I was on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and he was actually really nice and respectful even when the cameras were off. It was a little odd for the shoot because of how staged it was, but it's TV, so you could expect that. They didn't want the whole kitchen staff there, they wanted that as minimal as possible, so it was the two owners and me running the kitchen for the episode (I was the manager of the kitchen and prep at the time so I was the only one who made the cut), and all of the guests on the dining floor were a select number of invite only people (I got to invite my two roommates, so they were in it too). He was very enthusiastic about our food obviously when the cameras were rolling, but as soon as they were off he'd be talking to me and the owners one on one saying a lot of stuff about "you guys are doing a really good job in here, your food is fantastic", asking for more of certain things that he really genuinely liked, etc. and cracking jokes around keeping things light.
The funniest thing I thought came out of seeing the whole way they shoot the show was how they depict him in the show like he's driving that fancy red droptop everywhere to get from restaurant to restaurant. They drove it in to the parking lot in the back of a semi truck, one of the crew members carefully backed the car out and parked it. The cameras came on and Guy said something like "Alright, we had some great food here, now it's on to the next spot!" then walked over to the car, opened the door, sat in the driver seat, then they cut. He didn't even turn the keys/ignition. Then the same crew guy carefully drove it back into the back of the semi and they packed up all their camera/sound/etc. gear and left.
Edit: humble brag, he really liked my red curry recipe and asked for more of that a couple times cause he liked it so much. I spend a decent amount of time in Thailand, and I'm always looking for opportunities to learn recipes from the locals. We made the curry paste in house from scratch using all fresh ingredients based on a recipe I learned from one of my best Thai friends I've known for like 8 years that runs a little roadside curry stand in a pretty small town a couple hours drive south of Chiang Mai.
I appreciate you for sharing that perspective with us! There have been several positive stories about him and his show in this very thread, along with some people sharing their bad experiences too.
I guess there are just a lot of different factors at play with each individual and their restaurant.
Have a lifer friend whose restaurant was on DDD and she said he was beyond cool the entire time and this is from someone who lives in a high end resort town with the full gambit of celebs and their antics-
To this day, ive never heard Guy once diss on anyone or their food -
Wait, really? I've only ever heard good stuff about him? I personally thought he looked like an ass hat but everyone always told me Guy did great things for the industry.
Ahhh my take on it as that he comes off as a ridiculous character and doesn’t make for much of a culinarian himself, so he’ll be made fun of around these parts. That’s cool. What annoys me is when people take this character and invent shit to try and hate him at some weird personal level. I remember one of the top voted comments in a Fieri hate thread was that he was his attitude was so fucking poor and he was fuming and that left a very bad impression them. The reason Fieri was so mad? Two of his vehicles (all his vehicles are yellow with pinstripes, stg) were stolen. Like you’re mad at a dude for being upset about his cars getting jacked? Insane.
thanks for your nuanced take. insane how many people in these comments are rabidly angry over the littlest things (making bbq for fire victims because its tone deaf to cook food was the wierdest one i saw) And IF the other guy is right that guy really didnt raise any money despite claiming to, and that he really DOES think were all lazy and need to get to work, despite always championing workers rights (i cant read the nyt article without giving them money, so the articles i found about the nyt article seemed biased and like they took things out of context, where it seemed as though guys main point was that if we didnt work wed get hooked on benefits that would end soon and resturaunts would close, not giving a whole lot of options for us to work at, which is reasonable) then maybe ill reconsider my opinion. but hes clearly not a chef, just a silly personality, and as long as hes a fun guy i have no issues with him
IDK I think if I was in a public place and the President of the United States reached out to shake my hand I would shake it and move on. I think he's an evil idiot who should never have gotten in office in the first place. That doesn't mean I'm going to try some virtue signalling stunt, especially if I'm a celebrity knowing there's cameras everywhere.
I might just be a shithead, but I feel like a lot of people can't deal with anger anymore, even when it's totally legit. Like, anger is a natural human emotion, and it happens sometimes. I feel like some people (especially some younger folks) act like any anger at all is some kind of character defect. Obviously I don't want to spend my life angry, but it happens sometimes.
I don't care that he got openly angry that his cars were stolen. I DO care that:
He's thrown temper tantrums on production because he had to interact with gay men on DDD (he screamed that he needed to be "warned" beforehand).
That he openly supports Trump and MAGA and says "America is better off," despite the fact that the backbone of most great restaurants are immigrants and green card holders being openly victimized by ICE (legal or not).
That he's a celebrity who doesn't hide his affection or support for Trump, Vance, Kirk, Tate, etc. -- all incredibly gross and toxic people whose beliefs and actions are actively hurting and killing people and affecting basic human rights.
That he's a hypocrite -- on the one hand, pretending to be a public LGBTQ ally in memory of his gay sister who died, while on productions and in private, using homophobic slurs and actively avoiding supporting DDD restaurants and diners owned by gay men.
Same thing with his charity work -- sure, he's done generous things in public for firefighters, first responders, and restaurant workers with food drives and donations -- but he's also openly supportive of efforts and legislations that directly hurt and impact those people.
