ANTONI: EXPOSED (THE FULL INTERVIEW)

holy guacamole he's the master of cooking and all things wine in the Netflix series queer eye and he's won his way into our hearts one avocado at a time he also has a brand new cookbook Anthony in the kitchen coming out September night his name is Anthony and he's about to be exposed let's do it well thanks so much for being here thank you for having me wonderful kitchen we're in West Hollywood and this home is listed by Jonathan London so let's get started with little Anthony I want to know about little Anthony we're gonna go back in time and you were born and raised in Quebec born and raised in Quebec so Quebec the province Montreal my parents were born in my mother was born in Warsaw my father was born in Belgium but he spent most of his life in Canada and yeah so child of immigrants so you ended up eventually moving to West Virginia yes yeah I don't talk about that as much I was there for three four years on and off before returning to Montreal did you like West Virginia I did it was very different I would say it's the landscape is beautiful great scenery I met some some friends that I'm still in touch with to this day and it was like it was a nice place to be young and just sort of grow up a lot of wilderness outdoor sports that sort of thing yeah when you were younger what was like your dreams and aspirations when you're younger what did you want to be when you grew up when I was younger I think when I started actually thinking about a career it would be when I was probably in university when I was studying psychology and I really wanted to be a therapist oh well yeah you wanted to help people with their problems help people with their problems but I think also figure out my own I had a lot of existential angst I still have a lot of existential angst but yeah I just wanted to kind of figure myself out and like the motivations behind what I do and like the whole the age-old question of nurture versus nature or vice versa and like the relationship between the two and just trying to figure myself out so it's like a nice a nice dance between narcissism and self-reflection and to help other people I guess that's really cool but you're kind of doing that now with clear I like you are helping people you kind of are a little a little baby there and it's like not and that's the crazy part is like often in life you get what you need and not necessarily what you want I was after University I moved to New York and I studied theater for two years at the Neighborhood Playhouse and while I still do have those aspirations my focus was really on myself on how and on how I was perceived by other people and with queer I basically what we have is a service job we're there and we go and we help other people we bring our own personal story into it as well and we have that conversation but it's sort of it's not at all like what I wanted or like what I fantasized about but I got sort of like something that was a lot more fulfilling and kind of gave me a sense of purpose in life so when you're in New York and you're going on these auditions you ended up for you waiting tables is that how you go yeah okay yeah so my first my first I'm trying my first ever job was but I've been working in restaurants for somewhere between nine and 11 years from like a busboy in Montreal at a place called buona notte which is kind of like a supper club it was like the restaurant that turned into like a bottle service situation where there was a lot of like Italian food - working at a family-run Polish restaurant which is where I like fell back in love with Polish food a place called stash cafe where my father worked as a waiter when he was a student both my sisters all of my cousin's it's like the rite of passage for all Polish people in Montreal basically to work at this restaurant and then when I moved to New York I was at fatty crab a restaurant the now unfortunate isn't exist anymore specializing in Malaysian food which actually brilliant little segue I have a little omage to it in in my cookbook they had Malaysian it was a chilli crab and I thought because it's not available anymore I wanted people to continue making this recipe so I have my own version of it that's awesome yeah so you're pursuing acting you're waiting table as you start getting into a little bit more the cooking aspect of things and then you end up somehow being what a personal assistant to the original query I tell and how did that house so one of my closest friends PJ vote we were we actually studied acting too Montreal he moved to New York to work for NPR and and we lived together we were roommates and he mentioned like you know what you're gonna be living in Clinton Hill he was one of those people who you know how you have people in life sometimes who sort of like try to steer you in a certain direction and try to nurture your passions but I'm also a very stubborn person and I wasn't really ready to lean into it cuz cooking was always something that was so personal intimate to me and he was like I really feel like you should do something with like food and TV it's like you should follow the career of Ted Allen he's like the the og on Queer Eye for the straight guy very successful if not the number one show on Food Network chopped and he's like I feel like you guys would get along he's a journalist very curious about food not a chef just like a food expert somebody was inherently passionate and curious about food it was like I feel like he's someone who could teach you a lot of things and PJ knows that I I've always loved mentors and I've always had somebody sort of like helping steer me in the right direction because I can be a little hapless on my own I think we all can we all kind of need mentors so I went to Ted's book signing for in my kitchen and met him we got along really well and then we became friends and then he needed help the first time that I actually worked for him was he had beehives on the roof of his brownstone as one does when you're telling and he and he was basically like packaging them and they didn't want to sell them but they wanted to give them away to friends and they don't know what to do so he and his husband Barry hired me as a personal assistant to like mail those out as like presents for you mail that beehive no not behind to beat honey from not clear about that yeah he trusted me so we we packaged the honey we packaged the honey and mailed it out to a bunch of people and they realize like well we could use some help with logistics not only in Ted's business but also his husband who was starting a mid-century modern furniture gallery like specializing in Italian and American designers from the 40s 50s and 60s and 70s so I kind of like helped both of them and and works for both of them and then I I got poached by a gallerist in the city who was dealing with art deco and I've always loved art deco as well so I worked as a gallery director for this for this other guy for about two years and then queer I came about which was kind of strange like I didn't realize it at the time but working for Ted was preparing me for the career that I have now just even helping with like scheduling and understanding the ins and the outs of the business yeah which is it's kind of crazy like in life sometimes you know you go and you have this