Antoni Porowski Talks Food Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine

“I’ve cooked more in the past six weeks than I have in the past 2½ years. That’s been the silver lining to it all.” Antoni Porowski, the 36-year-old food and wine expert for the hit Netflix series Queer Eye, is describing his current (quarantine) status in relation to the pop culture juggernaut he has found himself on. Porowski spoke to us in April from an Airbnb in Austin, Tex., where he’d been holed up since the lockdown began. His much-loved show, which launched its fifth instalment of episodes in June, was just beginning to film another season in the southern metropolis before everything came to a standstill.

Porowski, who hails from Montreal, says he has used the isolation time to “lead a much simpler life.” And it’s undoubtedly much needed; he and his co-stars have had an intense few years, with each of the five personalities going from relative anonymity to the kind of superstardom that saw them host Elton John’s Oscars-night viewing party this year. It was a major pinch-me moment for Porowski, who recalls the “beautiful burgundy Zegna couture tux” he wore to the annual AIDS fundraiser. “I was standing there thinking, ‘Elton John is performing right now and I’m four feet away from him.’ I felt a chill go down my back. And I couldn’t sleep that night because I wanted to remember every sensation and moment of the night.”

That L.A. evening must seem like a lifetime ago now, and Porowski—who is typically based in New York City—has switched his focus to less star-studded but no less admirable networks, making the most of the local flavours (pun intended) that he’s surrounded by. “I got obsessed with this new app called Vinder,” he says about an Austin-based digital hub that connects restaurants and home cooks with local agricultural businesses. “I’ve been ordering all kinds of farm goods. In some ways, I’m living my best Martha Stewart or Ina Garten life.”

It’s not hard to conceive of Porowski following in the footsteps of such legendary lifestyle gurus. His first cookbook, which was released last year, touts the appeal of easily achievable cooking for people who are “too busy to make dinner.” That describes plenty of the guests made over in each episode of Queer Eye—“heroes” as they’re dubbed on the show—so Porowski has become an authority on getting people excited about uncomplicated food, be it chicken Milanese or mac ’n’ cheese. (Both recipes are found in Antoni in the Kitchen.) “We’re given so little information about the heroes,” he says. “I always come up with 10 different recipes to teach them. Then I meet the person and realize that some people want to be taught and they want to expand their palate. And other times, it’s really just helping someone do what they already do but more efficiently.”

Porowski inspires people from many walks of life through an approach that favours connection over pontification. “I do my best not to come in and be preachy because for anybody who’s ever tried to be preachy with me, it never really falls well,” he laughs. This gentleness in spirit translates to Porowski’s own philosophy about eating, which he says is rooted in a harmonious mix. “It’s about listening to your body,” he says about how he navigates a love of noshing with taking care of his well-being, noting that he’s just as much a fan of fried chicken as he is of raw beets. “I think balance is the key.”