Alex Guarnaschelli is an Italian-American chef and Food Network fan-favorite. She’s a frequent judge on Chopped, an Iron Chef America winner and has appeared on numerous Food Network shows. Learn more about her background and culinary career below.

History and Background

Alex was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved to New York City shortly after her birth. She's the only child of Maria Guarnaschelli, a cookbook editor and publisher, and John Guarnaschelli, a history professor at Washington University, Amherst College and Queensborough Community College. Her father also had a private psychotherapy practice and was known for his work creating men’s groups, according to his obituary.

Alex learned to cook by watching her mother prepare meals in their Manhattan home, the Boca Raton Observer reported. She went on to study culinary arts at La Varenne Cooking School in Burgundy, France. A career highlight came in 2003 when Alex became the executive chef at Butter Restaurant in New York City, a position she still holds. At Butter, Alex focuses on American dishes, local ingredients and flavors that shine, according to her website.

What Food Network Shows Is Alex on?

Alex frequently appears as a judge on Chopped and has both competed in and judged Iron Chef America. She's also the host of Supermarket Stakeout, star of Alex vs America and co-host of Ciao House and The Kitchen. She is a recurring judge on Beat Bobby Flay and has appeared as a judge and competitor on Guy's Grocery Games. She first appeared on Food Network in 2006 as a competitor on Food Network Challenge and has since been part of more than 600 episodes of programming on Food Network, according to TheWrap.

Alex on Iron Chef

Alex first appeared on Iron Chef in 2007. In 2012, she bested nine rival chefs to win The Next Iron Chef: Redemption, earning the coveted title of Iron Chef. She has since appeared as a judge on the show.

Italian Influence on Alex’s Cooking

Both of Alex's parents come from Italian families, so she grew up eating at the dozens of Italian restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen and cooking Italian-American dishes. Her family often shopped at Italian New York City markets — from Dean & DeLuca to Balducci’s. “It was ingredients, and particularly for the Italian dishes, that were the utmost priority to my mother and father,” she said.

Her mother's family is from Calabria in Sicily, and her father's family is from Naples, she told Apetito magazine, where there’s “a vastly different sensibility about the food from those two regions of Italy."

“My father would bust out all afternoon, and my mother would put together something simpler and lighter,” she told the magazine. “I mean, my mother’s sauce, the whole thing took half an hour. And those two different flavors represent a lot of what we often crave. Like, sometimes we want the all-day, grandma's ragù kind of vibes. And sometimes we want, like, a more weeknight kind of thing.”

Alex's Italian heritage, combined with her training in France, heavily influences the food she cooks today. She describes it as French with hints of Italian.

Fun Facts About Alex

• Birthday: June 20, 1969
• Zodiac sign: Gemini
• Current residence: New York City

How Many Kids Does Alex Have?

Alex passed on her love of cooking to her teenage daughter, Ava Clark, whom she shares with ex-husband Brandon Clark. Ava was born in July 2007, and the mother-daughter duo authored a cookbook together in 2023.

Alex’s Culinary Journey

As a kid, Alex dreamed of becoming a Rockette or a marine biologist; she never thought she'd become a chef, she wrote in People. In college, she began cooking for friends — sometimes lasagna for the entire dormitory floor or a friend's birthday cake — and witnessed the joy it brought people, which led her where she is today.

"When I worked in my first kitchen, Larry Forgione’s An American Place on 32nd Street off Park Avenue in Manhattan, I was astounded at how much joy I got from working in the kitchen," she told People.

After culinary school, Alex remained abroad in France, where she led Michelin-starred restaurants, including esteemed chef Guy Savoy’s eponymous three-star kitchen, according to her website. She then spent four years at Butte Chaillot, where she moved quickly up the ranks to sous chef. After moving back to New York, she joined Daniel Boulud at his renowned restaurant Daniel. She was previously the executive chef at The Darby restaurant in New York before it closed. She currently owns and is the executive chef at Butter Restaurant.

In April 2025, the New York Historical Society opened a new restaurant, Clara, helmed by Alex and chef Michael Jenkins, in partnership with Great Performances. “The seasonal American menu features fresh salads, homemade pastas, and a classic cheeseburger,” according to a Facebook post.

Alex's Books

Alex has authored five cookbooks. Her first cookbook, Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook, was released in spring 2013 and became a New York Times best-seller. Her second cookbook, The Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart, was released in the fall of 2017. Her third cookbook, Cook With Me: 150 Recipes for the Home Cook, was released in the fall of 2020. Her fourth cookbook, Cook It Up: Bold Moves for Family Foods, co-authored with her daughter, Ava, was released in June 2023.

"Like many kids in America, Ava is exploring food in a variety of ways, and we wanted to share how she and I ‘cook it up’ at home,” Guranaschelli told the Boca Raton Observer. “Ava is quite the sauce maker and really knows how to put flavors together and then spoon them on top of the perfect dish.”

Alex's fifth cookbook, Italian American Forever: Classic Recipes for Everything You Want to Eat, was released in October 2024.

Alex's Partnerships

Alex is known for her work with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which supports childhood cancer research. She also supports City Harvest, the Food Bank for New York City, No Kid Hungry and Wellness in the Schools. She has partnered with Nutella in their "Stacks for Giving Back" program, which supports firehouses, according to PR Newswire.

Keep Up With Alex

“Food Network has been my extended family for as long as I can remember, and the thought that I get to continue to have the opportunity to create so much fun and delicious content and memories is something I will continue to cherish,” Alex said in an August 2024 statement, announcing an extended multiyear deal with Food Network, TheWrap reported.

Get the latest Food Network news on Alex at FoodNetwork.com. Follow Alex on Instagram @guarnaschelli.