Chef Anne Burrell Remembered by Hamptons Culinary World

The Food Network community and local chefs are mourning the loss of Anne Burrell, New York-based chef known for Worst Cooks in America and Iron Chef America. Burrell died in her Brooklyn apartment on June 17 at age 55.

Amagansett resident Bobby Flay called Worst Cooks “the funnest show on TV,” adding, “All of your co-hosts (me included) were just alongside for the Anne Burrell ride.”

Chef Alex Guarnaschelli shared a deeply personal tribute: “She called herself a girl chef and inspired many others to follow suit. I watched her expertly roll cannoli shells on Iron Chef America… she’d wipe the floor with everyone.” Guarnaschelli, a resident of Bridgehampton, added that Burrell loved her friends and ate “fiercely, and didn’t let a second of life go by without savoring every last bit.”

Burrell had strong ties to the Hamptons, hosting Dan’s Chefs of the Hamptons at Sí Sí EHP Resort & Marina in East Hampton last summer. “I just love, first of all, the setting — it could not be a more lovely night,” she told Dan’s. “There is so much good food, good wine and happy people… It’s just a very joyous event.”

Former Hamptons resident Rachael Ray, one of Burrell’s bridesmaids in 2021, said she was “heartbroken” by the loss. “Anne had great taste in music and in life — she was a force in the kitchen, in any room, in every life she touched… Everyone whose life she touched will miss her.”

Burrell is survived by her husband, Stuart Claxton, and his son, Javier, as well as her mother, sister, brother, and nieces and nephews.