By JOHN TANASYCHUK

If you’ve watched Giada De Laurentiis on TV, you’re familiar with her stress-free style of Italian cooking.

The 40-year-old chef exudes the same kind of friendly optimism on the telephone to promote her just-released fifth cookbook, “Giada At Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California” (Clarkson Potter, $35).

De Laurentiis was born in Rome and raised in Los Angeles, where she lives and records her TV shows, and her book is a collection of classic and modern recipes. All of them have the effortless De Laurentiis imprimatur, which she’ll demonstrate Thursday at two Broward County book signings.

Why did you decide to introduce a line of food products and cookware at Target?

It’s taken me eight years to do it and, unlike a lot of other celebrity chefs, I chose to do it with Target. No matter who you are, everyone loves to shop at Target. Why? Because they do such a good job at drawing you in. They make everything in their store look hip and cool.

What’s the biggest misconception about you and other TV chefs?

I think people think it’s very easy to do what we do. They think it doesn’t take much. If you can make a sandwich, you can be a celebrity chef. But none of us are actors. We’re not trained to have these big personas. We’re not professional entertainers. We’re cooks.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a TV chef?

Start cooking. Get in there and really start cooking, and understand the dynamics of food and what makes you different from every other cook out there. Try to either go to cooking school, or at least work in a restaurant. Be around people. Learn from them and absorb as much knowledge as you possibly can.