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Even the most talented celebrity chefs have Food Network stars they’d love to have cooking for them. Giada De Laurentiis spent 21 years at the Food Network before her departure in 2023, and during that time she got to collaborate with a lot of other great stars — but it seems like one clearly stood out. When talking to Redbook Magazine about who would prepare her last meal and what it would be, De Laurentiis said she would want Ina Garten to make her a chocolate cake.
It’s no surprise that anyone would want Garten cooking their last meal, but the simplicity of De Laurentiis’ menu is shocking. “She makes this chocolate espresso cake with this special sea salt, and there’s caramel in it too. Espresso, caramel, and chocolate. It has that perfect combination of sweet-salt smooth, sticky but rich, fudgy kind of flavor. That would be my last meal. That’s all I would want,” she said. But that’s not the only one of Ina Garten’s chocolate cakes that De Laurentiis loves.
The two chefs collaborated on an episode of Ina Garten’s show, “Barefoot Contessa,” where De Laurentiis taught Garten how to make gnocchi. In return Garten — who said she could tell De Laurentiis was a chocolate person — made a flourless chocolate cake with the blackcurrant liqueur, cassis. As good as that sounds, that espresso cake of Garten’s must be something really special.
Giada De Laurentiis would have Ina Garten make her a chocolate espresso cake as her last meal
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While it might be a shock to know that De Laurentiis’ last meal would be nothing but a chocolate cake, she does have a famous love of sweets and chocolate. When Garten pegged her as a chocolate person, De Laurentiis admitted she is 100% a dessert person and Garten was right on the money. In fact De Laurentiis trained as a pastry chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and one of her first big high profile jobs was as the pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills. And her love of chocolate is no joke. De Laurentiis even posted a video on Instagram showing off one of her favorite childhood snacks: pasta covered in chocolate sauce.
Of course De Laurentiis has plenty of chocolate and dessert recipes she loves that are a little more, let’s say appetizing, than chocolate pasta. As her choice of last meal gives away, she is a big fan of chocolate desserts mixed with some coffee or nuts for extra depth of flavor. Among De Laurentiis’ favorite foods, she lists a chocolate amaretti cake, which is made using the traditional Italian cookie made with almond flour. She is also a big fan of glazed espresso brownies. But as good as those recipes sound, the best dessert is always one made by a family member or friend — especially if that friend is Ina Garten.
Dining and Cooking