Alex Guarnaschelli Loves This More Than The Smell Of Cake

Over the years, chef, cookbook author, and television personality Alex Guarnaschelli has both created and tasted a huge variety of dishes that have likely offered some seriously mouth-watering aromas. However, in a throwback Instagram post she recently shared with her 991,000 followers, she flagged one particular scent as "the BEST aroma in the world for me." In fact, as she further explained in the caption of her Instagram, the particular aroma even beats the alluring scent of "freshly baked cake," which any home baker knows can make your entire home smell like an absolute dream.

So, what scent tops the list for Guarnaschelli? Well, though your inclination may be to assume it's some type of fragrant dish she's encountered during her culinary adventures, it turns out it has nothing to do with food, drinks, or anything from that world at all. Instead, it's about something even nearer and dearer to her heart — her daughter, Ava Clark, who Closer Weekly reports has a love for the culinary world in the same way her mother does.

Guarnaschelli shared a throwback picture of herself holding baby Ava. The loving mother's eyes are closed as she inhales the moment with her face pressed against her daughter's. As she explained in the caption, the "BEST aroma" in her perspective was that fresh baby smell you get when you take a whiff of a baby's head.

According to Healthline, Alex Guarnaschelli is certainly not alone when it comes to loving that baby aroma. It's been suggested that the scent comes from the lingering traces of fluids that surround the baby for all those months that they're in the womb. Either way, the smell is known to cause a release of dopamine in moms when they get a big whiff, which is likely one of the reasons Guarnaschelli looks back so fondly on the picture that provides a visual representation of that experience.

Many of Guarnaschelli's fans took to the comments section of the Instagram post to share their thoughts, and they seemed to agree with her ranking the smell at the top of her list. "So precious. Fresh baby smells are euphoric," one fan posted along with several heart emojis. Another seemed to combine the maternal instinct with the culinary world, saying "I always told my girls they smelled like cinnamon rolls. Must be a mom thing." Yet another fan seemed to yearn for an item that contained that aroma in the stages past those baby years, writing, "Yes!!!!!!! I wish someone could capture that scent in a candle or air freshener."

It seems that Guarnaschelli's maternal confession struck a nerve and triggered plenty of happy memories in her audience — and, for those interested in learning a little more about her daughter, she even tagged Clark's account in the caption.