Now What? with Brooke ShieldsGuy Fieri on the tragic wake-up call that changed his life
Buckle up for the Mayor of Flavortown! Chef, restauranteur, and TV personality Guy Fieri (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy’s Grocery Games) joins Brooke for a story-packed episode. Guy shares how a childhood rebellion against vegetarian food pushed him towards the culinary world, how he grappled with his younger sister’s death from cancer and the ways in which her legacy inspired him to think (and cook!) differently. Plus, Guy shares how a tragic wake-up call as a teenager pushed him away from life in the fast lane.
What do you do when life doesn't go according to plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one, or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this is now What, a podcast about pivotal moments as told by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down with a guest to talk about the times they were knocked off course and what they did to move forward. Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice answers one question. Now, what so that you said you didn't need a lot of meat growing up, which I think is kind of an interesting surprise to people.
I would go to people's houses and I'm like, what is me meat loaf? You're telling me there is a whole thing of meat coming out and we're gonna eat this. We'll catch up. What I'd go over to my parents, I'm like, where's meat loaf? And like, oh no, we don't eat meat, though we're gonna have eggplant. My god, I don't want egg plant. I revolted against the food. Kind of bad, but that's how I ended up becoming a cook.
My guest today is the mayor of Flavortown himself, Guy Fieri. Guy is a chef, a restauranteur, an author, and an Emmy Award winning host of shows like Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. He may be one of the most recognizable culinary stars in the world, but he's also a philanthropist, a doting husband, a loving dad, and a great friend. He's had many now what moments, a few of which I learned about in this interview, but through them all he stayed humble and motivated. I know you'll like this interview, so let's dive right in. Here is Guy Fiery. First of all, I know you've got very little time, so thank you so much for joining me.
I always have time for you. First, thank you very much for having me. This is awesome. I was just bragging that I get to go on Brookshields podcast. Second, I love your sister. She is a riot. She is one of my favorite people in South Florida. So for everybody that doesn't understand, I have a house in Florida and South Florida and the house the people that bought the house right next to us. Someone says to me. By the way, that's Brookshield's sister. And I said, what, So I text Brook and I said, your sister, Yeah, my sister lives bought a house right next years. Well, I don't even know these people, but I know that they're that's your sister and your brother in law. So I send them this really cool barbecue as a household made it and they're like, why did this guy send us this? And I just and I talked to him on the phone and said, hey, I just you know, I don't know you yet, but you're there. I'm not, but you know, we just became great friends.
Getting those little mini videos from you all hammered. And I know her so I mean, obviously she's my baby's sister, but I love that connection because it means more than you can know, and it just seems like meant to be.
And it's so funny because now that I know your sister so well and know and knew and know you, now I'm starting to get a much bigger picture of what goes on in your world. And all I can remember is the first time I met you were the first time that you came on my cookie show on Guys Big Bite, and still to this day, of all the guests I've ever had on my show, nobody has ever walked in had as much swagger and as much of a unique situation as you did that night. And I don't know if you know what I'm referencing.
I'm very lucky. I still have all my fingers.
No no, no, no, that we're not talking about you chopping anything off. No, no, I know. So I'm sorry. I've been bowing. I've been excited to be on.
So you need to embarrass me a little. I'm okay with it. You've got to just give me, give people, give me a reference as to what you're talking about. I think I know, but.
I'll tell you the story if we're if we're going to start south, this is your show. And for some reason, I'm just babbling. So Brooke and I met and became friends, and I invited Brooke to come on my show, Guys, Big Bite, which I shot in my backyard of my house here in northern California. So anywow, we're getting ready to film. It's a nice sunny afternoon. But you know a little bit, Gris, and the producer says to me, he says, hey, can I talk to you for a second. He goes, we have a wardrobe malfunction.
It was chili.
It was definitely it was chili. So so the wardrobe people, everybody, it's all made. You know, there's a bunch of eyes and but a lot of people. But the audio tech is really just really great girl Jessica, and she's there and she says, I know what to say, I know what to do. So she comes up with Michelle's talk to you for a second. She goes, yeah, and she goes like this, and we're watchable. We all know what the conversation is. Because the the blouse that broke Brookie had on the bit revealing just a touch well, nobody had anything to help the situation. So in the middle of this whole thing and everybody is just standing there wide, I'd like, what are we going to do? Broke broke? Jes yells and goes, hey, anybody got any band aids? So the medical guy comes running over with the with the medical kid, thinking there's an emergency, and she just grabs a couple of band aids and says, hey, not a second, all right, coach, you put me back in I'm ready to go. And from that day on, I'm just like, now I know why you're a legend.