plan of this thing that you want to do and things don't well at least for me they never work out the way that I thought that they would but then when you kind of look back it's sort of like oh yeah it totally makes sense when I think of all the years that I spent in restaurants being around food never in the kitchen because I'm not a chef I'm home taught and I'm a home cook but always sort of like being on the sidelines of it and sort of observing and having opinions and studying and like being in the environment in the in the periphery it kind of set me up for for the life that I have now that's pretty cool and you end up getting queer I how did you end up getting that like well how did that come about it so I had a actually so it's in in in large part two so when I was Ted's assistant his agent assistant and I were both helping like plan our bosses schedules his name was Ben Levine and so when he became a junior agent was right when queer I came along and when I found out about the show I actually contacted him and I was like hey have you heard of queer I being rebooted for Netflix they want a diverse cast turning the red states paying like I loved everything about it but I was also very fearful for a lot of reasons and and I was like you want to help me with this so I was like his one of his first contracts ever and we sort of like he like pitched me for the show and went in for it and it was like a long arduous process of which basically started out with an audition tape where I just had like a simple meet-and-greet sort of via Skype with one of the casting directors at ITV and and we set it up I did it from Ted's kitchen Wow and it was supposed to be like 20 to 30 minutes and we were we were on there for about an hour and a half just talking about life and food and my experience and how like food just somehow ties into everything everything in life because I think it does for everybody it's like you remember the first meal that you had with somebody who you're in a relationship with or like food that you had around your family's table it doesn't matter whether you had a nice bringing a really shitty one it's like we all have those stories brings everybody together it brings everybody together when you're a broke student you can't go to restaurants you invite everybody over for a big bowl of pasta and it's like it's how we connect when you're a student as well and you're studying it's like you have friends over and you do your little study groups or at least I did and so it's always been just at the center of everything and it's an incredibly emotional thing for me and I think they caught on to like how passion and I was about it got invited to LA it was my first time here and we basically we went through just several days of putting five of us in a room together and they would like show us a slideshow of images of like a guy wearing Crocs and we would comment on it and I met a whole bunch of really really interesting folks intimidated definitely cuz there were actual chefs who are auditioning for the part as well and as somebody who's very familiar with imposter syndrome I know a lot of people are I was thinking like wow I'm not cut out for this but when I started to realize like the pools getting smaller and smaller I was like okay they're actually considering me like there actually may be a chance for this I went in trying not to care and by the end of it I was like I think I really it wasn't that I want this it was like I think that I need this and that's kind of like what I went in with and what was very obvious as well was what was very different than the auditioning process for traditional scripted series you're playing a character but for this they were just asking me to be myself which in some ways can be a lot harder to do than mask yourself behind something else but there was also freedom because it was like if they don't like me they don't like me and there's nothing I can do about that so I decided to just kind of go in and be my weird self we get some bug-eyed when he starts talking about the virtues of cheese so it's the first season of queer eye and one thing that I think a lot of people notice was your fascination with avocados you also had a little bit of like making smaller dishes I guess my question to you is do you feel like you making smaller dishes took away from your capabilities of what you can actually do in the kitchen smaller dishes is in like more simplistic recipes first of all the avocados those episodes were not shot in succession in my defense which beside me yes I did choose to use the wonderful beloved millennial fruit twice in 16 episodes but they decided to air those in succession so that's not on me but that said I think it would have been if I started doing something that was complex it's kind of like I kind of equated to if I walk into I'm gonna relate it to politics but bear with me there is a point okay if I like there was one hero who had a trump banner on his front lawn and he had guns in his house two things that make me very uncomfortable especially the guns even more so than the banner because I'm Canadian and we for the most part don't do guns makes us much uncomfortable if I address that from the beginning it would have been a missed opportunity and I just try to focus on like how best I can help the person same goes with the food I know what I know about food I'm confident about it I don't think that I know everything either I'm an inherently curious person I think that's been like that's why I love to learn and I constantly have questions and I love chefs and I love hanging out with them and going to restaurants and cooking by myself and messing up dishes and being successful at them and hosting dinner parties but it's like a constant learning thing but that said it's like you can't you can't walk in and try to teach somebody something that's extremely complicated because it's a missed opportunity to try to get them to relate to the food I would go a little more complicated with somebody who did have an interest in food already where then you can really focus on technique but then with other people like some people tell me that they don't care about food and they'll basically eat like if you ask them if they want to have like a grilled salmon with broccoli rabe and crispy garlic chips and chili flakes and a bit of honey on there or a granola bar they're like well what's easier exactly and it's like so those people don't really care so for them it's really figuring out like that emotional attachment or just like that what's the in in getting them excited about cooking yeah like a reason for it yeah examples - the actual food itself kind of like slowly bringing them in that way they can expand it and you want them to remember it as well - it's you know I did get a lot of hate in the in the first season and it really hurt at first because I'm always I cared a lot about what people think about me and in some ways I still do but that's the good thing about public life is that it's actually impossible to have everyone love you so it's the perfect lesson and just like remembering to stay in your own lane but when we started filming seasons 3 & 4 in Kansas City the ideas that I had for the first recipes are exact Jen Lane laners we call her mama bear came up to me and she was