Queer Eye food guru Antoni Porowski sat down with Fast Company to talk about what he's learned since the show has become successful, and his growing food empire which now includes a revamped New York diner, and a cookbook.

Admitting that he has “a pathological need for everybody to love [him],” Porowski first sounded off on Guacamole-gate, the social media storm that ensued after he said he added Greek yogurt to his guacamole: “The biggest lesson from that was that it's actually physically impossible for everybody to love me and that's been the best thing, because when you have so many more eyes on you there are going to be so many more opinions.”

He took the publication into his restaurant, The Village Den: “I had no knowledge going in so it kind of feels like the wild wild west for me. It's hard. It's because I want to be in control of every component. So I think it's asking a shit ton of questions. Not acting like I know everything. And being able to say ‘I need help. I need to figure this out.' It's relinquishing whenever I can and also knowing my opinion. It's a tricky balancing act. I feel like I'm still figuring it out as I go.”

And talked about his new cookbook: “It's very personal. … You get to look back on your life through food.”

Porowski said that at the beginning of filming Queer Eye he took much of the criticism to heart, urging producers to make the recipes more complicated, but then realized that the show wasn't about him, it was about “what the hero needs.”