Alex Guarnaschelli Is '100 Percent' Open to Love Again After Ending Her Engagement — Just Not on Dating Apps

"Life is about donuts and love in equal measure," says the Ciao House cohost, who split from her ex-fiancé one year ago

Alex Guarnaschelli equates the way she recently dealt with personal trauma to eating a burrito.

In February 2022, while still grieving the loss of her mother, cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli, who died the previous year at age 79, the chef announced she had split from her fiancé, Michael Castellon, after five years together.

"I made a burrito out of everything, and I needed to open it up and pick it apart," she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "I tried to just look at the rice and the beans and the meat and the salsa and not consume it all at once."

Guarnaschelli, 53, who met Castellon in 2016 while she was visiting the restaurant where he worked as a chef, found support in an Australian shepherd named Leon.

"I didn't know what to do with the loss—so I got a dog," she says. "At first I was like, 'How is this going to make what happened okay?' And then he picked up a piece of bubble wrap, came over to me, peed a little on my foot, and I was like, 'This is going to work. This and a donut. I'm good.' "

Related:Watch Food Network Chefs Perform a Surprise Flash Mob at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival

Life is about donuts 

and love in equal measure

Guarnaschelli also dived into work. The restaurateur has become one of Food Network's biggest stars. In addition to regular appearances on Chopped and The Kitchen, she headlines three shows, including her latest, Ciao House, a culinary competition where the chefs live together in Tuscany.

"We had so much fun. What happens is wild," says the star, who cohosts alongside Italian native Gabe Bertaccini. "We got all these contestants together in this beautiful house, gave them a prize, set the timer and were like, go."

Now she is ready for her professional success to carry over into her personal life. She's "100 percent" open to a new relationship. She has just two requirements: "Loyalty and foot rubs. I think loyalty is a big act of love."

Related:Alex Guarnaschelli Says It's 'Scary' but 'Exciting' to Start Over After Ending Her Engagement

"I want the joy of love," adds Guarnaschelli, who shares daughter Ava, 15, with her ex-husband Brandon Clark.

Just don't expect to find her on the dating apps. "I'm into organic life," she says. "I think you meet people in the universe. I watch too many rom-coms."

Ciao House premieres April 16 at 9 p.m. ET on Food Network.

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