Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook mixes autobiographical details with favorite recipes from her professional life that she adapted for the home.
Guarnaschelli's culinary experience started while watching her mother test numerous recipes at home while editing cookbooks.
She also worked at Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant and Joachim Splichal's Patina, before becoming the executive chef at Butter Midtown in 2003.
[10] Guarnaschelli was a competitor on The Food Network's Iron Chef America, taking on Cat Cora in the 2007 "Farmers' Market Battle."
[citation needed] 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.
She later made appearances as a judge in episode five of Iron Chef Gauntlet, where chef Sarah Gruenberg was eliminated before the final showdown in episode six "The Gauntlet",[16] and on the Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay, in which she challenged Bobby with her signature lobster dish and also won that challenge.
She made a guest appearance as herself in the season 5 finale of the ABC Family sitcom Young and Hungry, in which her job offer to Emily Osment's main protagonist Gabi serves as the crux to the episode's storyline, left unresolved due to cancellation of both the show and a planned film wrap-up.
[17] She also appeared in the Showtime series Billions and as a mentor on season 20 of Worst Cooks in America as the captain of the Blue Team, opposite Anne Burrell.