A quick post to remind all Italian food lovers, as anticipated three weeks ago, that Italian celebrity Chef, cookbook writer and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis will be in California this week to promote her newly released Italian cuisine cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen.

After touring the entire United States with a number of book signing events at several book stores and gourmet stores across the country, Giada De Laurentiis will be available this week in California to sign copies of her new cookbook at two Williams-Sonoma stores in Costa Mesa and San Francisco - save the dates and locations if you live in California!

October 15 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - Costa Mesa, CA
South Coast Plaza
, 3333 South Bristol Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92626 

(714) 751-1166

October 20 12pm-2pm
Williams Sonoma - San Francisco, CA
Union Square, 340 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 362-9450

While signing her new cookbook at the California William Sonoma shops, Giada De Laurentiis will also be promoting her new Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet product line.

Giada’s Italian food specialties are also all available at the Academia Barilla online shop: just follow the next links to purchase the products: Giada’s Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, Giada’s 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix, and Giada’s Natural Sea Salt with Lemon Zest.

This post is for all Italian food lovers who are also fans of Italian celebrity Chef, cookbook writer and Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis.

Our favorite Italian Chef will be doing a book signing tour through the United States next month, touching base at Williams-Sonoma locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Nevada and California.

The book signing tour promotes the recent release of Giada De Laurentiis’s new Italian cookbook, Giada’s Kitchen. Don’t miss your chance to get an autographed copy for yourself; you might even want to ask her a culinary tip or two.

Here below are the Williams-Sonoma store locations where you can catch-up with Giada De Laurentiis, get your cookbook signed, and also check out the new gourmet products from the Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet product line.

For your convenience, we have listed below the Williams-Sonora locations, complete with location addresses and contact info:

October 1 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - King of Prussia, PA
160 North Gulph Road

King of Prussia, PA 19406

(610) 265-5970

October 2 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - Short Hills, NJ
1200 Morris Turnpike

Short Hills, NJ 07078 

(973) 467-3641

October 5 - 4pm-6pm
Williams Sonoma - Plano, TX
1900 Preston Road

Plano, TX 75093

(972) 964-5838

October 15 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - Costa Mesa, CA
South Coast Plaza
, 3333 South Bristol Street

Costa Mesa, CA 92626 

(714) 751-1166

October 17 - 1pm-3pm
Williams Sonoma - Las Vegas, NV
1001 South Rampart Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89145

(702) 938-9480

October 20 12pm-2pm
Williams Sonoma - San Francisco, CA
Union Square, 340 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 362-9450

Giada De Laurentiis will also be doing book signings to promote her latest “Giada’s kitchen” cookbook for the entire month of October. You will be able to find Giada De Laurentiis at selected Sur La Table, Barnes and Nobles, Borders and Crate&Barrel locations across the US - check out Giada’s constantly updated online calendar of appearances for more info on her book signing tour.

We are not talking about the opera orchestras that will perform next month in Parma, Italy, for the Opera Verdi Festival 2008. We will blog soon about the Parma festival dedicated to the Italian opera Maestro Giuseppe Verdi, and about the initiatives and cultural gourmet tour designed by Academia Barilla to help you enjoy the event, Parma, the Italian Food Valley and of course Italian food culture!

Today we want to talk about MSC Orchestra, the luxury Italian cruise ship recently aquired by MSC Cruises, who added the Italian cruise ship to their fleet of luxury cruise ships.

Academia Barilla just sealed a partnership with MSC Orchestra, and all their customers and guests now get a special discount at the Academia Barilla online store. MSC Cruises even set up an Academia Barilla partner page on their website, and other pages where users get direct access to Academia Barilla’s recipes, culinary courses info and both the Academia Barilla product line and the new Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet food products. All products are of course available at the Academia Barilla online store.

MSC Orchestra is a ship designed to create an atmosphere of luxury cruising, boasting 18 decks, a spacious Body and Mind Spa, and both meditation area and fitness center overlooking the bow of the ship. There are 5 restaurants onboard the MSC Orchestra, offering a gourmet food experience that ranges from authentic Italian cuisine to sophisticated Shanghai dishes. 

The state-of-the art Italian luxury cruise ship also offers Internet Café, tennis and basketball courts, and two stunning pools (Acapulco and Cala Blanca). MSC Orchestra’s guests are accomodated in luxurious cabins, most featuring private balconies.