like aunt and she took me to decide after our first production meeting and she was like don't listen to them you're going way too complicated like these people make sandwiches you have to keep it like we've got to focus on like why we're actually here it's not your ego it's not you jerking off your skills it's like you helping this person which I'm so glad that she reminded me because at the end of the day it's not about us it's about trying to be like a messenger and we use our verticals like are our specialties to sort of get to like deeper more meaningful conversations and like you said like you try to like form people to be a better version of themselves ultimately has there been a moment on the show that has actually made you a better person oh my gosh absolutely if I bring it back down to even the beginning there are two that I want to talk about I'll start with one and I'll try not to belabor it but when we met with AJ who was the the young man who wanted to come out to a stepmom and his father passed away that was in season 1 episode 4 when Anthony senior passed did your relationship with AJ did you guys get closer to each other we got closer no he told me you know take care of my day and make sure you know she didn't have any problems I when the show started I don't know why but I had this conversation with myself and even with the producers and I was like I'm not talking about sexuality because I'm fluid and I always get super people confused when I talk about it and it's just not something that I want to address meanwhile I'm on like literally the gayest show in the world it's good to talk about her personal life so I don't know what the hell I was thinking but when the opportunity came about to actually have that discussion with AJ where you know some of my cast mates were like we realized that we all had very different coming outs and where I didn't have a traditional one like I never really had the whole like announcement to my parents it was just sort of like well dating a girl and I'm dating a guy yeah oh I'm dating a girl again and that was it and here's this person who I care about and if they mean enough to me I'm gonna introduce them to you and with AJ was just sort of I think I gained a newfound sense of confidence in my sexuality even though I always felt like I was really comfortable or like I don't have to explain myself to people but when I look back it's like I've worked so many jobs where it was assumed that I was straight and I never corrected anybody and I had opportunities to tell them but I didn't and sometimes I think it was just like oh well the lazy answer was like oh I don't want to have to explain myself but at the same time it was like oh I don't want their perception of me in case their perception of me changes and I'm also a little [ __ ] the server and I like to keep people guessing sometimes harder to do these days with the life that I have but I'm still inherently a bit of a troublemaker so but um yeah it was just it was an opportunity to just sort of be the same version of myself in different circumstances whereas before I used to really compartmentalize and we touched on that with oh my gosh with Neil ready saving sasquatch episode making jokes it's something that you do a lot do you make a lot of gin you know this and not one of those people it's like what you you like to cover up awkwardness with humor yeah I do that I'm really remembering names you know very bad and the worst that this usually so I'm I had eight hours of sleep last night so I feel very rested and cool calm and collected but with yeah with Neil we discussed being the same person wherever you go like there's such a comfort in there and not having to change the way that you move or dress or even things that you talked about are certain things that you don't want to discuss with certain people whether your workplace or a family function and for sure we all sort of were all chameleons in a sense where we adapt to our environments but but it is a lot easier to go through life and a lot less stressful to just kind of be that same version of yourself with just little tweaks along the way so I think that was probably the most the most of one of them like the first big important lesson that I got from clear eye and I think that's such a good thing to like you guys are teaching people how to be a better version of themselves you're teaching America hey like not everybody you know is the exact same as what you are if you will have so many different you know personalities and sexualities I so many different things and I think that's been such a great part especially you know today's political climate and especially in today of the cultural climate of America I think that's really needed yeah and then you guys get some Emmys I mean where's your Emmy so it's the show that's been nominated and people are constantly asking like where where's our fancy toilet paper holder no I you know what honestly the first so that last year we got four and I was so excited especially for a casting Department which is almost all female run and Ally Capriati grant who's one of the fabulous casting directors she's one who gave me my first interview and this is like young girls some of them it's their first job doing casting and like to get an Emmy is just freaking awesome when we celebrated our nominations this year we're actually filming and it was actually a shoot day and we were in the trailer and we all sort of like got the news together and we got to celebrate with the entire production and I think that's an important reminder as well because yes we are the face of the show but there are so many people who were involved not only the fact that there are three companies Netflix ITV and Scout productions who like originally produce a show but like the grips and the assistants and the PAS and it's like it takes so many people to sort of like create this story to make us look good to make the here at like editors like it's just that the list is endless so the fact that we've actually even like added to the nominations we went from four to six this year like that's nuts nuts that must make you feel good though it makes me feel good I don't need a trophy for it yeah you can you can have a candle yeah there you go so in season three episode two you did mention that you had a little bit of a struggle with addiction before mm-hmm I I was just I was drinking a lot and that resulted in some serious problems I have like a very intimate relationship with addiction and I know what it's like what led you to actually speaking out about that and how did you end up getting to the point where you are today like you know not having that addiction yeah I think that I still do have the addiction for me personally I can only speak from my experience and I know that the journey with which people sort of like through in in dealing with that is very specific but on again it was one of those things where I was like I'm not gonna talk about this cuz it's tricky right like we're on a show that asks us to be vulnerable we're connecting with people who were opening up to us so it'd be very hypocritical if we didn't open up about our own experiences and I wasn't we didn't have that information on that hero on his name was Joe right Joey when he was telling us that he battled