Guy Fieri: Celebrity Chef and Food Network Host

26:34Pretzel business goes into full speed. And I have to have – there's a town. Eureka is the town closest to Ferndale, the big town. They won't let me sell pretzels at the fair. So I turned it into awesome nachos. So I got a nacho business. Whatever I could to make a buck. So I'm doing the nacho business. And so I'm raising my money. So while I'm raising my money, now I've got to get this language thing figured out. My high school only has Spanish. Juniors and seniors can take Spanish. Well, Spanish isn't going to work. My dad, we find out that at the junior college, they have a conversational French.

27:12So I moved my high school schedule around. So I have a two-hour gap. And the school lets me go. And I go to the junior college. It's about 30 minutes away from our house. And my mom drives me because I'm not old enough. So since my mom was driving me, she's like, I'll take French too. So there I am, 15, taking French with my mommy, who is this gregarious red. My mom is a piece of work. People think I got this big personality. My mom makes me. I'm a cricket in the room compared to her. She's such a great energy. I've been told she's the kind of jokester. Oh, funny. There's nothing. There's, I mean, I do a lot of things that I love to do.

27:49Making my mom laugh is my favorite job. So my mom takes a class with me. Well, the teacher, all he does is talk about the Champs -Élysées and Sacre Bleu and drinking, you know, wine in class and his beret. And he's a real Francophile. I have no business being in this class. I'm learning the structure of French. I don't learn anything in French. He doesn't teach us anything. So Christmas break goes by, and then I have my birthday. So I'm old enough I can drive myself now. So I'm driving myself to school. So I've taken the college classes. I have to pass with a B or better. I pass with a B or better.

28:25My dad says, OK, say something to me in brunch. So I think I say, you know, one of the 10 coined phrases that we would practice. It's like, OK, we can go. So I write Pierre. He says, Monsieur. So I write Monsieur Peltier and Monsieur Peltier says there's a family that has a house that you can stay at and they'll give you a room and you have to pay, you know, 500 bucks a month. So I get on the plane. My parents put me on the plane. And you're how old then? 16. And that trip was the longest flight of my life. And it influenced you how, you think? The trip or the flight? The flight was how do I get off this?

29:08I cried. I mean, I was like, what have I gotten myself? Because I was always doing big things, like always thinking big. But I'm like, I really have done it this time. Like, I've really gone over. I'm way outside of my boundaries. And I land, and it's raining in Paris. And there's Pierre picking me up, drives me in the car. I get to the town. I live in Chantilly, and I go stay in this house. The house is cold. The madame, her name is Madame Dries, the family that owns the house, very cold. I just live on the fourth floor in a closet. no bathroom a bunch of armoires in the room can't open any of them a little desk and a single bed and i just sit there and i go what have i done i mean like what have i done and then then came the most humiliating thing i realized i don't have toothpaste well i didn't have a dictionary.

30:04All I had was the thing I bought at the airport, all the phrases for a tourist, where's the bus? In the back, there was like 500 words, French words. So all I could find was tooth and soap. So I went to the pharmacy and I asked for tooth soap. And the lady just burst out laughing. She called another person over and said, I asked for tooth soap again and then I asked for soap tooth. She started laughing. Then everybody came from the back and they started laughing. And there's 10 people at this counter busting up and I am dying. So I went, I knew the term, how do you say that? And I asked them to write it down for me.

30:50And I took it back and I went home, back to my room and I took a piece of paper and I wrote the word, I wrote toothpaste, and then I wrote the translation in French, and I taped it to the wall. And every day I would learn words, and I would go back, and I'd write them, and I'd tape them to the wall. So I was always looking at the words, and that's how I built my vocabulary. And if it was a verb, I would conjugate the verb, and I'd tape that to the wall. And I had hundreds of them, and that's how I learned. But the funny thing is, is the dialect in French is so vast, it's even more than the United States.

31:22So think about saying to somebody, how are you doing from Texas? What do you need from somebody in New York? To where are you going from someone in California? I was this redneck surfer New Yorker from Maine that had a bad draw from Louisiana. I mean, I was just all over the board. People look at me when I was talking, they're like, what happened? Your stay there impacted you. How do you think? Yeah, everything. Didn't change who I was. It just unleashed the Kraken. I mean, it turned me into, there was no stopping me. I mean, it was, after I had been through that, and I went through some scary.

31:58I mean, I hated the family, the boarding house I lived in. I left, didn't tell anybody. Really? And went and lived with another family. What? You don't have that in your notes? I don't. I got it on something. No, these kids approached me in school one day, and they said, these three Norwegian kids, huge, tall, blonde, they were the only ones in the school that were tall blonde. They said, do you live at the Dries house? I said, I do. They said, does the washing machine eat your clothes? And I said, it does. People hold my shirt. The food sucks, huh? And I'm like, yeah, that's why I eat at the school now.

32:28Like we knew the kid that lived there last year and they had heard of this kid. His name was Roman and he was a kid from New York. So they said, come to our house for dinner. So I go to their house for dinner. They, the nicest family. So that's it. I go back to the Dries house, pack up my and I bounce. Well, there's no calling home. I couldn't call home. The Dries had a lock on the phone. It was a physical lock on the phone. It was a dial rotary phone. This family was very strange. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how strange this family was. So they flip out because I left a note and I'm not coming back.

33:07They're not getting their 500 bucks a month. They call Pierre. Pierre flips out. He calls my parents. My parents, and they find me, and my dad is going to kill me. Because you can't yell over a land phone back then because it skips so many things. So it's, and I'm like, and he's like, you're coming home. I'm coming to get you. You're coming home. I'm like, I'm not coming home. This family I'm living with is really cool. You know, you're coming home. I'm trying to explain it to them. Finally, they get on the phone and they speak great English. And they're like, your dad is very upset with you. And I said, I can understand.

33:45I guess I can understand why. And finally, it worked out and I didn't have to go home. Why did you end up dropping out of Ferndale High? So, you know, the family that I lived with was pretty open-minded to stuff. I also had a pretty good ability to explain that I was going with other places, with other exchange students. where three other exchange students are in our town but they all came through the correct process of going through the rotary program and they all spoke great french which ironically enough we're all friends again we lost contract and contact with each other we all reunited about four years ago and so i would say i'm going to their house i just bounce and go to paris i was very independent as a kid anyway so i mean i went to england went to you know i did all kinds i mean i'd go say i'm going to pierre's house i would go to pierre's house and then they stay at pierre's house for two days, say I was going home, I'd take two days off, and then I'd go to Brussels.

34:35You know, I'd just go wherever I wanted. So when I came back, when I came back... Felt small? I didn't feel like I wanted to go to school. Plus, I hadn't really gone to school. I'd gone to school. I went to school every day. I'd go to school six days a week. But I spent so much time in school, I read French at a third grade level. I wrote at a first grade level. You know, so I wasn't really able to do a lot in school. I tried. I mean, I really paid attention. but I came back and I was sitting with my dad at the dinner table the day I was supposed to start my senior year and he's like what are you thinking I'm like I don't know I said I just don't he goes well you gotta do something he says if you're not going back to school you're gonna go get a job and you gotta start the junior college I'm like okay so everybody's driving to school senior day and everybody gets seniors all get to park in the front I'm driving my dad's old work truck and everybody peels off and I just Just go to Eureka.

35:32And then we get a call that afternoon. Like, guy didn't make it to school today. Yeah, guy's not coming back to school. And he said, well, he's not 18. He has to come back. And he says, well, we're not making him come back. So I went to the junior college, and I was already signed up through the French classes. So I didn't need my parents there. So I signed up for classes. So I was going to the junior college. and I got a job as a busboy in a fine dining restaurant. And everybody's, all my friends come over and go, what are you doing? And I'm like, I'm just not going back. And it was a big thing.

36:07Like, you know, went to France, only has two years of education now. Now I was dropping out of high school. You're like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it was kind of a little bit of scuttlebutt for a while. You end up going to UNLV, you major in hotel management. At what point do you start living kind of fast and hard for a while? where have you been for the whole conversation that's been fast and hard the whole time well I mean you can you can make the argument that you're you know charting your own path and you know working with that fast and hard I mean I got into some wild times at Las Vegas fraternity in school and you know UNLV was an amazing school to go to what a great and I still support the school quite a bit my oldest son Hunter went to went to school there tell about what What happened when you're 19?

36:57A lot of things happened when I was 19. Which one are you referencing? Just listening to your interview with Brooke Shields. Oh, the car accident. Yeah. I mean, that had to be kind of a defining moment in so many ways for you. Yeah, it was a very you're mortal moment, or I'm mortal moment. You know, I'd broken things, skiing and bull riding and all this other dumb that I'd done. but that one was like oh like there's death involved in this if you don't pay attention so it was camping with a bunch of friends at a down by the lake at lake mead and the big drag boat races or the race boats were happening and we were camping next to a bunch of air force guys they were all three or four years older than us and really cool dudes having a great time and we're down there with a bunch of our friends and we all decided some of the air force guys and decided to drive down we're in the campground right next to the where the race boats are parked to go down and look at the race boats through the fence.

37:57We do that. I think a couple guys steal a banner or something and walk them back to the car. And as we get back to this Nova, like 75 Nova, a ranger pulls up. And so we all start to get in the car. And I'm getting in last. And this guy goes, no, no, you sit in the middle, kid. So I'm sitting on the hump of the Nova. If you know what that back seat's like, you get two seats, you get that transmission hump. and all of a sudden the guy that's driving the car just floors it and takes off. I'm like, what? You know, we're driving down a dirt road and this guy's got the lights off and we're speeding away and the ranger, you know, you can kind of look back and he's not doing anything.

38:35And all of a sudden, like, big cops show up. So we're getting chased and I take the male part of this guy's seatbelt, the female part of this guy's seatbelt, and I put them together and make a seatbelt for myself. And we come around a corner and we hit this big water. The road had been washed out and there's a road barricade and we hit that, breaks the windshield, and come around the corner, lose control, and we start flipping. Well, unfortunately, the guy next to me was killed. And we're upside down. Wheels are spinning, gas is running in the car. And then they, you know, there's all kinds of crazy from there.

39:07Then they put me in a fight for life and flew me to Las Vegas. Well, when I woke up in the hospital, I'm handcuffed to the bed. And they said, three guys in the car said, you were driving. and the guy one of the guys is dead like there's no way I was driving you know they all they were all military buddies and all their brass was there with them it was like the big retreat for them so they're all saying I drove my parents didn't even come down to the hospital they didn't fly down my dad's like you dead I'm like and my terrorists were cursed with her weren't harsh with me like that it was just like there was nothing they were going to be able to do I was being released from the hospital by the time they found out.

39:48Didn't you say connected to that you were like arrested at your dorm room? Oh, yeah. Listen, that story is such a story of because it just kept getting worse. You know, the thing just kept unfolding into this. You know, they were really digging in that I was the one driving and I wasn't driving. So that was a little embarrassing. So my dad hired an attorney and on and on and on with this whole thing. And finally, you know, and the cops knew all along that I wasn't driving. Oh, did they? Oh, yeah. They totally knew I wasn't driving, but they had to have me on the edge enough to participate of what went on.

40:21They brought in a hypnotist. I mean, they'd ripped the whole floorboard out of the carpet, had all of our shoes, had infrared imprints or all this different. I mean, they knew. Plus, it was the guy's third DUI. His name was Jaganoth. And they were yelling, Jag, slow down, Jag, slow down. That's all I can remember. And then that accident. And then, unfortunately, he killed his best friend. So that made me a super, super anti-drinking and driving. I already was an anti-drinking guy. In our small town, we'd had accidents. And one of the big heroes of our town, this guy named Mike Wells, was killed in an accident.

40:54And it was just something that my, I was never scared of drinking and driving about the cops. That was never my thing. That was never my thing. I was scared of my dad. Not scared of him getting my ass whooped, scared of letting him down. Looking back now, the lessons learned going through and experience like that's what? Oh, there's a whole master class in it. And it's something I try to teach my kids. I try to teach all kids. Don't put your life in the hands of other people. You have to be very cautious of who you associate with. And in all facets, be it at a party, be it at who you hang out with on the street.

