PHOTOS‘You’re A Jerk’: Giada De Laurentiis Reveals Why She Stopped Speaking To Bobby Flay
April 11 2018, Published 6:12 p.m. ET
Giada De Laurentiis just got past her “culinary” feud with Nicole Kidman, but the Oscar winner isn’t the only famous person she’s had issues with in the past. Turns out, she and fellow Food Network personality Bobby Flay didn’t speak for eight months, and she was the one to axe him out of her life because of it. Click through to find out why she stopped speaking to her good friend.
Giada and Bobby, both of whom co-host the long-running series Food Network Star, are great friends now, but it wasn’t always that way.
She revealed on the season two premiere of the podcast Beyond the Plate that their fallout originally happened after she paired up with him to take on Rachael Ray and Mario Batali on Iron Chef America back in 2006.
“We lost and he thought it was funny,” she revealed. “He didn’t think it was any big deal that we lost. I did not talk to him for eight months‚ eight months! I did not. Nothing. Silence.”
Her frustration wasn’t only with Bobby, but with Mario as well, as she felt neither of them put their best culinary foot forward because they "had been doing it for so long. For them, they didn’t care.”
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“I thought, you know, I took this very seriously. It was a very big show, especially at that time, and I’ve cooked, I’ve gone to culinary school. I worked on my own dish all by myself and I felt like he sort of half-a**ed it,” she said. “It was just TV to him. I took it very seriously. I think Rachael took it very seriously, and I was really disappointed.”
His demeanor after the episode ended was also a factor in her questioning their friendship. "He didn’t say, ‘Hey I’m sorry that we lost,’ or ‘Hey, you know we’ll do it again. Nothing. He’s just like walked away and I thought, you’re a jerk and I never want to be around you again. Now of course we’re best buddies and we hang out but…”
Things have gotten much better for Giada and Bobby since the Iron Chef mishap, to the point where she spoke very highly of him during the podcast. "I think that Bobby is one of those people that if you are his friend, he has your back forever and he will stand up for you,” she said. “He’s one of those guys you can call in a pinch and he will get you out of it. He’s special in that sense.”
What are your thoughts on Giada icing Bobby out of her life for a while? Sound off in the comments.