I mean, we drank tequila, we laughed, I learned something and I saw you. I don't think people know. I mean maybe they do know. But there were a lot of people and in one what you were tied to all of them in one way, and most of them seem to be on the team. And I just that type of loyalty and love for the people that you grew up with, that you know, is so inspiring and kind and pure, and I just that made me fall absolutely in love with with who you are as a person. And in sort of preparing for this, I was trying to think of things I don't know about you. You say you were raised by hippie parents, So what does that mean for a childhood?
Well, let me just get done fan boing for one more second. To hear you say all those nice things about me is overwhelming. But thank you the tequila health you know what, I'm going to start sending tequila to people when they interview me on podcasts. Drink half of this before you go. So I was raised in a little town in northern California. Do you ever see the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffelt. So that was filmed in my hometown. That's a little town called Ferndale, and it's up by Eureka, California, so it's really far north and so I live in the Wine country here. So about four hours north of here is this little town called Ferndale. It's in a very famous area known as the Emerald Triangle, which was back in the day it was known for all of its fantastic cannabis and so forth. But it's a great it's a it's a beautiful country. It's home of the Redwoods, it's home of great fishing outdoors, all kinds of stuff. But this little town, it's this little angelic town. Man, it's unbelievable. So ayah. I was raised by these. My mom and dad came from Columbus, Ohio. That's where I was born in the back of a Volkswagen square square back bug. My mom was a teacher, my dad was a college dropout, and they came up here to northern California opened up a leather shop called the Abraxis. My mom had long red hair, my dad had a big beard. We had a we had a condoline van. This is no kidding. We lived in a condoline van had They had five hundred dollars cash, one hundred and fifty pounds of wax, and a height of leather. And that's how we were. That's how we ended up in Ferndale.
Wow.
So when I say raised by hippies, but my mom always says, you have to. As a matter of fact, today is my mom's seventieth birth sixtieth birth today's my mom's fiftieth birthday, but it's actually her real birthday today, fifty.
Yes, please, you got it. By the way, what is it with you and me and birthdays? Do you remember when I called you? I was in the tunnel, it called you just out of the blue. This is like a while ago, and it was your sister's birthday. Do you remember that?
Yeah?
Yeah, something about you and me and birthday.
The little sister Morgan that we lost unfortunately cancer. But I keep that tattoo to remind me about her every day. But so, anyhow, my parents were not doupt smoking hippies, but self made people. My dad had been in submarines during Vietnam and all kinds of craziness. So you know, just listen, just really smart people, hardworking people. We ate a lot of macrobiotics. We were I mean, I was eating sushi when I was eight years old, so in nineteen seventy six when people were you know, had no idea what sushi was. My parents are pretty progressive in the food thing, so that.
You said you didn't eat a lot of meat growing up, which I think is kind of an interesting surprise to people.
I would go to people's houses and I'm like, what is meat loaf? You're telling me there is a whole thing of meat coming out and we're going to eat this. We ketchup what. I'd go over to my parents, I'm like, where's the meat loaf? And like, oh no, we don't eat me a loaf. We're going to have eggplant. My god, I don't want eggplant. I revolted against the food. Kind of bad, but that's how I ended up becoming a cook. Was I was, I was about eight maybe nine, and I came around the corner one morning and my mom was cooking what I thought was chicken parmesan, but it was eggplant parmisan. I said, why can't we have chicken parbasan? This is when life changed. Why can't we have chicken? Farmers on like the like the normal families have. Well, after I got up off the floor from being hit with the frying pan. No, she didn't hit me with the frying pan, but after she says, listen, guy, if you don't like the way I cook, then you cook. So that day I went to the grocery store and John Miceli was the butcher, and I said, hey, John, I said I want to I want to eat meat, and I said what do I what? He goes, so I think he gave me rip By steaks, and I said, what do you serve with this? And he's like pasta? So I went over and I got posta and all I know is pasta and tomato sauce went together. So I cooked the pasta in the tomato sauce and my parents come home and I've got dinner on the table and my dad goes, what the and I go, hey, hey, Mom said, if I don't like the way you guys cooked, I could cook. And he's like what. So he sits down and he cuts into the steak and I remember cooking it specifically. It had butter and soy sauce. That's the only thing I knew. And he takes a bite of it, and he looks at me and he sets his fork and knife down and he looks right at me and he goes, guy, might be the best steak I've ever had in my life.