41:38many great people in this world and then there are really people that are abusive and users and charlatans and so forth and so on and so you know i didn't know these were good people these guys were soldiers right how could they be you know i'm huge patriot huge patriot you know i was looking up to these guys it was my stupid fault i was you know drinking i shouldn't have been getting in that car and so forth but it definitely changed my perspective um definitely gave me a wake-up call that I was not, had pretty bad injury and gave me a wake-up call that I wasn't invincible, which was good. It was a nice time, the right time in my life to know.

42:1319 years, it actually happened on my sister's birthday. That was a great one. But it was the right time to learn that, you know, you got to be a little bit more cautious with what, you only get one shot at this. Your heritage, your dad's death, he passed away when your dad was 15. On his birthday, not on my dad's birthday, but on my grandfather's birthday. He died on his own birthday. He taught your dad what, you think? Oh, Jesus. The crazy thing is, and this is what I said about my dad at his celebration of life. I said, just don't get it. Your dad's a coal miner. You live in a coal mining town.

42:47Your mom's a school teacher. Your dad's gone. First, he's a coal miner. Then he's a coal mine inspector. And then he sells a coal mining device. He's on the road Monday through Friday, home on the weekends. And his uncle Al was a really big, my grandmother's brother, real big, big teacher to my dad. But my dad only had all that until he was 15. And how in the hell my dad got all that? I am to this day amazed. You know, they talk so much about how kids can't grow up and they don't have a father figure and so forth. I think he did a lot with Uncle Al. But I'm just in awe of my dad that he was able to gain all that.

43:36And so many of the same values that I heard about my grandfather, my dad had. My dad had really picked up on it. He was super smart. And then he taught me those values. And so there's just a lot of that that got passed down. And same thing I try to teach my kids. So how my dad became this self-made dude, left for the military when he was young, was on submarines came out of submarines flunked out of college met my mom you know drove across country had a kid had a kid then went on to get his degree open his own businesses blah blah blah blah blah blah blah just you know i was told your confidence was one of the things among many that you learned from your dad that even at an early age when you were doing the like outer banks talent shows uh it was uh evident what do you think you most learned from him if you can't dazzle him with your brilliance baffle him with your bull no that was a poster my dad had in his office um i you know the funny thing was is i really believe this and i'm not saying this to you grant i'm not saying this to you as a oh you know one of those stoic moments of a kid recognizing his father and thinking how great his dad was and so forth but i really believe that if my dad said, well, you know, if you really think you can fly, let's go give it a shot.

45:00I mean, I just had this super family that was so interested in me. My parents were interested in nothing more in life than our family. And it doesn't mean that they didn't do their things or have their stuff, but they never, you know, I told the story, I read it and wrote it in his in his celebration of life, I said, when a lot of dads were going out partying or going out hunting or going out doing stuff, you were just going out and doing what the family wanted to do. And that's all he was about. And my mom, the same thing, both of them, packing horses into the mountains. My dad, okay, Ferndale is not over 65, maybe 70 degrees at its best in the middle of above ground swimming pool, but huge that had an eight foot deep section.

45:53You ever heard of a Doughboy pool with an eight foot deep section? Unheard of. So he builds this pool and I'm not kidding you. This pool is 25 feet by 10 feet wide, huge. And he takes the pipe from the water filter and takes a bunch of black PVC pipe and takes it out to the field and lays it out there in the field in the grass. So the pipe will get hot from the sunlight to make hot water to warm the pool. Lord, the pool never got warmer than 50 degrees. I'm not kidding. It was cold as damn pool. But we're the only family in town that had a swimming pool, probably to this day. And he went to the junkyard, and he bought like 30 pieces of sliding glass door.

46:33And so he made a glass atrium around the pool. Who does that? So it was just that kind of wacky s*** that he would do. And it was just like no boundaries. And that when you're raised in a, I use the term, we talk, I call it critical thinking. Like I was never able to, my dad said, what are you thinking about? And I was never, like we were driving down the road going back from the dump or whatever. He'd say, what are you thinking about? And if I ever looked at him and said nothing, I might as well just expect to get whacked upside the head. That's impossible. You're thinking of nothing. So I would say what I was thinking about.

47:16why is the grass tall over there and it's not over there and then we would start to break it down and we would go through critical thinking and he would break it down and and that's all the time we did that all day every day every day all day he would bring me in come here take a look at this what do you think's going on right here I don't know oh don't say I don't know and I would just have to give my best shot. And then we would start breaking it down. But if it was rebuilding a motor in a car, if it was, I wanted to be a vet. Sure enough, next day, my vet pulls up my house, is getting the car, get the truck.

47:53And I went to be a vet for the day. I realized I did not want to be a vet. You pull one calf out of one, out of one dairy cow, you're done being a vet. So it was just that kind of stuff. So it was the confidence that if you didn't know it, we'll figure it out. and if you can't figure it out, we'll try harder, and everything is achievable. He passed from pancreatic cancer, I think in his early 80s. Just 80 in a couple months, yeah. It lasted six years with it, which is almost unheard of. You had the service at, I think, an old working mill. The grandkids spoke. The most meaningful part of that day for you was what?

48:39well one where we had the celebration because he had been at it's called Sturgis Mill and it is one of the coolest things you ever see and these a bunch of local guys got together and decided to preserve this it was a portable mill but in the late 50s they closed it down and it ran off of steam now they run it off a generator but it's just this really amazing they only opened up like three or four weekends a year in September. And my dad had been asking me for years to go to this. My mom volunteers out there. Finally, last year, I went there with a bunch of my friends and my dad, and he toured me around and he was having the high, it was the highlight for him.

49:21Because as we walked around, he would point at things and say, what's that? And I would say, that's a governor. Yeah, he's all excited. What's happening now? And I'd be able to explain so many things because I'd been to sawmills with him before. So it was kind of like this weird, now that I look back at it, it was kind of like this weird little, like, I could answer the questions. You know, I'd been part of the tribe long and I'd been part of the program. And I'm telling my friends about it, you know, and looking for him, right? That's what I'm, you know, you got it, you got it. So when he was passing, we were talking about what we were going to do and we were going to go to our ranch and have it.

49:56And, you know, a lot of their friends are 80 something years old and we didn't want them driving up this kind of long road. And so we thought in the in the mill could use a little donation and so we just thought this would be great the day was perfect the weather was perfect our friends came from Mexico our cousins came from Italy Norway all over the country I mean just and friends of mine that I hadn't spoken to in so long called and said can I come you know can I be there and the same thing and as it says on his plaque it is He's buried next to my sister. His ashes are. And it said, you know, husband, father, brother, uncle, mentor.

50:38And that's the thing is the dude was the smartest guy in. I mean, he was just always the smartest guy. And he was so interested in everybody else. That was the great thing about him is he would sit there and spend more time digging into people, Not digging into them negatively, just like wanting to talk about them because he always knew something about something and always had a good way of just being to cross connect things. It was just to watch him talk. And then when my friends would come away from college to anything that I ever did, people walk away and go, well, where did that guy come from?

51:16And then when I tell a little bit of this story, they're like kind of self-raised since he was 15. Really? So pretty amazing guy. You said the hardest thing, a little earlier, hardest thing you've ever been through, like his loss. What's that grieving process entailed for you? Fortunately, unfortunately, six years is a long time, you know, to know that you're going to be facing the ultimate demise. The great thing was, is he was totally transparent about it. I think I spent more of my life, Graham, I think I spent more of my life in my last 15 years fearing my dad dying. I mean, like, my sister had died.

51:56This is my little sister's tattoo right here, my sister Morgan. Morgan had died 14 years ago. Had cancer when she was little, when she was four. And that made you closer to your parents? Yeah, we were already close. I mean, it wasn't her dying that made me closer. It made me, again, it was kind of like maybe from the accident to, I had a couple more accidents, a couple more fender benders. But it was always on the same trajectory. It's never like there was like an ah moment. It was just always in this thing. And my family is always first. And so I'm riding home from Ferndale, our hometown, and we're riding along and we're talking about life and death and all this kind of stuff.

52:44And I said, I somehow came up with him dying. He hadn't had cancer yet. And he said, no, I'm not going anywhere. He says, your mom will die first. I said, why? And he goes, because I have to be here to take care of her. My dad loved my mom more than he loved breathing. I mean, his life was my mom. It was the craziest thing in the world. I've never seen a more devoted man to his wife than that guy. And he wasn't a subservient guy. I mean, 6 '2", I mean, total badass. But he just loved my mom so much. Everything was about my mom, which is great. It's just the neatest love story in the world. And so he said he wasn't going to die before my mom.

53:26So they're getting ready to go on a cruise. I bought him this cruise to go on a Viking ship. And he calls and says, I went to the doctor. I had diabetes. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, and he's a little heavier, not heavier set. He was just a big guy, and he was probably 280 pounds. I'm like, what? So I call a buddy of mine, Rocco DiSpirito, my favorite chefs. He said, I need to learn some stuff about cooking for diabetics. So I'm on that, and two weeks later, they're leaving to go on the ship. So he goes on the ship and the doctor on the ship happens to be a retired, like super doctor. And my dad has bad diarrhea.

54:08And the doctor says, come in here, let me do some tests on you. On a ship, on a ship of 100 people, 100 rooms, if that, 50 rooms. So he says, something's wrong. This isn't diabetes. When you get home, go to your doctor and go ask to have a PET scan. and they found the tumor on his pancreas. So he had to go through some weight loss, some chemo, to try to shrink the tumor, and then he has a chance to go through this thing called the Whipple. Well, we fight like hell to get him the right doctor, and when they open him up to do the Whipple surgery, the doctor told us after it was done, she goes, had we known it was at that stage, we wouldn't have had him for the surgery.

54:48Well, he does the surgery, and he lives. But the Whipple surgery is so complex, you're reconnecting all the plumbing. You're cutting out the plumbing, and then you're bringing the whole apartment complex together. So it's a pretty long recovery situation. He recovers. He goes for PET scan. He goes for scans every three months. Everything's cruising along. We're doing great. And about year four and a half, we get a something's up. Liver cancer. So we go for the liver cancer. We take that out. Eight months later, go by, pancreatic's back. He calls me. I was in my hot sauna. And he says, and my dad's famous line is always, you got time to talk?

55:37Because I'm busy. I'm spinning all the time. He's like, I need your attention. I said, okay, what's up? And he goes, pancreatic's, cancer's back. And before you say anything, I'm not doing anything. I'm not going to go to chemo. There's no more surgeries. I'm done. And I said, okay. So, of course, I back-channeled like a mother. You know, I'm calling everybody into the sun and trying to get clinicals and all this kind of stuff. And I had a couple leads, and I was feeling really good about it. And it never came to fruition. And it was a good six months of, you know, getting through it. And then we saw the decline.

56:16We just finished the house in Mexico. We had to spend some really good time in Mexico together. And it was his favorite thing. my dad and I walk on a project I mean still to this day I do it with my kids now I do with my team walk the project the project's always the greatest thing stand back take a look at it philosophize on it come up with another angle I do this whole thing and so as it got to that point

56:40it just was the weirdest thing in the world I mean just I was there for the last three weeks at his bedside every night you know every day and it was just kind of one of those things where you watch somebody. He didn't want to leave. He did not want to leave my mom. It was crazy. I would talk to him. My mom would talk to him. I brought all the kids in. I flew my nephew Jules home. We're all there. Dad, we are here. You know, it's okay. My birthday happens, January 22nd. Dr. Brian comes in and says, today's, I'll give you a, ah, his dad dies on his dad's birthday. My dad's going to die on my birthday.

57:22I said, this is crazy. Doesn't die on my birthday. I gave him a thank you that night. Thank you for not dying on my birthday.

57:32And it just went and it happened. And it was, I mean, I, it screwed me up. I mean, And that was pretty few days. I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to see anybody. Just leave me alone. Ironically enough, a really good friend of ours is a spiritual medium. And I don't know her really well, but I know her well enough that she knew how to find me. And she said, your dad is blowing me up. I go, what? She goes, your dad is all over me about you. He just wants you to know. And she starts depicting to me things that nobody in the world would know what's going on. I mean, it is goosebump city, what I'm telling you.