with addiction that came up on camera and that for me was like I use God in a spiritual sense where it was like whatever that higher power is was just kind of basically saying like okay now it's time to talk about this if I didn't share my story I would have felt pretty shitty afterwards and it is something that's intimate so I only talk about it to a certain extent but but I knew what his struggle was like and even though our circumstances were very different I think that the feelings are the same and that's kind of what unites us and that's why you can watch somebody who's a staunch Republican and still relate to them because we all have very similar we all have the same feelings and I mean with me it really came to a point where I I have an addictive personality and sometimes that manifests itself in a in a good way and sometimes not such a good way my twenties were nuts but I think I came to a point where I have a very good understanding of what depression is like and and and a lot of like mental health stuff particularly in my 20s and I think I came to a point where what switched for me was that I knew very well what it was like to be depressed and when I'm in a bad mood or if I'm sad I tend to wallow in it like I'll listen to the sad song light the candles for days and I just like I try to get every single team out of that whether I guess I can I'm not one of those like let go of it and let it let it go by but there was one morning that I woke up and for the first time in my life I actually felt nothing and that was the scariest thing of all because I'm also a very sensitive person and I love to smile as much as I love to cry probably like to cry a little more I'm a happy sad boy but when I didn't feel anything that was kind of that was the most terrifying thing ever because I just felt completely that lined and I decided to reach out with somebody who I knew sort of went through a similar thing who I'd shared with a couple years prior because it was something that I knew I was gonna be ready for eventually but didn't know to what capacity or how I wanted to go about it and then I had a really honest conversation with her and she helped me and and and I made a decision and I made a choice that day and it's something that is ongoing it's not like I made a decision and it went away and now I'm like cured it's part of me but it's kind of kind of like my emotional vulnerability is something that I always felt was a weakness when I was growing up because like boys you know you don't feel like boys are always supposed to cry you know we live in a world where it's different right now where yes you have certain political leaders who don't encourage that but then you have like Canadian prime ministers who are comfortable with that so we're on the up and up but where I realize that instead of seeing my vulnerability as a liability it was sort of like oh it's an asset and it's part of me so I might as well start embracing that just like social anxiety as well it was something that used to stress me out and it would [ __ ] me from actually going on being in social environments but now I realize like okay it's here it's my friend is it strong today or is it weak and if it's strong I'm gonna figure out how to deal with it and I'm gonna go to the party for 40 minutes it's week I'll last two hours yeah you adapt but that's really good that you have learned to adapt because I think that that's a big struggle tune and also having people that you can count on especially like when it involves your mental health when it involves anything with addiction anything like that like having somebody to count on is the biggest thing in the world and I've seen a great yes and knowing that you're not the only one going through that you're not the first person to to experience whatever it is that you're experiencing it's like even with something like Fame I remember I was walking through Union Square Park right when the show came out and I got to the gym and then I got on Twitter and somebody posted a photo and put my location from behind at Union Square like just three minutes prior and I freaked out I went to my therapist after and I was basically telling her like how unsafe I felt and like I was thinking like do I need to have a security person around me and she was like calm down you're not the first person experienced this thousands of people have its new and it's different and your feelings are very valid but like you're gonna be fine and I like just speaking to somebody else even if it's a friend anybody with an setec ear and words of kindness and just anybody who's gentle with you and allows you to be gentle with yourself I think reminds us that we're we're never alone and whatever it is that we're struggling with no matter how weird or or how lonely you may feel there's always someone else yeah and you mentioned the fame and like that kind of came out of nowhere you know for you're going from one thing to end up you know posing in your underwear on you know gay times and stuff yeah do you consider yourself a sex symbol I you know I'm not gonna be naive and and pretend like I don't engage in that in that in that part of my image but it's something that I'm very it's very entertaining for me my intention for it I think everything for me like my big message with everything that I do whether it's an endorsement or posing in my underwear whether it's with a photographer or with like a brand deal like Tom Ford for for underwear it's always checking my intentions and it's figuring out like why am i doing what I'm doing if I'm doing something because I want some kind of purely just for validation and because I want attention then I know that that I call that McDonald's syndrome it feels good for five minutes it's like watching bad reality TV and then you feel like garbage and then you want more or is there something else with it I think that's the part like what I was referencing earlier the fact that I'm a bit of a troublemaker hmm the sex symbol part is that because I'm actually I feel like I am kind of conservative my parents are European and we've always been sort of like we talked about sex very openly but it wasn't anything that was like super precious but there is something like there's a purity to queer eye where we're like not innocent because I think we do open up and we're very honest but that's just kind of like it's like another muscle that I get to flex in like a different part it's like kind of like having a restaurant or writing the cookbook it's just like it's like a fun little thing to lean into every once in a while yeah I try to balance it out yeah it's like I've had like studied psychology worked as a gallery director as a busboy assistant for Ted Allen I'd like to do a lot of things yeah like a nice big web exactly yeah and you could just jump from one strand to the next everyone's know exactly and like when that opening that up to allows you to you know have different creative outlets right be able to like express your sound it's fun it's a more superficial side but it's like I take care of myself health and wellness is something that's very important and it's and you're gonna need those pictures when you get 80 years old and you're gonna be like look when I'm like a weird 80 year old man hopefully living in Rome I really want