Antoni Porowski Knows the Right Time to Leave a Party

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

Spotify

On this episode

You probably know Antoni Porowski as the food and beverage expert on Queer Eye or his profoundly moving biography-meets-history-meets-food-and a whole lot of feelings Nat Geo docuseries No Taste Like Home. Onstage at the 2025 Food & Wine Classic in Aspenhe revealed so much more of himself. He shared his hard-won insight on vulnerability, self-care, mental health, and the quiet power of knowing when it’s time to leave a party. He got deep about what it means to really be yourself in public, how food can anchor memory, his really specific food-centric fears, the one item he insists on in his rider, and even shed a couple of tears — along with plenty of laughs.

Meet our guest

Antoni Porowski is an Emmy-winning Polish-Canadian television personality, culinary expert, actor, mental health advocate, and writer who rose to fame as the food and drinks expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye in 2018 — a role he still holds as the series films its 10th and final season. He is the host and executive producer of the Nat Geo docuseries No Taste Like Homeand was appointed as a World Food Program Goodwill Ambassador in 2024. Porowski is the author of the cookbooks Let’s Do Dinnerand the New York Times bestseller Antoni in the Kitchen, and hosted and executive-produced the Netflix show Easy Bake Battle. He is the co-founder of Yummers Pet Supply Co., and frequently uses his massive social media platform to destigmatize issues around mental health..

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerveshost of Food & Wine’s Gold Signal Award-winning podcast Tinfoil Swansand founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor-in-chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing.

She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On the pleasures of leaving a party

“A friend told me, ‘When you turn 40, it’s amazing because you get so much grouchier.’ I didn’t understand it at first, but she was like, ‘You’re going to stop doing things that you don’t want to do. You’re going to leave parties when you’re ready to leave. You’re not going to feel the need to be the last one there. You’re going to start sticking up for yourself more.’ I’m finding out she was right. I still struggle. That toy that’s a monkey with cymbals? That’s one part of me. Then there’s this other part that’s emerging where I’m a lot more comfortable knowing when to bow out because I want some time for myself. I’m actually asking myself how I feel and not just fixating on how everyone else is doing. It’s a tricky balance because I like being a caretaker.”

On his one non-negotiable

“My only rider thing, my only green M&Ms in a bowl thing, is that in whatever corporate housing we’re in, I need a bathtub. That is really hard to get when you’re filming in secondary cities, I’ve learned. I need to take a bath at the end of the week. Especially on Queer Eyewe form these close relationships with people and then it’s goodbye. Sometimes you never hear from them again unless you maintain a personal friendship.”

On winning friends with food

“I got kicked out of my parents’ house when I was 17. I was a big troublemaker. I was never allowed to cook at home because it was one of those immaculate kitchens where I couldn’t open the fridge because I was going to mess things up. I moved in with my friend, Nabil, and I couldn’t afford to pay rent. I was paying for my studies and I was like, ‘How am I going to show up for this guy?’

He mentioned eggplant parm when we were out one night, and I botched it royally. I put the eggplant in cold oil and then turned the heat on. I had no clue what I was doing. Then I learned, and it ended up being really good. I became the guy in the study groups where — I picked the smartest ones to do the group projects with because they had better brains. I thought, ‘I can make them risotto and get the same grade as them.'”

On being a proud home cook

“I love and admire chefs. I always tense up a little if anybody introduces me as a chef. A friend of mine says, ‘You just need to own it. I think you’d be a lot happier if you did.’ I never went to culinary school. I’m a home cook. I learned because I was excited and passionate about it. Referring to myself as a chef — I have friends who are actual chefs. I don’t feel comfortable saying that. I sleep better that way.”

On his morbid food fear

“I have a vision of me literally by the pantry standing up, shoving BjornQorn down my gullet, and then choking. It’s just so dark. When I was single, I told my therapist and my friend PJ‘What if I’m eating a mozzarella stick? They’re so long that if I don’t chew, what if I choke and die? How long would it be before someone found me? Would my dog eat me? I don’t know.'”

On the lesson he still needs to learn

“I’m trying to explore the one thing that would make me the most uncomfortable. When I was single, I realized that I had no idea how to eat for myself. I refuse to make food for myself. I think it’s so depressing and it’s so hypocritical because I’ve been trying to drill into Queer Eye heroes’ brains for years that they need to cook for themselves — and it’s not something that I’m capable of doing for myself. My TikTok algorithm is all people preparing food for other people but not making food for themselves. It’s hard to shop for yourself. It’s just hard to figure all that stuff out unless you’re making a big stew and freezing it. That’s a venture that I’m going on in different forms of media that I’m going to explore next. I have to figure out what’s on the other side of that discomfort.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry and beyond, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Roy Choi, Byron Gomez, Vikas Khanna, Romy Gill, Matthew Lillard, Ana and Lydia Castro, Laurie Woolever, Karen Akunowicz, Hawa Hassan, Dr. Arielle Johnson, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Wylie Dufresne, Samin Nosrat, Curtis Stone, Tristen Epps, Padma Lakshmi, Ayesha Curry, Regina King, Antoni Porowski, Run the Jewels, Chris Shepherd, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.