Celebrity chef shows some heart
There’s more to Guy Fieri’s rebel image
ATLANTIC
CITY -- You know that crazy guy on The Food Network? Yeah, the one named
Guy, the one with two pinky rings, two bicep tattoos and one sweatband?
The 210-pound Italian with bleach-blond spiked hair and a dark goatee
who wears bowling league-style shirts with clam digger shorts and rides
a Harley?
Would you expect a guy like that who’s catch phrases are “Off the hook!”
and “This is gonna be money!,” to say things like, “I’m a lover, not a
fighter,” and “It just tears my heart out to be away from (my sons),”
and “I’m building a home for my parents on our property so our family
can be closer together”?
But that’s the real Guy Fieri. All the rest is just him loving life and
having fun with it, which are the same characteristics that make his
meteoric rise from winner of the “Next Food Network Star” to “Guy’s Big
Bite” to now the network’s number one show, “Diners, Drive-ins and
Dives,” so believable. Fieri is just a down-to-earth, likeable guy who
happens to be a gifted chef.
“I’m very confident, but I’m not cocky. Any guy will take you down a
notch the next moment,” said Fieri from St. Louis, eating breakfast
while waiting to shoot a segment for the third season of “Diners” (the
second season began airing this month).
“I’ll meet people and they’ll just have their mouths wide open. I’m a
pretty big guy, but after they get to know me, they see I’m just a big
softie. I’m a lover, not a fighter -- but I can get in your face in a
second if you’re asking for it. For most people, though, their
expectations are blown out of the water.”
He’ll show that side of him when he does a couple of cooking
demonstrations and meets with visitors at this weekend’s Atlantic City
Food and Wine Festival in the Atlantic City Convention Center. He and
Iron Chef Morimoto are among the celebrity chefs who will attend the
Friday through Sunday festival.
“I’ll do a couple half-hour segments, talk with the people, tell some
stories -- that’s what people enjoy, the interaction,” he said.
It’s there that people will see the entertainer in him that helped get
his big break on the “Next Food Network Star.”
“That was a great experience. The best way to explain it to people is
that it was the ‘American Idol’ for food. I went from the restaurant
dude who loves to talk to winning the ‘Next Food Network Star’ to ‘Guy’s
Big Bite,’ and then I do a special that becomes “Diners” and the top
show on the network,” he said.
That special included a stop at a North Jersey diner.
“It was the Bayway Diner in Linden, across from a refinery, and I’ve
never been to a diner in my life -- I’m a California dude. I’m like,
‘What’s a diner?’ We shot there and the show took off,” Fieri said. “New
Jersey’s like, what, regarded as the diner capital of the world? So
we’re coming back for a future show with a busload of people to tour
around different diners.”
In doing the “Diners” show, Fieri said he’s learned more about how food
brings people together.
“It strikes a chord in everyone. We don’t just go eat at diners, we
commune there,” he said. “What the chefs do there are the heart and soul
of cooking. The gravy and biscuits are just gravy and biscuits, but you
put that same discipline into making the goat cheese balsamic
vinaigrette, and it all translates.”
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One experience in a Chicago diner still resonates with Fieri.
“It’s 1:30 in the morning and this reverend and pastor have met there to
talk with people. I asked them what they were doing and they said they
called each other to meet at that time to talk with people in the diner.
They’re sitting there giving advice to people who come in depressed,
alone or frightened. They’re doing their ministry from the counter of a
diner! That’s what’s so strong about the show. You can be having a belly
laugh about the guy we shot with the hunk of cheese stuck to the side of
his face and he doesn’t know it, or be blown away by the ministers
helping people in the middle of the night. That’s the beauty of the
show.”
But has all the travel, long days and guest appearances become too much
for the married father of two young boys?
“The No. 1 most difficult factor in this entire thing is being away, not
from my (four) restaurants because I have great managers, but from my
sons. It just tears my heart out to be away from them,” he said. “We can
go as hard as we can (with work) because that’s what we do in the
restaurant business. We work hard. It’s long hours. But I needed to slow
down, so we reworked my schedule so I can spend more time with my boys.”
He’s taken his success to move his mother and father, who raised Guy in
Northern California, to a small cottage on his property so the family
can spend more time together.
“It’s what I want to establish for my family,” he said. “There’s that
nesting factor of how to take care of Mom and Dad, so we’re building
them a unit beside our home. If (the success on TV) wasn’t going on,
this would not possible. They’ll be with us and they’ll have more
influence on my children.
“But it’s all good. We’re having fun. I’ll be cooking for the troops
soon, so that’s real cool,” he said. “I’m blessed. America put me here.
They voted and I won, and it’s been an awesome experience ever since.
I’m sitting here talking with you with a big smile on my face. It’s all
good.”
Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed
at seitz[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by
calling 624-8900, ext. 250.
Check out his Cape Cuisine food blog