Have you ever wanted celebrity chefs make their own children? Giada De Laurentiis draws on her own childhood when preparing dishes for seven-month-old daughter Jade Marie.

“As soon as we get home, I’m going to make pastina [pasta shaped like baby stars] with butter and Parmesan. It’s what I ate as a baby,” she told Express Night Out.

Giada is currently travelling around the country to promote her new cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites. It’s challenging to be a working mom with a baby, but Giada’s husband Todd Thompson makes it a lot easier.

“I have lots of help, especially from my husband … I’m working out less, and my social life has taken a backseat. That’s OK. Between work and Jade, there’s no place I’d rather be.”

Image details: The 2nd Annual Kidstock Music And Art Festival served by picapp.com

TV chef Giada De Laurentiis is loving her latest role as mother to nine-week-old daughter Jade Marie. She gave People magazine the lowdown at the Kidstock Music and Arts Festival.

“She smiled for first time yesterday. It sounds so corny – and I remember my friends telling me and me being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ but it’s so special. Especially when you’re sleep deprived and all you do is change poopy diapers, it’s so great to get something in return,” she said.

In fact, the smile made such an impression on Giada that she told her husband Todd Thompson to keep his eyes on their daughter, just in case she did it again!

“I was telling my husband before I left, you have to make sure to watch her all day, because she will give you the biggest smile when you least expect it.”

So does a chef cope with preparing food for a little one? Apparently she finds the experience inspiring, because she plans to include a baby/toddler section in her next cookbook!

“People have been asking me for years to come up with kids’ recipes and doing all that because I have a lot of kids that watch the show. And I’m thinking, ‘I’m not a mom, not my thing, leave that to the moms.’ And now, I’m so into it!”

You’d expect Jade would be Giada’s taste tester, but that’s not so. Apparently husband Todd is her favorite guinea pig.
“[He's] like, ‘No more puréed food, thank you very much!’ Because I try all the recipes out on him first, so then we’ll see if Jade likes them.”

Poor Todd!