The Unexpected Food You'll Never Catch Giada De Laurentiis Eating

Emmy-winning chef Giada De Laurentiis has made it very clear that she is extremely proud of her Italian roots. Born in Rome, De Laurentiis celebrates her nationality whenever she gets the chance. She starred in the Food Network's "Everyday Italian" cooking show, and her newest cookbook even dons the title "Super-Italian." She absolutely should be proud of the work she has done to showcase Italian cuisine, as she is highly praised for many of her pasta recipes (even if her favorite childhood snack — chocolate pasta — may be a bit of a culture shock to those who aren't familiar with it).

However, the jaws of diehard De Laurentiis fans may drop when they find out about the one item that she doesn't like: peppers! In an interview, she told Eating Well that her least favorite ingredient in Italian dishes is peppers, and it doesn't matter if it's as mild as a bell pepper or as hot as Pepper X — she wants no part of it. The chef says that even though she experiences discomfort after eating peppers, she still includes the ingredient in dishes for her family and even in her own recipes in her cookbook.

Giada De Laurentiis' dislike for peppers may come as a shock to many because peppers are an integral part of many iconic Italian dishes. Chili peppers arrived in Italy in the 1520s and quickly made a huge splash in its culture and cuisine. Spicy peppers are especially popular in the southern province of Calabria, where they are incorporated into its most famous dishes like 'nduja, which features Calabrian chili peppers inside fermented salume.

In fact, these aforementioned peppers a local favorite in Calabria, Italy. Calabrian chili peppers, nicknamed "the Diavolicchio Diamante" (which is derived from the word "diavolo" and translates to "little devil"), even have a designated five-day celebration in the town of Diamante. These peppers also boast a fairly average spice level, weighing in at about 25,000 to 40,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) (for reference, a habanero pepper usually falls around 150,000 SHU), meaning that the pepper is decently mild and won't wreak havoc on most stomachs. Well, besides for De Laurentiis, who would definitely avoid this particular pepper on her trips to Italy. Instead, the chef sticks to the lower end of the Scoville Scale in her pepper-heavy recipes, like stuffed bell peppers and even spaghetti topped with red and yellow peppers. While sweeter peppers may not have their own Italian festival, they are a very common side dish on many dinner tables in Italy, so De Laurentiis' recipes are definitely still acting as a love letter to her home country.