58:16So she goes, and they don't come to me like this. It's usually like five or six days. This was like day two. So she said, he's really hell-bent, you know, getting in touch with you. So that helped. she wasn't doing it to, you know, she's not full of shit. I mean, I trust Karen quite a bit. All the things that I said I wouldn't do, I wouldn't go, you know, I wasn't going to go for the cremation part. I wasn't going to go do that. I just, I don't want any part of this. Something changed. Took a whole different, a whole different thing. I mean, it was the weirdest. I surprised myself about how I handled it.

58:59And not that I didn't bawl my eyes out, not that I don't have my regret, not all that. It was just a different thing. Like I had a pretty good idea what I was supposed to be doing and how I was supposed to be handling it and how I was supposed to take care of my mom. You know, packed up my mom and all of her friends. I said, get all your friends together, pick who you want. I'll take care of the plane tickets, go to Mexico, get out. Don't stay at the house, go. So the funny thing is, out of everything that's happened, it has made me probably 10 times closer to my mom. Not that my mom and I have not always been super close, but we've been close in the funny and we've been close in that we're so similar in personality that there was a little bit of, not contention, but there's just a little bit of, you know, it's like when you're too close to the person, you can almost be little smartasses together.

59:48But it was just like I never had to really talk to my mom about stuff as much as I talked to him about stuff. And so since this has happened, my mom and I have become like uber close. And not be, I don't know, one, I have a responsibility that I need to be there for her. But also because, I mean, I don't know, just a crazy time. Which is the best thing you could hope for. Listen, if you ever told me I was going to have a better relationship with my mom than I have, I love my mom to death. I would do anything in the world for my mom. Maybe I didn't know the depth. Maybe it was because my dad was so much the center of the situation.

1:00:28Or maybe because he always made her the center of the situation. Maybe it was just this weird triangle where it went like this, where now when he's out of the picture, now it's just the two of us. and it's just a really cool. I'm so proud of her. I could not be more proud of my mom. I mean, what a warrior. 56 years she was married to this guy. 56 years and then gone. No daughter. She was gone. So now she's got me and fortunately we have my nephew Jules who's amazing, who's in law school right now. Hunter, the oldest, who's in his master's program at Miami, Ryder who's just graduated high school, great friends, you know, and then her best friend dies a month ago.

1:01:19You know, this woman's been hit every way you can imagine. You were talking about, you know, kind of your dad's loyalty and connecting that to you in kind of a work capacity. You know, it was interesting when I was talking to a bunch of people close to you as part of the preparation for this, I heard from everybody that, you know, you've worked with the same people forever and people stick with you for a long time. It doesn't matter how many times you fire them. They'll stick around. Why do you think that is? And we're live from the living room as Doug eyes up the match day spread. He's reaching for the Buffalo wing.

1:01:57Perfect. Hang on, what's this? Oh, he's going for a can of Pepsi too. Incredible. what a finish sensational combination look at the delight on his face there's no doubt about it it just tastes better match days deserve pepsi food deserves pepsi grab a pack of pepsi zero sugar for today's match it's poetry in motion do you hear that sounds like breakfast is ready because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition, 100 % whole grain oats, and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious. Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26.

1:02:48I, oh, let's go!

1:03:00I love my friends. I'm loyal to a fault. I have friends of mine that maybe are friends I shouldn't have kept around. Says who, though? Because everybody has a role in your life. not everybody can be the superstar of the story. And I don't keep around villains, but not everybody's the one that is the... So you just have a different mix of people. And I think that's what makes up a song or that's what makes up a good play or that's what makes up a great recipe. You gotta have contrast. So having great friends, super important to me.

1:03:49Consistency is also really important, especially making television or having restaurants. Having consistency about how things are done. And also, it's nice to be able to count on people. It wasn't a design to say, this is the only way it can be done. I've lost some really key people in my life that I couldn't believe left or couldn't believe had to leave. One of my favorite things about my career is championing people. about my life. I try to do, it's so funny because I think about this with my dad, I try to help people see the best in themselves. I was raised in an environment, in a light where there was just, it wasn't that there was no choice but to win because we weren't that way.

1:04:33It wasn't like, you got to go win and if you don't win, you fail. It wasn't that kind of thing like the breakfast club type of thing, you know, with Emilio Estes. Emilio and I had a great talk about that one time. It wasn't that mentality. It's like when I failed, I failed big time. My dad just like, what do you want to do about this? You know, I mean, I did get that old story of getting bucked off on a horse. I got bucked off a horse one time so damn bad that I was crying my eyes out and I was walking off that mountain. And my dad got off the horse, stopped the whole wagon train. It was a pack train.

1:05:08And we got into it right there. You're getting on that horse. So we never really got into it that hard, but we did. I mean, I had failures in business. I had failures in so many different things in my life, and it was never him coming in with an ultimatum of you're going to, not like the day with the horse. So that's my same thing. I look at my friends sometimes and try to explain to them, you're not looking at this right, or you're not giving yourself enough credit, or you're not taking a different paradigm or perspective, or let me help you with this. I think it's a little bit easier when you've been down the path, Like when you're up the ladder, easier to tell people, don't go left, go right, come forward, step back.

1:05:47But somebody was telling me as it pertains to folks that work for you, like, you know, one year. Let me correct you one second. Nobody works for me. Works. That's a huge thing that I talk about all the time. Nobody works for me. Everybody works collectively together. If you think about a football team, the GOAT, one of my favorite, Tom Brady. And I know Tom, and Tom's a great guy and just such an amazing. I mean, this guy, I can't wait to see him do broadcast. But if you really think about it, if you take the kicker and it does the job right or wrong, affects the defense, the defense affects the amount of time the offense plays.

1:06:24The offense, how much they get to rest, gives the chance for them to block better. The better they can block, the better they can run the running plays. Well, if you can offset your running plays, your passing plays, you really can spread out the defense. And then if you can protect the quarterback, the quarterback has more time in the pocket, he can have a better chance to throw the touchdowns. I'll start it with the kicker. So I look at every single person on the team with the importance of if you do your job right and everybody follows suit, we all have a better chance of winning. But if any bit, weakest link, cog in the wheel, use whatever analogy you want.

1:06:59So I'm very, and I'm a big believer of what you say is what you hear. What you hear is what you think. What you think is what you believe. And what you believe is eventually who you are. and that has always been my mantra. So I've been told that, you know, one year somebody could be digging a ditch for you. The next year they're the chef and the year after that they're the master carpenter. So explain that. We don't, hey, what are you doing? Come here, cash.

1:07:39Doesn't he look like he's a gremlin from like some movie? He's chewing on his feet. Hi. I'll be in the cooking in the kitchen. He lays right there on the hotline. Like right there. He goes to work with me when I shoot guys' grocery games. And he lays in, when we're doing the judging, he'll lay, there's a bed, a little Ferrari bed. One of the wardrobe girls got him. And he lays in his little bed right underneath my feet.

1:08:10we don't know the potential of people. We don't know. But I really think that when you start opening things up for people and you give them a chance, you never know what people are going to become. You know, my admin, Natalie, came from working at a front desk at a hotel. And we bring her in for an admin job. And I've had some great admins. I mean, executive admins. I never called any executive. She's the only one I call executive. and she could run any major company. I mean, she's so smart, so organized, and so focused, and so detailed. And she learned that here, I don't say because of me, but we learned it together.

1:08:50We kind of built this job into even a bigger job and we run a lot, really fast, in 85 directions at one time. You know, at any given point, she needs to be able to zero in on where we're going to handle this issue. I mean, wow. You know, so to be, again goes back to that thing of championing people. I think that you, and trust me, I've led some people down some, I've helped people along and we've gone down some paths that haven't had the greatest, you know, homecoming. But that's how you learn too. Yeah. But that doesn't mean you give up on people. You know, I think that's one of the things we miss so often.

1:09:26I think if we invested more in the younger generation in critical thinking and we invested more in, And gosh, this is going to sound so stupid. Not stupid, because I think it's stupid. It just sounds like one of those blah, blah, blahs. But if we invested more in dream making, if we invested more in exploring people's desires and started to help them channel that, you're like, not everybody's a mathematician. Not everybody's an English major. You never know where someone's going to come from. So I think that my interest is seeing the people, like so many of the guys on our team uh donnie started as a pa now lead camera shoots four shows for us chico was already a you know a camera operator but now he's a dp um neil probably the best producer i've ever worked with started as a pa cesar oh cesar yeah so here you have chef cesar uh started as a dishwasher day after he got here from mexico second day didn't show up at work after Cinco de Mayo.

1:10:33I'm going to kill him. I tell the guy, Delfino, who told me to hire him, who's a busboy for me, you said he was great, you needed a job, you're fired, you're... Just give me a chance, he says, in Spanish. Okay. Do you know this story, by the way? This is one of the neatest stories in the world. I don't know if we have time. We're going babbling on. Don't you like how I answer my questions so succinctly and curtly? I love it, Nick. So Cesar comes over, dishwasher, real hard worker after his first day is screwing up, and ends up working his way through the ranks. Line cook, prep cook, salad, pizza, broiler, saute, sous chef, chef.

1:11:19Works his way through. Limited English, pretty good English. Really Really good at learning English. Never went to school for English. When I go to the Food Network, and I'm doing a lot with the Food Network, he kind of gets a little disenchanted with how the restaurants are being run. And he leaves to go to a country club. So he goes to the country club. And, I don't know, four or five years go by. And he comes back and he says, I'd like to talk to you about renting the house next to your house that I own. And I said, it's too expensive. said, you probably can't afford it. And he says, no, I can't.

1:11:56He says, but I would like to come back to work with you. I'd like to come and be your culinary on the right hand. I know you need somebody that can be kind of your right hand man. And it's not just culinary. You have to be like, you got to be a jack of all trades in this company. And I said, okay, why? And he says, I want to get my kids into an environment where they can really grow. Because right now the environment we live in, you know, a lot of cousins, a lot of want to get them in this different space. It was a big ask. He said, are you really up for the task? Absolutely. So here comes Cesar, working his butt off.

1:12:34Kids go to another school, in high school, on they go. Cesar says, a lot of people are asking me if I could cook some Mexican food for him on the side, like when I'm not working. I want nothing but people to, I want them to be successful. Okay? I want them to be in the best environment they can be. Absolutely go ahead. So he starts Sonoma Catering. So I do some TV shows. I have some things. We need to cater. Here you go, Cesar. Taught him all his recipes. Taught him his stuff. An amazing student and a great chef. Great palate. This goes on. Ten years this goes on. Sonoma Catering is blowing up.

1:13:13While this is all happening, his son graduates high school. AP honors, full ride scholarship to Cal Berkeley. Goosebumps. Full ride scholarship in engineering. This kid was making$160 ,000 as an intern at Google. And now he graduated. I went to the graduation. I've been to a college graduation in I don't know how many years. And I went to Alex's graduation and couldn't be more proud. And Alton, his other son, great in the culinary program, him, works with his dad in the catering company. And Cesar had to come to me and he says, I just can't manage all that I'm doing for you and the catering company.

1:13:54And I really have to see if I can make it on my own. And so we lost Cesar, which was devastating to lose him. I didn't lose him because he's still one of my really close friends. But, you know, the old saying is if you love something, you got to let it go. You got to be willing to let people. He's got the point. I mean, And he's grown the wings. And he is doing an incredible job, caters all of the Tournament of Champions, guys' grocery games, all these things that we do. He's out there doing it. Alex has graduated college and off to Google and doing phenomenal. And just to see all the people that Cesar has brought up and all the mentoring he's doing for his group, it couldn't be, it's the greatest.

1:14:37It's like being a high school football coach and, you know, like being a high school football coach for Tom Brady, like watching how this guy turned out so you were talking about everything that you guys manage explain if you don't mind all the different verticals of your business so anything that i that i like i want to go do and like i want to i love blacksmithing i've never really blacksmith but i love making stuff with my hands and i love knives i love equipment i love tools so i always wanted to do it my uncle was a blacksmith. Guy is kind of like an uncle. I always wanted to do it. So I built a blacksmith shop and made my own knives.

