Who is Anne Burrell, the TV chef who coached the ‘Worst Cooks in America’? How did she die at 55?

Anne Burrell, the TV chef who coached culinary fumblers through hundreds of episodes of “Worst Cooks in America,” passed away on Tuesday, June 17, at her New York home. She was 55.

The news of her death was confirmed by the Food Network, where Anne began her two-decade television career.

“Anne was a remarkable person and culinary talent — teaching, competing and always sharing the importance of food in her life and the joy that a delicious meal can bring,” the network said in a statement.

According to the news agency Associated Press (AP), the police were called to her address before 8 am Tuesday and found an unresponsive woman who was soon pronounced dead. Although the police did not release the name of the woman, records show it was Anne's address.

Survivors include her husband, Stuart Claxton, whom she married in 2021, and his son, her mother and her two siblings.

How did Anne Burrell die?

The cause of Anne Burrell's death is not immediately clear. AP said medical examiners will conduct an autopsy to determine what caused Anne Burrell's death.

Who is Anne Burrell?

Anne Burrell was born on 21 September 1969 in the central New York town of Cazenovia, where her parents ran a flower store.

She earned an English and communications degree from Canisius University and went on to a job as a headhunter, but hated it, she said in a 2008 interview with The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Having always loved cooking, she soon enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, for which she later taught. She graduated in 1996, spent a year at an Italian culinary school and then worked in upscale New York City restaurants for a time.

“Anytime Anne Burrell gets near hot oil, I want to be around,” Frank Bruni, then-food critic at the New York Times, enthused in a 2007 review.

By the next year, Burrell was hosting her own Food Network show, “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef,” and her TV work became a focus.

Over the years, she also wrote two cookbooks, “Cook Like a Rock Star” and “Own Your Kitchen: Recipes to Inspire and Empower,” and was involved with food pantries, juvenile diabetes awareness campaigns and other charities.

Anne Burrell was on TV screens as recently as April, making chicken Milanese cutlets topped with escarole salad in one of her many appearances on NBC's “Today” show.

She faced off against other top chefs on the Food Network's “House of Knives” earlier in the spring.

Known for her bold and flavorful but not overly fancy dishes and spiky platinum-blonde hairdo, Anne and other co-hosts on “Worst Cooks in America” led teams of kitchen-challenged people through a crash course in savory self-improvement.