The Iconic Food Network Chef Giada De Laurentiis Wants To Make Her Last Meal

If you could ask anyone from The Food Network to prepare your last meal, who would it be? For me, it'd hands down be Giada De Laurentiis. But who do you think a world-renowned chef like De Laurentiis would choose? Maybe her pal Bobby Flay, since he can whip up an authentic Italian meal? Or perhaps Wolf Gang Puck, whom De Laurentiis cites as an influence in her professional career? Neither.

When Redbook Magazine asked De Laurentiis this question in 2009, along with what she'd request, she replied: "Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. She makes this chocolate espresso cake with this special sea salt, and there's caramel in it too. Espresso, caramel, and chocolate. It has that perfect combination of sweet-salt smooth, sticky but rich, fudgy kind of flavor. That would be my last meal. That's all I would want."

Longtime fans of De Laurentiis aren't shocked by this answer, as she often expresses her love for dessert, and more so her obsession with chocolate — she even pairs it with pasta as part of a favorite childhood chocolate snack. That being said, Garten is a natural choice — not only because she's a culinary legend, but also because she has a vast selection of chocolate cake recipes. One of them is her iconic Beatty's Chocolate Cake, a top-rated recipe among fans. Many of her other recipes inspired best-selling items at the Barefoot Contessa store back in the day. While the exact directions for the cake De Laurentiis is referring to doesn't appear to be available online, Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake is similar to what she describes, as it includes coffee.

A few years later, in 2013, Ina Garten did, in fact, bake a chocolate cake for Giada De Laurentiis on an episode of Barefoot Contessa — though, of course, not for her last meal. In the episode, "Cooking with Giada," the two chefs prepared recipes from their own repertoires: Garten made a lobster potato salad, and De Laurentiis cooked mascarpone and lemon gnocchi with a lemon butter thyme sauce. With De Laurentiis' love for chocolate in mind, Garten ended the meal by making her Chocolate Cassis Cake topped with fresh berries. Espresso, caramel, and sea salt may not have made an appearance here, but that definitely didn't stop De Laurentiis from happily licking the spoon and indulging in the final result.

To some, it may seem surprising that De Laurentiis chose her last meal to be Garten's rich chocolate cake, and only Garten's cake, considering that Garten has produced countless stand-out dishes over the years (like her famous recipe for the easiest whole roasted chicken), along with the work from other Food Network chefs. But for De Laurentiis, her "last meal" choice may be less about the quantity of food and more about eating one of her favorite foods prepared really well — allowing her to savor both the dish and the moment spent enjoying it.