1:15:21We still do. I don't do it as much. That's one thing I've got a problem with. I haven't figured out time yet. If I can get, I want to change it to 385 days a year, 27 hours a day, nine days a week. If we could do that, boy, I could really fly. I could really get the stuff done. I haven't figured that part out yet. Like leap year, that's like my favorite year, you know, get the extra day. So no, so, you know, big into foods, of course, anything has to do with food. So barbecue sauce, we started with that years ago. Now we have a whole line of sauces. Finally, the famous donkey sauce got put in a bottle.

1:15:56We have this great partnership with Lighthouse. I have great partnerships. Partnerships to me are one of the greatest things because you don't have to be the greatest yourself at doing it. It's no reason to reinvent the wheel. You just go find who the best is. You go find the best and then you partner up with them. And what made you decide that at some point early on you wanted to go down kind of the licensing model? Well, there's difference between licensing. Licensing is you want to put my name on it? Go ahead. That's what I think of licensing. Me, I'm a partner. I believe in it. It's the same thing with my restaurants.

1:16:27I get my money right off the top, but that restaurant has to do good. has to do great for that relationship to be a true relationship. I have to put in my skin, my blood, sweat, and tears to make it work. So I am worried about the bottom. I'm worried about the labor. I'm worried about the food cost. I'm worried about all these things. Call it licensing or whatever you want to call it. You would not have as many partnerships globally as you have if they weren't working out well. Right. There's a difference between stamping your name on something and really going to, I mean, I'm down to what does the label say?

1:17:04I'm down to every graphic. I'm down to what's the packaging. I'm down to what's the average. I mean, every single thing that I'm associated with has my name on it, has to be treated as if I own it. It doesn't mean that it all has to, that the buck stops with me. It does, actually. But it's not like everybody marches to my order. I'm willing, like this team with Lighthouse, for instance, or the team with Two Roads Brewing. You have some really amazing partnership. You go find the best people and the people that are the best at what they do, and you bring what you're great at, and hopefully the collaboration comes together, and you make awesome products.

1:17:38And so we have that with just such a wide variety of partners. But I really just sought out. It's like cigars, for instance. I'm a cigar guy. Always have been a cigar guy. My grandfather smoked cigars when I was a kid, and I just loved the smell. So when I first started, you know, getting in TV and so forth, my agents asked, they asked, like, what is your dreams? Kind of like I said, wish I would, we'd do that with kids in school. Like, what do you dream of? What do you want to be? So I said to my agents early on, I want to have my own cigars. They say you can tell a lot about a person by the contents of their freezer.

1:18:15So what does a bottle of Jägermeister say? It says you have standards. You don't cut corners. And you like your Jägermeister shots the way they're meant to be enjoyed. Ice cold. As for the frozen taquitos and mystery leftovers, we'll keep that between us. Drink it cold or don't drink it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister liqueur, 35 % alcohol by volume. Imported by Masked Jägermeister, U.S. White Plains, New York. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College Deal.

1:18:53Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC. No, no, no. It's not a good idea. I said, why? I said, well, smoking? I said, yeah, but it's not like smoking cigarettes. Cigar is a different thing. You don't have it. Yeah. I said, I don't subscribe. Time goes on. Time goes on. Every year, we had the same summit meeting. Cigars.

1:19:35So I would get my star in Hollywood. That's the tattoo right there. The 19th, May 22nd. When I got the notice of the star was right when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. So I was just praying my dad was going to be there. Little did we know he was going to live so long. But I'm petrified my dad's not going to be there. He was. It was the greatest day. They said, where do you want to have your luncheon after you get your star? I said, luncheon. They said, I don't want to stink. I don't want any luncheon. I said, I want a rager. I want 1 ,000 fans and a kegger. And I want Motley Crue to play. And like, that's so funny.

1:20:16I said, no, that's what I want. So they get back to me and said, that's not how it goes. I said, I'll pay for it myself. I want a raging. I'm getting a star. I'm a cook. I used to drive up and down Hollywood Boulevard going to the restaurants that I managed. There's no way I was ever going to have one. I didn't. People say, is this a dream come true? I said, I couldn't even have dreamed this. So I said, I want to party. So anyhow, it turns out Food Network throws me the coolest cross Moulin Rouge. Ouge. I mean, there's jugglers and people on trapezes and red velvet couches and just, I mean, it is next level.

1:20:55And Foreigner comes to do an acoustic set. Kelly Hansen, Kelly's there. He kind of made that all work. So I'm standing there. I got Jules in one arm, my nephew, Hunter in the other arm. Foreigner's playing, standing in the rain, just starts to drizzle. And I mean, I'm having this out of body experience. I'm tripping. So it stops raining, been. And my agents come over and they said, hey, congratulations. This is it. Everybody's standing there. I said, what do you want to do next? And I said, can I have the cigar company? Everybody's like, Jesus. Yeah. Whatever. I'm right. Enough already. So I went and sought out.

1:21:38I spent the next couple of years researching who I wanted to do business with. And I found this guy, Eric Espinosa, who's amazing. He's like a cigar Obi-Wan Kenobi. And we started this. So no, I go after things that I have passion for. I love tequila, partnered with my good friend and mentor, Sammy Hagar, love wine, partnered with a great guy named Guy Davis, who's our winemaker. Just anything that I have an interest in, I usually try to seek out and accomplish. Tell about Gotta Get It and why you turned down a greenlit show. Do you sleep? I mean, what do you do? Do you just, are you some weirdo on the internet that just digs up like, I'm glad you're not doing this on trash.

1:22:22You know, doing terrible. I mean, we only do a certain number of these every season and you want to be prepared. I'm impressed. I knew you when you were a kid. You have definitely elevated your game. That'll be one of the key lines that he puts in his next snippet video. I was going to say, well, yeah. Can you loop that one more time for me? We'll make that in the show open. No, you know what it is, buddy? I tell you, and I'm so proud of you, by the way. This is a fantastic interview. I watched a bunch of the interviews you did. You have this Ted Koppel-ness about you. I use Ted Koppel. I don't know why Ted Koppel.

1:22:57I don't even know that I could pick Ted Koppel out. But you have this really great. You got a great voice. You have a great demeanor. You have a nice delivery about how you ask the question. And there's so many really things. Very soothing conversation. So I'm on Food Network. I have a show. You probably saw it. It's called Guys Big Bite. It aired at 3 a.m. on Sundays. That's what I won when I was on Food Network Star, which is kind of like the American Idol of food television. And so I win that show. I get my little cooking show. And it literally was little. I mean, my set was about this big.

1:23:32And I had a great mentor. a guy named Mark Disson, who's still a great friend of mine. And probably one of the reasons I did good and somewhat good in TV is because this guy was awesome. I mean, still to say, one of my heroes. I had a lot of great mentors. You've got to be willing to listen and willing to learn. You've got to be willing to put your ego in your back pocket. You've got to be willing to tell, that sucked, do it again. And you also have to be a good critic of yourself. You've got to watch yourself. I tell people all the time, watch yourself on TV. And you did that a lot earlier. Oh, gosh.

1:23:56Painstakingly, wanted to die. Just didn't want to watch anymore. I mean, like, oh, God, that sucked. Don't let me watch that again. But you learn, if you don't want to say soap teeth, you go learn pretty damn quick how to not say soap teeth anymore. So I had the show, Guys Big Bite, and it was doing pretty good. And they said, hey, we have a pilot for a show we want you to do. And I said, okay, what's the pilot? They said, well, come over and meet this group, and they're going to take you to be in New York, and you're going to go do this thing, and you're going to talk about kitchen equipment.

1:24:27Okay, sounds great. So the first thing we do is go to this appliance store, and they have an oven that talks to your phone through Bluetooth. That's cool. I talk about how that would work. Like, oh, the turkey's ready. Bing. And then we go to this house, and we're in this backyard, and they have a two-stroke motor blender. Rrrr. Makes margaritas, and it looks like, you know, I'm revving the engine, and I'm, you know, making this joke of Bo and Luke Duke. I think we can jump the canyon. Rrrr. Making all these noises. Well, it goes downhill from there. Because then we get into all this other goofy s***.

1:25:03And I'm not a gadgety chef. I don't have eight gadgets to do one job. I have a knife and a cutting board and a pair of tongs, and that's about all I need. And so the last thing I do is I have a ball filled with cream and sugar and ice, and you put the ball together, and then you kick it around in the yard, and it makes ice cream. so I'm by the Flatiron building I don't even know the name of that park and I'm kicking this ball around in the park with some kids not that I don't love kids not that I don't love kicking a ball I don't like being filmed kicking around going how's this fun so anyhow that's it I go two days of that and I'm done about a month later they call and say congratulations the show's greenlit we got 13 episodes gotta get it I said, I'm sorry.

1:25:54I'm not your guy. What? This is like the second level, third level producer. I'm just not your guy. That's just not my stuff. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Click. Hour later, someone else calls. What is this? I hear you're not going to do this. I said, I'm sorry. I'm just not your guy. I just don't feel it. What? Click. owner of the company calls me, the production company, reads me the riot act. You'll never work in this industry. Do you understand the what you're throwing away? We spent so much money on you. I said, I am really sorry. Had anybody told me what this was about, I would have been very clear with you that this was not me.

1:26:34After three or four more phone calls from other people, I get the president of the Food Network. Brooke Johnson calls me. And this is before you had done anything there. This is your opportunity. I've done guys big bites. And Brooke has a very commanding presence. Brooke's still one of my dearest friends. Loved Brooke to death. Gave me so many opportunities. I couldn't. And the last thing I want to do is disappoint this woman. And she says, why are you doing this? You came on the Food Network to. I said, I came on the Food Network because it was a challenge. I won. I got my show. I didn't really figure this was going to go much further, you know, I've got a bunch of restaurants to go run.

1:27:12She goes, well, you're getting a chance to do a primetime show. I said, I'm sorry. I said, authenticity is everything. And I said, this is not me. I can't look at people and tell them that they need an avocado slicer. You need a butter knife. Okay. Squeeze the avocado, pitfalls out, butter knife, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, boom, done. Here you are. You don't need to go buy this thing for, you know,$8.99. nine. She goes, you really feel this way? I said, I'm wholeheartedly feel this way. She said, okay, you may never get another shot. I said, I apologize. I'll just take that. Six months later, they call.

1:27:48We have one more shot for you. I said, what is it? They said, you're kind of like a food critic. I said, nope, not for me. They go, what? No, not for me. I'm not a food critic. I'm a chef. I'm not a food critic. Okay, no, no, no. Okay, let me rephrase it? Not a food critic. You go around to mom and pop restaurants and just see what they make and talk about it. I said, I like that idea. What's it called? Divers, drive-ins, and dive-ins. I go, what's the name of it? Driver's dive. They couldn't even say it right. Because, you know, it's a little tongue twister at first, which is one of the reasons I call it.

1:28:24I used to often call it triple D. So anyhow, it turns out that that show was a perfect fit. I loved it. And, you know, 1700 locations 500 shows later 17 years the triple d effect on businesses is what well different things for different people but for the most part it is kind of the restaurant lottery and i try to make everybody fully aware of this this has nothing to do with me okay all i am oh bull No, no, no. Bull. You don't give yourself enough credit. Hang on a second. Hang on a second. You probably are changing my career. I know how many millions of viewers you get. These restaurants exist.

1:29:09These restaurants are doing great. These restaurants are making, they're popular in their town or in their community or their group or whatever it is. All I'm doing is shining the light on them. It's like they already exist. I'm not walking in saying, hey, do this, this, this, and this. You're going to be great. I just walk in and go, here you go, America. Take a look at this family. Well, sure, right. But it's your talent that has led to food. I don't know talent's necessarily the word that we want to use. 50 times a day. Let's just say that the camera's rolling and I'm the ombudsman. But the stories that I've heard, and we do a show now called Triple D Nation, where we go back to places like 6, 10, 15 years later.

