Here's How Giada De Laurentiis Almost Ruined Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a pretty fantastic American holiday if your only duty is to show up at the dinner table and eat. No sweat, right? If you're in the kitchen and responsible for cooking the meal though, well, it can be pretty stressful. Nobody wants to bear the blame for a ruined Thanksgiving meal and have to tell people that a frozen pizza will be taking the place of turkey.
One would think that a professional chef would be able to whip up a perfect Thanksgiving meal in a breeze. That's not always the case, though, and kitchen catastrophe can strike out of the blue, as Everyday Italian chef Giada De Laurentiis found out.
A Thanksgiving meal became one of Giada De Laurentiis' biggest kitchen mishaps
Giada De Laurentiis has likely prepared her fair share of fantastic Thanksgiving feasts — but she's only human and has had some close calls, too. Speaking with Bravo, the chef recalled one of her biggest kitchen-related mistakes that happened while she was new to catering. "I worked for a family, and the first meal I made for them was Thanksgiving," De Laurentiis said. Considering that the first meal she was cooking for this family was one of the biggest meals of the year, the expectations were no doubt high.
"The thing is, they had a big dog," she said. "I wasn't used to cooking around dogs. I tripped over the dog once I put the turkey on the platter. Once the turkey hit the floor, that dog got to it before I did."
Many a canine has ruined a Thanksgiving meal, and the chances of salvaging a turkey that's in the jaws of the family dog are basically zilch.
De Laurentiis is a pro, however, and didn't let the poultry mishap throw off her game and ruin the meal. "There was no longer a turkey for Thanksgiving, but lots of sides," she said. "The woman I was cooking for had some pasta sauces in her pantry, so I whipped up some pasta really fast." De Laurentiis admitted that she was horrified when it happened, but it obviously didn't rattle her enough to give up cooking professionally.
Unfortunately, there were definitely no leftover turkey sandwiches that year.