Giada De Laurentiis Shares the Most Practical Cooking Tip She Learned From Mario Batali

Giada De Laurentiis covers the October issue of Health, which is fittingly titled The Food Issue. The Giada in Italy star dishes on everything from her current flavor obsession to finding the time to cook instead of resorting to takeout, which, as a busy working mom, is something she completely relates to. "You save money, and you feel better about what you're eating," Giada said of her 30-Day No Takeout Challenge. Keep reading to find out the most useful thing she learned in culinary school, her favorite advice from Mario Batali, and what her ultimate last meal would be (hint: not pasta!).

On her current flavor obsession: "Smoked salt. I'm using it on everything. I love to use it on meats, poultry, and fish. I grilled some apricots the other day, put some smoked salt on them, and served them with a little burrata. It's great on watermelon as well: You do a little lime juice, a little smoked salt. That smoky flavor adds so much. That's my obsession."

On the one thing she learned in culinary school that she still uses today: "The basis of adding flavor to any soup, stew, or stock using a mirepoix, which is the herbs and the onions, carrots, celery — the trinity of flavors. I always fry up some garlic, onion, and herbs, and a lot of times I'll add some carrot and celery, and that adds flavor to everything I make — everything. Soups, stews, sauces, even salad dressings. Because you can heat up those things and infuse them in the oil you use."

On the best cooking advice she's learned from another chef: "Mario Batali is someone I've always found fascinating because he can look into a refrigerator, and whatever you have in there, he can turn into this delectable, elegant, special meal. So I learned from him to use everything at your disposal."

On shortcuts that are OK to use: "Canned beans are fine because beans are complicated to make from scratch — just rinse them off. Canned tomatoes are fine. But I buy peeled whole tomatoes. I don't usually buy the crushed or pureed, because all those processes? They're often adding more preservatives to them."

On what her final meal would be: "A seven-layer chocolate cake. I would eat all of the frosting on the outside, then I would peel off the cake and eat the layers in between. I like a scavenger hunt. It's more fun, and it takes longer to eat, so you get more pleasure out of it."

Read the full interview in the October 2016 issue of Health magazine, available on newsstands now.