1:29:50Oh, flat out make you cry. I mean, just flat out make you cry. the stories. So what happened the other day, a place called Tom's Barbecue in Memphis. And I remember it to the, like it was yesterday because they took the ends of the ribs when they cut a St. Louis rib and they true it up. They take a spare rib to make it a St. Louis. They take off this end and there's little riblets. And this guy would cut a barbecue and cut them up and sell them. And there's a little riblet you need them and they're delicious. And we hadn't shot the place, we shot the place 10 years ago. So we went back and did Triple D Nation.

1:30:29And I was in Memphis and I couldn't go to the restaurant, but he came to a restaurant that I was shooting. We'd shot a little excerpt with him. And then my film crew went to the restaurant later and shot a thing about him. And then we were going to re-air it. Well, then I had an event in South Beach at the Food and Wine Festival and I invited him. And I came off stage and he's standing there with his wife and something's wrong. And I just had seen him. And I'm like, is everything okay? And he goes, yeah, we just wanted to. I didn't get a chance to tell you when you interviewed me a couple weeks ago about what happened.

1:31:01He says, pardon me if I get my numbers wrong, but you helped put four of our kids through college, two of them through medical school. I'm like, wow. And he goes, we couldn't have, he's changed our whole life. Like everything has changed. And I'm like, wow, that's So he goes, here. He hands me this box. And I open it up. And it's this full blinged out gold chain. I mean, like, bling. I'm like, I can't accept this. And they're like, no, no, no. And they're backing away. Like, just like, like they have to. And I'm just standing there. And oh, they're crying. I'm a mess. And I don't do it for that.

1:31:42That's not in any reason at all that I do it. I do it because I'm a chef and I'm a restaurant owner, and I know how hard it is to make money in this business. And back when I first started my restaurants, the only way you could get advertisement was the Yellow Pages, a radio TV commercial, or maybe a good write-up of the paper. Social media came along, and that's really been positive and negative because you can live by the sword, die by the sword. But the fact of what we do, because I'm all positive energy. That's how I am in my life anyways. I'm not into the negative. I mean, there's so much negative we could highlight.

1:32:16And that's what people feed off of. Unfortunately, a lot of folks do. I'm just not into it. I don't subscribe. But people are like, why don't you tell us the places you don't like? I said, yeah. Hey, come on down to this place. It sucks. No, that's just not in my DNA. But we go to places, four, five, ten franchise now locations. We go to places that, I mean, it's just, it's amazing what happens. And it's, again, it's, they took an opportunity. They took a spark and they made a fire. And to be the guy that got a chance to maybe be some of the spark, that's the greatest. And that just solely me as a chef and a restaurant owner and as a person, as a human, as a dad, as an entrepreneur, to be the guy that got to participate in that, to be around that, and then to hear the story later.

1:33:08So even, I mean, the gold chain was the nicest thing in the world, but you know what? just hearing that four kids got a chance to go to college and two became doctors. That's the kind of stuff that I get more... I've said this before, Graham, a bunch of times. Had I not had the response or got the insight to what this show was doing, I would have stopped a long time ago. You would have. Oh. You don't have any idea of the grind. The amount of the days, the months, the years, I mean, 17 years of being on the road. And I'm not bitching. Don't get me wrong. Work is work. But being away from my family was tough.

1:33:53I was one of the toughest pieces of all of it. But knowing what it did, it was my opportunity to step up and do something. And I had the opportunity to do it. You got to take the shot. The only one you miss is the one you don't take. As long as there's one restaurant, there's one guest, there's one experience that happened that was a better place, then I think I did a good job. From what I understand, when Food Network originally called you to come to New York to compete in the Food Network's Next Star show, whatever it was called, you originally weren't even going to go. I didn't believe it was them.

1:34:37Oh, really? 10 o 'clock at night, they called me. and I said, right. Hello, Food Network, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I did. I thought it was one of my friends screwing with me because I didn't want to do the demo tape. I had this buddy, Rob, and another buddy of mine, Mustard, that pushed me. They really said, you got to do this, got to do this, got to do this. I said, I'm not doing this. You know, I didn't watch, I'd never even seen it. I'd never seen a single show on the Food Network, not because Food Network wasn't awesome back then. I just work it every day of my life. I don't want to go home and have somebody telling me how to boil an egg.

1:35:13So when I submitted the tape, they called. And the lady goes, what can I call at a better time? And I'm like, is this serious? She goes, yeah. She goes, there'll be a contract on your door tomorrow morning. We FedExed it. So they get it, and I read it. And I'm like, this is horrible. They want my life. So I sent it to an attorney buddy of mine. He looked at it. He goes, yeah, you're signing the life away on this one. But it was my dad's birthday, November 19th. Flew to New York. Never been to New York. Flew to New York in shorts, flip-flops, and a yellow leather jacket. Lori encouraged you. Oh, Lori.

1:35:48We were eight months pregnant with Ryder. You had to have a second phone. And, oh, yeah, I had a burner phone. Not that I knew what a burner phone was. But they told us, you're going to have to turn your phone every day. Oh, you got it. No problem. I go, we got one of those old cell phones we got, babe? She was like, yeah. You know, Blackberry Touch or whatever. I'm like, okay, here we go. turn your phone in here you go I powered off you know charged it it wasn't even working get my phone in my pocket so what caused you to hit it off with Lori after firing her friend oh so I didn't even Lori didn't even know that girl so I fired I was a restaurant oh I thought I thought it was her friend oh it was well what it was I was managing a restaurant in Los Angeles I was out of college for two years managing this big restaurant called Parker's Lighthouse and I had fired her friend and the rule was when you were fired you had 30 you couldn't come in the restaurant for 30 days Friday night just didn't get dinner service started big restaurant three stories high and in comes this girl and I'm like where are you going she's like I'm going upstairs I'm like no no you can't come in here you've been fired so I'm here to get my check then like okay I'll get you check.

1:37:00Well standing behind her is this little blonde girl with these just beautiful blue eyes and she's just mean mugging me. She's just doing this look. So I'm looking at her. I said okay, can't go to the upstairs bar but you can go to the downstairs bar. You can sit right over there. I'm gonna get you check. So they go sit down they're having a drink. I go stand under the stairs and I'm looking at this girl and I'm just mesmerized by this girl. What the f -? So I'm standing there and the roommate of the girl that I had fired, a girl named Kelly, comes up and goes, what's going on? I said, who's the girl with what's her name?

1:37:38She goes, oh, that's our friend, Lori. She's moving to San Diego. She's from Rhode Island. I said, I'm going to marry that girl. And she smacks me and she goes, you have a girlfriend. I'm like, I'm just telling you, I'm going to marry that girl. I mean, that's no bull****. That is 1 ,000 % all my kids. That is exactly what came out of my mouth. And that was it. How do you go from fire? Too convoluted to get... Basically what happened is Lori didn't move to California to get married. Lori came to get out of Rhode Island, go live in San Diego. She was on her way to San... I mean, she was literally...

1:38:16Her car was packed on her way to San Diego. So she went down to Costa Mesa, got a job. Finally, we started a date. and it went on from there. And so then we get, I'm working for another company and I'm a district manager for them. And, you know, I only, my whole goal is to open my own restaurant. That's my thing. So finally at five months pregnant, I said, I just got her to agree. We left, left LA, loaded up everything we had in a trailer that I made. My dad flew down and drove with her in a Hyundai that had 400 ,000 miles on it. I drove my pickup truck and our two Rottweilers and we drove up here to Northern California.

1:38:55She went to my parents' house, stayed with them. I stayed here in Sonoma County to try to find a job. I didn't want to go to a corporate job or anything like that because I had to build my restaurant and built the restaurant with a buddy of mine. And from the day we got the keys to the building, we opened in 30 days because we had it all compact inside. I mean, we had the recipes and the menus and everything in our mind. We'd all add it on paper because we both came from corporate restaurants. We knew what we wanted to do. Was it Catalina Island in a Mist Boat proposal? It was a great proposal.

1:39:27Something like that? Jesus. I've always got a buddy. I mean, I've always got a friend that does something, a friend of a friend. I mean, it's a funny story about how things work. I mean, I can get pretty much anything done. And it's, again, you just do what you can for people, and then you never know when you're going to call on them. It's a little godfatherish, but it is really one day. So I want to get engaged to Lori. So I don't have a lot of money, so I save up my money to get the ring. And we live with my sister and her husband. And we live in a little two-bedroom beach house in Long Beach.

1:40:05And I want to get married. So we go to Catalina. So I've organized this for about six months, no, four months. So a buddy of mine has a buddy that works in Catalina. and there's in Catalina, the big opera hall is called the casino. Casino in Italian means community meeting place. So he has a buddy that works there. So I want to go and get engaged there at the casino. Great. Casino's closed for renovations. But I've talked to the guy and I get an idea. So we take the ferry across, talking to some people on the way. He's like, I'm going to get engaged. She's like, oh, my God, that's so great. When you get done, come to our house.

1:40:50So, anyhow, we get to Catalina, and we go to the casino. I've got a ring in my pocket. Jamie and my sister know what's going to happen. Jamie's my brother-in-law and my sister, Morgan. They know what's going to happen. And so we get to the ticket booth, and there's my buddy Jimmy, who's a waiter for me, dressed up in the ticket booth outfit, selling us the tickets. Just as we're buying the tickets, a German tour group shows up. wanting to go to the casino because the casino is this big tour. And Jimmy's looking at me and I'm looking at them and we can't blow cover. And he's just like, I'm like, so he sells the Germans tickets.

1:41:31So what you're supposed to do is go in to the bottom floor to the opera hall, watch a screen slideshow of the making of the casino, and then take a tour going to each of the five levels of it. And then you end up in the opera hall on top. So that's not how we start. We start in the ballroom up top. And the ballroom is massive if you've ever seen the pictures of it. It's one of the most incredible places in the world. So we start up there. We'd go on the tour. And we're walking around. And the whole time, I'm like, gosh, my stomach is really bothering me. I must have eaten something on the boat that is, you know, it's just killing me.

1:42:10I'm telling Lori about it. I'm like, oh, my stomach. So we do the whole tour and we end up as what's normally the beginning of the tour, as the end of the tour, which is the slideshow. So we're sitting in this ballroom or in this opera hall, and you can hear a pin drop on the stage and hear it acoustically perfect. I mean, it's amazing. And so they're going through and they're doing the click and they're showing the building and they're showing the people that have been there. And the person leading on the tour says, And now a few famous faces from the past click. That's my cue. Oh, God, I have to go to the restroom.

1:42:48I'll be right back. She's like, you sure I'm going to go with you? And I'm like, no, just stay. I get up. I go out the door, come out. And there's Jimmy and his buddy waiting for me. So we run all the way around the casino to the back. And I come through the stage, up through the trap door behind the screen. and on the screen comes, she clicks, and all of a sudden a big, like really cool artistic heart shows up on a slide. Oh, excuse me, folks, somebody must have used a projector. Click. Another Duke Ellington, old car, gangster. Click. Will. I'm sorry, folks. Click, click. More pictures. Click again.

1:43:27Will you? She's like, folks, let me just check this projector. This is click. More pictures. Will you marry? She goes, oh my goodness, someone must have used this. Will you marry me? This click, click heart. Will you marry me? And then click Lori. And you could, I mean, people just, and I come from around the stage, around the curtain, and I get down on my knee and I have the ring. And I said, will you marry me? And all she goes is, And I don't know if this is going to be right for the show. No way. Total Rhode Island girl. No way. And everybody goes nuts. The Germans, they think it's part of a show.

1:44:12So she comes down, put the ring. She's balling. I'm balling. Jimmy's balling. Everybody's balling. And we go from there back up to the dance floor, to the ballroom. and we're popping champagne with the Germans. You know, we're going crazy. It's crazy. But it's always supposed to be Jamie, Morgan, me, and Lori, and that's it. But now there's 30 Germans. So the whole thing ends. We get, we leave, we're walking down the streets. Well, we had other friends go and put up billets, like for a concert, and all along the telephone poles. Congratulations, Lori and Guy. Congratulations, Lori and Guy. She's just like, what?

