Thank you for having me.
So good to finally have you on the show,
um, as a fan of what you do on Queer Eye,
as a fan of your cooking.
I've been lucky enough to taste your cooking,
and then when I heard you were coming out with a cookbook,
I was like, this is... it's a match made in heaven.
-Thank you. -Um, are you ready
to give away your secrets, though?
Um, I am. It was a long time coming.
It's still just seeing my face on a book
and thinking how much time went into it
and just knowing that it's there, it's, like...
You know what, everything is surreal right now.
-Sitting you... sitting here with you. -Right.
Looking at the book. Just, life has been surreal
-for the past year and a half. -I feel like you're
in the business of making people's lives surreal, though.
That's what you do on Queer.
That's what makes it such a fun show.
You go around America, you just, like, get in people's lives.
One thing I enjoyed about what you do specifically on the show
is you connect people with their food.
-Yeah. -Something that has...
I feel like has been a disconnect in America,
especially for a long time, where people just go like,
"Oh, it's just food," and you go like, "No,
food is more special than we think it is." Why?
I think it's so much more than that.
I mean, it's-it's-it's how you say "I love you."
It's how you say "I'm sorry" to someone.
It connects you to your roots, where you came from.
Um, it's-it's how you meet new friends.
-Right. -Like when you came over.
It's... it's the medium for me for everything.
It's my love language. It's...
And I think especially in, like, it's a messed-up world,
like, it's really a messed-up world, and... -Right.
I think that it's an incredible opportunity to just connect
with other people and break bread
and have conversations.
Yeah, quite literally, breaking bread.
I mean, you know, that's... that's what makes it so..
There's no bread recipe in the book, but, you know...
-(laughter) -That's for the next one.
Yeah, but it-it really is, like, a, you know,
it's a social experience, it's a beautiful vibe
that you have with food.
You have a connection with it, though,
where it really does feel a love language.
You know, what I... I've read a lot of, um, cookbooks,
and normally it's just, I read it for the pictures.
-I'm not actually gonna do anything. -(laughter)
I do. I just like pictures of great food,
and then I... I eat my food, and I'm like, "Mmm."
But, like, this book is very personal,
because, like, you-you tell stories of, like,
what it was like for you to come out as gay.
You talk about, like, how your...
you know, your culture affects your food
and who you are as a person.
Why did you infuse so much of your story into the cooking?
I mean, I think, look, Queer Eye was an opportun...
Queer Eye's a service job, right?
We show up for perfect strangers,
and we try to figure out how we can be of service
in such a short amount of time.
This was an opportunity to tell my story,
and we were trying to figure out...
we spent a lot of time trying to figure out, like,
what kind of book we wanted to do.
Is this gonna be technical, is it gonna be my Polish heritage,
and I realized that it doesn't have to be
one thing or the other.
Um, it's-it's-it's an autobiography.
It travels from, like, food that I ate when I was a little kid
-Yes. -to, like, stuff I ate when I was a broke-ass student
to dishes that I prepare now.
And, like, my Polish heritage, like, I was ashamed to be Polish
for a pretty big portion of my life,
and I fell back in love with it,
and I think that it's incredibly important.
I just wanted to... like, every single recipe in that book
-has a story behind it. -Right. If someone reads this,
though, and they go, "Antoni, look, I love your cooking,
right, but I am a horrible, horrible cook."
Like, not me. Just another person.
-(laughter) -Someone else.
Someone else. Let's say someone else is saying this right now.
They're like, "Antoni, I don't know how to cook."
Um, and this looks amazing.
Like, how easy is it to... to get this done?
'Cause, like, cookbooks always, it always seems easy,
but it's, like-- like, the pictures are amazing.
I mean, like, if you see some of the things
that are being prepared here-- I mean, look at... look at this.
Well, that's, like, literally five ingredients.
-There's no excuse for that. -Yeah, I've never seen...
This looks like nothing I've ever made, ever.
-Like, this is... -It's fennel and citrus!
-They go so well together. -No, I mean, look,
-this is, like, it's in the egg. -Everyone should love veggie...
Look at this. Look at this. Look at that.
I've never, ever, ever made an egg that looks like this.
-(laughter) -But you know what, it takes practice.
Like, I've ruined about 50 chickens,
trying to figure out how to roast them perfectly
until I finally got it right.
I've been making risotto for years,
and then finally learned that you're not supposed to, like,
mix it vigorously, but it's, like, gently folding it in,
-so that you don't break down the arborio rice. -Wow.
It's, like, it's something that you learn
and you nurture it and you... you know?
-Wow, that is... -Did I just teach you something?
-Yeah. No. -Yeah.
That was dope. I'm just gonna...
I taught you about, like, the emulsification powers
-of pasta water, -You have, yes.
-with the spaghetti limone. -Just-just everything.
-Yeah. -So that's what this book is,
just, like, giving people an opportunity
to begin the process of learning
-Yes. -how to express themselves through food.
Yeah, and just, like, on Queer Eye,
for some people, they have a bit of a background,
and you want to teach them technical things.
For other people, the ones who really interest me
are the ones who supposedly don't care
and just eat granola bars every day,
and I try to find an emotional connection.
I love it. You know what, I'm gonna... I'm gonna take it,
I'm gonna try and cook something from the book,
and then I'm going to send you a picture on Instagram.
-Please. -And it'll look nothing like your book.
-I'm excited. -It'll look nothing like the book.
-We don't know that. -But I'll try.
I'll keep on trying. Thank you so much for coming to the show.
-Thank you. -(cheering, applause)
Antoni in the Kitchen is a beautiful book.
It's available now. Antoni Porowski, everybody.