Here's How Bobby Flay And Giada De Laurentiis Became Friends

The first time Bobby Flay saw Giada De Laurentiis was before her 2005 breakout role in Food Network's Everyday Italian (via Food Network). Flay described the moment he laid eyes on her to The New York Times. "The first time I saw Giada was on a television screen before they launched her show," Flay admitted. He went on to recount how a programming director at The Food Network asked Flay to take a look at De Laurentiis's footage. "I was impressed with watching her sizzle right off the bat," Flay said. His first reaction? "Well man, she has a lot of teeth!" His second? He told the producer, "She's really confident, very pretty," and "seems like she'd be a fantastic home cook."

In another world, Flay might have met De Laurentiis when they were both children, thanks to her grandfather's gourmet food store, DDL Foodshow. De Laurentiis used to spend time in the kitchen of DDL Foodshow while growing up in LA (via Time). But her grandfather opened a storefront in New York, too, where Bobby Flay grew up (via Britannica). And while the store was only open for a couple of years, Flay remembers it. "It was way ahead of its time," he gushed to The New York Times, "This was a totally different ball game." 

We don't know much about how quickly Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay became friends. We do know that, according to People, the two finally met in person around 2004, at a food expo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We're just guessing here, but presumably, they bonded over their love for cooking. (As they were in Pennsylvania, perhaps they ate a cheesesteak or a pierogi or both together?)

By 2006, De Laurentiis and Flay were tight enough to compete together in Iron Chef, although things quickly went downhill after that. After losing on the show, De Laurentiis refused to talk to Flay for eight months. "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-assed it," De Laurentiis remembered on the "Beyond the Plate" podcast. Needless to say, the two patched things up. By 2014, they were close enough to chum it out together at Cecconi's at Soho Beach House Miami, a get-together which would later help set off rumors of an affair (via Page Six and Inquisitr). Of course, as the two celebrity chefs are forced to patiently keep reminding us, they remain "just" friends.