1:44:57So we go to the restaurant, the Blue Marlin, and the table tents say, congratulations, Lori and Guy. So it's about 5 o 'clock. I go, I got to go back and tip Jimmy and all the guys for the thing because this is, you know, I got to do it. I said, I'll be right back. And she goes, I'll go with you. You know, this is full. Like, she just got done bawling to her parents. She's like, I'll go with you. I'm going to go with you. I'm like, OK. So we're holding hands. And we walk down there. And we come up. And all the doors are locked. and there's a janitor that's mopping the elevator. I'm knocking on the door in the elevator.

1:45:29And he says, yeah, can I help you? I said, I'm looking for Jimmy. And I'm supposed to, I want to give him a tip. He goes, oh, he's upstairs. And I go, okay. And so he goes, no, you can't use the elevator. I'm cleaning it. Someone got sick in it. So I thought one of the Germans, you know, threw up. I know him. So we take the walkway, and it's like stadium walkways in a football stadium. So we have to walk up five flights of these stadium walkways, these ramps. Well, the guy mopping was Jimmy. She didn't recognize him. So he tears off his coveralls and he's in a tuxedo. So as we come up to the top of the precipice into the ballroom, just as the sunset, we planned it perfectly, just as the sunset is coming through the windows.

1:46:15And in the center of the ballroom is a table for two covered in these small little dwarf trees. Pavarotti is blaring. And there's two dozen cabbage head roses, these huge roses that my buddy had gotten for me at the flower market, draped over the table. And I had three pound live Maine lobsters sitting on the table. And Jimmy's standing. She just, it was it. I mean, she just lost it. So she's crying in the lobster. I'm smoking one of my favorite cigars, which is called a Hoyo de Monterey double Corona. And I'm sitting there smoking this. We're listening to this, drinking some great wine. She's crying in the lobster.

1:46:57That was it. Pretty good story. Right? Yeah. It sucked after that. I want to ask you about your sister Morgan. You have said you credit a lot of your success to the education that she gave you. How so? My sister had a different, You know, when you battle cancer at four years old, she had cancer at four, survived it. You guys spent time living at the Ronald McDonald house. So the great thing was, is that was in Ronald McDonald's house was first starting in San Francisco. My parents went down a lot of times, brought a lot of furniture down, did a lot of things to help. But we lived in our car a lot.

1:47:33My sister got cancer again when she was 38. Vegan, vegetarian, massage therapist, single mom, couldn't live a healthier life. African dance, gorgeous, gets melanoma, a derivative of what's called Wilms tumor, this tumor that she had as a child. And here we go in this battle. Oh my God. That was the worst thing to ever be around. And to think of her, you know, leaving Jules, my nephew. It was just horrific. But my sister would say, I'm coming over for dinner. And she wasn't a bossy redhead. She wasn't mean, but she just had her thing. Like, I'm coming over for dinner. Could we just have something other than grilled vegetables with balsamic glaze and basmati rice?

1:48:24Because that's what I'd make her every time. You know, I'm making everything else for everybody else. And then she's like, I just don't want that because it's what you make every time. Like, wow. So I had to like, okay, well, I guess a cauliflower steak would make it like piccata. Okay. So that really just taught me a lot. And then she had to work within a real serious pH diet because of the cancer and no sugar because cancer loves sugar and all these different things. And so I just really spent a lot of time trying to cook the right way for her. but her strength knowing that she was dying and knowing that she was leaving her kid and knowing that it was happening I just watched I mean I don't know what you look like when you're a general in the face of battle and you're you know they're attacking and there's no you know positive win I mean this woman was just steadfast stuck to it held on and it was just uh it was pretty amazing and the thing was is it taught me a lot about I never I thought you died creepy you know I don't know she was she laid in mourning we laid in mourning for two days shrouded in flowers in the living room we had a luncheon kids played people took pictures with her that was the oddest creepiest thing in the world I thought would ever happened.

1:49:48It was the most beautiful, amazing, most dignified thing I could ever imagine happening to somebody. It changed my whole way of looking at death. How so?

1:50:04It wasn't, I don't know. I just thought the body, I don't know. I don't know what happened. Maybe it's because of movies or something. You just thought it was not a beautiful thing. And it wasn't like I wasn't letting her go. I know that her energy, like her soul, the spirit had left. But it was this thing of celebrating. It was like total respect

1:50:32of the person. How did your parents get through that? Oh, Jesus. I don't think they ever got through it. I don't think they ever got that. I don't know. I don't think of anything that there is worse to do to somebody than for them to survive their child passing. I mean, I just, I can't fathom it. I'd completely lose my s***.

1:51:03They, we spent a lot of time talking about her, a lot of time honoring her. That was one of the things I tried to do the most is make sure that I kept her top of mind always. You know, like always. And that's the reason I went and got the tattoo of her. And why that tattoo? So it's the... It's a little foggy. We should get it better. All right, are you going to need lotion? Let's get a little bit better since it's not so chalky. God, you're f***ing tiring me out, man. I'm going to f***ing go to... I got f*** to do.

1:51:35This is a life experience. So one of my really close friends, one that I first got tattoos with, whenever someone wanted to see one of his tattoos, he'd spit on his hand. There you go. Now look at it. That made a big difference. It makes a ton of difference. So what this is, so we love Mexico. We have a great house down in Mexico that we built, and that's one of the reasons we built it is because we spend a lot of time as a family down there. So it's a candle that reminds me of Mexico. Okay. Okay. So my sister's a redhead. The shroud around her is dragonflies, something we always associated my sister with.

1:52:11And behind her are all the chakras. So all the chakras are lined up behind her. So my sister was very spiritual, very grounded. And these were just all things. And namaste, which is one of my favorite words now, and if you celebrate the word and understand it. but it's the power in me celebrates the power in you the god in me sees the god in you and that was her word it was her word yeah end of every end of every message voicemail letter it was namaste well i didn't know what it meant namaste hit me hey you know i'd always have something to say about it and when she was passing that like that last week when she was you know when all her friends were coming over african dance friends were there in fairfax we're just sitting there talking about stuff and you know you're so vulnerable person happily vulnerable you know you're willing to listen and learn and get i'm trying to get in touch with like what am i getting ready to experience and all these amazing women and friends of hers were so in touch you know it's like i was coming from a different perspective in life you know i hadn't been as you know just you have different awareness like i could sit there and tell them a million things about other aspects of life and business but they were really into their spirituality and so they were telling me about namaste and I'm like of course so I went to my tattoo artist a guy who's done all these tattoos and a great friend of mine got him Joe Leonard and I said this is what I want to achieve and so he drew it up and so my mom has never been a fan of my tattoos not negative not like oh you did that to your body just like you know why and every tattoo has so this was the day the the uh was Diaz de Muerte that after she died that that day I went had this done in honor of her um to recognize her you know to celebrate my sister so yes I came to my sister's burial and we did a green burial which was amazing another epiphany unique situation because shrouded in cloth and buried in the ground no casket no cremation none of that stuff and consistent with what she would have wanted well and the crazy thing was nobody had asked her Well, she was, in that point, wasn't communicating.

1:54:23And I said, we're going to cremate her. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's no cremating. Aren't she fossil to burn up fuel? You know, and she wasn't that kind of, like, she wasn't marching and throwing paint on stuff. You know, she wasn't flipping out about it. But she was really, and I'm like, no, no, no, no. We've got to do Green Barrel. Like, well, where are we going to do it? Like, well, in Novato. And I'm like, no, because I want to be able to go visit her. I don't want to drive to Novato. So we found out Sebastopol has one. beautiful cemetery, really old cemetery in Sebastopol.

1:54:50And as I said, my dad's there now. And we had the most incredible ceremony. I mean, just, and these two hawks came, and it was just the greatest, greatest time, the greatest emotional family, the whole thing. But I showed up with this tattoo. And my mom says, and I said, you know, because what is that? And I said, and boom. Best tattoo you ever got. She loses her mind. yeah sure enough I have to drag her my aunt and a couple of my cousins they want tattoos so they go down to Joe Leonard and they get butterflies right here namaste so there's my mom at 65 getting namaste butterfly on her wrist I'm like I said you're so gangster how did you go about figuring out the process for how to parent Jules well that was a tough one that was a tough one.

1:55:43Jules and I weren't as close. I mean, Jules now, in my opinion, is my son. I mean, that's as close as I can say it. He... What about that touches you? Well, so his dad really wasn't in his life or was not in his life. And my sister and I got a dollar from this guy. And he just was really absentee. And I can't ever say negative things about it because Jules is dad. So in some little small way, I got to be okay with the guy because we wouldn't have Jules. But Jules would come to our house. We'd watch him for the weekend and Jules would eat every bit of junk food or candy or whatever he could get in his face because there was none of that at his house.

1:56:28Jules is incredibly intelligent, smarter than his own good, especially when he's a little kid because he was conniving. I always had to watch Jules with the side of my eye what was going on. So when my sister dies, my parents, we all decided best he lives over my parents' house. My parents, we live right next door to each other. So it's like he lives with us, but he lives there and there he's under more of their control, their direction than they is mine. Because he's coming out of Montessori, running around the streets of Fairfax, coming to a little bit more of a regimented environment with us.

1:57:03And we go through some tough times in high school. because he's just smart enough to pull the shit over my parents. He's smart enough to talk them in circles. And I'm catching this stuff, and I have to deal with it when problems happen. Now I'm involved. So we go through a few of those. We're going to butt some heads in which way we're going to go. And eventually it smooths itself out, and off he goes to college. He is so intelligent and so hardworking. He is working as a full-time agent in EDM and traveling and doing that. And he goes to school. He goes to law school four nights a week, four hours a night, and has been doing that for the last two years.

1:57:50And he's a 4.0 student. And he's not going to be an attorney. He's going to practice business law or entertainment law so he can be the best of the best in his industry. And that was a little bit of my mandate. You guys all want to be in the will. You all want to get what we built? You're all going to have two degrees. Like check. I think he didn't mean it exactly in the way I meant it, but that's fine. I actually did. He was one of my inspirations. I thought, wow, that's a really great way to look at it. And not all the kids want to do it. But the reality of it is Hunter's doing it now. Hunter, I think Jules starting it off.

1:58:28Hunter's at Miami in business. Poor Ryder looked at me and said, I don't really know about this. you know like they're they're i'm not even in high school so on the money front because you know we've been fortunate to profile a lot of folks through the show and there always seems to be the struggle with somebody who's uber successful of what you pass down how you allow your success to create opportunities but what the balance is between that and dampening motivation you've said before, you're going to die broke. Give a little context to what the reality of that means. No, my dad's the one that said he would die broke and told me he would leave me nothing, which was awesome.

1:59:12Because he really did. I mean, they left me nothing. I don't need anything. I mean, everything I needed, I got from him. So my thing is, philanthropy is super key to my life. Boys are, of course, super key. I want them to all find their goals of what they want to be. Hunter works for Knuckle Sandwich and he does a fantastic job. He's on the road a lot selling the wine. We have a little wine company called Hunt Ride, Hunter and Rider. Jules wants to eventually have his own agency and represent artists, which I told him he has to give 10 years of doing it for somebody else. But he has to diversify.

1:59:46Can't do it for the same company. Has to have his degree. So we're setting up like same hurdles, same benchmarks, same achievement strategy that my dad set up for me when I was a kid. So I went and did the corporate world for a long time. said you have to do that you have to understand p and l's you have to understand you know how the corporate how to do the structure how to keep from getting sued how to do all the stuff you go do it for somebody else you learn on their dime then when you got it i'll help you and they mortgaged their house i needed fifty thousand dollars and they were close to retirement they were retiring yeah and they mortgaged their house so i could do it i paid them back in six months i paid back to 50 grand in six months but um so no the thing is i want the kids to have you know we have the big ranch, we have the small ranch, we have the Florida house, we have the Mexico, we've got a lot of stuff.

