughter's absence made "This is a really good time for me to go on a new adventure and push myself to do something I've never done." Plus, her daughter has been cheering her on.
While De Laurentiis has danced on TikTok once or twice with her crew and daughter, she said DWTS "is way, way out of my comfort zone" in the E! interview. However, considering the chef is an avid yoga practitioner (and has been for years), she's not going in completely unprepared for the intensive workout that dancing can be.
If you want to see what De Laurentiis and Bersten cook up on "Dancing with the Stars," the new season premieres September 15 on ABC and Disney+ at 8 p.m. ET. To celebrate the event, it would be totally appropriate to make a few of her recipes, from her sauce perfect for a salmon bake to her meatballs that include an unusual condiment.