The Scary Accident Alex Guarnaschelli Had On The Alex Vs America Set

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye," Metallica's lead singer, James Hetfield, once said (via Twitter). Fortunately for Hetfield, he's still having fun and has not yet lost an eye, despite enduring such mishaps as falling off an Amsterdam stage through a hidden trap door back in 2017, per Billboard. Climbing right back out of the hole into which he had fallen, Hetfield assured the crowd "I'm ok. My ego, not so much," before grabbing his ax and getting right back to the job at hand. 

Although we've never heard it suggested that celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli might be a fan of heavy metal, let alone Metallica (including when the New York-native sat down with us for a 2021 exclusive interview), it nonetheless would appear that Guarnaschelli and Hetfield are very much on the same page when it comes to their honing of the underappreciated art of picking oneself up, dusting oneself off, and getting the job done (and done well) after a potentially dangerous and almost certainly embarrassing fail to which the public unwittingly found itself having become privy.

During the shooting of Season 2, Episode 3 of the uniquely compelling cooking competition Food Network series, "Alex vs. America," which, like the network's "Beat Bobby Flay," pits highly accomplished chefs against a ridiculously accomplished celebrity chef, Guarnaschelli found herself in precisely that spot when she suffered a legit scary on-set accident — one that many a talented chef might have found too formidable to work around.

"I love brunch, which is why I never serve it," quipped celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli during a sneak preview of the "Alex vs Brunch" episode of "Alex vs America" (via Facebook). Guarnaschelli's plan was to whip up a poached egg with a Dungeness crab-and-thinly sliced sunchoke cake topped with caviar. And if things weren't all fun and games, at least they were going smashingly — at least until Guarnaschelli decided she needed one more sliced sunchoke. 

Her handy mandoline slicer, however, seemed to have had other ideas – a phenomenon, which, by the way, many home cooks are familiar with. As mandolines are wont to do, the one Guarnaschelli was using for her sunchokes decided to remind her of just how sharp it is and just how easy it might be to lose a finger as a result. As it turned out, Guarnaschelli didn't lose a finger, but she did lose part of the tip of one, she told People later (along with the quote above). But that's not where her worries were focused.

"I'm only worried about the clock," Guarnaschelli clarified straight into the camera before seeming to murmur to/remind herself, "any chef that's cut themselves ... you just keep going." Chef Alex Guarnaschelli went on to complete the challenge with the equivalent of one hand tied around her back. We'd love to tell you what the judges said. But this here is a no spoiler zone.