Johnston’s Alexia DiGiglio-Mancini Competes on Food Network’s “100 Cooks”
The Rhode Island resident and home cook is known for her "U Had Me at Kitchen" social media personality and Italian-American cooking.
Contestant #63, Alexia DiGiglio-Mancini, as seen on “100 Cooks,” Season 1. Photo courtesy of Food Network.
Johnston resident Alexia DiGiglio-Mancini is back on Food Network starring in “100 Cooks,” the biggest home cook competition in the network’s history. After starting her “U Had Me at Kitchen” Facebook and Instagram social media accounts and broadcasting her Italian-American cooking skills to a national audience, she was first picked up by Food Network show “The Kitchen” in 2020. She was notified last fall that she was in the running to participate in “100 Cooks,” which airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. (ET) on Food Network and streams the next day on HBO Max.
DiGiglio-Mancini swapped a music career for the kitchen stage, and has no regrets. The reality cooking TV show host, wife and mother of two boys headed to Los Angeles for three weeks of filming this past winter, and is still in the running on the show. “100 Cooks” is hosted by actor and former pro football player Terry Crews, and judged by culinary content creator Nick DiGiovanni (also from Rhode Island) and Food Network all-star Alex Guarnaschelli. The show recruited or discovered 100 of the country’s best home cooks to participate in the seven-week culinary competition. The last cook standing will be named America’s best home cook and win as much as $250,000.
Here’s a q-and-a with Alexia:
Jamie: Tell us about the Food Network show, “100 Cooks.” What is the theme and the premise behind it?
Alexia: The show involves 100 of the best home cooks in America who go into the reality television competition. I would describe the set as “Deal or No Deal” meets “America’s Got Talent,” sort of like a game show meets cooking show. It’s the first season, and it’s the biggest cooking competition in Food Network history. It’s hosted by Terry Crews, who is the nicest guy, and judged by Alex Guarnaschelli, who is a multiple “Iron Chef” winner and culinary icon, and Nick DiGiovanni, who is also a Rhode Islander.
When did you find out you were chosen for the show?
I was cast on the show nearly two years ago. I was found by casting directors on Instagram from my account @uhadmeatkitchen. There were several instances when the show was on, then the show was off, and then the show was green lit. The casting agents reached out to me again and said, “You’re one of the main candidates for the show.” In September, it was back on, and I found out that I was going to California for up to three and a half weeks to a month for filming.
So they let you know in September?
In September, I found out the show was green lit again. It was filmed in January and February. Casting agents went through candidates they found on social media or people who applied to be on the show. The criteria was great personality, and point of view cooking, but you had to really know how to cook. Food Network does not play around.
So you can’t be looking at a recipe while they’re filming you.
No recipes. We had to go off our head. It was a really tough competition. You have to be ready for anything, and roll with the punches. The competition is basically they roll a challenge. Let’s just say it was for “the best egg dish,” which was in the first episode. Then they roll the numbers of contestants [1 to 100], or they announce “It’s going to be thirty cooks on the floor.” Then they start rolling all the numbers. I happened to be in one of the first challenges on the first episode, the premiere, which was the thirty-person egg challenge. It sounds like that could be simple, but you had to compose a perfect egg dish in twelve minutes.
It’s not so easy with eggs, they can be finicky.
Yes, you had to cook a perfect egg. It had to be perfectly seasoned. It had to be a composed dish. You couldn’t undercook it, you couldn’t leave it off the plate, you couldn’t undersalt it. I made “Eggs in Purgatory,” and the chefs — the judges — seemed to like it very much. It’s actually a classic Italian dish, and it’s eggs cooked in a tomato sauce, but very spicy.
So like shakshuka?
Exactly, but the Italian version. It’s authentic to my heritage, and I thought time wise I could pull that off. That dish typically takes a good forty-five minutes or more to cook, because after you develop the sauce and all of those spices, you actually make wells in the sauce and cook the eggs right in that sauce. I had to improvise. To get a rich tasting sauce, I added tomato paste, which is concentrated to give it that extra flavor. I added Calabrian chili oil and chilies, but then I fried the eggs in a separate pan. But I put them into the sauce slightly undercooked, so they would finish cooking in the sauce. It really was amazing, a great decision, and they were very happy with it.
Alexia DiGiglio-Mancini.
Good for you for adding your heritage in there and creating it on the fly without much notice. They don’t give you any notice, right? You have to do it right then and there?
Oh, it’s really intense. When they say twelve minutes on the clock, your heart pounds. When you’re in the stands and they’re rolling the challenge, you’re at the edge of your seat, because you don’t know what it’s going to be. Then you wonder, are they going to pick me? You want to be called, but you’re also so afraid, because there are so many twists and turns. The pressure is on, and you have to learn to figure it out.
