He Sent Ten Cookbook Proposals and Heard Back in a Week. Alex P. Taylor on Mandatory Pivoting, the Nacho King Journey, and What Success Actually Costs

If you've ever waited for the right moment to send the thing — the proposal, the pitch, the email you've been drafting for months — Alex P. Taylor's story will either inspire you or make you want to clear your inbox immediately.

On April 2nd, 2025, the self-proclaimed Nacho King of Connecticut sent his cookbook proposal to ten publishers. The publishing industry standard timeline for hearing back is six months to two years. Alex heard back in a week. By Easter, he had a signed deal with Quarto Books US.

Totally Nachrageous — his debut cookbook — releases August 25, 2026. Alex came on Success, Rewritten to talk about how he got there, what it cost, and why he believes success and struggle are always neighbors.

The Early Ingredients

Alex P. Taylor grew up in an Italian-American family with a grandmother he calls Nonna RoRo — someone whose kitchen was the center of everything. "I would sit by her and watch her making all of the things that she made," he said in our conversation. Every birthday, she made him a chocolate cream pie. He still thinks of her whenever he sees one.

His first job was in a pizza kitchen, mostly cutting pizza on an assembly line. But on his breaks, he'd experiment with toppings and flavor combinations. It was the earliest version of what would eventually become his whole career: making something different from what people expect.

A Decade of Youth Work, Then COVID

Before nachos, before TV, before the cookbook, Alex spent ten years as program manager for the Connecticut Youth Forum — a nonprofit that brought teens together to have conversations about racism, stereotypes, and peer pressure. He facilitated discussions for rooms of 200 to 350 students at a time.

"When you're with like-minded and like-energy people, it continues to grow," he reflected. "I was able to identify some positive spark or energy within the students and amplify that for them as well. So (it) was a really magical job to have."

But it was a nonprofit. The meaning was real. The paycheck wasn't.

Then COVID hit, and the in-person model collapsed entirely. Classrooms became Zoom rooms. The live energy that made the work worth it was gone.

The Mandatory Pivot

Alex has a phrase he returns to throughout our conversation: mandatory pivoting. "There's mandatory pivoting in life that happens," he said. The choice isn't whether it happens. It's whether you move with it or get stuck waiting for things to go back to how they were.

Three months before COVID began, Alex had started a side project on Instagram called Nacho Bell Brothers — rating nachos across Connecticut and beyond, traveling with his best friend, scoring each plate with a one-to-ten maraca system, building momentum. COVID shut down both paths at once.

He started making nachos at home. That's when the idea for a cookbook first surfaced. "When I started making the nachos at home was really when that aha moment or the light bulb goes off that says, 'Maybe you should start writing these recipes down.'"

From Community Manager to Media Personality

During the Connecticut Youth Forum's uncertain transition period, Alex applied for a Yelp Connecticut community manager role — a job he describes as being "the mayor of your state." You build events. You support local businesses. You connect people.

It was, in retrospect, the perfect bridge. The community-building skills he'd spent a decade developing found a new stage.

And then a door cracked open. Through his Yelp work, Alex started appearing on local TV — initially to highlight small businesses, eventually to do nacho-centered cooking segments. Great Day Connecticut on Fox 61 became what he calls "a huge home." He eventually expanded to WTNH 8 and local radio.

"Ultimately, I kept the door open," he said. "Even after I left Yelp, producers said, 'We're so happy to have you still doing this. You can talk about anything you like,' because at the end of the day, it wasn't necessarily the organization you were with, but it was the personality that you have."

His lightbulb moment: a Zoom nacho tutorial with Chelsea, owner of Red Rock Tavern in Hartford. They walked through how to build the ultimate nacho together on a video call. When the call ended, Alex stepped back and thought: "Oh my God. I'm making a living making nachos now."

Below Deck, Gordon Ramsay, and Going National

The local career became national when Alex appeared on Below Deck, shot in Grenada — his first time ever leaving the United States. He was the primary guest on his charter, which meant maximum camera time and a holiday episode filled with Christmas and New Year's celebrations on a yacht.

"Certain people when a camera is on them become a hyper version of themselves that may or may not be authentic," he observed. "Were you here to have fun? Were you here to enjoy the opportunity? Or were you here for your fifteen minutes of fame?" Alex went in as himself. He came out with a national audience.

The episode aired. The next day, real time, Alex went to Hell's Kitchen as a featured front-row table to watch Gordon Ramsay film. He had met Ramsay the night before at Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen — a coincidence that wasn't entirely a coincidence. "I said, 'It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm going to see you tomorrow, Gordon,'" Alex recalled. Ramsay looked confused. Then impressed.

He was later featured in a St. Patrick's themed segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

The Proposal

After leaving Yelp, Alex launched Alex P. Taylor One Media and spent time managing social media for restaurants. He built one client's Instagram following up 48% before that contract ended — another mandatory pivot.

"You know that you have the book proposal for your cookbook ready," he told himself. "You know that you've just been so busy doing things and jobs for other people, you haven't sat down and said, 'I need to send this out to as many places I can right now.'"

He set a goal: ten proposals a week. On April 2nd, 2025 — the day after April Fool's Day — he sent the first ten. The following week, he had an email from what would become his publisher.

The proposal was eighty pages. (He'd been told it didn't need to be that long. He wrote it anyway.) Jennifer, his acquisitions editor at Quarto Books US, read it. She brought it to her team. By Easter, Alex had a contract confirming he would be a nationally published author.

His literary agent — Sally Ackus, who had initially passed on working with him but pointed him toward other options — came back into the picture once the deal was on the table. "You've shown your hustle," she told him. "You've shown your drive."

What's Inside Totally Nachrageous

Totally Nachrageous is not a traditional cookbook. It is, in Alex's own description, "a celebration of food and life" and "part time capsule." Every recipe comes with a song pairing. The whole book is built around an 1980s pop culture lens — the cover design nods to Saved by the Bell, one recipe references Desperately Seeking Susan. The nachos range from fusion to dessert to wild-format presentations like a nacho buffalo cone and a wheelbarrow nacho (his answer to Guy Fieri's trash can nacho).

As of this recording, Totally Nachrageous was sitting at number nine in tailgating cooking on Amazon's bestseller list — and the book hasn't come out yet.

Pre-order at alexptaylor.com for three bonus recipes sent before the release date.

And yes — he's already working on the next one. A '90s-themed party cookbook with a full chapter on nachos and the rest built around decade-specific party themes. He shared it as a first, here on Success, Rewritten.

Success Is Struggle Adjacent

Near the end of our conversation, I asked Alex what gets him through the hard stretches. He came back to the phrase he'd used at the top of the episode.

"Success is struggle adjacent. No matter how successful you are or how big things can get, there will always be struggle, because I think those two things live together."

He's not pessimistic about it. He says it the way you'd describe weather — as something to prepare for, not avoid. "You can appreciate the sweet but also acknowledge the sour sometimes."

For anyone sitting on an idea, a proposal, a pitch that's been waiting for the right moment: Alex P. Taylor sent his on April 2nd. He didn't know what would happen. He just moved.