Giada's Teen Years: The Lunch Conversation You Can't Miss!

Can I have a slice of your Dak-ga-tan? With some whipped cream? No, I like it just out of the cart by itself. And espresso. Single or double? Double. I want to buy some of these to take home. So we're at Dolce Isola. I think it says it right there. It's teeny-tiny and it's an offshoot of the Ivy. But it's technically where they do a lot of their baking for their restaurants. I love their bread. It's a whole-wheat bun roll and it smells so good. So when I was 18, 17? 17, 18, 19? Something like that. I dated a guy who was a server at, or a waiter, at the Ivy on Robertson. For those of you who don't know what the Ivy is, it's a really popular Hollywood hangout. You say you used to work at the Ivy? Yeah, I started being a hostess. I had a lot of fun. I used to make great tips. We didn't have a bar. People would have to wait on the street corner and you could see Robertson's a pretty busy street. So I would bring them out like cocktails and drinks. I wasn't 21 yet. But you can orchestrate so they get a great table. It's a whole art. And I learned the art of working the front door. And I have to say it's helped in all my businesses, especially my restaurants. Loved that job. And then when I broke up with the guy, I left the job. First question for you, now that we're in your teen years, is which high school did you go to? Marymount High School on Sunset, across the street from UCLA. Did Eloisa go there too? She did not. My sister went to Beverly Hills High School. Why? Why two separate schools? My sister did not want to go to a private all-girls high school. You did? No, but I was the eldest, so I didn't have a choice. But by the time they got to my sister, who's the third in line, it's always like this. The eldest child basically has to do everything the parents say, doesn't have anything to say. And then they kind of like break down after child after child. So since my sister's the third, she was like, no, I'm not going to all-girls. And what about Dino? Where did he go? Dino went to a lot of different schools. Dino got kicked out of a lot of schools. Wow. Wow is right. Whipped cream for the apples. Thank you. Wow. Divine. I know. Divine. My favorite. I love your tie. So, apple tarte tatin. Very French dessert. Apples. And it's basically a puff pastry and it's baked upside down. So you make a caramel sauce and it bakes in the caramel sauce and then you flip it so it looks like this after it's baked, right? That's why you have a this caramel topping that's so thick and sweet and sticky because it's baked in caramel. At least there's apple in it so it feels a little more breakfast-y. It's very popular in France and it is phenomenal and it is one of my favorite French desserts. And I love it today. This place. Were you a good student? Yeah, I was a pretty good student compared to my siblings. My weaknesses were math and science. Jade's weakness is math but science? She's in chemistry honors. Did you have a boyfriend in high school? I had a boyfriend later in high school named Forrest who went to Venice High. I took him to the prom. But I didn't have a boyfriend until like junior year. Was he your first kiss? It was my first kiss, yeah. Forrest, yeah. He was a surfer. Can you tell me about your first kiss or was it? Well, it was lame because it was like this. I was a slow bloomer. What can I say? It took me a minute. Did you ever play hooky or like sneak out? I would go to my friend who I'm still friends with, Vanessa. I would sneak out. I was always the designated driver. I had a Burgundy Volkswagen Golf that was stick, so manual. My parents were like, you don't know how to drive unless you can drive sticks. I had to drive sticks for like 10 years before I bought my own car. And then I bought automatic and I've been automatic since. I loved that car. I mean, Vanessa can tell you stories like I would drive around the block 20 times to find the right parking spot because I didn't want anybody nicking my car, touching my car. I was like so... cloth interior, brown, but it was a new car and I was so excited. But yeah, Volkswagen's were really popular when I was coming up. Anyway, we would go to her house and we would sneak out when we go to clubs. I was like a 16 year old. Bar One was the most popular club at the time. It was on Sunset Boulevard, right as you do the cross between Beverly Hills and Hollywood. It's another club now, but it's always been a club. Did you have a fake ID? I sure did. I sure had a fake ID. Not with my face on it, but I had Vanessa's dad's girlfriend's ID. Her dad's girlfriend? Yeah, because it was like five years older than me. So it wasn't really that much difference. Do you remember what your prom outfit looked like? It's not cute. It was strapless. It didn't fit very well. I mean, if I look back on it now, it's sweet, but like I had really big hair, like really girly. So it was like big hair. This is the 80s, right? Yeah. No, I graduated in 1996. In the 80s? No, I was 10 in 1980. Oh no, I'm sorry. I graduated in 1989. 96, I graduated from culinary school. 