When you first meet Guy Fieri, the thing that jumps out at you is the fact that he looks, sounds, and behaves exactly the same way in person as he does on TV. He leans in genially as he introduces himself, his signature blond spikes seeming to bristle with energy as he shakes your hand.
“Have you guys had anything to eat yet?” He asks me and fellow WAT writers, Kathy and Quan, as he adeptly lifts three sliders from a passing tray. “Try these; they’re my Baltimore Beef Mini Sliders. A little rare top round, sliced thin, with horseradish and onion.” He tells us a little bit about the origins of the recipe, which appears in his new book, Guy Fieri Food: Cookin’ It, Livin’ It, Lovin’ It and the best way to deal with overcooked or undercooked meat. He’s so enthusiastic, I don’t have the heart to tell him that I have trouble hard-boiling an egg and simply nod as I select a toothpick-skewered Yakitori Chicken Meatball from another ambulatory plate.
Having watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Fieri’s show on the Food Network, you wouldn’t necessarily think of Asian food as one of his go-to’s, but before long, he’s swapping Chinatown recommendations with Kathy. He tells us about going to one of the hole-in-the-wall noodle shops downtown and being so impressed with their handmade noodles that he talked his way into the kitchen to see how it was done. After watching one of the cooks stretch out the dough by swinging it between two hands, rather as you would a jump rope, he had to give it a shot. The kitchen staff, who didn’t speak English, must have found Fieri’s mimed entreaties convincing, because they gave him a ball of dough. Fieri stretched the dough out between two hands and gave it a swing – and immediately smacked himself on the chin, causing the kitchen staff to roar with laughter and shower him with conciliatory pats on the back.
Guy breaks out of his story to thank a server as she proffers a plate of small bites, taking three to offer us. The hors d’oeuvres, which I at first can’t identify by sight, turn out to be ‘Sashimi Won Tacos’ – seasoned tuna sashimi in crispy mini rice ‘tortillas’ – and are delicious. When asked about the cross-cultural theme that keeps cropping up across the array of hors d’oeuvres that faithfully appear like clockwork at our elbows, Fieri nods earnestly. “I’m all about the deculturalization of food,” he says, crunching into a Won Taco himself. “Like with these, I wanted to find something with a nice crispiness that would complement the texture of the sashimi. I didn’t want to use a corn taco, but the rice was the perfect.” At that moment, one of his PR team appears and whispers something in his ear and he politely excuses himself, admonishing us to eat up and have a good time.
The impression you get is that Fieri’s strength – other than food – appears to be putting people at ease, a quality that, in turn, seems to come from the chef’s own laid-back self-assurance. When asked about Guy’s popularity among his fans, Kleetus Cox, a close friend and fellow chef, credits his genuineness and approachability. “With Guy, what you see is what you get. [Cooking] is just what he loves,” he says with a shrug and a smile. “You know, there’s a group of us that cook with Guy – all friends and chefs – and we all get together pretty regularly in Guy’s kitchen, which is about 985 square feet of space. A lot of the recipes in the book were developed right in his kitchen, just having fun.” When Susie Fogel, Senior Vice President of the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, introduces Fieri to the group at large a little later, she says of Guy Fieri Food! that the cookbook is a true representation of Guy himself.
“It’s a delicious, tattooed, beautiful version of all the food he’d want you to eat,” she says warmly.
Looking at the cover – which features a photo of Fieri exuberantly flinging carrots towards the camera – you do see a sort of anthropomorphic resemblance to the man himself, and he clearly takes an almost paternal pride in it, saying that he’s “tied to each recipe.”
“We agonized over each [recipe], and over the ones that didn’t make it,” he says. “I wish I could have put a hundred more in. But,” he says, with evident satisfaction, “if they never let me write another one, it’ll be alright because at least I left it all on the field with this thing.”
Later, sides groaning from the Cajun Chicken Alfredo, Spicy Steamed Mussels, and dessert pizza, I wipe the chocolate from my face and locate Fieri to ask him a last question. What, I want to know, is his goal for his dishes? “I think we get too caught up with thinking about foods in a specific way. We end up building walls around what kind of food goes with what and how it should be eaten,” he says seriously, “and we really end up missing out that way.” He seems to ruminate on this for a moment, then suddenly flashes me a toothy grin.
“Basically, I’m all about what tastes good,” he says, clapping me on the shoulder. “Let’s just make things taste good.”
Read our other stories on Guy Fieri:
Guy Fieri Food Kick Off Party
A Tasty Preview of recipes from Guy Fieri Food
To buy on Amazon:
Guy Fieri Food: Cookin’ It, Livin’ It, Lovin’ It
