‘Queer Eye’ Star Antony Porowski Is Trading the Kitchen for Adventure: ‘I’m Like Indiana Jones Meets Anthony Bourdain’

Food might be Antony Porowski’s job, but it’s also his origin story. On an episode of All on the Table with Katie Lee Biegel, the Queer Eye star traces his path from a deeply food-obsessed Polish household in Canada to West Virginia, New York, and eventually into millions of living rooms. 

He opens up about imposter syndrome, why he’s never been comfortable calling himself a “chef,” and how his new Nat Geo series No Taste Like Home explores something far bigger than recipes. For Porowski, food is memory. It’s identity. It’s generational trauma and generational gifts. And sometimes, it’s a vacuum-sealed squirrel (more on that below).

Below are the highlights, adapted from the episode.

Antony Porowski Talks ‘Queer Eye’ and Family Heritage

What was food like in your childhood?

“I have Polish heritage. My father was born in Brussels after the war. His family fled. My mother’s family’s side, from my understanding, has been in Warsaw for like 3 or 400 years. And I was the first one in my immediate family born outside of Poland in Canada. So Polish was the first language that I learned growing up. Two older sisters, and we are a deeply food-obsessed family. I can’t tell you whether it comes from my maternal or paternal side more, but we were the type of family where if we were at a restaurant, my mother would recreate the dish afterwards and figure out how to make it healthier…

My parents would travel a lot with us…and when they went to like Sharm el-Sheikh in [Egypt], they would come back and we’d have tagine for three weeks, like it was that kind of a family. Food was truly the focal point of every single conversation.”

You studied psychology before acting. How did that path eventually lead you to Queer Eye?

“I got my undergrad in psychology, cause we have a lot of doctors in the family, and that was my way of, I’ve always wanted to be an actor as a kid. That’s like that was everything to me. And so to make my parents happy, I kind of wanted to pick a nice little hybrid between the arts and the sciences, so I chose psych. And I did not have the grades to pursue a master’s degree because it’s super competitive in Canada. Once I completed that, I moved to the States where I started acting school at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and then I graduated, was an out of work actor for about like 8 or 9 years, worked for Ted Allen. And then Queer Eye came about.”

What did Ted Allen say when you told him you were auditioning for Queer Eye?

“So I called him at first and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m thinking of trying out for this thing.’ And he was like, ‘Antony,’ he’s like, ‘You’re an actor. I didn’t see this for you,’ but he was like, ‘you know what, I didn’t go to culinary school.’ He was like, ‘I was a journalist. I was just deeply passionate about food and the science of food and all of that, and it was something that I really enjoyed’…

I was like, ‘yeah, but Ted, like I’m not a chef,’ you know, and he was like, well, ‘I think like chefs are kind of generalizing, but they’re used to doing things a certain way.’ They went to culinary school. You’re kind of this like this bridge or this medium between a chef and somebody who doesn’t necessarily know what they’re doing or struggling in the kitchen or whatever it is, because, you know, you have your bedside manner, and then you’re just there to kind of like facilitate and like meet them wherever they’re at. So he was like, ‘just go with it,’ and he gave me his blessing, and called a couple of people to try to plant seeds.”

Did you ever feel self-conscious about not going to culinary school?

“My first cookbook, I dedicated my entire introduction to imposter syndrome and how I felt like, I mean, there were many reasons that I felt like I didn’t necessarily belong on the show. One, I had, you know, in terms of my sexuality, like I dated a lot of women and then guys and then back and forth so I didn’t identify as like, you know, as like strictly gay for example. And then on the food front it was sort of like food and wine expert, like that title just made me uncomfortable and whenever everyone would be like ‘and chef Antony,’ I’d be like, no, like I’m a home cook…

…I think in Trevor Noah’s memoir he talks about being from different cultures and different countries and there was something about if you don’t subscribe or you don’t consider yourself part of one group, you’re not responsible for speaking to them, so you can remain a bit of a rebel, and that’s something that kind of spoke to me where it was sort of like, I just kind of want to do my own thing, and I respect chefs and I don’t want to take that. I feel like there are a lot of people out there who give themselves titles and and things when they’re not necessarily accurate, and I’d rather just come from a place of like a little bit of self-deprecation, but also the openness to be able to do things my way.”

What’s the strangest thing you’ve encountered on ‘Queer Eye’?

“I’ve definitely tried some odd things. There was a vacuum sealed squirrel when we were in Kansas City with the heart out of it and still kind of attached, which was interesting to see the anatomy of that…But I’ve always been very open. I’m like a deeply curious person, so I’m always like, even if it’s a bad experience, it’s still a good story. Like sometimes you got to just do it for the plot.”

What is ‘No Taste Like Home’ really about?

“So, No Taste Like Home is a new show for Nat Geo and Disney+, and it’s basically I go on a journey with a public facing person, with a famous person. We start out with a dish that they remember from their childhood, from basically where their ancestors came from, and we basically do a deep dive and we go to their country of origin and we explore their family history through the lens of food. And because it’s Nat Geo, we do the macro and we kind of explore sort of like what was going on politically at the time and how it dictated the ingredients that were used and then we go in personal and meet like, well, not literally meet the ancestors, but sort of like get introduced to ancestors through their family line.

And I mean it’s just an incredible journey because I get to feel like I’m like Indiana Jones meets Anthony Bourdain and travel to places that I probably wouldn’t have been able to have access to under any other circumstances.”

What have you learned about generational trauma and family stories?

“One of my favorite topics of conversation is family trauma, generational trauma, the stuff that we take on from our ancestors, but we also have these beautiful generational gifts like why are we the way that we are? Like why are you obsessed with food? What’s in your family history that kind of dictated that. With Florence Pugh, from the beginning she was like, ‘my family’s obsessed with organic,’ always had like restaurants, food is so important to us,’ and we learned that she actually comes from pretty extreme poverty and they had to go to great lengths to basically to literally survive.

And so it’s beautiful to learn that like…[we’re] actually standing on the shoulders of giants. Like we have all these people before us who have shaped us to be the way that we are, which I think is so beautiful…It’s so much more than just the dish. It’s always more than just the food.”

You tell people to cook for themselves on ‘Queer Eye.’ Is it easy for you?

“See, that’s a tricky thing, and that’s something that I’ve been kind of revisiting. I realized that I’ve been a hypocrite for the past how many years because there’s so many single people that we help on Queer Eye, and I’m always telling them like, ‘you should cook for yourself,’ and I’m in a place in my life now where, you know, I only cook for myself and my dog, and it is one of the hardest things in the world for me…

I feel sad asking for one piece of fish at the grocery store from like the fishmonger or whoever, and then cooking, like cooking is such an act of love for me, and I love the intention of like making something for somebody. The only way I’ve been able to kind of hack it so far is like the stews, the soups, the chilis, the stuff that I can make in large quantities and kind of freeze and have and have on hand.”

To hear the full conversation with Antony Porowski, listen to All on the Table with Katie Lee Biegel wherever you get your podcasts.

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