Guy Fieri

• 1. Introduction

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  Guy Fieri, an American restaurateur, author and television presenter, was called the "face of the network" by The New York Times in 2010. The network was Food Network. The same article said he brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television". It also noted that his "prime-time shows attract more male viewers than any others on the network". That is a striking verdict on a man who co-owned three restaurants in California, all of them now closed. Yet his name is licensed to restaurants in cities all over the world. How does a hotel-management graduate from a rural corner of California end up in that position? Why did a single newspaper review of one of his restaurants become so famous? And why does a man known to millions as Fieri carry a surname he was not born with?

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• 2. The Pretzel Cart

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  At the age of ten, in grade school in Ferndale, California, Guy sold pretzels from a bicycle cart he called "Awesome Pretzel". He and his father built the cart together. Ferndale sits in rural Humboldt County, where he grew up after being born in Columbus, Ohio, on the 22nd of January 1968. His birth name was Guy Ramsay Ferry, and his parents were Penelope Anne and Lewis James Ferry.

  The cart was only the beginning. He also washed dishes, and the wages paid for a trip to France to study. During high school he spent time as a foreign exchange student in Chantilly, France. There his interest in food and cooking took hold.

  Upon returning, he worked at the restaurant of the Red Lion Inn in Eureka, California. He stayed until it was time to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In 1990 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel management.

  Soon afterward he became manager of Parker's Lighthouse, a restaurant in Long Beach, California. After three years in southern California, he became district manager of Louise's Trattoria. The job covered six locations and included recruiting and training staff. By late 1996 he was ready to open a restaurant that carried his own personality.

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• 3. Garlic and Wasabi

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  In late 1996, Fieri and his business partner Steve Gruber opened Johnny Garlic's in Santa Rosa, California. Its menu was billed as "California Pasta Grill" fare. A second Johnny Garlic's opened in Windsor in 1999. A third followed in Petaluma in 2000 or 2001, though that one has since closed. A fourth arrived in Roseville in late 2008, and another opened in Dublin, California, in 2011.

  The partners also tried a different idea. Tex Wasabi's, which paired barbecue with sushi, opened in Santa Rosa in 2003. A second Tex Wasabi's followed in 2007 in Arden-Arcade, near Sacramento. That location was later rebranded as Johnny Garlic's and then closed.

  In 2011, Fieri partnered with Carnival Cruise Lines to create Guy's Burger Joint, which sold his burgers across the fleet. By October 2017 there were 19 of his restaurants on Carnival's ships. They included a beer-and-barbecue venue called Guy's Pig & Anchor Smokehouse Brewhouse.

  On land, Guy Fieri's Vegas Kitchen and Bar opened on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, in April 2014. Guy Fieri's Baltimore Kitchen & Bar opened inside Baltimore's Horseshoe Casino in 2015. In 2018 he teamed up with Robert Earl, the founder of Planet Hollywood, to open a chicken sandwich shop called Chicken Guy! at Disney Springs in Walt Disney World. In 2021 came Guy Fieri's Flavortown Kitchen, a restaurant that works by delivery only.

  None of these drew the attention that his first New York City restaurant did in 2012.

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• 4. The Times Square Verdict

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  Guy's American Kitchen and Bar opened in 2012 and received what Larry Olmsted of Forbes called "the most scathing review in the history of the New York Times". Olmsted added that it was "likely the most widely read restaurant review ever." The critic was Pete Wells, and the coverage was brutal.

  Fieri answered by accusing Wells of using Fieri's fame as a platform to advance his own prestige. He pointed out that Wells was the nation's highest profile reviewer.

  The review did not empty the dining room. The restaurant stood in Times Square, one of the most heavily trafficked locations in the country. That position helped it appear on Restaurant Business's list of the top 100 independent restaurants, ranked by sales, four years in a row.

  The restaurant finally closed at the end of 2017. By then, the screen was where Fieri's reputation had long been made.

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• 5. Face of the Network

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  On the 23rd of April 2006, Fieri won the second season of The Next Food Network Star. The prize was a six-episode commitment for a cooking show of his own on Food Network. That show, Guy's Big Bite, premiered on the 25th of June 2006. Its most recent episode aired on the 16th of November 2016.

  His second series proved far more durable. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives premiered in April 2007, after a one-hour special in November 2006. In it Fieri travels the country to visit local eateries. The New York Times called it "not a cooking show as much as a carefully engineered reality show". The program was still running at the time the source was written.

  He also turned up on other Food Network programs. Those included Dinner: Impossible in 2007 and 2009, Paula's Party, Ace of Cakes and The Best Thing I Ever Ate.

  The awards record reflects the show's reach. Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives appears in listings for the Primetime Emmy Awards in the category Outstanding Structured Reality Program in 2014, 2015, 2016-2017 and 2019. In 2021 the same show was listed for Male Star of the Year at the Critics' Choice Real TV Awards. On the 22nd of May 2019, Fieri received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

  In May 2021, he signed a three-year contract with Food Network worth an estimated $80 million.

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• 6. Games and Showdowns

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  On the 17th of February 2008, Ultimate Recipe Showdown debuted with Fieri and Marc Summers as co-hosts. It aired for three seasons. Not every experiment lasted so long. Guy Off the Hook debuted on the 14th of September 2008 as a special studio audience show. It ran through the end of 2008, but the extra cost of staging an audience did not pan out, and the concept was dropped.

  For Thanksgiving 2008, Fieri hosted a one-hour special called Guy's Family Feast. It reused the Guy Off the Hook set and was broadcast live on the 28th of November 2008.

  In December 2009, NBC named him host of the game show Minute to Win It. It premiered in March 2010 and ran for two seasons. On the 13th of May 2012, NBC announced there would be no third season, citing high production costs and low ratings.

  In January 2012, he served as a team captain opposite Rachael Ray in Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. A second season began on the 6th of January 2013.

  Guy's Grocery Games started on the 27th of October 2013. It features a panel of three judges and four cooks who compete through three rounds. In 2017, Guy's Family Road Trip was chosen as the lead-out show from season 13 of Food Network Star. It previewed on the 13th of August of that year.

  Since 2020, Fieri has also hosted Tournament of Champions.

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• 7. Beyond the Kitchen

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  Before he became a restaurant name, Fieri was already selling other brands. He appeared in promotions for Flowmaster, a California-based maker of auto exhaust parts. In 2008 and 2009 he was the spokesperson for T.G.I. Friday's. In 2010 he appeared in an Aflac commercial named "Spicy".

  In 2009, he began touring with the Guy Fieri Roadshow, a multi-state food tour that featured fellow Food Network personalities. He also owns a vineyard. His wine is sold under the label Hunt & Ryde, named after his sons Hunter and Ryder.

  The COVID-19 pandemic hit the restaurant industry hard in 2020. Fieri teamed up with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to create the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund for unemployed restaurant workers. In less than two months it raised over US$20 million.

  He has written or co-written several cookbooks, which together spent over 33 weeks as New York Times bestsellers. On screen he has also appeared in the films 80 for Brady in 2023 and Happy Gilmore 2 in 2025. In 2023 he started Guy's Flavortown Tailgate, an annual free event held on Super Bowl weekend with Medium Rare. It offers fans food, music and festivities.

  He co-owns Santo Tequila with Sammy Hagar. In 2024 the company was at the center of a large theft, when 24,000 bottles were stolen. That amounted to two truckloads worth $1 million.

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• 8. Family and a Name

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  Lori walked into a Long Beach restaurant that Fieri was managing, and that is how they met. They married in 1995. They live in Santa Rosa with their two sons and their nephew, Jules. Fieri's sister died in 2011 of metastatic melanoma, and he decided to take care of Jules, who was 11 years old.

  His sister was a lesbian, and in 2015 he honored her memory in a public way. He officiated at the wedding of celebrity chef Art Smith in Miami Beach. The ceremony included 101 same-sex couples and celebrated Florida's Supreme Court lifting the state ban on same-sex marriage.

  In 2021 the Fieris bought a home in West Palm Beach, Florida. Fieri also collects classic American cars. They include a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle, a 1968 Pontiac Firebird, a 1976 Jeep CJ-5, a 1969 Chevrolet Impala SS and a 1967 Chevrolet C10 pickup.

  The name itself comes from the family. His paternal grandfather, Giuseppe Fieri, was an Italian immigrant who changed the spelling to Ferry on arriving in the United States. Guy Ferry took the original Italian spelling back in his grandfather's memory.

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