Exclusive: Antoni Porowski Is 'Having the Best Time' Filming Season 9 of 'Queer Eye,' Dishes on Cast's Tight Bond

Antoni Porowski is not sick of filming Queer Eye after eight seasons — in fact, it's the exact opposite.

"It's been amazing. We're like this middle aged boy band, and by the end of every season, we're like, 'Ugh, I just want to get back to my home and couch.' But one month later, the group chat starts again and we're all texting and we're all trying to figure out when we're seeing each other again. I get to live out parts of my childhood that I never really did and every single one of them brings them out in me," the 40-year-old, who is partnering with Lowe’s to create recipes that will bring the yard (garden!) to table for beginner and advanced home chefs alike, exclusively tells Morning Honey. "We're having the best time. We just went out a couple of weeks ago together and had a fun dinner."

"We're now planning something else because it was Tan [France]'s birthday, and because we're filming, we're trying to make plans to hang out," the cooking guru adds.

When Queer Eye re-launched on Netflix in 2018, the Canada native, in addition to France, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness and Karamo Brown joined forces to create the new Fab Five. Immediately, they all bonded and formed a solid friendship.

"It's a very unique experience because there are a lot of things we experience that we're immensely grateful for, but there are a lot of parts in this business that you can't necessarily share with everybody because they won't understand. You don't sound relatable, but with them, they've been through it with me since day one," he shares.

"From that day when I had an Italian lessons and I had my notifications on Instagram about followers — I had 300 followers at the time — and they announced who we were and my phone was glowing and kept on dying," he recalls of the series being announced at the time. "Going to awards ceremony and how overwhelming that is and everything that comes with. Even working with certain heroes [on the show] who really affect us. Karamo might text me and say, 'The hero just cried for two hours, maybe try to make it a fun field trip for you.' We have to continue to do that to create a good experience for viewers, but most importantly, for the hero we're helping. There's shortage of them this season. They're incredible."

When the TV stars have some time off, they "take turns eating at each other's homes," Porowski reveals. "It's fun!"

The boys — Berk exited Season 8, and Jeremiah Brent is replacing him in Season 9 — are currently filming in Las Vegas, which Porowski calls a "very wacky" place to be.

"It's like technology and everything on The Strip with the Sphere and then you have wonderful nature around you. It has the most incredible hiking I've ever done. I'm trying to average three times a week, and so far I've been keeping it up except the first week we were here," he says.

"It's shocking that we've done this for so many seasons, but I think the fact that we continue to dive into these very personal, unique stories where our feelings are all the same but our experiences are all different," he says about the success of the show. "That's what has allowed us to do so many seasons and hopefully we can continue doing more. The fact that we move from city to city keeps it really dynamic. We always try to make the environment that we're in a character itself in the story. There are a lot of working pieces and incredible producing team. The casting team keeps on pushing the envelope and finding these people who have never heard of the show. It's harder and harder to execute that, but our production team keeps trying and they keep knocking it out of the park."

Since Porowski is so passionate about food and being in the kitchen, it made sense for him to partner with Lowe's to bring yard-to-table to life for everyday homeowners.

"There's a nostalgic element to it. I was raised in Montreal where three quarters of the year is the dead of winter. But when we had that tiny little window of three to four months, my parents were obsessed with garden to table eating, and we had a really beautiful extensive garden," he recalls. "It was really impressive considering where we were living, and so it was something that was important to me from a young age."

Since the TV personality moved to New York City, it became "impossible" to grow his garden. "Early on in the pandemic, I did one of Martha Stewart's shows where she actually gave me a tutorial on how to grow herbs from my balcony," he says. "This is a wonderful partnership. Springtime is the most exciting time of the year because I just spent the entire winter eating stews and soups, and I'm so over squash. I just want fresh, bright green things and herbs. It's exciting to partner with them."

"Look at the different types of vegetables you consume on a daily basis. Start simple — I use chives a lot. I use them in my eggs every single morning. I use a shocking amount of fresh thyme over thyme over fish or beautiful oregano mint," he adds. "I love baby arugula, and I love a good crisp romaine."