Check out the video on the website dedicated to MSC Orchestra, The Orchestra is coming to town, or just to browse the great pictures on the website (we grabbed a few of them for this blog post) to discover this truly amazing Italian cruise ship.

Also, check out the cruise packages and offers for this winter’s Inaugural Carribean and Bermuda Season - prices start at $449* (check MSC Cruises’ website for pricing and booking details), and kids 17 and under sail free! All of MSC Orchestra’s Winter 2008/2009 offers are at this link.

We will be blogging again about this sea jewel of Italian design, and will also try to track down MSC Orchestra’s Executive Chef to get a recipe or two, as soon as the cruise ship will come to town!

We have been asked to publish more info about the Giada de Laurentiis and Academia Barilla event in New York City, so we managed to get more pictures and the dinner menu, designed by celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis.

The evening, organized in conjunction with Fancy Food NY, officially launched the new celebrity gourmet food line Giada de Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla, a series of authentic Italian food specialties you don’t want to miss in your Everyday Italian cuisine.

The guests at the Astra Lounge, the exclusive NYC penthouse, had the pleasure to taste a number of dishes prepared using the new Giada De Laurentiis product line. Giada’s NY menu was definitely tempting, with innovative recipes such as:

Artichoke Pesto on Ciabatta
Parmesan Popovers (you can find the recipe here)
Whole-Wheat Penne with Green Beans, Ricotta and Lemon
Balsamic Chicken Skewers
Grilled Swordfish with Lemon, Mint and Basil
Balsamic Marinated Beef Tenderloin Skewers
Roasted Baby Potatoes with Tuscan Herbs
Anytime Vegetable Salad

The newly-launched gourmet product line designed by Giada De Laurentiis and selected and produced by Academia Barilla, is composed by:

100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil - artisan production from the sunny Southern Italy, this extra virgin olive oil has a subtle and smooth taste, with hints of arugula, artichoke and grass.

Balsamic Vinegar of Modena - a gourmet selection from Modena’s artisan producers, this balsamic vinegar presents a tart fruity taste with hints of raisin and red apple.

Natural Sea Salt with Fresh Lemon Zest - hand harvested from famous salt pans in Sicily’s seaside town of Trapani, this natural sea salt is enhanced with zest of fresh local Sicilian lemons.

Giada’s Tuscan Herb Mix - an aromatic mix of wild rosemary, sage, bay leaf, basil, marjoram, thyme, wild fennel and chili pepper. Hand harvested and dried in small batches on a Tuscan estate.

The entire product line is available at the best gourmet food store in the United States, and also online at the Academia Barilla online store, just follow the links above to get to each product!

We are sure most Italian food lovers, especially those who are also fans of our beloved Italian gourmet Chef, cookbook writer and Food Network celebrity Giada De Laurentiis, have already seen these pictures, which are pretty much all over the web, especially on Italian food blogs like us. 

We blogged several times this month about Giada De Laurentiis, to announce her new gourmet line Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla and to publish a couple of Giada’s recipes. Now we really want to give space to this great Giada photo shooting who’s traveling around the blogosphere.

Yes, we can answer the same question everybody is asking: “is this a photoshop effect?”  The answer is No. She really is Giada De Laurentiis bathing in a sea of tomato juice.

This is actually the third picture of a series by photographer Gavin Comb for Esquire, the men lifestyle magazine, who always dedicates stunning photo services to women celebrities, for the series Women We Love. Here is the first Giada photo shot of the 3-shot series.

And the second, right before she find herself in a lake of tomato juice as in the first picture we published.

As reported in the original article by Esquire, the concept for the photo shoot was:

In her crusade to show the world how much enjoyment can be derived from Italian cooking, De Laurentiis goes through a lot of tomatoes.

An average of two thirty-two-ounce cans per day (as shown in the first slide), to be precise. So in a month that would be… well, you can see that in the second photo.

“Canned tomatoes are packaged when they’re the ripest and the sweetest,” she says, “so there’s really no reason to go with fresh.”

Very smart article and concept for the photo shooting, and great Giada De Laurentiis pictures!

The article came with a recipe from Giada on how to make a great Giada’s Home-made Sauce, still online at the Esquire website, go have a look!