The first time Alex Guarnaschelli served Prince at her acclaimed New York City restaurant Butter, she was drunk. It isn’t an admission unearthed by tabloids — the Food Network star shared the story herself while baking brandy-filled holiday cookies during a demonstration at the 25th annual Kohler Food & Wine, held in October in Kohler, Wisconsin.
That candor has earned the Iron Chef legions of fans over a TV career stretching from Chopped to 100 Cooks. Just don’t suggest she missed her calling in comedy. “Everybody has to eat,” she says. “Nobody has to laugh.”
Between cookbook signings and demos at the festival, hosted at Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star The American Club, we caught up with the quick-witted chef to talk about her favorite New York restaurants, why Kohler keeps drawing her back and what’s on her plate for 2027.
What keeps bringing you back to Kohler Food & Wine?
Everything. I like the Kohler brand as a backdrop. Every bathroom, every common area is so beautiful. It’s an aesthetic that’s adjacent to food and wine and home — everything that’s good about the home.
And the festival is just done right. It feels approachable and inviting, like a community gathering. I see people sitting together who don’t know each other. I think all festivals have the ability to do that, but Kohler has some special edge.
You’ve had some time to explore town. What’s caught your eye?
I love what [Woodlake Market] is becoming. I can feel it evolving and percolating. It’s like it’s adjusting itself in the mirror. There are so many things I want to buy in there, and I’m like, “Nope. You are having a flatbread, water and a coffee. You are not buying 15 kinds of placemats.”
And Kohler Chocolates — believe me when I say I have seen more chocolate than most people in the world. Those are some of the most beautiful chocolates. Stunning, fresh, delicious. Twenty-nine out of 10. The [chocolate and caramel] turtles, too. I love that it’s very American.
What does The American Club get right that other hotels don’t?
There’s an area for every mood you could have. You want a cozy tea in a courtyard filled with flowers, in a gazebo, with someone doing yoga moves? You got it. You want to go inside and have a Wisconsin cheese tray and eight glasses of wine that are delicious? It has a lot of nooks, and it all makes sense together. It’s the sum of those parts.
The line at The Greenhouse right now stretches around the planet. The pastries are so well made. I had pub food. I had a fancy-pants steak. I had a croissant I shouldn’t have had this morning. Last night, we ate at the Wisconsin Room, and the server came over and asked, “Is everything to your satisfaction?” And I was like, “Everything!” Almost Hallmark-movie style. I was just so happy. It tips its hat to history without exhausting you.
And the hospitality — in New York, we don’t slow down for moments the way people do here. Someone called my name, walked over and said, “I just wanted to say I love watching you on TV, and I’m so happy you’re here.” My shoulders dropped. I’m going to have culture shock when I go home.
When you’re home in New York, where do you like to eat?
There’s a restaurant my friend owns called Cafe Commerce [on the Upper East Side]. The chef, Harold Moore, and I worked together for Daniel Boulud 20-plus years ago. He mixes France and America in a bistro way that’s so great, and it’s small. It’s got a mom-and-pop vibe.
There’s a tiny Indian restaurant I love on the West Side called Swagat. Such great Indian food. It’s approachable but adventurous.
You’ve got to go to the Donut Pub on 14th Street. It’s old school — a counter, coffee in a chipped mug — and the best doughnuts in New York. I don’t care what anybody says. They make them fresh every five minutes. You walk in there, and the doughnuts are alive. And the owner, Buzzy [Geduld], is such a gem.
Then there’s Hearth, on First [Avenue] and 12th [Street]. The chef, Marco Canora, shops the Greenmarket. He’s the real deal. You’re eating what’s growing micro-seasonally local in New York, done in a really elegant way, but it’s not fussy. It feels very familial.
What’s on your plate for 2027?
I’m doing 100 Cooks on Food Network again with Terry Crews and Nick DiGiovanni. We’re such an unlikely trio, like three Martians from different planets. We bring very different perspectives to the table, so I love doing that.
