I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that kind of experience so they can use what they're learning now as a foundation for a great career.

Most cooks try to learn by making dishes. Doesn't mean you can cook. It means you can make that dish. When you can cook is when you can go to a farmers market buy a bunch of stuff then go home and make something without looking at a recipe. Now you're cooking.

Even cooking at home the difference between my wife cooking and me cooking is major. When my wife cooks the kitchen looks like a disaster. When I cook it's completely clean and organized and it doesn't look like anyone has been cooking in there.

I could lie and say my wife cooks for me but she doesn't. My wife has never learnt cooking but she has great cooks at home.

I don't have a long family history of good cooks in my family.

My goal in 'Live to Cook' is to make great food more approachable for home cooks.

My husband cooks fancier food for himself than I've ever cooked on-air. I call him from the road and he's making champagne-vanilla salmon or black-cherry pork chop. Half of me is feeling unworthy. Not only am I not a chef I'm not a better cook than my own husband!

If your mother cooks Italian food why should you go to a restaurant?

My family truly believes they are better cooks than I am. They see me as Giada not as a celebrity chef. To them I'm just me - their granddaughter niece etc. and they're older and wiser. I like that because it keeps you grounded.

As they say in Italy Italians were eating with a knife and fork when the French were still eating each other. The Medici family had to bring their Tuscan cooks up there so they could make something edible.

I'm going to take care of the man I'm with. I grew up in a household where my mum takes care of my dad - she cooks she does everything - and that's the kind of girl I am.

My mom is a really good cook. I didn't get the cooking gene but she cooks this really amazing dinner every Christmas and that's always really fun.

You hit a certain age and - especially because of TV - the young cooks coming up say 'You're a sellout because you're doing something other than what you should be doing.' 'Top Chef' is a double-edged sword for me: There's a whole group of people who will not come to the restaurants because they assume I'm not in them anymore all I do is TV.

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook and she still cooks and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.