Exclusive Interview: Chef Frankie Celenza Talks Struggle Meals Season 7, His Emmy Win, and More

Frankie Celenza is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning host and chef who is cooking up delicious meals that don’t break the bank. From budget-friendly meal prep to weeknight dinners to no-fuss holiday spreads, Struggle Meals covers everything you need to know about getting the most bang for your buck in the kitchen. Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Frankie about the series’ seventh season (available now on Tastemade), how he first came up with the concept behind the show, and more!

PC: You actually didn’t get your start as a chef. What was that transition like for you going from music production to the culinary world? How did you discover your passion for food?
Frankie: I studied music production and business in college and minored in Italian. I spent the summers in Italy with my family because I still had family there. They’d invite me over, and my Italian got really good. I always had good cooking around the house because I grew up in an Italian-American family. Then my own cooking started getting good.

When I came back to New York, I tried to undercut the meal plan at school by a dollar. I’d have these dinner parties where I’d charge people $9 instead of $10 dollars. The kitchen happened to face out into the room, so I was naturally putting on a show, telling them the history and myths of these dishes that I had learned from my Uncle Andrea in Italy. Friends started bringing their friends. Then the seventh friend of a friend was like, “You should film this.” YouTube had only started two years before that. I was like, “Gee. There are no young people doing this.” I thought that I’d probably have a lot less competition for my age if I went this route than if I was trying to melt faces with guitar solos. That turned out to be true. Honestly, this is more satisfying than touring, which I did plenty of.

PC: Who or what has the biggest influence on your career?
Frankie: I don’t know if there has been one single person. I really try to take information from lots of people and listen. Becoming a total Italophile absolutely gave me an incredible amount of passion. All those little tips and tricks are more widely known now than when I started out in ’08. Now I’ve moved on to trying to understand as much as I can from other people’s cultures. It’s helped me make a lot of friends. I would say that my biggest teacher is this multicultural world that we live in. It’s opened my eyes and mind, and I’m trying to learn it all. That’s my favorite part about food. You can literally eat your way through history and traditions. That’s fantastic.

PC: You’ve had so much success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Frankie: I remember this day pretty clearly. I was sitting on my couch. I was five years into making these videos. I had done my first half-hour season on local New York City TV, but it didn’t seem sustainable to me. At the same time, I was co-owning and running a cold-pressed juice company, which was sort of sucking the life out of me, while I was also editing, colorizing, and audio-mixing all the episodes to try to do the TV thing. I was feeling really sad. I was ready to give up. I started Googling people who I admired in all fields. What I realized is it takes eight or twelve years to make things happen most of the time. We’re surrounded by these success stories of so-and-so did X, Y, Z in six months and now they’re the market leaders, and that’s just not how it works for most people.

It’s not how it works 99.9% of the time. It can be really misleading for anyone trying to make their own path to think that that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s not. Once I saw the eight to twelve years before anyone even knew what was going on I was like, “Gee. I’m only at five. I’m not even at the earliest point of the majority of those folks that have had some success.” That moment was pretty important. I started adding the numbers. I’m a numbers guy. I was like, “If I quit and try to be a doctor or something like that, it’s going to cost me X, Y, Z, and student loans. It’s going to take this many years to pay it off. I might have no money right now, but I don’t have negative money.” That was the resolve. I realized a year was not a long time at that moment.

PC: Season 7 of Struggle Meals is out now. What can fans expect?
Frankie: They can expect more fantastically delicious meals that are not going to cost a lot of money. That’s not me just reading a line—it’s the truth. We’ve been evolving the fan base, so we’re not doing canned food or dried food or any of those things now. We’ve got some interesting themes. I’m a big fan of the French bistro because you get a three-course meal for two or four people, depending on how you parse it out. It’s balanced, and it takes you through the steps. People are able to enjoy fine dining on a budget at home. You can enjoy it even more because you cooked it. This season we’re bringing some guests on. We’ve had Cookie Monster, but we’ve also got a sommelier that comes on to help us find some affordable wines. I learned something really interesting from him. That guy’s name is Vince Anter.

Then we had Keegan [Fong] on from Woon Kitchen in LA. He showed me some really interesting home-cooked Chinese dishes—something I thought was really great to get some knowledge from an expert on. He cooked up one of his dishes, shared some knowledge, and then adapted it into a new dish with ingredients that I have in my pantry. Fans who are passionate about cooking can expect some great dishes that they can add to their repertoire. There’s something for everybody.

