Hey Alex Guarnaschelli, Is A Hot Dog A Sandwich?

Alex Guarnaschelli seems cool. We hoped the Chopped judge, chef/owner of the New York City restaurant Butter, and cookbook author would be as encouraging and affable a personality in one-on-one conversation as she is on television.

We have news for you. She is!

Guarnaschelli has thoughts on our ongoing hot dog-sandwich debate, with actual experience arguing about this on social media, and she was more than willing to tell The Takeout about it. She's also funny, picked up our call on the second ring, and in our book that means Guarnaschelli is dope as hell.

Guarnaschelli hosts Supermarket Stakeout, which airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Eastern on Food Network.

The Takeout: Hey Alex Guarnaschelli, is a hot dog a sandwich?

Alex Guarnaschelli: First of all, the long-standing discussions on my Twitter page are over three topics: 1) The Chopped set doesn't need more than one ice cream maker, 2) pineapple is disgusting on pizza, and 3) a hot dog is most distinctly a sandwich.

People see a sandwich as sitting flat on a plate. This is a part of the criteria we don't discuss enough, about how people perceive sandwiches. People think because you can see the hot dog and it's upright that if it were a sandwich it'd be turned on its side. I think that's ridiculous. I think that's sandwich discrimination. It's a piece of meat with condiments between two pieces of bread.

TO: You've had arguments with people who think otherwise on Twitter. How do you deal with them?

AG: I tell them, "You have a good day and I'm going to have a good day. And I'll be over here with my hot dog sandwich."