Giada De Laurentiis is gearing up for the Dancing with the Stars premiere this week and got some friendly advice from her fellow TV chefs. Clearly, her “chef food friends” she spoke with including Guy Fieri, Alex Guarnaschelli, Sunny Anderson all know her well as they all had the same advice when asked what food the Giadzy curator should eat while competing.
“The whole food world’s going to be watching.,” Fieri told De Laurentiis over FaceTime. “I don’t want to bring this on you, but I’m nervous, Giada. I mean, like genuinely nervous.”
His food rec for the star? Tequila turkey fettuccine alfredo.
“I’m going to tell you this,” Fieri added. “If we were betting on the Kentucky Derby, I’d be putting money on your horse.”
Anderson had the same idea, encouraging the 56-year-old to eat whatever she wants since she’ll be so active.
“You need to eat the burger. This is this is the time, honey,” she said. “But if you can’t handle the burger, you can always have some spaghetti and some bruschetta. Some orecchiette, you know, the pasta!”
TV chef and cookbook author Katie Lee also kept the carb suggestion going.
“I would go for buttered pasta,” she said. “Or olive oil pasta…so you’ll have lots of energy. It’s easy to digest, and it’s comforting. So it’ll make you feel good.”
Related: Which ‘DWTS’ Duo Has Best Chance of Winning? Odds Are in Their Favor — and Stacked Against Another Pair
Other chefs tapped for advice included Michael Symon who similarly suggested spaghetti pomodoro and Rocco DiSpirito also said, “I stuck to our favorite food, pasta. A lot of that because you need lots of energy. This is like training for a marathon.”
Guarnaschelli also reccomended spaghetti.
“I would go straight to major emotional comfort food,” and also joked that her other tip was to “panic eat” five candy bars.
De Laurentiis is partnered with Alan Bersten. In the time since the full cast announcement earlier this month, the two have been posting up a storm on Instagram ahead of the show’s two-night premiere on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
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This story was originally published by Parade on Sep 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Dining and Cooking