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Giada De Laurentiis, of 'Everyday Italian,' is not a chef, although she has culinary expertise - she was trained at the Cordon Bleu and worked as a private cook for a wealthy Los Angeles family.

I also want to go to an Italian island and do cuisine properly with some famous Italian chef and, like, his mother.

I love the simplicity, the ingredients, the culture, the history and the seasonality of Italian cuisine. In Italy people do not travel. They cook the way grandma did, using fresh ingredients and what is available in season.

Italians are fantastic people, really. They can work you over in an alley while singing an opera.

Oh, my wife is a wonderful cook. She comes from a food-loving Italian family - her father owned a pizzeria!

First of all, I can't really claim to be a great chef.

I just signed to do my next book with Ecco Press, a new primer or encyclopedia. This will be my take on what classic Italian cooking is.

If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

I'm married to an Italian woman, and I used to love cooking Italian at home, because it's one-pot cooking. But my wife does not approve of my Italian cooking.