'Burning Every Finger' in Pursuit of Culinary Success

Alex Guarnaschelli's Crispy Potato Cake with Melted Cheese and Pickled Shallots

(Courtesy Thomas Krakowiak)

From Four Days to Four Years

From that phone call Guarnaschelli powered through the culinary world with huge goals in mind. She began working immediately under the tutelage of renowned American chef Larry Forgione. "I spent about a year cutting and burning every finger in pursuit of that goal," she said.

To help fine-tune her skills, she soon moved to France to study at La Varenne Culinary School in Burgundy.

Upon finishing culinary school and traveling throughout France, she moved to Paris to begin a four-day stage at the Michelin three-star restaurant Guy Savoy. Staging is when a cook or chef works briefly in another chef's kitchen to gain exposure to new techniques and cuisines. It was there where Guarnaschelli learned to thrive as a female chef in a mostly male environment.

"When you walk into a 3-star Michelin in Paris, and you're 24 years old and there are 22 men and maybe a woman in the office getting the phone, you suddenly realize you're the black sheep and you didn't even ask to be," Guarnaschelli recalled.

"But I took it positively, and really, I think that was the only way for anyone to get through, which is, you know, I'm a little different, I have something that distinguishes me, and [rather than] be ashamed of that, whether it hurt me or helped me I always conducted myself in a way that made it seem as if I thought it was a good thing."

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Four days turned into four years, with Guarnaschelli getting rapidly promoted to sous chef at La Butte Chaillot, a top Savoy establishment. She returned to the United States and continued impressing the masses, serving spectacular dishes at upscale establishments like Manhattan's Restaurant Daniel and the restaurant Patina in West Hollywood, Calif.

"I love that in a restaurant every night is different," she reminisced. " It's like an opera or a play, and you never know what's going to happen. Now, that can be good or bad. Sometimes the grease trap breaks and the fuse box melts down and the dishwasher has had a couple of cocktails that you didn't know about -- that's not good.

"I love walking into a restaurant and looking at a bar and a roomful of people and hearing that buzz and that hum of people talking and eating and laughing and the clink of a forks and glasses, and it can make a very professional environment and a business feel like a home."

Guarnaschelli's special dishes tend to focus on the senses, modeled after her own instincts when a plate of food is placed in front of her.

"I imagine the best way I can say it is that tasting food … starts with a sniff. You know, we always get a whiff. It's like that leftover air that made it from the kitchen to the dining room, and then there is that visual moment. And then you know, I don't know about you … someone puts food in front of me [and] I'll touch, and I want to know, is the plate warm or is that meat really as tender as it looks?"