2:00:32You know what my dad said to me, like the last week he was alive, I said, dad, I just want you to know, I got all your s*** taken care of, I got everything handled. I got the house, my childhood home, how that's being handled, they owned a small restaurant, how that's being handled, mom taking over all the bills, I'm paying all the bills, got all that handled, I got all your s*** handled. And he looks at me and he goes, I'm worried about my you're the one with a ton of who's going to handle your when you die don't leave those kids with a bunch of headaches I'm like really that's and it was very godfather you know he's laying in the hospital he died at home but he's laying in one of those hospitals he's like you're you got more it's pretty funny you've had your critics over the years I have And I'd have to imagine, I mean, most of it's funny now, right?

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2:03:10I like to give my best answers when I'm having my makeup done by one of my best friends, so that's great. How long have you guys worked together for? 15 years. He never did makeup. He was a hairstylist in a salon. And I had to do a commercial, like a small commercial. And his sister is a makeup artist. So his sister came to do my makeup. And I'm like, dude, if you learn how to do makeup, then you can come with me. He's like, okay. So his sister taught him how to do makeup. So that goes on for about a year. And then I get this big show for NBC. minute to win it. And we go down there and we're doing that.

2:03:49And I can hear in the IFB, the producer's like, cut, do not roll. Who did his damn makeup? That looks horrible. He looks like an Oompa Loompa. Fire that makeup artist. I'm like, no, no, don't fire the makeup artist. It's my buddy. But, you know, we were shooting on like high definition something, you know, in the lighting or whatever. But I did. I look like George Hamilton. I'm like, don't fire him. They wipe all the makeup, and the other makeup artists come in and show them what you... Got in a lot better since then, though. Well, it's the canvas that you're working with. So, to me, criticism, depending on who it's from, has its value.

2:04:33If somebody I know, somebody I respect, maybe I don't even really respect them that much, But, you know, I consider their opinion. I consider the situation. What's the one that's impacted you the most over the years?

2:04:50Honey, you shouldn't wear that shirt anymore. It made you look fat. I don't know. I don't really. Usually things that had to come from my dad, usually my dad, all my producers, my friends. You know, I don't want to be the emperor with no clothes on. That's always been one of my biggest things. I don't want to be that guy that I'm out there and I'm just doing bullshit. And someone says like, yeah, don't say anything to the old man. He's crazy. You know, come and tell me it sucked. I suck. Everybody fails. Everybody does it the wrong way. You know, and that's I know the toughest thing for someone to say is like, hey, I need you to run that, you know, run that again.

2:05:32Or I didn't quite look right or didn't sound. You know, yeah, we're in the business of making television. We're doing this. We need to do this right. The first we need to do this right. that goes to the viewers. We don't have time to like, well, we're just going to let that one go because then I'm risking everybody's job. If I suck at my job, I'm the last line of defense. Either I get it right or potentially we don't have the show next year. So please do all of us a favor. If I suck, if it's not good, then let me know. And I'm just like anybody else. I fail. How about biggest professional failure and what you learned from it?

2:06:11How much time do you have? Do you have a lot of... Most recently, we had a show called Guy's Ultimate Game Night. I wrote it, designed it, planned it, casted it, put it all together. No room to fail. Going to kill. Beyond next level. And we didn't get renewed. It was a very tough pill to swallow because I had so much invested in it. And maybe that was part of the failure is that I got too close to it. I wasn't sitting back objectively looking at it enough. Like I was too passionate about it. Like I was too, it can't fail. It's so great. It's like you get so close to it, you get burned by it. But I don't see, I don't operate in failure.

2:07:15I don't think about things like, I mean, I don't like. How so? Okay, well, you look at your greatest home run hitters. They also strike out probably the most. Right. Boxers, you don't go out there and take, you throw every punch as a knockout punch. You get knocked down, you get to. So I don't look at it as failure. I just look at it as like, okay, here's what I got from that one. this, or I'm not going to screw with that. I'm not going to follow that method again, or I'm not going to take that. So I don't have like a real failure button. Not that I'm ridiculously not aware of reality and pain and stuff like that.

2:07:48It's just, there's really no time to sit there and cry about it. There's no crying in baseball, if you didn't know that. I had learned that. Tom Hanks taught me that. You interviewed him. That was a great interview, by the way. But there's no crowd in baseball. And we got to be ready to pivot and grow from what we did wrong today and be better by tomorrow and that kind of thing. I make one of the best tequilas in the world, Santo Tequila with my buddy Sammy Hagar. We're additive free. We're no bullshit, no color, no additives, no glycerin, no sugar, no anything. I mean, best agave you can get, third generation distiller, small batch tequila in old bourbon barrels.

2:08:31And yet we fight tooth and nail every day to keep going and getting our mark, getting our name out there about who we are and that we're not a celebrity tequila. Part of the game is the battle. That's part of what I love the most. It's like when it's easy, it's not that much fun. You have found a way to deal with any of that noise well and keep moving forward? It's like giving it attention. If it really means that much to you, look at what you want to do with it. Do you want to continue on the negativity or do you want to let the positivity reign through? And sometimes when you feed into the negativity, you can drown all the positivity out of it.

2:09:18So if you allow the booing or hissing or whatever you want to call it go on, you know, it's going to go on for a while. It's part of life. I mean, it's not like it doesn't happen to everybody in every situation. It doesn't mean that misery loves company. I mean, nobody likes it. Yes, we'd all love to walk along through life and, you know, happiness and cotton candy land. But the reality of it is, is it's on every platform at every level at every age forever would rather it not but it does and my choice my methodology is to not lend to it try not to participate in it do i watch tv sometimes and say f that that god can never believe that you know i've got an opinion about i'm not the one that usually feels anybody else needs to hear about it because i'm on a platform that people watch my show.

2:10:09That's craziness to me. But everybody ought to do, do, do, be the way you want to be. I was just at a meeting the other day and I said, you know, I was raised in a small town and I didn't need to have a bunch of rules of how we were going to live. We just lived inside of a community and everybody treated each other the way they wanted to be treated. I think if we went back to those, what did they say? Everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten.

2:10:32i want to talk to you about philanthropy uh explain how your childhood kool-aid booth impacted your early charity work i got fired from the kool-aid booth you know about that i don't like to talk about it my director of sanitation came in and fired me my old man guys because i had a purple arm i was stirring the kool-aid with my arm because the dog took my stick. That was a true story, which led into the pretzel business. But no, philanthropy was just a way that we were in our town. I'd love to tell the story about my dad. There's a famous building in our town up at the Fireman's Park, and they were going to tear it down.

2:11:15And my dad and a bunch of guys from our town went to the sheriff and said, hey, you've got all these guys incarcerated, these contractors and plumbers and electricians and so forth, and we need to retrofit this building for earthquake and sprinkle it, or we're going to tear this community center down in Ferndale. And Ferndale didn't have a lot of community buildings. And so they all got together and brought these contractors in and got them to retrofit the building. And ironically enough, maybe 10, 15 years later, my sister had her wedding reception there. So we all have something we can do. Not everybody is physically fit, financially fit, mentally fit, emotionally fit.

2:11:55that everybody's got something though. And if everybody could just change their paradigm by 10%, we can all do something to make it better. You know, we can all do something to participate in our community. And I think that if that was, if everybody really was doing their 10%, I think we could just really right a lot of the wrongs that go on. And so my interest is, I get a lot of light shown on me, which I really appreciate. I mean, I am super, I couldn't be more appreciative of the fans. Henry Winkler told me one time, who I was a big Fonz fan. Still am a big Fonz fan. And I was doing a thing at NBC, and I was with him, and we had this media corral.

2:12:34And it was one of the greatest, like, young moments of my career. And I'm sitting there, and I'm doing an interview. And all of a sudden, someone grabs me by the shoulders and said, you know who this guy is? This is one of the hardest working people in media and TV you'll ever see. I'm like, who is saying this? and I had never met him before. And I turn and it's Henry Winkler. And I'm not kidding you, man. To keep my composure after that was the, and I have an autograph that he sent me that said that. But anyhow, we're there and we're standing there. There's tons of fans and things are going nuts.

2:13:10And I'm like, you've been doing this, Henry, for how long? He said, how do you handle all the fans? And he goes, for you, it's your 10 millionth picture. For them, it's their only one. And I went, whoa. That's exactly it. That's namaste. That's the God in me sees the God that God knew. The power in me sees it. I'm recognizing this person is, for them, it's their moment. And that just changed my paradigm 100%. I was at the Olympics the other day, and this young girl fought through the security to come down to get a picture with me. She's fifth grade and a baker and had been in a baking competition, didn't win.

2:13:59She came down, the nicest, most polite young lady. She's sitting there talking to me, and then she was leaving. I said, excuse me, did you want to get a picture? She goes, I didn't want to bother you. I said, yeah, let's take our picture. So we took a couple of them. On the way out of the stadium, her father, I saw her, and I goes, is this your daughter? She goes, yeah. And I said, this is the most polite young lady I've ever met. I said, please take down my admin's email and reach out to me. I don't know why yet, but just reach out to me. So he reached out and he sent the picture. So we printed the picture and we're sending it back to Paris to this young girl.

2:14:32But it's just... You will, if somebody's not polite when they ask for your autograph or a picture, you'll lecture them. I mean, you'll still take the picture or sign the autograph. I swear, I'm not talking anymore. No, my wife says it's not my responsibility to educate the world's children on manners. And I said, bullsh**. I said, you want something from me? It's going to cost you. And I mean this jokingly, but I also mean it truthfully. The best time to get their attention is when they want something. So they come up. Can I get your picture? I'll look right at them and go, no. You've got to watch me.

2:15:09I go, hang on a second. Try one more time. Can I please get a picture with you? You bet. Who knows if that will work? And I'm not making them do it to kiss my hand. That's not that. I'm doing it because please will open most doors that were never going to get opened a lot farther along in life. A little manners when you walk up to the rental desk and your car is not ready and you come up, da da da. If you just want, excuse me, could you please help me with my car? That's going to change that paradigm versus you barking at them or you demanding from them. And the best time to get that seed planted with kids is at that young age.

2:15:56And trust me, it's bit me a few times. I've had a few parents tell me, don't tell my kids how to talk. And I look at them. Oh, really? Oh, and I've looked at them and I said, sometimes it's come out of my mouth. Well, maybe you should. I mean, that's maybe come out a couple of times. I want to wrap talking about kind of what I deem you're probably crowning philanthropic achievement, which is during COVID and the amount of money that you raised and the process by which you went reaching out to corporations and corporate partners to get that. Take me through that a little bit. Does anybody have to take a piss break?

2:16:38Because you all have been standing here so patiently. Well, they're almost ready for a push break. I'm just making sure because I know after three hours of us shooting the s***. Okay. COVID's getting ready to happen. I don't even think that, I don't think any of us knew what was on the precipice of COVID. I mean, it was coming. It was, but not like it was going to happen to the degree that it happened. So I'm standing on my front porch smoking a cigar. and a buddy of mine calls me from some inner information of the Capitol and says in two days they're going to shut down, or tomorrow they're going to shut down all the restaurants.

2:17:17I'm like, they can't shut down the restaurants. These restaurants are gearing up for the weekend. They're loading in their stuff. We've got to give people notice. You've got reservations. You've got staff that works paycheck to paycheck. This can't happen. It's happening. So the next morning, I do my best thinking on the elliptical or the treadmill. So I call my team. I said, okay. And it's always been that way for you. I have to move. Like this sitting down shit is driving me crazy. Okay. I can't talk. When I have conference calls and meetings, I walk. So I call my team. I said, hey, listen, go take my credit card and go around and buy gift certificates at all the restaurants in our area.

2:18:00I said, okay, how much? I said,$50 ,000. I said, okay, what are we going to do with them? I said, give them to the rescue shelter and give it to so people can, when the restaurant's open, we can give them to people and they can go eat. Okay, great. Great idea. I'll try. I get done with that, call my dad, tell my dad what's up. And he's like, okay. He goes, just Sonoma County? Ah, you're right. So I call my buddy, Jock Condi, who's the president of the California Restaurant Association. I said, hey, I want to buy like$500 ,000 for the gift certificates. I said, why? And I said, well, because the restaurant's closing.

