With Atlantic City casinos in a competitive frenzy for guests' dollars, everyone needs a gimmick. It seems like Caesars has found a successful niche of its own: Hosting television food show-related events.
We arrived in Atlantic City during the Toast to the Coast festival, which trotted out celebrity chefs/cooking personalities Roland Meisner, Ingrid Hoffman and Guy Fieri for cooking demos and offered a live show with Giada De Laurentiis. There was also the chance to meet Hoffmann and Fieri at a pool party over at Harrah's (whose previous guests include both Kim Kardashian and Tila Tequila), along with a food expo and several other events spread throughout Harrah's Atlantic City properties.
Food Network head minx/bobblehead flirt/movie biz heiress/chick with the actual culinary chops, Giada De Laurentiis, has hit Los Angeles and is done with it. This Friday, her weekend getaway in Jackson Hole, WY, will premiere at 9:30 p.m., and the episode guide promises spicy Mexican hot chocolate and a real cowboy breakfast.
Giada's also on the most recent cover of Life Magazine, and the story inside reveals that she's collected "more than 17,000 frequent-flier miles" during the show's filming. Miles that she should clearly donate to us because you know she doesn't need them anyway. But which of the genius travel tips Giada goes on to share is your favorite?
Plan Ahead Before I leave, I figure out all of my outfits, down to which socks and underwear I'm going to wear. Then I put each outfit in a two-gallon ziplock bag so the clothes stay ironed and clean. It takes a little extra time to pack, but it makes the vacation so much more relaxing.
Giada's mild OCD insanity is evened out by her insistence on skipping airplane food, which we do usually. We also assume it's easy for her to go all Kip Hawley on us and stuff her getaway wardrobes into Ziploc bags, because her producers will be keeping her in bikinis as often as possible. Ratings.
Food Network head minx Giada de Laurentiis has a new show called Giada's Weekend Getaways. It's the network's anti-Rachael Ray travel show that shows Giada eating and playing around various locales without a strict budget--which makes sense, since she is Dino's granddaughter and all.
Getaways features sightseeing and eating picks, and tonight's episode is on Giada's hometown of Los Angeles, which indicates she might actually have some trustworthy advice. Tonight she'll be taking a drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, eating fish and chips on Catalina Island, and, if the episode guide is to be trusted, eating some Zinfandel glazed short ribs. For now, you'll have to watch for repeats of last week's South Beach episode to catch Giada in a bikini.