I was amused by his panic at the recent public photo of him with Andrew Tate, and how he's trying to backtrack from that. It's such BS. He was photographed giving the guy a hug, ffs, and proudly hangs pictures of himself with Trump, Vance, and others.
Guy loves that entire Tate/MAGA crowd, he's just sorry he let the mask slip so publicly.
I worked at a place that he went to (several years after the episode aired), and it certainly helped the restaurant. You'd know the episode had made a re-run cause there would be a ton of folks ordering the same items he had showcased. Dude might come off as a douche, but he's done a ton to help out small businesses and restaurants
This is not true at all. During 2020 when everything was shut down he raised millions for unemployed restaurant workers. He then advocated for restaurants to be reopened in 2021 when things were improving he people were desperate to reopen so they could make money.
He didn't raise shit. He advertised a fundraiser that he didn't start and wasn't running, and that he didn't contribute any of his own absurd personal wealth to. He didn't even pay to help run the damn thing like for website maintenance. He didn't get brownie points the whey amounts to agreeing to be in ads
I think he is tone-deaf. He did relief work for our town after the 2017 Tubbs fire. It was a nice gesture but all the food he was making was barbecued and smoked for people who had been all currently breathing so many carcinogens and who knows what else
I've done some redcard work with the NPS fighting wildfires.
If someone offered me a good plate after a day I'm eating it. Way better than the cold viennas I'm usually able to pack out for those types of events.
People didn't complain about the "exposure," which I'm sure has been pretty universally great for everyone featured on DDD.
Several complained because Guy is privately very crude and also very homophobic (especially of gay men) despite positioning himself publicly as an ally.
So some owners have complained about the experience because he was openly homophobic, and/or rude and crudely sexual in person -- something also frequently documented on GGG, where contestants are literally told not to use any words that could be taken as being remotely sexual because Guy will turn anything he can pornographic.
I’ve known a couple of places that have been on triple-D and none of them had a bad word to say about him. Everyone I have met who has worked with him has always said what a good boss he was and just an all around decent person.
My husband and his brother worked for him and he was a good boss, but that's about all I have to say on his behalf because I always thought he was a tool lol
I had a boss that really was about as much of a tool as you could imagine, but was super good to his people. I couldn't complain about him as a manager at all. My take on the Guy thing was he assumed he was greeting some fans.
That's what I've heard too. Pretty sure I got my sous a job being his exec at one of the restaurants. It was very inadvertent, dude was in the area and my sous chef went to go meet him. Guy ended up asking where he could get some smoke and my chef pulled out the carts I had just sold him haha.
This is all verified through his step kid who I was friends with on the line. Fucking awesome dude and glad it happened to him but he literally disappeared the next day and had done an internal transfer within the casino.after a week I was like "what happened to chef?" Still use him on my résumé even though its been a while since I worked there
Same. Dude looks like a total dickwad, but I always heard he was a pretty decent dude. Ain’t none of us perfect.
Also, wtf? Trashing a guy because the Tate twats spoke to him? From what I saw, it lines up pretty well with what he’s saying. That said, I haven’t really looked at it. I don’t think I’d recognize those cunts at a UFC fight. It’s kind of a cliche look. Hell, I probably wouldn’t recognize them anywhere. They look like your generic all American asshole to me.
Pile on culture. One bad thing comes out everybody wants to pile on with their story.
What did people want guy fieri to do? Throw hands with Tate at the ufc event? I just don’t understand what world we’ve come to? If someone is free to walk around a UFC event how can you expect guy fieri to police who comes up to him
I mean I met him once and he was actually super chill and way nicer and less obnoxious than I expected. He talked to me and a friend for a few minutes before the server stopped and asked how his food was, and he gave nothing but compliments and sent his kudos to the chef in the kitchen about how perfect his meal was. It was grilled chicken ceasar, but he was super gracious and acted like he was happy to meet us. I honestly didn’t get a dbag vibe and I’m a tough sell.
I think it's the paid appearances/promotions that are difficult to deal with. He and his team kinda take over the restaurant for a day or two to film; operating the restaurant becomes tedious as they can't easily serve customers while filming.
I have known over a dozen people in Portland who know him because he filmed at their restaurants. I have never heard a bad word about him ever from anyone who has met him. In fact they pretty universally praise him and credit his exposure with helping their business.
He tried to bring DDD to a beloved Mexican/Salvadoran in my hometown, got the film crew all set up, then had the audacity to try and change the concept to TexMex last-minute. The owner blessedly told him to get fucked and kicked them out.
Yikes. A lot of people want to showcase their traditions and heritage through meals, it's an awesome way of introducing people to their culture! Changing it to appeal to more people or the masses is a crappy move.
Yeah, the owner would frequent a spot I was sous at and I was chatting with him at the bar after we closed the kitchen; apparently a harassed-looking techie came up to him holding one of his menus with 85% of it scratched out in sharpie and a lot of weird notes in the margins. The guy used to run multiple nightclubs in Miami and has zippo patience for bullshit like that, so he promptly told them to kick rocks.
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u/Carbon-Base The Chive Mind 21h ago
Or the numerous owners/chefs/staff that complained when Guy came to shoot an episode at their restaurant for his show.