Alexandra "Alex" Guarnaschelli is the executive chef at New York City's Butter restaurant[1] and a television food personality.
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A Manhattan native, Guarnaschelli is the daughter of cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli[2] and John Guarnaschelli. She is a graduate of Horace Mann School and Barnard College. Her culinary experience started while watching her mother test numerous recipes at home while editing cookbooks. After becoming a chef, Guarnaschelli worked at a number of restaurants in France, New York and Los Angeles, including Larry Forgione's An American Place and 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 married Brandon Clark, a personal-injury lawyer on April 29, 2007[3]. In September of that year, she gave birth to their daughter, Ava Simone[4].
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 Food Network Challenge, Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast episode and lost the competition.[5]
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.[6]
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 and on Food Network's series The Best Thing I Ever Ate.
Guarnaschelli stars in her own Food Network television show, Alex’s Day Off[7] which premiered in October 2009 and airs regularly Saturday mornings.