Italian Food Lovers

Cyber Monday is a new tradition, brought by the web and the e-commerce world. The first Monday after Thanksgiving is now worldwide known as Cyber Monday, the beginning of the Christmas online shopping season.

This year Cyber Monday is next Monday, December 1.

Most of the online retailers and e-commerce shops around the web offer special online shopping discounts on Cyber Monday, and Academia Barilla couldn’t resist this year to propose some very sweet deals in traditional Italian gastronomy.

Remember: this offer is valid only on December 1, 2008!

Visit the Academia Barilla online shop on Monday, December 1, and shop to save big on great gourmet food products, plus get some nice season deals:

- 25% off the Sicilian Sea Salt kits

- FREE chunk of Pecorino Gran Cru with purchase of a 12-years old or 25-years Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

- 1 can of Peeled Cherry Tomatoes FREE with purchase of 5 cans.

- 1 bottle of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena aged 3-years FREE with purchase of the Academia Bailla Extra Virgin Olive Oil Sampler

We remind you again that Cyber Monday discounts and deals are valid only on Cyber Monday, so hurry up to save on Season gifts and gourmet shopping on Monday, December 1, at the Academia Barilla Online Shop!

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!