Antoni Porowski’s got an eye for style — and taste. Best known for his role as the food and wine connoisseur on Queer Eye, Porowski helps people transform their cooking skills (a crucial part of any makeover), with a fuss-free and encouraging approach. In his latest venture, he takes his love of food to a whole new realm on his new show, No Taste Like Home, in partnership with National Geographic. (You can watch the entire first season on Hulu.) On the show, Porowski takes fellow celebrities on a culinary journey, exploring their ancestral roots through food.
However, having a meaningful experience through food doesn’t have to require a passport. Porowski teamed up with Eventbrite to craft his own It-List: a selection of foodie events curated by him in NYC (his hometown) and Washington, D.C. (where the latest season of Queer Eye was filmed). To kick off the launch of the It-Lists, he hosted Eventbrite’s first-ever Cheese Rave in Brooklyn. You can find other It-Lists here to connect with like-minded people through food in your own neighborhood.
“We’re at a place where I think things are kind of terrifying, and there’s so much that we can’t control so community is incredibly important,” Poroski tells The Kitchn. “It all starts at the kitchen table, but it also starts with getting yourself out of your comfort zone. It’s just a fun, beautiful, quirky, odd in the best way, pairing that hopefully inspires people to start doing things a little differently.”
For this edition of Cooking Diary, Porowski shares his favorite entertaining tips, the must-have snacks he has while traveling, and which members of the Fab Five can actually cook.
What was the inspiration behind No Taste Like Home? Any behind-the-scenes details you can share?
The whole concept came from what I’ve learned through nine seasons of Queer Eye, the power of storytelling through food. Partnering with Nat Geo and approaching it in a more global way, being able to travel just shows us that as emotional as food can be, it’s always so much more than just the dish. I know that’s such a simple statement to make, but I really do believe that. There’s always a wealth of history and knowledge and perspective that can be gained when you do a deep dive, and to be able to do it with all these incredible talent who decided to open up about their personal lives was a really beautiful thing as well. It was truly a life-changing experience. I got to travel to places where normally I would never be able to go.
I got a mini heat stroke twice, even though I was so hydrated and was taking all of my electrolytes. The jungles of Borneo are no joke. But it was a wonderful ride, filled with no shortage of jet lag and adjusting to different climates and perspectives and everything. It was a hell of a journey I hope I get to continue for a long time.
What was the process like for finding all those ancestral connections, such as finding out Issa Rae’s relative was a king?
I’m not taking any credit for it. There’s a research team at Studio Ramsay who worked three to six months for every single person just to find that information. And they really did, genuinely only start with a dish. Our showrunner, Robin O’Sullivan, and myself, we either got on Zoom or met in person with all the talent, and we basically started asking them: give us one dish that you had as a kid. And the dive started there. They went down maternal and paternal lines to see where there was a story to be told. Because it’s Nat Geo, every single thing has to be corroborated by three independent sources. You can’t just say what you want to say. So there were a lot of revisits to voiceover, because they weren’t 100% certain about something until they really had it right, which I respect. You kind of have to do that for that kind of storytelling for it to be really impactful.
What was the most memorable meal you had while filming the show?
Senegal was so special. I really felt that sense of food as something that’s meant to be shared, family style, very community driven. Just the concept of sticking to your slice of the dish, whether it was ceebu jën or the moringa stew or even the maafe. There was something about that that was very touching to me. Even though the ingredients could not be more different than my Polish heritage, it reminded me of growing up, sitting around the table, and having food together that my mother would prepare. So that was emotional, and the [fact] that one of Issa’s ancestors was one of the first women in a male-dominated fishing village to bring in peanuts from Mali … that influence, how that got integrated into the food, the fact that she had a role in it was just so powerful.
Speaking of Poland, have you ever had your own culinary journey like the guests did on the show?
No, but No Taste Like Home left me with a lot of questions. My father is pretty knowledgeable about our family history, but we realize that there’s so much we don’t really know. Why is cabbage so important? Why did we ferment it into sauerkraut? Yes, for preservation, but when did that come about? Why are beets in Polish culture? I don’t think we invented pierogies, and the concept of dumplings has been done in Asia and in Italy for such a long time. How did it get to Poland? How did we learn how to seal it with dough?
Doing the show actually left me with more questions than answers about myself in a really good way. That inspired me. I’ve had family reunions and visits when I go to Montreal, and I started asking some of the older people in my family about the dishes they ate growing up. So I hope that’s what inspires people. I get it, not everyone has a full research team, but we have members of our family that we can ask for those stories, no matter how humble or complicated the dish, whether it was a weeknight staple like chicken fried steak for James Marsden, or whether it was something more celebratory, like it was for Issa visiting all of her aunties in Dakar.
Is there a certain dish that always reminds you of home?
Because it’s warm in New York now, in the summer months, my family would sit on the back patio and eat chłodnik which is like a chilled borscht. It’s bright pink, like it looks artificial almost, but it’s whisked with either kefir or a full fat sour cream. [You can serve it] with pickles, cucumbers, radishes, a lot of dill, parsley and hard-boiled egg. It’s this really refreshing, cooling, tangy, sour soup. It’s like Poland’s gazpacho.
Is there something you learned from any of the guests on the show that you continue to do in your own daily life?
