Giada De Laurentiis: Weekend Getaways

By JULIETTE ROSSANT What is hot? Food Tourism. The travel magazines are full of food, the food magazines are full of travel, and business is booming for destinations that lure travels with good food. The refurbished casinos on the Gulf Coast are adding celebrity chefs. Small cities like Charlotte, North Carolina, are drawing their share. If you haven't got time to figure out where to eat once you get to your vacation spot, rather then thumb through the latest magazine, Giada De Laurentiis' new show, Giada's Weekend Getaways (premiering January 12th with a double header at 9:00 and 9:30 pm ET/PT) will do the work for you. Giada already has two popular shows on the Food Network: Everyday Italian and Behind the Bash, in which she guides viewers around celebrity parties. This time around, she guides viewers around hot destinations. These aren't unfamiliar, undiscovered, tucked away villages. These are the kind of places that already have splashy brochures, websites and cheap air routes. Places like Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Exotic goes as far as Santa Fe and Jackson Hole. However, she takes you on a rollicking ride, full of food, sites, and a bit of sport. She never dwells on anything too long – after all, she only has a half hour to show a town's highlights. There is a little bit of food preparation, but mostly a lot of eating. It's a magazine column on TV. This is a far cry for Todd English taking himself too seriously in Food Trip with Todd English (see previous article) Take one of the premier episodes on South Beach, Florida (January 12, 9:30 pm ET/PT). Giada in her rented convertible, Giada drinking a mojito and eating an avocado and crab appetizer, Giada on a jet ski, and Giada at Joe's Stone Crab. Luckily, this light fare is not as budget-minded as Rachael Ray's $40 a Day show; Giada spends bucks and she enjoys the luxury. And Giada thankfully lacks Rachael's excessively perky manner. She knows food having been trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with stints Los Angeles restaurants like Wolfgang Puck's Spago—what a perfect restaurant for the granddaughter of Dino De Laurentiis. Giada is joined by friends, dance students and teacher, and a couple of local chefs – but it's really all about watching Giada and her chops – everything looks tasty. What a great advertisement for South Beach. Related news: TV Guide, MTV News, Evansville Courier & Press, Naples Daily News, Pantagraph, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, National Ledger, Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune, MultiChannel News, Tacoma News Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Previous articles: Todd English: Food Trip Rossant on Rachael Ray's Competition Tyler Florence: Tyler's Ultimate Today's Kitchen Cookbook [ Food Television--complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef