Maria Guarnaschelli is credited with having taught Alex how to cook
Maria Guarnaschelli, who was born Maria DiBenedetto in Brookline, Massachusetts on April 18, 1941, and who died on February 6, 2021, of complications from heart disease, earned a graduate degree in Russian Literature from Yale University, where she met her husband, the late Dr. John Stephen Guarnaschelli. Among the heartbroken whom Maria Guarnaschelli leaves behind are her daughter, Alex Guarnaschelli, the executive chef of New York City’s Butter restaurant and frequent guest on Food Network shows such as Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay (via W.W. Norton & Company). In an Instagram post from February 8, Alex revealed that her mother was the only person who called her by the nickname, “Al.” “I will miss her soufflés, her endless curiosity and the smell of her perfume in the room,” she wrote. Alex recently became engaged to Michael Castellon, who is also a celebrity chef as well as a judge on Chopped.
During her tenure with Norton, Maria Guarnaschelli was known by her colleagues as “brilliant; exuberant; indomitable; a stunning reader; laser-like in spotting quality or falsity; Shakespearean in her comic sense; irreverent; charming; and—repeatedly—beloved,” according to a memo to Norton staff from Chairman and President Julia Reidhead. The cookbook authors with whom she worked found her “demanding and exacting, but also passionately engaged with their work,” according to W.W. Norton’s statement.
The Heartbreaking Death Of Maria Guarnaschelli
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
By Lauren Cahn/Updated: Jan. 25, 2023 5:45 pm EST
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
“The cause of death was complications of heart disease, according to her daughter, chef and Food Network television personality Alex Guarnaschelli,” according to Norton’s statement.
Maria Guarnaschelli is credited with having taught Alex how to cook
Maria Guarnaschelli, who was born Maria DiBenedetto in Brookline, Massachusetts on April 18, 1941, and who died on February 6, 2021, of complications from heart disease, earned a graduate degree in Russian Literature from Yale University, where she met her husband, the late Dr. John Stephen Guarnaschelli. Among the heartbroken whom Maria Guarnaschelli leaves behind are her daughter, Alex Guarnaschelli, the executive chef of New York City’s Butter restaurant and frequent guest on Food Network shows such as Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay (via W.W. Norton & Company). In an Instagram post from February 8, Alex revealed that her mother was the only person who called her by the nickname, “Al.” “I will miss her soufflés, her endless curiosity and the smell of her perfume in the room,” she wrote. Alex recently became engaged to Michael Castellon, who is also a celebrity chef as well as a judge on Chopped.
During her tenure with Norton, Maria Guarnaschelli was known by her colleagues as “brilliant; exuberant; indomitable; a stunning reader; laser-like in spotting quality or falsity; Shakespearean in her comic sense; irreverent; charming; and—repeatedly—beloved,” according to a memo to Norton staff from Chairman and President Julia Reidhead. The cookbook authors with whom she worked found her “demanding and exacting, but also passionately engaged with their work,” according to W.W. Norton’s statement.
During her tenure with Norton, Maria Guarnaschelli was known by her colleagues as “brilliant; exuberant; indomitable; a stunning reader; laser-like in spotting quality or falsity; Shakespearean in her comic sense; irreverent; charming; and—repeatedly—beloved,” according to a memo to Norton staff from Chairman and President Julia Reidhead. The cookbook authors with whom she worked found her “demanding and exacting, but also passionately engaged with their work,” according to W.W. Norton’s statement.
