Gabe Bertaccini comes into the premiere of Season 29 of Worst Cooks in America: Talented and Terrible with mixed emotions. The Ciao House chef co-hosts and mentors for the popular Food Network staple alongside Anne Burrell, who filmed before her unexpected passing on June 17. Burrell, 55, was a regular on the show since its inception right up to Season 27. She didn’t participate in Season 28, so news of her return excited fans. 

The hit series premieres on July 28 with the late Burrell and Bertaccini welcoming a crop of performers who shine on their respective stages but create catastrophes in the kitchen. These recruits kick things off with their signature showstopper dish with the main challenge the ultimate test of recreating the chefs’ “winner winner chicken dinner.” The field gets thinned out where those with promise move on while the rest face elimination. 

Over the season, the cooks-in-training take on restaurant classics, try to master global cuisines, and compete in the fan-favorite “Remote Control Chef” challenge. When it’s all said and done, there can be only one person who walks away with the “Best of the Worst” title and $25,000. 

Here Bertaccini opens up about working with Burrell on her last TV project and what’s to come. 

Now we’re getting closer to the premiere, how are you feeling as people continue to mourn the loss of Anne? Perhaps this season can serve as a celebration of life. 

Gabe Bertaccini: You say celebrating. I think that is exactly how the season should be approached by everyone who loves Anne and is a fan of Worst Cooks in America. That’s how I’m approaching it. I had a chance to watch the screener for the premiere, just to get a refresher. The first five minutes were a bit hard for me. Just having all these memories of us working and spending time together come back. That feeling was quickly taken over by the excitement you can see in Anne’s face. She was again hosting these horrible recruits when it comes to cooking and in the Food Network arena. We’re approaching it as a way to celebrate who Anne was and excitement to see her happiness and love for what she did on camera. There was something about it that made it even more special. Just to see how happy she was doing what she loves. 

What will you remember about your interactions together? 

When you’re filming a show like this, you’re doing it over the span of many weeks. You’re spending a lot of time together like 10, 12, sometimes 14 hours, shooting together. So, you get to know someone on a professional level but also a personal level. What really struck me was when we were done, where I was in Los Angeles and she was back at home in New York. We would text. I would have to be honest, it would come from her. She would text me to say, “Hey! This reminded me of you.” Or, “Next time you’re in New York, let’s grab lunch or dinner.” And we did. We stayed in touch that way as I would travel to the city often. The thing that struck me the most was she would send me updates on the recruits because she would keep in touch with them after the show. 

They would want to keep in touch with her, so they would send her pictures of the food they were making or wanting to show her how they were slicing the way she taught them to. She would send me these updates. I would be like,” Anne, are you in touch with all of them?” She would be like, “Oh my God, yes I love all of them.” I think that speaks to who Anne was. It doesn’t happen too often in this industry where you have someone who is exactly on camera how he or she is off camera. Anne was just Anne throughout the show, after the show, at dinner, texting, or whatever. There was an authenticity that came with Anne. There are hundreds of people who work on this. They will tell you she was just authentically her. I loved her. 

How was it working on this show? You’re so used to working with pros. Did the experience test your patience? 

Oh my God, it did. Absolutely! It made me think if I’m fit to be a dad. I don’t know if I’m fit to be a dad because it basically felt like you were running a kindergarten. I’m kidding, but there is a reason the recruits are called terrible and talented. They are talented in their own ways. We have opera singers, YouTube stars, musicians and so forth. When it comes to cooking, they are so terrible at that. They definitely tested my patience. One of the things Anne kept telling me before coming to the show, “I know you are preparing for these recruits to be bad. I just want to tell you that you have no idea until you get there. You’re going to be speechless for a while.” I thought, “Come on, Anne. I’ve seen people not being so good at cooking. How bad could it be?” I’m telling you it was worse. I was speechless. I’m a talker, and I remember the producer asking in my ear if I was okay. I was quiet for a bit. I was just looking. It was like looking at a plane crash that you can’t stop. Yes, it tested my patience. 

