Biography
Alexandra Maria Guarnaschelli is a chef and executive chef at New York City's Butter restaurant and was executive chef at The Darby restaurant before its closing. She appears as a television personality on the Food Network shows The Kitchen, Chopped, Iron Chef America, All Star Family Cook-off, Guy's Grocery Games, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate. She hosts "Alex's Day Off," "The Cooking Loft," and "Supermarket Stakeout" on Food Network and Cooking Channel. In 2012, she won that season of "The Next Iron Chef: Redemption."
Guarnaschelli is the daughter of cookbook editor Maria and John Guarnaschelli. She graduated from Barnard College in 1991 with a degree in art history. In 1991 she worked for minimum wage in a restaurant called an American Place for one year. Guarnaschelli's culinary experience started while watching her mother test numerous recipes at home while editing cookbooks. Guarnaschelli worked under Larry Forgione (whose son is Iron Chef Marc Forgione), and then at a number of restaurants in France, New York and Los Angeles, including Guy Savoy's La Butte Chaillot. She also worked at Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant and Joachim Splichal's Patina before becoming the executive chef at Butter. She was executive chef at The Darby restaurant before its closing. She chairs of the Museum of Food and Drink's Culinary Council. In 2013, Guarnaschelli's first cookbook was published. "Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook" mixes autobiographical details with favorite recipes from her professional life that she adapted for the home.
Guarnaschelli was a competitor on The Food Network's Iron Chef America, taking on Cat Cora in the 2007 "Farmers' Market Battle." Cora won the challenge. Guarnaschelli has since appeared as a judge on the program. In 2011, she competed in the fourth season of The Next Iron Chef, where she placed as the third runner-up. She also competed on the Food Network Challenge Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast episode and lost the competition. After competing in the fourth season of "The Next Iron Chef," Guarnaschelli became a sous chef to Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian.
In 2008, she became the host of The Food Network's The Cooking Loft with Alex Guarnaschelli, in which the chef teaches a small group of students how to construct new variations of classic dishes. Guarnaschelli has been a judge on Food Network's competition show Food Network Challenge, and frequently appears as a judge on Food Network's cooking competition show Chopped, Cooks Vs. Cons, Young and Hungry, and Guy's Grocery Games, as had appeared on the Food series "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." She competed in season 5 of "The Next Iron Chef: Redemption." She won in the final Kitchen Stadium showdown against chef Amanda Freitag. Her debut challenge as an Iron Chef on Iron Chef America aired on December 30, 2012. She made a guest appearance on the Nickelodeon television show "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn," on the one-hour special "Go Hollywood" on November 25, 2015. She made a guest appearance on the ABC television show "The Real O'Neals" in the episode "The Real Thanksgiving" on November 15, 2016. Guarnaschelli appeared as a judge in episode five of "Iron Chef Gauntlet," where chef Gruenberg was eliminated before the final showdown in episode six "The Gauntlet." She appeared on the Food Network's "Beat Bobby Flay" and challenged Bobby with her signature lobster dish. She also won that challenge. Guarnaschelli appeared as a mentor on season 20 of "Worst Cooks in America" as the captain of the Blue Team, opposite Anne Burrell. Alex was the winning mentor of Season 20 "Worst Cooks in America." She can frequently be seen on "Guy's Grocery Games" as a judge and competitor.
On April 29, 2007, Guarnaschelli married Brandon Clark. The two met in 2006 at New York's Institute of Culinary Education while Alex was teaching a fish class. Their daughter, Ava, was born in July 2007. The couple's marriage eventually ended, and in June 2020, Guarnaschelli announced her engagement to chef Michael Castellon, a Chopped winner who had proposed to her on her birthday over the weekend of June 19-20, 2020.