Sounds kind of like being a mom cooking dinner after school and having hungry kids pressuring you make something…now.
Yeah, I’m used to that with two sons. Yep, they’re always hungry, and they always say, “I’m hungry, I’m hungry,” and I’ll whip something up right before dinner for them. I have a passion and love for food and cooking. So this competition was right up my alley. Now that I’ve been in a cooking competition, and I went in blind not knowing what to expect, not knowing how it would work, or what it would entail, and we had very long filming days – I’m talking twelve to fifteen hours a day – I would do it again.
So, you had three and a half weeks to film it, so you had to basically be available and move out to Los Angeles for that full time, right?
You had to be available for the full time, and you had to be ready for anything. Unfortunately, some people left the first day. Right now, we’re going into episode seven, and I’m still on. I’ve done three challenges so far. and you know, the last cooking one I did was really a challenge. The stove was broken.
So what did you do?
It was a chef’s choice challenge. This is an amazing story. I woke up that morning, and I knew I would cook that day. It was the anniversary of my father’s passing, January 26, and I had this gut instinct that I’d be called when it was chef’s choice. The challenge was fried or grilled, and my father’s favorite dish was a fried Italian-style chicken cutlet. It’s layered with garlic, garlicky baby spinach, ricotta cheese and San Marzano sauce; plum tomatoes on top, mozzarella and pecorino and basil. Now, the chicken cutlet was cooked perfectly. I had everything ready to go, layered to put in the oven. But when I went to put it in the oven, the oven was broken.
Do you think they did that to you on purpose?
We never know what happens in cooking competitions, maybe because they want to see how you handle it? This is how I handled it: I yelled out “Culinary! I need a blowtorch!” And I used a blowtorch to melt that cheese. Alex and Nick both loved the dish. It looked like an Italian plate. The chicken cutlet was cooked perfectly, but the tomatoes were undercooked, and they asked “why?” and I said, “We had an oven malfunction,” and it just so happened, I was sharing the oven with another contestant, and her chicken was also underdone, so her dish wasn’t complete. They called us both up, and they said they discovered that the stove was not working, so we lived another day. I know mine was perfectly cooked. It was just the tomatoes.
You weren’t serving raw chicken, at least. That’s good, and you improvised.
You have to be ready for anything at any time, and the twists and turns that they may throw at you.
What time did your filming day begin when you’re working those twelve- to fifteen-hour days?
Our call time was 6:45 a.m. We had to wear the same theme throughout the show. So my theme was denim. I had purchased thirty denim shirts, thirty pairs of pants, and the hats, because you had to be consistent. I didn’t know if I was going to make it that far, but I had to plan for it. Every day, we’d go into the set in regular clothes, and then we’d change. The wardrobe department would come and give us our outfit for the day. They’d serve us a beautiful breakfast, we had all the snacks. The Food Network kept us very happy. They were just a pleasure to work with. Then we’d get called to set for a full day. We’d break for lunch. Sometimes we’d do some interviews during the day and after the challenges. Some days I’d be sitting there all day with no challenge at all, because it was the luck of the draw. It depended on if your ball got called, and on the days that I cooked, for some reason, I always got called in the last challenge of the day. At that point you’re really exhausted, but the adrenaline kicks in. The experience is emotionally, physically and mentally draining, but it’s also the most magical, inspirational, and treasured. I would do it again and again and again.
I also see you’re doing a lot of promotional events at Foxwoods. Can you tell us more about how locals can interact with you?
I’m on “The Rhode Show” as a recurring guest. I’m going on next week, and I’m going to be cooking one of my dishes from the show that’s already aired, which is the chicken Alexia. I just finished my debut cookbook called Bring Back Sunday Dinner, which is available for presale right now. As far as my Foxwoods events go, those are private events hosted by myself. I curate the menu. We do these events at VUE 24 and it’s for their VIP clients. I do a big Italian dinner. I’m just so grateful for the opportunity that Foxwoods has given me to share what I do with their guests, and I work closely with the Foxwoods culinary team. This past week, I just hosted an event, and we cooked for two days straight, 500 meatballs, 100 pounds of sausage, 100 pounds of chicken. I mean, it was insane.
Yeah, the home cook has now gone corporate, almost. That’s a lot of people!
I love these events. I get on stage and I put on a show. I put on a live demo, I call people on the stage, I interact with them, and that is what I thrive on. I love it. It’s so rewarding to me to share what I love to do with the world. It means so much to me, because it’s how I grew up Italian American. We were always surrounded by food, family, fun and love. Having a past in the music industry, I traded in my microphone for a spatula.