to have a gut by then and just like not give a [ __ ] and I'm just gonna have like photos of myself in my 30s and underwear it's quite the picture but yeah so one of your queer eye cast mates Jonathan Van Ness you guys have been having a little romantic relationship on social media but you guys have debunked it but if you had to date one of your queer eye co-stars who would it be if I actually had to date one of my classmates my physical and psychological and emotional well-being must be preserved and so in fear of being very hurt in a real way by Jonathan if I didn't say him I feel like my life would be in jeopardy so I'm gonna say Jonathan Van Ness also because I love it yeah I love everyone equally in different ways so you guys will always look like you're having a good time well he brings out he brings out I think that that kid in me who I don't think I had that I knew of any gay friends when I was in elementary school and there's something very childlike about our relationship like we took a flight yesterday Tan was on that flight as well and it's like we're sitting in each other's laps halfway through the flight everyone's sleeping and we're laughing like throwing food at each other and like messing with each other's hair and I never thought that at the age of 35 that I would like hold hands interlocked like I never did with a girl or guy show any PDA and with these guys it's like we just like there's something very childlike about our friendship that's kind of that I never thought that I would be that person and that I kind of wish I was a little more of that and a little more unguarded when I was a kid and so I kind of get to live that now and it makes no sense but it makes all the sense in the world to us so speaking of your relationship status are you single taken I am single and not available that's my way of basically I'm pathologically codependent and I've always sort of lost myself in the relationships that I've been in and I've sort of like always been I'm like a frog that goes from like one lily pad to the next and so I'm just doing my best now to just kind of be with myself and see what that's like well I was speaking to a friend of mine who's who's an actor knows he encountered a lot of success when he was very young and is somehow managed to sustain that career and I was telling him he was like well how are you dealing with you know public life and I was like well I'm just doing my best not to change and I don't want to change and his answer to that was like well that's [ __ ] because everything about your life has changed and you have to adapt you have to understand you can't pretend that when you walk into a space that people aren't looking at you if you act like it's not happening then you're being like weirdly precious about it and you're there's an arrogance and a denial that comes with that as opposed to like accepting that like this is the new normal and some days are gonna be harder than others and some about navigating it perfectly but kind of like really accepting it in a very honest way so I only starting to realize now like what I like to do when I'm alone at home and like lighting candles and shows that I want to watch it was always about making the other person happy and making sure that they don't leave me because I never want to be abandoned Oh God therapy session but I I kind of want to know what it's like to be with myself it's like life is camp these days where I'm surrounded by people all the time and then at the end of the day I'm with myself I'm just trying to see what that's like [Music] you recently did a video with Miss cracker and she puts you in drag I love her and after seeing yourself in drag would you ever consider doing that or being on RuPaul's Drag Race would I revisit it in some way shape or form absolutely it was a lot I really only thought about the superficial change before doing before doing that piece with them and it really I like I got weirdly emotional just like there was something about this moment when I cuz I didn't see myself at all during that process they're like they really didn't let me not for a second see what I look like and she kept on telling me like Oh put your shoulders back more and I was like I wasn't fully understanding it and like ribs in cuz it was kind of like this course it did slightly corseted situation she's like don't worry honey when you see yourself in front of the mirror you're gonna change and then I saw myself and at first I was like this like ogre like and then I was like oh god that's what I said and then suddenly it started changing my posture and I was like oh this is what the chin down like this thing is where you're kind of like you have the curve of like a stallion of like a horse and it just kind of it was like oh wow I don't know yeah I got I got weirdly not really because I always get emotional but um under the right circumstances I think I would I would revisit it because there's more to be explored there just in terms of like gender lines and sort of the way that I present myself again like growing up it was just always assumed that I was just fully straight and and I think that we're all adaptable and we can always change I've definitely changed a lot of like even the clothing that I wear I know I'm wearing black and white today but like I wear brighter colors because I know tan I paint my toenails because I know Jonathan no I still bite my regular nails I haven't I'm not I'm not like a filer nail cutter yet but but like one thing at a time you know yeah so so shortly after your video with Miss cracker I saw you in Taylor Swift's music video for you need to calm down so what was it like working with Taylor and what do you think of the message of the song I love her I got to meet her for the first time it was actually at a at a CA party a year prior I was really I'm weirdly intimidated by female comedians and pop stars and I was like too shy to go up to her and been the agent who I mentioned was like my best friend an agent we were all at this party together and I saw her Ellie Goulding was there as well and she's just a sight to behold I mean her voice is so sweet and pure and I saw Taylor and I was like I got really weird and Ben was like what's wrong I was like god it's Taylor Swift he's like we'll come in and say hi cuz he's not try to talk to anybody and so I went and I was thinking about like okay think of three smart things to say because this is like a short moment you don't know how often in life you're gonna have an interaction with someone like this and before I could even say anything she just started like gushing over queer eye which is so nice because like you meet people who you admire you listen to their music whether they're artists or musicians or actresses or whoever and then when they throw all that energy on you it's sort of like oh I don't have to do the work here I can just like respond and then and and you know we've hung out a little bit since we have a we have a mutual friend and we've had some dinners and I got to know her and my real connection to her was we were playing music I was playing music by the national and I think it was a song slow show which is my favorite song by them and she started singing it like humming it and I was like what the [ __ ] she's like oh I love the national and I was