I’m really on my YouTube channel a lot, trying to grow it. And I’m writing another book, but it’s laborious. I’m overthinking every word. It’s like six words, and it’s been three months.
How strenuous is the cookbook process for you?
My mother was a very prolific cookbook editor. She was like a Quincy Jones. She accidentally trained me to write cookbooks and be a Chopped judge. But a book is something you write and live with forever. It’s not like an Instagram post where you’re like, “Felt cute, might delete later.”
I was looking at floor tiles in the showroom yesterday, and I remembered my mother telling me, when I was eight, that she’d just throw down a floor and get the one she really wanted next year. Forty years later, I’m like, “How we doin’?” You end up looking at it for a long time. A cookbook’s like that. It just looks at you like, “How do you like page 22, where you said this stew is actually a chili?”
What has 100 Cooks taught you about how Americans are cooking at home right now?
I was surprised at how many people were cooking just for the sake of cooking. Not “I need to get dinner on the table for my three kids,” but “I made this because I read about it, and it’s something I’m pursuing as an interest.” Americans are adventurous and excited about ingredients. Food media has opened people up to a lot.
I can also tell you people aren’t salting their food enough. People always say, “You chefs put too much salt.” I’m like, “How about some [more]?” In the glitz of it all, those fundamentals can fall through the cracks.
I’ve also learned that Americans use food as a love language. I’ve always thought of hospitality as something associated with hotels and restaurants, but cooking at home for friends and family is an expression of hospitality, too. There’s a thread there that I connect with deeply. There was so much heart on the table. But you also have to be real about it: there is a winner. You have a 99% chance of not winning, so find another reason to compete.
Is there a project you want to pursue?
I’ve wanted a YouTube channel for six or seven years. You know when you go to the beach, and you put your foot in, and it’s freezing, so you just stand there with the water lapping at your feet? Sometimes it takes a lot to get in. But when you do … that’s my analogy.
I like the traditional stand-and-stir you can have on YouTube. I can taste 20 foods from Costco and engage with people: “Have you had the hot dog?” I like the community and the connectivity. When you shoot a TV show, you don’t get that immediate dialogue. On YouTube, people respond, and I’m in the comments taking notes. I did a video with [culinary content creator] Owen Han the other day, and then [celebrity chef] Jet Tila came by. It can be whatever you want it to be. I really like that playfulness.
If money and time were no object, where in the world would you go just to eat?
Probably Tokyo. I’d have a katsu sando [a breaded cutlet sandwich] — two of them — immediately off the plane, at any hour. Then I’d go to Tsukiji Market. Weirdly, they have a little booth of soft-serve ice cream. Just one flavor, and it’s not even vanilla. It’s like milk.
I spent many years cutting and cooking fish, so the nobility and beauty of that is in the ether there. I even love that there are no garbage cans. Put your garbage in your pocket. It’s a city that knows who it is. It feels very old and very new at the same time. I had sushi, noodles, pizza. They just get it right. You’re standing by a 400-year-old tree, somebody walks by in a kimono, and you’re like, I guess I’m going to go eat soft serve at a fish market. It’s wild, and yet it’s so beautiful.
I went with my daughter when the cherry blossoms were blooming. You walk outside with your mouth open half the day, like, “Did someone set this up?” I love Paris. I love Los Angeles. But Tokyo — she’s in my heart.
What’s a food destination people are sleeping on right now?
There are a lot of burgeoning markets. North Carolina, Tennessee — Nashville, Memphis — are emerging food cities, though I don’t know if people are sleeping on them necessarily. I think people are sleeping on Los Angeles. It’s Hollywood, it’s agriculture, it’s wine. There’s so much good cooking going on at all different levels, from fast food to market-driven restaurants. They’re some of my favorites. People are like, “Oh, L.A.” and I’m like, “Don’t sleep on her.”