2:18:36You know, I said, okay. I said, good. I'll figure out how you can do that. I said, but mom and pop's, I don't want to buy them through all the corporate restaurants. You know, they got insurance and stuff. How fast can we do this? I said, I don't know. So that's$500 ,000, you know,$5 ,000 restaurant. That's 100 ,000 restaurant. I mean, how can we make that many phone calls? How can we get the food processor? Okay. Call my team. My dad calls me back and he says, you know, you do restaurants all over the country. How are you just saying it's California? I'm like, Jesus, Dad. I've got enough going on.

2:19:11So I call a buddy of mine who's an attorney for all these different restaurants and restaurant groups and so forth. And I said, and I gave him a list of 50 names. Can you get me these email addresses? He goes, I can, but what's it for? And I said, I want to ask these people for money to give to the restaurant industry. And he goes, on what premise? And I said, I just want him to give me money that I'm going to put into a fund, and I'm going to give the money to restaurant workers, especially restaurant workers that I know will not be getting paid because we have a certain degree of restaurant workers that don't have all the documentation they need.

2:19:46Okay. So I give him a list. Anybody that's making money out of the restaurant business on the high level. So I go and I take each one of these businesses, And I make footnotes on a dry erase board about how much, look it all up, how much money they're making, how much business they've done, how long they've been doing it to the Pepsi, Coke, Uber Eats, Tito Vodka, Amazon, go through the whole list. and so I make individual messages anywhere from one to three minutes talking to them directly saying I'm Guy Fieri and I do a show about mom and pop restaurants and we're getting ready to shut all the restaurants down in the country and I'm trying to raise some money for the restaurant workers I'd really appreciate if you could look at what you've made in the past and if you could find how you could help and I will remind you that the industry has served you now it's time for you to serve the industry.

2:20:42That was my closing line. It was really good. So I sent out these emails. So I'm driving, have to leave this ranch, driving to the big ranch outside of Napa because we're going to shelter. Truck's loaded up with the dogs, the whole thing, we're out. And I get a call from Reed Strathairn, who's my COO. And he goes, something going on about you sending some videos out to some people about some money for the restaurant business? I said, yeah, why? And he goes, uh-huh. Well, I got Pepsi on the phone. I go, yeah? Like, oh, s***. And he goes, they want to give you a million dollars. I pull over because I'm just ready to lose the cell service.

2:21:30And I pull over and it still gives me these goosebumps. And I'm like, what? He goes, hang on, I got him on a conference call. So I got all these big wigs from Pepsi. I'm like, okay, explain this to us. I said, well, I'm going to raise this money. And I want to give out$500 grants to people that work in the industry. And they said, well, how do you plan to do this? And I said, well, we're going to do it through a nonprofit. I have a nonprofit organization. I said, okay. Well, I didn't have any idea. My dad calls and I tell my dad about it when I get to the ranch. By the time I got to the ranch, it was$3 million.

2:22:02Uber Eats came in with a million. By the time we got there, it's like$3 million. I'm like, yeah. I'm like, yeah, my dad's close to going. And I told him, I said, I'm going to raise$100 million. He goes, you always have big dreams. He goes, that's crazy. By that day, I think we were$5 million. Reed says to me, how are we going to distribute$5 million? I said, yeah, that's a big idea. He called Jot Condi. Jot, he's the president of the National Restaurant Association. So I called them. I said, hey, I'm raising a bunch of money. I need to give it to people. Can you guys help me? They're like, what's the game plan?

2:22:32So I'm telling them. They said, OK, yeah, we can help you. So I'm raising money. They're setting up the website. We're telling people where they can go. I'm getting up at four in the morning, every morning, doing live feeds to New York on all the different morning shows, pitching my great idea. And the numbers keep ticking. 10 million, 12. I mean, every day we're getting more and more million. I mean, we're getting, we got up to 26.8 million, 25 to 26. and we raise all this money. Well, all of a sudden, the National Restaurant Association clicks the go button and turns on the website. Boom, shut down.

2:23:13I mean, it just got just destroyed from the people signing up. 1.7 million workers were out of work. And here we are giving$500 grants. We gave$45 ,500 grants. 45 ,000 people got a$500 grant. Tito Vodka himself called me. He wanted to know what the story was. Everybody wanted to talk to me directly about like, what's the hocus pocus you got going on? And once I explained it to them, they were like, we're down. Pepsi called me back and gave me another million. And this is what I tried to explain to everybody. I can't give everybody 500 bucks. I know that. But I'm not going to stop because I can't.

2:23:57You're going to play as long as you can until you're out of bullets. You're going to keep playing ball in the street until the street light goes on. You're going to give it all you got. I was leaving a triple D location, one of the first places we shot after the pandemic. It was still a lot of masks and that kind of thing. And I'm pulling away in the car, and this girl comes around and starts banging on the glass. I'm like, excited fan. And she gives me this heart or this thing, and I'm like, and she's crying. I'm like, I can't drive away from somebody crying. I roll down the window, and she says, I got the money.

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2:25:25at blinds.com. Rules and restrictions apply. I'm like, she goes, I got the money. I got the$500 check. And she said, I never thought I would see you to tell you. And I got out of the car and I gave her this hug and she's crying and she says, and she goes, it was just so great to know you cared. And that's when it really came like full circle. it wasn't about the money. It was about everybody in the industry knowing that one of theirs, one of the people that came from the industry that started as a busboy in a Mexican restaurant when he was 12 years old, 13 years old, that made his way up the ladder, took his time and gathered people to focus on the industry that does so much for mankind.

2:26:19It's not about eating in restaurants. It's not about drinking in restaurants. There's a social gathering aspect, community connection, well-being, feeling energy that comes from restaurants that can never be duplicated at home. It's something about restaurants. I say it all the time when I go to a great restaurant and it's doing so great in a neighborhood. I'm like, you know what? After today, property values just went up because they found out about your restaurant. But when people go to look for a house, they'll say, like, what are the grocery stores around here? What are the restaurants like around here?

2:26:54So for me, I didn't know how big of a tail of the tiger I had grabbed. But it sure was if I look at the accomplishments. But again, I'll pay that all back. I'll pay that all back to my parents because my dad, my mom and dad were both big thinkers. I mean, when do you jump in a square back VW with a six month old kid and a gas card and, you know, 25 pounds of rice? and haul off, you know, toe in a U-Haul trailer and move to Whittier College and think that you're going to have a life that's going to create this. You've got to be a big thinker. You've got to be able to dream. You've got to be able to back up your dreams.

2:27:34You've got to be willing to, you know, nothing ever beats hard work. That's the thing people always have to think. Like, what's the secret? And I'm like, education, yeah. You know, there's all these different pieces. Good personality, yeah. Handshake, good manners and so forth. You know what? key to all of it hard work anything i did not ask that you would like me to i i think the only thing that i would say that i i think that is and you're a perfect example of this is don't be afraid to ask for help that's something that we have this stereotype or stigmatism about in this culture is asking for help.

2:28:18We have a suicide level that's going on is unbelievable. We have so many social pressures. We have economic pressures and social pressures and just community pressures and worldly pressures and global, I mean, environmental pressures. So often it's the monster in the room in the dark that if you just ask somebody to turn on the light, you'll realize is not a monster. You remember when you were a little kid, the blanket on the chair was a monster until you finally would say to your mom, would you come in? I mean, that was until I was 21, you know, um, no laugh. We don't ask for help. You were so young.

2:29:00You were in high school and you asked for an interview. I get a million, I get a lot, not a million. I get a lot of requests for it, but you ask for an interview. The worst I could say is no. It doesn't mean the end of the world. But so many people in this world want to help one another. And not everybody's walking down the street saying, do you need help? Do you need help? Do you need help? But in our social, especially in this country, we're a very caring, loving, giving community of people. Be willing to walk up to somebody and say, can I get some advice? Can I, I need some help. Or I'm not feeling good.

2:29:34Or I'm not okay inside. Or I want to become this. How many people I've championed that I don't even know? that because they just showed an interest in something and I have maybe a little bit of the key to their success, ask for help. Don't be so shy about professing your desires and your needs. I think you'll get a lot more out of this life if you're willing just to trust in others to give you some help. Right. And if you want to achieve your dreams, one, you're going to hear no along the way but two show me somebody who's achieved their dreams that has not had to build the healthy degree of confidence along the way don't get such a big ego that you're not willing to be told no that you're not be willing to you know it's you're never going to fly if you don't try and that's the thing we live in a free country we have people that come to this country because they can come here and do hard work and determination and perseverance they can be a nobody in their country and never work past their social economic position that their family's been in there all their life.

2:30:42And they can come here and they can be the president of a multimillion dollar company and nobody can hold them back. And there's countries that will not let you ever be greater than your parents were. I mean, come on in this, in this world. So my thing is, is please is just state your dreams, shout it to the universe, ask people for help, and be willing to take help. Help doesn't always mean a big pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek, and it's all going to be okay. Sometimes you are going to have to stop what you're doing. You have to change your position. You have to go a little bit different direction because it doesn't mean you're failing.

2:31:20It just means maybe you're not doing it right. And failure is okay. You're talking to two guys that have failed enough times, And I mean, we don't have it's not a six part miniseries here, but we can do a whole chapter on all the failures and they hurt. There's no question about them, but they didn't kill me. Thanks for doing this. You got it, brother. Thank you, guys. Nice to meet you all. Sorry. We're so long. OK, we have these are this will take literally 30 seconds. I'm just going to read. You have to take your pick. Sweet or savory? Oh, savory all day long. I mean, 95 savory, five sweet. Napa or Sonoma?

2:32:00Humboldt. Sonoma. Burger or steak? Steak. Three-star Michelin restaurant or hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Hole-in-the-wall. 68 Camaro or 71 Chevrolet? Or Chevelle. 71 Chevelle. Raiders or Warriors? Raiders. And not that I don't love my Warriors, but I'm silver and black. Oh, by the way, somebody taped a question for you. You want to hold it? Ha ha! I love my brother. He's the best. Hey, guy, how you doing, man? It's your old friend, John Gruden. I got a great question for you since you're interviewing with the great Graham Benzinger. Hey, how come you never talk to John Gruden anymore? Are you that freaking busy?

2:32:53all right Gruden that's complete crap you know that's crap I call him on I text him on his birthday I text him all the time we if I I'll pull up my phone and we'll see who texts who more that guy got wronged one if you ever know Gruden the guy is carrying the banner the positivity flag I mean he one of my probably one of my favorite coach top three favorite coach reminds me so much of Madden. But what an amazing guy, what an amazing leader. Why that happened, I still to this day don't know. But you know what? When you talk to him on the phone, when you see him, he doesn't dwell. He just says chapter, part of the program, got to go through it, moving on to something else.

2:33:39Oh my gosh, one of my favorite guys in the world. And you know, one of the neatest experiences I had is he was on Triple D with me. And the intensity that you get on TV, the intensity you get on the field, and the intensity you get eating a burger with him is all of the same level. That guy got broken off at 10. You see it in the question. And the funny thing was, when we did Triple D together, anything that we did together, he always just has this zest. But I will tell you, this is a funny story. We were sitting in, was it Tampa? Was it Monday Night Football? And the next day we went to have lunch together.

2:34:21And we're sitting there and we're having a talk. And I'm like, John, could you please just come back? Could you please just come back and just coach the Raiders? He hadn't come back yet. And I'm just hounding him to do lunch. I don't even know him that well. And I'm like, could you just please? And he finally just looks at me and goes, guy. and he just gives me this, you know, and I'm like, I walked out, a buddy of mine was with me, who knew John, and I'm like, did that, did that, did that mean, did that mean, would I, did it, you know, and I went on, and then it was, I think, like four weeks later, you know, or maybe, maybe three months later, he made the announcement, I'm like, he winked, he took, he cut, you know, it's still to this day, was what a screwing.

2:35:11That was a sad time. Love you, Gruden. That does it for my chat with Guy Fieri. Our sit-down was just a portion of our day with the celebrity chef. Head to youtube.com slash Graham Bensinger for a tour of his 42-acre Sonoma County property along with a car collection you have to see to believe. And if you have time, give us a rating and review. Thanks again for listening.