'Iron Chef' Coming to Market District

Alexandra Guarnaschelli, best known for her appearances on the Food Network, will make a special appearance and host a cooking demonstration at the Robinson Market District store at 11 a.m. and the South Hills Market District store at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.

Guarnaschelli’s appearance is free to the public; however, tickets are limited and available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Advance ticket registration is available online at marketdistrict.com.

Guarnaschelli is a regular judge on the primetime show Chopped and winning the title of Iron Chef on Season 5 of The Next Iron Chef. She's also executive chef of New York’s Butter Restaurant and The Darby.

Her mother is respected cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli.

After graduation from Barnard College in 1991, Guarnaschelli sought after a career in the culinary arts and began working under American chef and restauranteur Larry Gorgione. Gorgione encouraged Guarnaschelli to travel and expand her skills, which lead her to move to France and work-study at La Varenne Culinary School in Burgundy. She then moved to Paris to work at Michelin three-star restaurant Guy Savoy. She was quickly promoted to the role of sous chef at La Butte Chaillot, another Savoy restaurant.

After returning to America and honing her culinary prowess under Daniel Boulud at the restaurant Daniel in New York and Joachim Splichal’s Patina Group in Los Angeles, Guarnaschelli became executive chef of New York’s Butter restaurant, where she displays her American and green market-inspired creations.  Guarnaschelli also opened The Darby, a restaurant of her own design, in 2011.

Guarnaschelli has taken both her professional experience and home-grown love of cooking to write her first cookbook, “Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook.”  Her book features 110 recipes detailing “how she learned to cook—and the way she still loves to eat.” 

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