I think it’s just the mindfulness around eating in general. It’s a lot easier to do with friends, being present, but I’ve been trying to incorporate it into meals I have with myself. My biggest challenge is actually preparing food for myself. I think cooking for one is such a challenging, intimidating thing, even for somebody who knows how to cook. It just feels a little sad sometimes. So I’m trying to figure out how to have those moments with myself. It sounds woo woo, but it’s just respecting, not standing at the island, actually sitting down. Am I good at it? No, but I’m trying.
If somebody is intimidated by cooking, what’s one tip you would give them to start getting in the kitchen?
Look, be prepared. You’re gonna make mistakes, and that’s totally fine. You’re not saving lives. You’re making yourself something to eat. I think people sometimes get overwhelmed, and they look at recipes that have 20 different components, and they have to go to four different stores. Look within your house. If there’s an ingredient you’re accustomed to or you’re familiar with, look at different ways to make it. There are millions of free recipes available online. Obviously you can support cookbooks if you want a specific genre, but it’s an opportunity to lean into what comes on the other side of the fear. And if you screw up the roast chicken and it’s really bright pink inside the first time you make it, you’re probably not going to screw it up the second time, because you’re going to learn from your mistakes. You can always spatchcock it and throw it on a pan. It’s not wasted.
What’s the simplest way to upgrade a meal or make it feel more fancy?
I think it starts with the intention of making it. As much as I love going to restaurants, I’ve started this tradition of hosting meals and having friends come over. My favorite thing is asking the person, What’s something you haven’t had in a really long time that you really want to have? A friend of mine came over, and I made pho ga from scratch because she wanted Vietnamese food. I’d never made it, wasn’t familiar with how to make such a clear, flavorful broth with the aromatics of cinnamon and star anise in it. I spent a whole day doing a deep dive, because I’m crazy, and then I spent a whole day in the kitchen making it. But it was a beautiful experience because it meant so much to her when she came. Just put the intention [in], think about the person, and try to make it special for them. It’s like buying someone a thoughtful holiday present, you want to think about their needs.
Is there one dish you’re famous for cooking among family and friends?
I love a good salad to start off a meal, and I go really seasonal. Even in the fall, you can get some beautiful apples and persimmons at the farmers market. They’re great with a nice sharp cheese. In the summertime, obviously, you can shave any vegetable, and it’s just so beautiful. Vegetables that typically don’t belong in salads, you can shave and make them really nice and thin and colorful and bright. I put a lot of mint in my salads, and people are always surprised, but if you don’t overpower it, it’s really refreshing and lovely. Playing around with herbs is something I’ve been doing a lot more of, just trying to keep it fresh and bright.
What are your favorite snacks while traveling on the road?
I love a meat stick. There’s a brand called Vermont that does a really good cured pepperoni. It’s made with turkey and has a lot of protein in it. I feel like when I’m traveling, I’ll go and have a bunch of snacks, but there’s not often a lot of protein in there that gives me the fuel that I need for the day. So I travel with those. Bada Beans is a great, cute, small brand that does a million amazing different flavors of dehydrated, slow baked fava beans that are really crunchy. The sea salt and sweet onion & mustard are really good. You can also get bone broth in little powdered packets and add hot water so you can have a warm situation, if you’re on a long flight or even in a car ride. But I’m always trying to load up on protein, because if I just eat carbs, I’m going to pass out and I’m not able to function.
What about your favorite wine and cheese pairing?
Gone are the days of white wine is for fish and red is for meat. It’s really what makes you happy. For me, it’s more the combinations of things that I’m actually putting together. I recently got obsessed with this product from Eataly. They have a wonderful apricot mostarda with whole mustard seeds. With cheeses that either have funk or a sweetness, like the brittleness of a nice aged Parm or sharp cheddar, [I love] to have that acidity, crunch, and the pop from the mustard seeds. I love mixing jams and going sweet with salty. Pistachio butter is one of my [favorites]. I want to be the ambassador for pistachio butter, because it’s my literal favorite type of nut butter ever. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and salty. It’s dense, so you don’t need too much of it, but a nice little light smear, even on a plate just to dip in, is really great. But play with different elements. Make it look like a Jackson Pollock. Throw a bunch of stuff on. Let people choose their own adventure. Yeah, it’s nice to suggest things, but having that little moment of discovery is lovely.
You’re known as the cooking guy on Queer Eye. But which member of the Fab Five would you say is second best cook?
Tan [France] does unbelievable Indian and Pakistani food. He’s cooked for me several times. He did a reel a while back I think with EmRata making his classic dal. It has an insane amount of garlic, and it offends everyone on set the following day. But after a long 10- to 12-hour shoot day, when he would come over with it, ready, still warm from his kitchen, we would just reheat it in mine. I don’t know why we never had it at his house, but always at mine. Probably because I didn’t want to leave my dog. He’s exceptional.
I haven’t tried Jeremiah [Brent]’s food, but I know he cooks for his family a lot. And Jay [Jonathan Van Ness] and Karamo [Brown] have a lot of wonderful qualities, but cooking ain’t one of them. They would say the same. They’re really good at consuming it with me, though, and they’re fun to have around. But they’ve never offered, and I’ve never asked them to make me anything. I would say it would have to be a battle between Tan and Jer.
Want more Celebrity Cooking Diary Questions? Check out our chat with Martha Stewart here.