And I was like, oh God, I've got chills from that story. Now they were they vegetarian.
We did it all. We did macrobiotic, I mean, and it wasn't vegetarian like hardcore, but it did. We go We went through all different kinds of stuff. But we were a lot of steaming, a lot of steamed fish, a lot of you know, a lot of very not when you want me, my kids. No one would trade lunch with me at school ever. I mean, I was like voodoo on the lunch game, okay, because we baked our own bread. You know, we didn't have milk. We had powdered milk. I mean, we had you listen, We one time didn't have a refrigerator for six months because the refrigerator broke. So my dad cut a hole in the refrigerator and then cut a hole in the bottom of the floor and was convinced that the cold air for the cellar would keep because that's how it was done in the olden days, would keep the refrigerator, and then there was an ice block up in the top of the fridge, and that's how we would keep our stuff cold.
Oh my god, you yeah. So do you think you'll ever open up a vegy or at least plant based restaurant?
Probably in the diet that we have at the house eighty five percent vegetables. I'm a veggie junkie. I mean, I've talked to my publisher all the time about the vegetarian cookbook that I want to write. I don't know that I'll go actually all vegan on a cookbook, although I do I feature a lot of vegan vegetarian restaurants on Diners, Drivings, and dives because I think that this book has something to do with my little sister passing away. So my sister, Morgan was thirty eight, had had cancer when she was four, then beat cancer, then lived a healthy life for thirty four more years, and then at thirty eight, got melanoma, which was a derivative of the type of cancer she had, and we ended up losing her and it was worstin the whole world. But while she was sick in that last year, I was cooking for her a lot and I was learning a lot about alkalinity and pa and I was looking learning and just really coming to a better understanding of the world of vegetarian and vegan cooking. And she used to make a joke all the time when she'd come for Thanksgiving that she goes, not, I don't want a bunch of grilled vegetables with bisalmic glaze and Bosmondi rice, make me real composed dishes. So then I started to look at how all these different vegetables we have in these different grains, and all these different methods, and the techniques are a little bit different, but the flavor profiles and the textures can be very similar. So it changed my life as a chef.
Just going back a little bit to your beautiful sister, because you've talked to me about her, you've spoken about her. How did you cope with that period right after her passing?
Well, okay, so my sister is my sister gets sick, you know, she the cancer comes back. She's a massage therapist, vegetarian, doesn't drink, mother of an eight year old boy, my nephew, Jules, who is going to law school right now, proud of him, got him, got him, got him through high school, you know, got him into high school, got him through high school, got him because it was my parents and you know, Laurie and I that raised him. And they lived right My parents lived right next door to me. And you know, there was some bumps and bruises in those first few years when you when a kid loses his mom and she was a single mom.
How old were your kids when he became a regular part of.
The other kid the other kid? Yeah, Hunter was eleven or twelve. Rider was four. But you know, Jewels was always my sister and Jewels were always very involved. They didn't live too far away from us in uh, they lived down in Mill Valley. But anyhow, back to the question you'd ask, because I'll go down rabbit holes all day. My sister was when is somebody four and a half years younger than you? But also but as as your teacher, and we always got along great. We always had a really great relationship. She accepted my style on my way and I was, you know, always a million miles an hour and you know, trucks and heavy metal and you know, craziness. And my sister was always grounded and going to African dance class and you know, not mistay and the whole thing. And I never got it. I never you know, I got her. She understaid me, blah blah blah. Well, as she was as she was, you know, cancer was taking over and she wasn't going to do chemo again. She had done chemo as a kid. She says, I'm not doing it. We sent her to Puerto Rico, we sent her to Mexico. We sent her a couple different places to get alternative treatment, and she was very open about it. We were open as a family about it. It just killing me, killing me to watch my parents go through it. That was probably the hardest thing to see. Losing my sister was terrible. Watching parents aren't suppos to watch their kids' paths. That's just not sulmost happen, especially after they already went through that shit when she was four, because I remember that real vividly, being at the hospitals Fanrancisco with her. But anyhow, here's where it gets really weird, my sister's passing away. We have hospice there, which if you ever want to make a donation to anything in this whole world, hospice is one of the greatest organizations they're angels, They're earth angels. I can't say enough about them. I mean, it gives me goosebumps. Anytime I can help them, I do. So my sister's passing away. We're all sitting there in her house and someone brings up, you know, when she passes, what are we going to, you know, just going to creamate? I said, I can't creamate my sister. This is the last thing in the world she wants is you know, fuels to be used. She wasn't a super earthy type person, but I said, so we found out about green burials, so we found a cemetery very close to where we live here in northern California to do