Food Network Star Breaks off Engagement After 5 Years With Fiance

Chopped judge Alex Guarnaschelli and Michael Castellon have called off their engagement after five years together. The former couple got engaged in June 2020 and announced their breakup last week. In addition to being a judge on Chopped, Guarnaschelli has also appeared on The Kitchen, Iron Chef America and Guy’s Grocery Games.

“Wishing her nothing but the best,” Castellon told Closer Weekly on Saturday. The Food Network star has not commented on the split. Earlier this month, she told fans on Instagram that she planned to take her daughter Ava Clark on a trip in March, but did not mention going with Castellon. Guarnaschelli was previously married to lawyer Brandon Clark from 2007 to 2015, and they are parents to daughter Ava, who was born in August 2004.

During her Q&A chat with her Instagram followers earlier this month, Guarnaschelli hinted that something might be up with her relationship. One fan asked her what skill she wished she had. “Not being a sucker for love,” she replied. She also shared some of her regrets, many of which only happened in recent years. “I honestly haven’t been able to process them all well or gracefully,” she wrote. “I use cooking, therapy, exercise, friends, sleep, water, time, crying, and cake for healing.” Guarnaschelli also deleted the photo of her engagement ring.

Guarnaschelli and Castellon announced their engagement in June 2020. She told PEOPLE the two were in “no hurry” to get married. “We’re not in any hurry, but I want to have a blowout,” she said. “I want a tri-state rager.”

The proposal came when the couple was on their way home from a grocery store run. During their drive, Castellon pulled the car over because he claimed he saw a stray dog. He came back and said it was actually a baby deer. He asked her to go see the animal, but when she arrived, there was no deer.

“And he goes, ‘There’s no deer.’ I turn, and I look and he’s on one knee,” the chef recalls,” Guarnaschelli told PEOPLE. “There’s no deer.’ He’s like, ‘This is why I have to marry you because you just believe me every time.’ He said, ‘Will you marry me?’ and he gave me the ring.” The ring was a family heirloom that included an emerald rock.

The couple met when Guarnaschelli and a friend went to the restaurant where Castellon happened to be working. The waiter at the restaurant introduced the two of them. “I went in to meet him and tell him the steak was delicious and that was it,” she told PEOPLE at the time. She said she also had Ava’s permission to marry Castellon.

Guarnaschelli first appeared on Food Network in 2007 as an Iron Chef America contestant before she later won the show in 2012. She has served as a judge on Iron Chef America, Chopped,Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, Beat Bobby Flay, Guy’s Grocery Games, Chopped Junior, and Family Restaurant Rivals. She has appeared on dozens of other Food Network shows. Her books include Cook With Me, The Home Cook, and Old School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned to Cook.