Teresa Giudice’s 5 Most Outrageous RHONJ Moments

Teresa Giudice has been on The Real Housewives of New Jersey since the beginning, which means she has had a very long time to provide us with material. And she has.

There have been table flips, family brawls, questionable accusations, questionable grammar, and enough screaming to make you wonder whether anyone on this show has ever considered using an indoor voice.

Here are five of Teresa’s most outrageous RHONJ moments.

5. Ingredientses

Teresa has never allowed the English language to stand between her and a good recipe.

Over the years, she has given us a number of Teresa-isms, but “ingredientses” remains one of my favorites. Why use the boring singular word “ingredient” when you can simply add an S and make it sound like there are more of them?

Honestly, it makes perfect sense.

Teresa also gave us “come-in,” “dorters,” and numerous other linguistic contributions that have become part of the Housewives lexicon.

At this point, I don’t want Teresa to learn how to pronounce things correctly.

I want the ingredientses.

4. The Christening

Nothing says “welcome to the family” quite like a giant brawl at a baby’s christening.

When Teresa’s brother Joe and sister-in-law Melissa celebrated the christening of their son in Season 3, the celebration quickly turned into one of the most chaotic family fights RHONJ had seen up to that point.

Teresa and Joe started going at each other, and before long there were husbands fighting, people screaming, and enough Jersey rage flying around the reception hall to make you wonder if anyone remembered why they were there.

It was supposed to be a christening.

Instead, it was basically a Jersey family reunion with assault potential.

And this was just the beginning of the Teresa/Melissa/Joe family war.

3. Teresa Shoves Andy Cohen

Teresa has never been particularly interested in letting a television host tell her when she has had enough.

At the Season 2 reunion, Danielle Staub came up, Teresa lost her shit, and Andy Cohen found himself in the unfortunate position of being the person standing between Teresa and whatever she wanted to do next.

Teresa got up and Andy tried to restrain her.

Teresa shoved him.

Yes. Andy Cohen.

The man who has spent years sitting in the middle of Housewives screaming matches somehow ended up getting physically pushed backward by Teresa Giudice.

You have to admire the commitment.

2. The Country Club Chase

Teresa’s feud with Danielle Staub did not end with the table flip.

Oh no.

In Season 2, Teresa chased Danielle through a country club during another spectacularly unhinged confrontation.

Danielle ran.

Teresa followed.

There were tears. There was screaming. There was a broken heel.

And Danielle eventually hid in the bushes.

This is the kind of scene that could only happen on RHONJ. You could put a screenplay writer in a room for six months and they still probably wouldn’t come up with “woman runs through country club while Teresa Giudice chases her in a rage.”

And yet here we are.

1. The Table Flip

Obviously.

There is no other number one.

Season 1. Fancy restaurant. Danielle Staub. A book. An argument. Teresa Giudice.

And then, suddenly, the table is no longer where it was.

Teresa exploded at Danielle, screaming “prostitution whore” and demanding to know about her past before shoving her hands underneath the dinner table and flipping the entire damn thing.

It was maybe thirty seconds of television.

It became Housewives history.

The amazing thing is that Teresa had spent much of the first season looking like a relatively harmless, cheerful Jersey mom. Then she flipped a fully loaded dinner table and screamed at Danielle like she had just discovered a personal betrayal of biblical proportions.

And just like that, Teresa Giudice became Teresa Giudice.

The table flip wasn’t merely Teresa’s most outrageous moment.

It was the moment she announced to the Housewives universe that she had arrived.

And sixteen years later, we’re still talking about it.

That’s a pretty good legacy for one piece of restaurant furniture.