green burial. So that's no casket, to be the most beautiful way I've ever seen anybody buried. So my sister passes. She passes Saturday morning, and we drive back to her house and all her girlfriends come, all her friends from this community, and they shroud her. They lay her on our massage table in the middle of the living room and shroud her in flowers, and people come to visit, and it was the most I mean, I'm I'm a redneck, you know, I'm sitting there looking this, going is this for real? And it took all of that weirdness mortuary organ music, noess that that's wrong, that's how people say it. But it was a it was amazing. I mean, I hope that's how it happens for me. I don't. I don't even know what to say. And then and then and then we took a they made that a box and they the kids drew want it and colored, and Jewels was there with his mom taking pictures and we were crying and it would go in and out of you know, hysteria and discipline, sadness and so. And then three days later we all came together and we had a wonderful ceremony and cousins and people showed up and it was as she was shrouded in flowers, in this, in this and draped in this, and we lowered her in the ground. And I can't say that goodbye was you know, easy, and not having it was easy. But I will tell you something, the ritual and the celebration and the and the real intimate like feeling of contact and connection with my sister was unbelievable.
That would have made her extremely extremely happy. Thank you for sharing that story with me.
I know that got along little long winded. I haven't never. I don't think I've ever told that that's that's I've never. It's that it almost got me teary eyed.
And you have the beautiful tattoo honoring her.
So this is what I didn't get to that point, but I had that tattooed on my arms. It's not mistake, and I didn't get it. I always used make fun of my sisters, saying, now mistake, now a stay hippie day, Now mistake, Yeah, exactly. And I was talking to her girlfriends who were outside and crying, and I said, what is not a saying? And it's really something I've adopted. It's something I've always lived by, and I didn't know it, but it is something that I think is so true and not a mistake. The people you'd say it by God or power or but the God and me or the power in me recognizes the power in you. And if you really celebrate people as the center of their universe, and like you really take the time to acknowledge people and recognize that from their perspective, they are the center of the universe because it's all being seen in their eyes. Let me take the time to give people that recognition and that respect. Then it really opens up a lot of doors. And just do it, because that's how you should. You should treat everybody with respect, you don't know who they are.
I call this show now What because it's really about those pivotal moments, the things that changed our lives, either for better or for worse, whether we realized it at the time. Other than that one, what is another moment that comes to mind for you?
I was a was it a fatality car accident when I was nineteen, when I was in college, and I think I had a little bit. I wasn't driving, I was in the backseat, and unfortunately I was with a bunch of guys and the one guy you know, and we were drinking and I think I was nineteen eighteen nineteen on my sister's birthday, by the way, we'll talk about weird. And we were screwing off and actually we're down at the drag boat races in Las Vegas and this guy saw a cop and he was drinking and we were camping, not you know, half mile away, and uh, he took off and they got we got chased, and the car flipped and one of the guy next to me was killed and it was horrific and I was everybody was messed up, and I had to go flight for life in the helicopter, in the whole thing. And I woke up in the hospital, handcuffed to the gurney, with everybody in that car saying I was the one that was driving. They were all in the military together. They were in a campsite next to the campsite I was at. And I had been through enough, not near death things in my life, but kind of lived a little fast and hard and crow wild and having to call my parents and tell them what was up, and having to get an attorney and having to fight this potential situation. They came to the college and you know, the rest of me in my dorm room, you know, picked me up and took me. You know. It was it just got It was going bad after worse because everybody was saying that I was and anyhow the cops knew I wasn't. But it was like a reel. Like my dad told me, he says, you cut the ship. You're not invincible, you know you can't. It's not you know, this isn't this is for real. Now you know this is not get You know you're not in Ferndale. You know you're in your hometown anymore. You're in Las Vegas. You know you're big time. So you got to you gotta focus. And you know there's all those miss It's the things I teach my kids all the time. Don't trust anybody to drive. You, don't trust anybody puts in a drink and gives you. Don't trust anybody tells you that you know this is safe for this is smart. You have to be the master of your domain. You have to be in control of your environment. And it was like, what there is that? There's the there's the fifteenth there's the fifteen percent that I've been missing. And I will tell you brook it really was. And again you tell me you're getting goosebumps out of me on everything. I was like, okay, okay, my family did have any money. I'm not the smartest kid, didn't get the invest grades, da da dah. But if I'm gonna win, it's I'm gonna win based upon how hard I play and how disciplined I am, and how driven and how controlled I am. And if I do that, then then I have a better chance of getting through this. That was it.