like [ __ ] and then I would like play a random song like geese of Beverly Road and then she was like that's the lyric where I would play one and she would guess which song it was and I was like you were as much of a fan as I am it's so cool yeah so we got along in terms of like music taste and I've always I've always loved her music it's always very fun poppy but I never really that's not true because some of the songs I really did listen to and really responded to very well but it sort of like gave me like a newfound glimpse into like wanting to explore her music even more so I've sort of gone back and listened to some of the older stuff and I just think she's immensely talented I think it's incredible to navigate I mean she's on such a different level just with like her global appeal that um the way she navigates it like a pro and like continues to just be comfortable sharing about her experiences dating and being in relationships and conveying that into art is that's a difficult thing to do I don't think everyone's built for that and I think she she does it so well and just being on that set when she invited us to do the music video it's such like you can walk on set sometimes and you can feel when they're sort of like stress and like the tension of like having to get things done and with her is just a very collaborative process it wasn't like she only spoke to one person everyone in that production was coming up to her asking her questions everyone you felt like everyone is just sort of working together where it's just like a nice positive environment which they often are when women are running it in my experience no like shade against guys but any sort of like a female centric work environment tends to be more collaborative and less ego and it's more about like let's come up with the best products possible now that you have followed inside Allen's footsteps and being in queer I would you ever want to follow down his same trajectory and host a show like chopped or anything like that I would certainly be open to it I don't know if I have other things that I sort of want to explore I definitely want to revisit scripted because that still is one of my passions and just going into traditional film and TV but I'd be I'm open to it but I'm still I'm not sure it's something that we're sort of like in process of discussing of figuring out what that story is I do know that because like of a of being on a show like queer I where it is a service job and there is that hard component like the emotional component queer I chopped is very entertaining and there is heart and the back stories of their contestants and everything but I need I need that to be part of it so I'm not 100% sure what that is yet we're sort of exploring it and kind of like taking meetings and like discussing things but I'm still my thing is I'm not I don't want to rush even though I'm a very impatient person and it's all about like a low slow burn there's my food reference of like just taking my time and really doing quality over quantity and just figuring out like what the next move is yeah I want to be passionate about it I want to I want to want to go to work every day the way that he does like I worked for him and Ted is up at like 4:30 5 o'clock in the morning and he was always excited to go and that is a man who loves sleep eight to nine hours a day so I want to find my version of chopped for me whatever that is whether it's similar completely different well a potential version of chopped is your new cookbook Anthony in the kitchen and it's already on the Amazon bestseller list what segue so my question to you is how did this come to be and how do you even determine what recipes go into a cookbook that's yeah that's a good question it came to be shortly after the show after that the the first two seasons came out and it was right before I moved to Kansas City just shoot seasons three and four and you know you don't get to decide on timing a lot in this business but you do want to sort of like jump on momentum and I have a platform and I have eyes on me and and and I want to tell my story in many different ways and a lot of that is you know through food and so I got an offer for a book I met with publishers I really resonated very well with rucks Martin at Houghton Mifflin she not only looks like Grace Coddington but she's also very much like her so I call her the Grace Coddington of the culinary world and she lives in Vermont she's got awesome big-ass hair she's just a legend and she's so no [ __ ] and so she paired me with a brilliant co-author Mindy Foxx again I'd love to be surrounded by as many women as possible and we started at first I was thinking like okay we'll do like a 50 recipe situation she was like no I want a hundred recipes and I was like I don't even know if I know 100 recipes I've never even written down a single recipe in my life like everything is in my head i watch a food doc whether it's like a Netflix special or on PBS or Julia Child or Food Network whatever it is and then it just kind of stays in my head I read cookbooks by like Nigella Lawson and then I just like I don't remember I I don't even know what street we're on right now but like I'll remember a dish that I had when I was six years old I just have that memory it's just my family's like that as well my father's the exact same way and and so she was just like start listing down recipes that you've had and I was like well do we want like a kitchen essentials book do we want a Polish heritage situation do we want a multicultural she's like I don't think it has to be one thing or the other just look at it as autobiographical as like food that's sort of like traveled with you throughout your life food that you've had it like fatty crab when you worked as a waiter - like Polish heritage stuff that you know recipes that you want to sort of like evolve and elaborate on food that you made as a student during your study groups and so before we knew it we had like almost 120 recipes and then we had to cut it down and just figure out like which are the strong ones and the ones that I fought for the ones always that had the best back story to them the only thing that I liked doing more than actually developing the recipes because that was stressful because I work in handfuls and I'm like just put a just put a little half hand full of this and plop it in there and that's it so tax you have to measure it was kind of stressful after 10 hours shoot days but it was writing the introduction and why this recipe was impactful I got to touch on like a beautiful seven-year relationship that I had in like a family who taught me unconditional love and I didn't even realize it at the time but I realize like and I mention it in my introduction it's like a lot of those recipes were tested on that family unbeknownst to me that they were gonna make it to a cookbook and it's like I have all these like happy memories and sometimes they're sad ones but they're still part of like the fabric that's my life and like I want everyone to buy the book yes I think all that's very important but I just want people to look at it and be like it doesn't care if you're it doesn't matter if you're super passionate about food or if you're freaked about it like I am but just know that like we all have those dishes whether