To call Nadia G a little showy would be like calling Donald Trump a little self-absorbed. The statuesque blonde with a penchant for high heels, tight dresses and an Italian accent thicker than a pot of Bolognese sauce is the rebellious punk-rock kid of Food Network Canada.
Her show, Bitchin’ Kitchen (which started as a web series), flips a middle finger to traditional warm and fuzzy cooking shows steeped in subdued hues. Like its title implies, large-scale animal prints, pleather finishings, and jars with decapitated dolls abound.
Following last month’s holiday special, Bitchin’ Kitchen is now in its second season — and rest assured, all the kooky, over-the-top elements you either love or hate are there. I caught up with Nadia G (real name Nadia Giosia, who hails from St. Leonard in Montreal) to dish about her in-your-face fashion, the new season and her choice words for critics.
TVGuide.ca: Do you dress the same in real life as you do on the show?
Nadia G: I have two wardrobes — I either wear a very nice collection of pajamas and jogging suits at home or have super-shpak gear to go out.
TVG: How did you dress as a teenager?
NG: I was crazy as a teenager! I had a shaved head, a bullring in my nose. I was always into fashion and expressing myself via my clothing and accessories. Over the years it’s become a little more of a mix of designer items and vintage as well as the punk rock aesthetic.
TVG: How many pairs of heels do you own?
NG: About 30. I’m a big fan of Louboutin, Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga. I tend to go pretty hard with the designer heels simply because I’d rather spend a lot of money on one pair that will last and look fabulous as opposed to having 100 pairs of pleather monstrosities.
Same philosophy for cooking gear. One could buy a new chef’s knife every three months, or they could buy one good one and have it for life. I’m not big on trends, so when I find a piece I’ll invest in it and have it for years.
TVG: I love that you match your nail polish to the cupboards on the show.
NG: I am an extension of the set and the set is an extension of me. We had fun with that concept and the idea that your kitchen can also be a fashionable expression.
TVG: I’m always amazed when chefs don’t weigh 200 pounds. Do you exercise?
NG: I have a personal trainer and I do circuit training four or five times per week. Also, at home I try to eat mostly vegetarian and I don’t cook restaurant-style food at home. You’ve got to pick your battles. If you love food as much as I do, you gotta work out.
TVG: What can we expect in the new season?
NG: We’ve got all kinds of themes, whether it’s dysfunctional family pizza night or a girls’ night in pajama party. We have makeover meals where we parody What Not to Wear and take boring ingredients and put them in front of the notorious 360-degree mirror.
And of course, there are more bitchin’ looks, more fabulous shoe shots and fantastic food. Some of it is more traditional, like my aunt’s potato cake, but we’re also venturing into foie gras lollypops and molecular drinks.
TVG: You talk a lot about your Italian-Catholic background — do you watch Jersey Shore?
NG: I do watch Jersey Shore, I don’t fist-pump. They remind me a lot of the people I grew up with in St. Leonard, and that’s one of the reasons I rebelled against that whole kind of Italian mentality. (Laughs.)
TVG: You really do have one of those personalities that people either love or don’t. How do you react to the food snobs?
NG: I don’t believe you have to be a chef to cook a five-star meal and I don’t believe you have to be a foodie to enjoy a fantastic dish. In regards to the critics, there was a time when I was a little more sensitive to it. But since we became the No. 1 show in the States (on the Cooking Channel), it’s affected us a little less. What I like to say to the critics is very simple. I usually send them a link to Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” That song says it all. (Laughs.)
TVG: Can you talk briefly about your new cookbook?
NG: We launched Cookin’ for Trouble at the end of October. We had a bigger budget so we could really flesh out our thematic concepts. For example in the vegetarian chapter, there’s this awesome photo shoot of a veggie butcher shop, so veggies hanging on meat hooks. It’s a total full-colour cookbook with over 75 recipes, all the humour you’d expect from Bitchin’ Kitchen, and you’ve got an Italian slang dictionary in there.
Bitchin' Kitchen airs back-to-back episodes Thursdays at 7 p.m. ET and 7:30 p.m. ET on Food Network Canada.
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