PC: This show has connected with so many viewers around the world. When you first got involved, did you have any idea that it would resonate with the audiences the way that it has? Was there a moment when you realized you were creating magic?
Frankie: I had absolutely no idea. Was there a moment? The second it came out. It was a success right away as a Facebook Watch show. In the first week, we had a quarter of a million followers. Because of the internet, we were immediately getting feedback. Going into it, I legit thought it would be kids in or out of college. The first week I saw a post from a single mom of four who commented that the show was really helpful.

Saving up is the key to the American dream. It’s so easy to spend too much money on food. The number one reason that happens is not because of expensive ingredients but because we’re paying for convenience. When you pay for convenience, you have lower satisfaction and you’re paying more money. Self-satisfaction is a really, really great thing. Cooking for yourself gives you satisfaction and saves you money. It makes you a better taster of food because now you’re playing with flavors. You practice and get better. It’s holistic.

PC: During the pandemic, the show was also able to reach an even broader audience. Did that change how you approached this project? Did it lead to doing things differently?
Frankie: Right before the pandemic, I was trying to explain to people that canned food is not actually that cheap, particularly in the beans department. If you get a 16-ounce can of cannellini beans for a dollar and then you go to the dry bulk section and it’s a dollar for 16-ounces of cannellini beans dried, they look like the same thing, but those beans need to be soaked—they become two pounds. It actually costs way less for the dried ones. That episode in particular gave us a whole new audience. In the pandemic, everyone went for the canned foods. All of a sudden, it was gone.

People were like, “Holy smokes. I have no cooking skills. What do I do now?” It was like, “Dry bulk!” We did that episode. Those people stuck around. That’s also a great example of how the show has adapted over the years. We’re getting awfully close to 100 half-hour episodes now. That’s something like 400 recipes. We’re going to keep pushing forward. We’re going to try our very best not to repeat ourselves. We haven’t done it. Every episode is different. They really are. People can learn from every episode too.

PC: You’ve been on this journey for a couple of years now. Has anything surprised you about the overall experience? What’s been the most rewarding part thus far?
Frankie: It’s rewarding on multiple levels. I have an amazing team of people I’ve now worked with for five years. I’d say the crew is 85% the same people. Developing those relationships has been rewarding, being able to come back repeatedly and try to refine what I’m doing to make their jobs easier. The act of making this project is super rewarding. Anytime somebody stops me in the streets and says, “You saved me money or you got me through college or I love your recipes,” that’s rewarding too. It’s rewarding to be so many seasons deep. I know that it ends one day. But as I get older, I’m trying to enjoy the blessing of this show, which has been useful for a lot more people than I thought it would be.

PC: You also won an Emmy for the series. How did you learn about the nomination? How did you celebrate the win?
Frankie: The nomination was great. It was our last day of shooting Season 7, which is about to come out. I knew it was nomination day. They started tweeting out the nominees, and we just started rolling the cameras. All of a sudden, I saw a bunch of people from the office side of Tastemade. I was looking into the bright lights, but I saw them coming in and whispering in the director’s ear. All of a sudden, my performance had so much more adrenaline in it. I was 90% sure that we got the nomination. That was great. We got to celebrate that all together. We’re definitely a team.

Then the win…unfortunately, I got COVID so I couldn’t go to the ceremony. But my director, producer, and the executives from Tastemade were there. We were the last award of the night. I’m so proud of everybody on the team for that. It’s a really nice piece of recognition, and it’s another moment of satisfaction that motivates me to keep going and to try to figure out how we can deliver even more great meals for people that don’t want to empty their wallets, now more than ever.

PC: Do you have a favorite episode/recipe that you’ve done? Is there one that you would love to do over?
Frankie: That’s a good question. The 100th episode is probably springtime next year. We’re pretty close. In a sense, I get to do them over all the time because we are always filming. If I watch something and I go, “Gee. I don’t like the way that I explained that or I could have done it with more clarity, there’s always an opportunity to do it in an indirect way in the future.” That’s improving the craft. That applies to everybody in every field.

Do I have a favorite one? I don’t. I wish I could say that I did. I’m not super involved in post. I’ll watch the show months later, just like a string of them in a row. The team does such a good job putting them together. I’m often giggling or laughing, and I love the way it moves. It’s a well-oiled machine. This show is evolving. I like them all. They’re like my children.

To keep up with Frankie, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Watch the first five episodes of Struggle Meals Season 7 on Tastemade today!

Photo Credit: Tastemade