1989 is when I graduated, which would have been a year later than I should have, right? Because I flunked. Back to sneaking out, did you guys ever get caught? And like, were you ever grounded? How was your parents on like parenting style? They were really tough, especially with me. Grounded. Couldn't do anything. Couldn't talk on the phone. I mean, this is before cell phones, so it's a different category. Did you have a pager? No, I did not have a pager. Basically, I could do nothing at any time. I really wasn't allowed to do a lot anyway. You didn't even have a curfew? I was only allowed to sleep at people's houses. My parents didn't know I was going to clubs. When they found out, that's when I would get in like horrible trouble. Like, they wouldn't even speak to me. I'd be just in my room. Like, they were tough. My dad was really, really strict. Like, really, really, really strict. Did they know you had a boyfriend? Towards the end, yes. At that point, it was, I was a senior and I was, and I don't think they ever thought it was really a boyfriend. We didn't like hang out like regularly. It was a group of us with a group of guys. What did your room look like as a teen? Like, how did you have it decorated? I had posters of Billy Idol and George Michael. They were my two favorites. Also, under my bed, I have like a chest of Barbies. So, you know, it's that transition between wanting to be taken seriously as an adult, but really you're still a child. So, I had a little mix of everything. But I never really had my own room growing up. I shared my room with my sister. We had floral bedding. We had twin beds. Very Laura Ashley-ish. Totally different than what my style is now. This was from like when we were really young. I remember when I grew up and I went to college, I didn't like sitting by myself. And you get so used to being in a room with somebody else. So, then you're sort of like, oh, I don't want to do this. Would you hang out with Eloisa, like in high school? Like, would she come out with you or like, or was it just too much of an age gap at that time? Not when we were in high school. Because Lulu went to Beverly. She was in the beginning of high school when I was at the end of high school. My sister did a lot more than I did. My sister got to go out more. She had boyfriends starting in like freshman year. She was able to do stuff. I think at that point too, maybe my parents were already divorced. Everything got way more loose. Yeah, when did your parents divorce? When I was 18. You have to understand, like, my sister was like, what, 15? It was a totally different world for my sister than it was for me. It just, that's just the way it happened. But I hung out with my sister when my sister got later in high school. And that was in my early teens. I mean, my early 20s. And then my sister would come out with us. Yeah. Jade smoked cigarettes, right? I don't want to air my sister's dirty laundry, but like, yeah. I didn't smoke. My brother smoked a lot. I did not smoke, but we came from a family of smokers, so it's not really that strange. My first concert was Julio Iglesias with my parents. I did not like that. My first real concert was the Go-Go's. I love the Go-Go's. Since I started dating Jade's dad, we went to a lot of concerts. He loved concerts, so we were always at concerts. Growing up, my siblings would always play, like, the most horrendous pranks on me. My sister told me to get in, like, a trunk once to play hide-and-seek. Did you have that relationship with your siblings? Like, or did you guys team up and, like, go teaming? No, I would say that I did not really play tricks on my siblings. My siblings played them on me. My brother and my sister, because they were 11 months apart, they were always together. Like, they would go on the roof when I was a kid. We were young. I mean, they must have been, like, 10. They'd take my mom's cigarettes, and they'd go on the roof of our house and just smoke. I'd just be down there, like, you guys aren't allowed to do that. I was the tattletale. I'd be like, I'm gonna go tell on you, and they'd be like, you tell on us. We're gonna kick your ass. Like, it was a whole thing. They were a total team, and I was alone. It was always like that, and they always said I was, like, a little goody two-shoes. We got on a camping trip, and when we came home, we had a playroom, and my brother thought it'd be fun to get a bunch of sticks together and see if he could build a bonfire like my dad did when we were out camping. So he built a bonfire in the middle of our playroom that has carpeting, because in those days everything had carpeting. It was a disaster, and when I saw the flames, I was, like, bolting to my mom. Oh my god. It was a tattletale. Okay, so one of the things I always come here for are the cookies. They're chocolate chip cookies. They're crispy, and this is when I'm lazy and I don't feel like making my own cookies. Look at that. I put them in the freezer for Jade and Shane, and they just they eat them whenever they want. This is lazy Jada. See you next time, guys.