by TM Petaccia

Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli is the featured presenter at this year’s Charlotte StrEATS Festival. Photo / Key Group Worldwide

Noted chef, author, and Food Network personality Alex Guarnaschelli will be the celebrity chef guest at this year’s Charlotte StrEATs Festival, Sunday April 16.

She will take the stage for a cooking demonstration as well as emcee the day’s other top event, the Neighborhood Cook-off, curated by The Plaid Penguin, where chefs around the city will compete for top honors.

Guarnaschelli attended La Varenne Culinary School in Burgundy, France, then began her international culinary training in Paris and New York with acclaimed chefs such as Guy Savoy and Daniel Boulud. In 2003, Guarnaschelli was named executive chef at Butter in New York, where she established her reputation for creating eclectic American and green-market inspired dishes.

She first appeared on Food Network in 2006 and has since been part of hundreds of episodes of programming on the network, including Chopped, The Kitchen, Supermarket Stakeout, and Alex vs. America. She also hosts the award-winning digital series Fix Me a Plate and is the author of the cookbooks Old-School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook, The Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart, and Cook With Me: 150 Recipes for the Home Cook.

This marks the second straight year a Food Network star has presented at StrEATs. Last year, Amanda Freitag cooked panzanella salad live on stage. “I was really impressed with all the food and all the chefs and how lovely everybody was and what a community they are to each other,” she said of the experience.

The Sunday Charlotte StrEats Festival is the second day of the two-day event, part of Charlotte Shout. In addition to Guarnaschelli’s demonstration and the Neighborhood Cook-off, the day will feature other cooking demos by local chefs, a street fair of local food artisans, food trucks, plus music and displayed local artwork. The Sunday event runs from noon-5 p.m. It is free to attend, but registration is requested.

Prior to the Sunday StrEATs Festival, the StrEATs Tasting Tour will occur noon-3 p.m. (11 a.m. start with VIP ticket) on Saturday, April 15. This ticketed event will feature samples of dishes from over twenty local restaurants and other eateries as well as cocktail offerings from noted mixologists and distilleries.

Charlotte StrEATs is a collaboration of Charlotte Shout, Carben Events, and Unpretentious Palate.