These recruits have no idea what they are doing in the kitchen. I’m not just saying how to cook. I’m saying how to turn on an oven. The bar is really low. With that said, we also had some of the best and most memorable experiences I’m going to keep with me for the rest of my life. Some of them really wanted to learn. There is nothing more exciting when somebody puts themselves fully into what they’re doing. Knowing they are not good at it, but wanting to improve and learn. Those are the people Anne and I loved. I think that is why Anne loved the show so much. It’s doing something you’re not good at and learning something new and stepping out of your comfort zone and experiencing life with a new set of lessons. It was very fun. 

Gabriele Bertaccini and Alex Guarnaschelli on Ciao House, Season 2. (Food Network)

When it came to the participants, did you have to reel in these big personalities? 

Listen, was it bad? At least it was entertaining. If somebody was bad at cooking and had a bad personality, that is a recipe for disaster. At least they had big personalities to go with it. This was a fun show. I’m excited for everyone to watch it. The thing about this is these are people who have taken time off their schedule to learn how to cook knowing very well they are bad at it. If I really want to be honest, I have to say, “Good for you. I don’t  think I would do that on national TV.” Kudos to them for trying. I’m telling you the things we got to see and taste. I mean some of them were the most horrifying things I’ve ever experienced in my whole entire life. It was very interesting. 

Tell me about the challenges coming up including the return of the “Remote Control Chef”? 

When you say the words remote control challenge, I have PTSD from that. I forgot about that! The first episode really has one of my favorite cooks. It’s like leading kids playing with a bunch of new toys and showing them what to do. It was me and Anne watching them go their own way and seeing what they were capable of. It’s also how we built our own teams. There was a strategy to it because it’s a competition. There was friendly competition between Anne and I in trying to form the winning team. I think this episode is extremely entertaining. I’ll just say this. Anne and I were served a dish called the flying spaghetti. I don’t know if they were trying to pay homage to my heritage, but it flew right into the trash. Let me tell you, it was so bad. It was a pot full of water with pepper, chicken breast and tomatoes. It was so bad that got me thinking, “This can’t be real.” We had a good time teaching these recruits how to cook, so you never know? 

Is there an overarching theme or demographic you’d love to see them do next and recruit for the show? 

I love to teach the young frat boys that need to learn how to cook because cooking is a skill. It gets you a lot of things in life in a good way. You may make a beautiful dish for someone you love or to thank somebody. You can cook a dish to celebrate something. It’s a great way to communicate. It’s a skill the 25 to 28-year-old in America don’t pay too much attention to. Actually, cooking can be very beneficial to the community. That would be my thing with everyone Door Dash-ing and getting everything with a click. You don’t learn anything and miss the whole idea of cooking, which is eating food and the process of it. You have to fully love the process. That connects to the season very well. It’s not teaching recruits how to make a good roasted chicken. It’s teaching them the process of making roasted chicken. Some of them have the patience for that. You have to fall in love with the process and have patience. These are all recipes for life. Everyone should learn how to cook. 

What was your last interaction with Anne you’ll cherish the most? 

It was the finale. Everyone is tired. Weeks and weeks have gone by. We are celebrating the end of the shoot, and I get really sick. I had this cold. I felt like crap. We go through the production meeting and Anne hands me this card. It said, ‘I hope you feel better.’ In the card, there is this cute little heart that she crocheted. She loved to knit. She would do that while waiting for shooting time. This was relaxing to her. The night before she got the car. I still have it. It was such a beautiful gesture and completely unnecessary. That’s exactly who Anne was. There was no ego or competition. Someone to take a little bit of her time to do something like that for her cohost, it’s special. It’s a great memory that I’ll be taking with me. 

Worst Cooks in America: Talented and Terrible, July 28, 9/8c, Food Network