it's something that your grandmother made or something that you had like a freaking slice of pizza for two dollars after a club night that you had with your friends and you had a blast like we all we all have those things like wood desserts I don't bake at all and so I got to I got in touch with all of these like lovely women and a couple of guys in my life who made certain things for me when I was a little kid and I got to speak to them and there's like there's some like polish auntie's stuff in there that like they sent me the recipes in Polish and we discussed it over the phone I got to reconnect with them and catch up after not skating for like five or six years and and it's nice because that's what you can do with the recipe if you know how it was made originally you can evolve it and adapt it into like a version that suits you and your lifestyle so is the book more about cooking and a lot of different ingredients or could I actually just pick the book up and not know that much about the cooking atmosphere I think so it was edited down I I over I'm a lot like Ted Allen in this respect we both over complicate things we love complicated recipes and so that's sort of where like my co-author and my editor come in where they're like okay like you're smoked Maldon salt like as great as it is like let's just let's stick to kosher for this one like we don't want we want this these recipes for people to be able to make them across the country this is interest like an LA New York like a coastal cookbook but yeah editing is hard because it's like sometimes you have to like fight and be like oh like this one is really important or this set of ingredients and then you make and you realize like oh there's actually a simpler way yeah like the italians have that figured out it's like such simplicity the best sauces have like three or four ingredients you just have to know how to treat those ingredients to get them to to a good place exactly what makes your I think just cuz it's deeply personal it's it's basically my story it offers a glimpse into you know Polish food is something that I was ashamed of when I was a kid when I lived in West Virginia as lovely a places that was it was weird having a weird name and bringing cabbage rolls for lunch while the other kids had like Oscar Meyer Lunchables which I envy because I wanted to have that and they had like Doritos and cans of coke and I was ashamed of that food and then when I started working as a waiter again in a polish restaurant suddenly I was like pierogies are [ __ ] dope and like I love a Polish hunter stew and borscht and like stuff that I just sort of like pushed away and was like I want nothing to do with this I just think it's it's different because it's deeply personal and I you know I have my books that are like sort of very technical where I get my lessons from but for me if there's an emotional bond to something not only in terms of like it's great because you know fans will get to continue to get to know me and what my story is but I really want people to be inspired to kind of like look at their own lives and like try to figure out like what's their own version of that nice and sometimes you have to hear somebody else's story to get inspired to change your own the way that people watch queer I and get inspired by the heroes everything is always full circle there's always some kind of like a there's always a through line so wrapping everything up my question to you is what is the biggest misconception of Antony that's a difficult question because while I feel like I'm I'm pretty self-aware and I'm constantly working on myself and like trying not to be in too much of a bubble I am very detached of press and of that sort of thing because if you take the good you have to take the bad and I still haven't figured that out how to be good at that so I just kind of like I have people who like real a certain messaging every once in a while but what people don't get is you know what the biggest misconception mm-hmm I always want to appear smart and I'm very careful and how I formulate my sentence is most of the time because I never want people to think that I'm dumb because I often get I think people will often confuse being Spacey and a little aloof which I am because I'm always thinking about something because I I do have like pretty severe ADHD that people think that I'm dumb and I don't know if it's a misconception or if it's my own insecurities and it's something that I'm working on but I often find it like any any opportunity to flex like a literary reference or something where it's sort of like I want you to know I'm not a complete idiot but then you'll be talking to me and being like what street are you want like I have no idea are we in LA where I I I get sensitive about people confusing aloofness with not being intelligent that's like a very honest answer I don't think I've ever said that anywhere before that's like that's something that kind of like really drives me sometimes and I'm just like you know what it doesn't matter people are gonna have their opinions you're not gonna make everybody happy just stay in your own lane yeah and my last question to you is what words of encouragement do you have or words of advice do you have it you live by that could help other LGBTQI Plus people I guess it would be I would want to say something that speaks to when I felt like I was loneliest like I remember when I had my first relationship with a guy I knew it would happen but I was always sort of like waiting for the right one to come along where I cared so much that I I cared so much about the person that I didn't care I think the advice would just be like always know that like however you're feeling like you're not the only person in the world who feels like that and that actually ties into a dick it ties into imposter syndrome like any feeling that you have where you feel like you're the only person going through it know that like countless other people's have countless other people have and that you're not terminally unique in your experience and a good way to combat that is you know professional professional mental health friends with an empathetic ear mentors have worked for me my whole life social workers teachers family members like there's always somebody some of us are blessed with awesome parents who we can look up to and a lot of us aren't so you have to kind of like do the work and I think that's what's really so freakin cool about being part of our you know our our I like to call it recently a population because by a community I feel like we're like separate from the population and as an lgbtqia+ population we don't have the traditional mentors that a lot of like cisgendered straight people did in like media and in pop culture and that may be kind of like daunting and scary at times but the cool thing about that is that we get to seek those out and we get to create what that is because that in essence is what a logical versus biological family is it's chosen that's true and thank you so much for being here Anthony's cookbook Anthony in the kitchen comes out September 9th and all your book stories you get on Amazon if you don't want to leave your house i'm joseph sheppard you can follow me on everything social joseph hey Shepherd and this is Anthony thanks guys bye

