First, the trio is served up the antipasto dishes: bruscetta, crostoni with anchovies, zucchini flower and mozzarella cheese, and coratella (lamb).
“The lamb is spicy,” says Flay, 56, adding that the zucchini “might be my favorite.”
The De Laurentiis ladies are also impressed. “I like the beans a lot,” says Giada, 50, while her mother, 70, adds, “It’s not spicy and heavy. It’s very light.”
Next, they munch on the el primo course, which includes smaller portions of pasta dishes than Americans are used to.
“Here’s the difference that you find between America and Italy,” adds an impressed Flay. “When they make the pasta, they just glaze the pasta with the sauce. In America, it’s just sitting in way too much sauce.”
“Wow, that’s good,” Giada says.
Flay also gushes over the slower and simpler dining style in Italy as opposed to the U.S, where he says “we don’t give ourselves time to enjoy it.”
“Here, you learn to relax,” says Veronica, “because things don’t work the way you want them to work. So you learn about patience.”
While speaking to PEOPLE, Flay explained that he came up with the idea for the new show — and immediately asked Giada to be apart of it.
“We’re friends, we obviously both love Italy and we’re both on the same network, so it made perfect sense,” he said. “So that’s what we did. And I have to say, I think it’s probably the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever shot, for sure.”
He added, “I think you’re going to see an inherent happiness in both of us just being there. You know when you go to a place that you really love being, your whole demeanor is different. We were just so much more relaxed and just smiling a lot and just enjoying our surroundings.”
Flay and Giada both learned a lot from their experience in Italy, he said, especially when discussing the country’s unique specialties.
“One of the most classic dishes in Tuscany is a wild boar ragu with pasta, so I love doing things that are classic to a place,” he said. “The fact that I was making wild boar ragu and fresh fettuccine in Tuscany — that for me is one of my aha moments. To me, that’s a win.”
source: people.com
