Nancy Silverton Quickly Becomes a Food Network Fan Favorite Thanks to ‘Guy’s Grocery Games’
Nancy Silverton may be a household name to foodies and artisan bread enthusiasts, but the James Beard Award-Winning Chef has garnered a new set of fans from her appearances on various television shows in recent years. Because she spent so much time in the elite culinary world, everyday people didn’t get to know Silverton on a more personal level until she began judging on various Food Network shows.
Read more about Silverton’s career, how fans react to seeing her on their favorite cooking shows, and more below.
Nancy Silverton’s career
Nancy Silverton is an American chef and baker who has authored several notable books and appeared on various television shows. She is perhaps most known for helping to popularize sourdough bread in America. Silverton got her start in the culinary world after dropping out of Sonoma State University, where she had been studying political science.
She trained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu in London, later coming back to California and working with acclaimed pastry chef Jimmy Brinkley. According to Delish, Silverton returned to Europe a few years later to further her knowledge of pastries in France.
In 1982, she once again returned to Los Angeles and worked at Spago’s as an opening pastry chef before opening her own bakery, Campanile, with her then-husband Mark Peel. Campanile became known for its Grilled Cheese Nights in the late 1990s, reports Food&Wine.
More recently, Silverton collaborated with Mario Batali to open an Italian restaurant called Osteria Mozza, which has locations in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, and Singapore. She also launched Nancy’s Fancy, a gelato and sorbetto company, in 2015, and opened a casual Italian restaurant in Culver City called Pizzette in 2019.
Fans loved seeing her on ‘Guy’s Grocery Games’
Guy Fieri is a champion of television shows with longevity, and title alliterations, from the long-standing Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives to Guy’s Grocery Games. The former has been on the air since 2011 and the latter has been on television since 2013. According to IMDb, Silverton has served as a judge on Guy’s Grocery Games for two episodes, both of which aired in 2021.
Redditors on the Food Network subreddit have nothing but positive things to say about Silverton on the show. One Redditor posted regarding Silverton, “I am a fan of hers and would listen to her read the phone book to me. Was surprised to see her as a judge on GGG.”
Another remarked, “I love her and her food is delicious. Super excited to see her on GGG.” Finally, one user stated that: “I loved that she called out other judges for eating a burger with knives and forks,” with several enthusiastic replies in the thread.
Her TV appearances so far
Aside from GGG, Silverton has also been on several other television shows, going all the way back to 1997. She first appeared on Baking with Julia that year, followed by an appearance on Anthony Bourdain‘s a Cook’s Tour in 2002.
She first served as a judge in 2012 on the series Time Machine Chefs, later being featured on Chopped in 2017 and Iron Chef in 2018 for one episode each.
Her appearances on the Food Network have gained momentum in recent years, appearing more frequently than ever to offer feedback on cooking shows. Her IMDb page states that she was a judge on Tournament of Champions in eight episodes in 2020 and 2021 and three episodes on Hell’s Kitchen. She also recently made an appearance on MasterChef USA, so it looks like she will remain in the guest judge circuit for quite some time.