Channel: Joseph Shepherd

Views: 112,637

Keywords: Antoni Porowski, Antoni, Queer Eye, Taylor Swift, LGBT, Interview, Jonathan Van Ness, JVN, Avocado, Netflix, 1975, Antoni in the Kitchen, Rupaul, Drag Race, Cracker, Tan France, Karamo Brown, queer eye, jonathan van ness, netflix, Exposed, Full, Antoni: Exposed, Antoni Exposed, The Full Interview, full interview, vanity fair 2019, lie detector vanity fair, lie detector, lie detector 2019, 10 essentials, antoni porowski 2019, Emmy, Emmy Awards, Queer Eye Emmy

Id: FkrdJ3GRmh4

Length: 47min 11sec (2831 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/singoneiknow]

I love so much about this interview, but it really remarkable how much he lifts up women he works with, talks about all-female sets, etc. He has such a beautiful heart, brain, and of course... everything else. Antoni is such a stand up guy.

[u/boujieeUp]

I love Antoni PERIOD

[u/Mschattybitch]

I've loved him since s01e01, but oml this made me swoon. I think he just became one of my favorite humans.

[u/laneloveslipstick]

I didn’t get to watch this just yet and this is kinda an off topic observation...but I watch most (if not all) Queer Eye interviews and I find it sooooo funny that the female celebrity of choice has changed from Ariana Grande to Taylor Swift.

The QE guys are close friends with Pete Davidson. Last year JVN was posting like crazy every time Ariana released something. He loved no tears left to cry and God is a woman, posted about them constantly. They were asked about befriending Ari in a few interviews. After Pete and Ariana broke up, he never mentioned Ari again, never acknowledged thank u, next. I just find it kinda funny and it makes me sooooooo dang curious.

I’ve seen them be asked about Taylor Swift several times now and I know it’s not a conscious replacement on the interviewer’s part necessarily, I just think it’s funny/weird/ironic.

[u/wiklr]

This is a hella good interview. He's actually really well spoken and sincere and surprisingly relatable. JVN and Bobby were my initial favorites but there is something gravitating about Antoni the more he speaks. Guy deserves more air time on the show.

[u/funkychick78]

Absolutely luvin Antoni even more now after watching that interview