That is a now what moment? And you heard it? And your kids are really lucky that they have I and Laura's parents for so many reasons. How does parenting continue to change you?
Oh gosh, it's the greatest reflection of who you are. You know. That old saying is you see you see in others what you don't like in yourself. You know, I got two boys that are both sides of me, you know, and of.
Laurie as well. But and they have a lot of energy like you too.
Well, one does and one you know, one is one way and one is the other. I mean, Hunter and Writer, I mean they're best friends. They're nine years apart. But the truth of it is is, you know, there's things that are so Writer, that are so mean, and then so writers with Laurie, and then there's things that are Hunters, the writers Lory. You know, Hunter's got this work ethic to do to you know, and all the things he does, and he works in the company and so forth. And then Writer has this personal self drive ethink, but not the work ethic. You know. It's I cannot make sense of it. All I know is that if you will allow yourself to be a student of your kids, you will learn to be a better person. And for me at least, I should say, learn to be a better person and learn to see the world on a much bigger plane, versus believing that you know it all, that you have it all figured out, and that everybody should follow your way. I believe everybody in this organization, this family, this tribe, this group should participate in the forward progression of what we do.
I think you show that to the people around you. I think you take in the world. I think you so so much to the industry. And I'm curious about the role that food plays in that. How do you think food has shaped how you view and interact with the world.
So I'll tell you. I'll tell you what food was or food is for me. It's it's my portal. I was never I mean, I was an okay athlete, not a real good you know, not a real good student. I mean, okay, you know bees you know. When I got to college, I went to UNLV. When I got to college, I graduated UNLV with a three three. I mean otherwise, ga I was my general ed stuff. I was just like whatever you know. I knew I had to go to college. I wasn't a question. But when I got into my industry, when I got into food, I knew, this is what I want to do. I knew I wanted to do food. When I was a kid, I used to think being sick, fake being sick to go to school because we had the book The Joy of Cooking. I mean, they gave you all the answers. They gave you the answers. I had to do was take the stuff and follow. I mean, like I finally understood why reading was so important. I had this epiphany. So I loved this. Uh So food was my that was my vehicle, that was my platform, that was my thing. That was something I could always do. I mean I wasn't they. I don't think I was the best open guy in school, but I was a guy that knew how to cook. A lot easier to get a girl to go out with you when you can make shrimps, scampy, you know, when you can cook something.
Yeah, that's a good date food, is it?
I thought?
So absolutely?
Yeah, it sounds like yeah.
I mean you know what my husband is is such a great cook and one of the first things ever he cooked me a meal and it was revelatory for me. I was just like, what is happening? Because I make food, don't cook. Yeah, so that was a revelation for me. If you were to look back at your whole life, and it could be one word, should be one word, what's your through line?
See there's generic ones, you know, like love, because I love things. I mean I love. I am passionate about my family. I am passionate about anything I say I'm gonna do. I do anything that I so so loving something like having real belief in something, having real connection to something. Cars, I love my old hot rods. Anything that I get into, I get into. I mean I am not I'm an all or nothing kind of person about stuff, So that to me is it. But I think the most the thing that's the most important to me though, out of everything, is family. I mean I have my mom and dad. Are I can't you know? I write to him every time for any holiday or anything. I just say, I aspire to be my nephew Jules. I never thought I said this the other day. I never thought I could love another child like my child. But I love jewels like I love my two boys. I mean, he's just he's so you know, so it's a crazy thing that but no family to me and carrying on my sister's legacy, and then also you know, being so involved with my other family, with my extended family, with you know, with my cousins and all the things that we get to do, and it's just so it's like we do you know, I hold big family re unions. I can. I have the resources and the power to do it. We film it, you know. We we did a family reunion. We did a family union. Who won an Emmy for it? You know, Guy's family re union. It was awesome.
That was Guy Fearing. If you love him as much as I do, go watch one of his many Food Network shows, or eat at one of his many restaurants, or pick up any of his cookbooks. That's it for us today. Talk to you next week.
Now.
What with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio. Our lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional research and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our executive producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Bahid Fraser
