How Guy Fieri Became a Favorite of Fine Chefs and Al Pacino

entertainment

To Michael Kaplan

February 25, 2023 | 12:31 PM

Chef wants to kill Guy Fieri.

But not in the way you might think.Before Food punchline — Anthony Bourdain once described the closed Times Square restaurant Guy’s American Kitchen as the “Dome of Horror” — Fieri is now embraced by the biggest names in fine dining, and is known as the “killer.” was done” A chef foodie who over-indulges his favorite customers.

His last dinner metaphorically deadly? “we Italian graffiti in Salt Lake City,Fieri told the Post. I was too scared to reach the parking lot.”

Marone of the Tao Tribe group, was excited to do it. “The energy Guy brings to any room is incredible,” Marrone, who barely knew Fieri until that evening, told the Post. “He toured the kitchen and took pictures with the crew.” Not all chefs do that, and I don’t know any chef who doesn’t respect what Guy has done.”

Fieri has 19 producer credits on IMDB and 4 shows currently airing on Food Network — “Tournament of Champions‘ His cooking contest has just begun its fourth season — 92 restaurants worldwide, highly rated cigar collaboration (Knuckle Sandwich received 92 in 92 cigar lover), a tequila deal with Sammy Hagar, and an industry-wide appreciation for raising $24.5 million to support restaurant workers who were sidelined early in the pandemic.

“I sent a video to the top people of the 50 companies that make the most money from restaurants,” Fieri said of how he accomplished the final feat. “They made a profit, so I gave them a chance to settle. The next day I got a call saying Pepsi was on the phone. To date, we have raised $7 million.”

He is also generous with his comrades.

A few years ago, Sylvester Stallone invited Fieri to his home. There is a boxing match on TV and sandwiches on the menu. Fieri can’t stand it. He insisted on bringing wagyu steak, truffles, fresh pasta and shrimp. He then cooked for celebrity guests including Sugar Ray Leonard, David Blaine, and Al Pacino.

“Pacino took a few bites of my pasta and asked how was it? He hesitated, tasted it again, pushed back in his chair and said:Wow!Fieri still sounded excited. “Then I had to go outside.”

But his life hasn’t always been one of gourmet giveaways and celebrity hang-ups. admitted.

“People make judgments,” he said, finishing with a portion of pizza and quesadillas with dipping sauces. “They met me and saw tattoos, gold earrings, big chains, California. There’s always a way to misunderstand someone.”

Fieri was raised in the Northern California town of Ferndale by a leatherworker father and housewife mother. He’s had a restaurant job since he was 12 years old — “I started washing dishes in a Mexican restaurant” — and ended up in a French high school foreign exchange program, where he fell in love with food. After earning a degree in hotel management from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Fieri opened his own store, Johnny Garlic’s, in 1996.

By 2008, he had four locations and a second chainlet, a sushi/barbecue concept called Tex Wasabi’s. When the “The Next Food Network Star” competition was announced in 2006, being on TV was the furthest thing from any busy restaurateur’s mind.

“But two buddies pushed me to make a demo,” says Fieri. “I said, “Hello, I’m Guy Fieri. Today we will make sausage and tofu terrine. And we’re in wine country, so we make it in a bed of grapenuts. About the food, then we started riffing and doing some cooking demos.

Food Network executives liked it, Fieri won Season 2, and the channel had his own show. “It was about kitchen gadgets. We shot the pilot and it was picked up,” he said.

Nevertheless, within the next six months, they came to Fieri on a cooking show called “Guy’s Big Bite.” It was renewed for a second season, and things really blew up in 2007 when “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” premiered. “I’ll keep the show going until the wheels come off,” he said of the program, which is still in progress.

Accompanying Fieri is his wife of 28 years, Lori, a housewife. and his sons, a 25-year-old hunter and a 17-year-old rider(The two raised Guy’s sister’s son, Jules, aged 23, after he died of cancer in 2011.) Hunter regularly appears at the “Guy’s Grocery Game” and competes in the “Tournament of Champions.” We shot a behind-the-scenes video.

The family has multiple homes, and the Napa Valley ranch filmed “Guy’s Ranch Kitchen,” a top-notch fooddown where the celebrity chef captured the equivalent of a traveling Wilbury’s jam session.

For some, it was easy to question Fieri’s rapid rise. “They want to hate whoever wins.”

And then there was the now infamous New York Times review.

In 2012, critic Pete Wells watered down Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, describing the margaritas as tasted like “radiator fluid” and adding, “Why did toasted marshmallows taste like fish? ’ I asked.

Fieri claimed he did not take it personally.

“I don’t know Pete Wells. I don’t know if he ever ran a restaurant, or even if he was a cook. It’s just that we were at my restaurant together doing a fundraiser for the hurricane. [Sandy],” he said. “I went home, read reviews, took my son to school, went back to New York, appeared on the Today Show … I’m not going to hit you completely between my legs. I’ll run with my tail in between.”

Nor did he care when comedian Bobby Moynihan roasted him on “Saturday Night Live,” looking terribly geeky.

“Shortly after I did it, Guy contacted me and asked me to make a video for his son,” said Moynihan, who recently wrote a children’s book.Not all sheep are boring!’” he told the Post. “I think he wanted to be a comedian more than a chef. He said his dream was to be on ‘SNL.’

Moynihan made his debut on “Guy’s Ultimate Game Night,” and said he had “a lot of fun.”

And in the restaurant world, Fieri has earned the respect of some of the biggest names in the industry. “Tournament of Champions” Contestant — Cook $100,000 in cash prizes — including James Beard Award winners Jett Tila, Jose Garces and Nate Appleman. Among the distinguished jury of chefs are Eric Ripert from Manhattan at Le Bernardin and Scott Conant at Scarpetta, and Nancy Silverton at Michelin-starred Osteria Her Mozza in Los Angeles.

In a television genre so serious that the culinary experts on air are rigid and the format sleepy, Fieri’s competition resembles a high-energy sporting event. and complete your own intro music.

The winner gets a huge belt that confirmed Fieri’s heavyweight worth. “The first year a guy brought me a belt and I said, ‘What’s this?'” recalls Fieri. “It looked like something from Toys R Us. I said, ‘Find out who makes the World Boxing Association championship belt.'” He said, “Do you want a belt like that?” Of course. Please spend $5,000.”

Chef Brooke Williamson, who has won the much stricter “Top Chef” and co-owns LA’s Playa Provisions, won the first season and returned for two more seasons.

“Two seasons ago at the Tournament of Champions, for each round we won, we received $10,000 to donate to an independent restaurant,” Williamson told The Post. “I helped some friends who were struggling. La Lina in Brooklyn used the money to build an outdoor patio. When teasing, it means he likes you.

The improbability of a bleached-blond, spiky-haired goatee guy in a bowling shirt with flames and sunglasses behind his head who loves to rub elbows with the rest of the world , not lost in the Fieri.

“Eric and I have a really great friendship,” Fieri said. “I was just texting him last night. A man in a jacket is hanging out with the world’s best chef, Eric says, “We play different kinds of music, but we play what we play. [Fieri’s] It’s like hard rock and I’m like classic.

“I couldn’t be more respectful.”