Guy Fieri: Flavormaxxing

25:14Yeah, it consumes. Yeah, it tastes good. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, fortunately, and I give the Food Network a ton of this credit, we started to pivot the ship and get back to real food for real people. And that's where this resurgence has come, where people are seeking out these funky little mom and pop joints. And they're like, why do people wait an hour in line to get that French dip or get your grandpa's apple pie? Because it's real. Because it's made with great beef. It's made with a locally made roll. It's made with organic butter. So there is a difference. What appears to be one, I always use the example of Ferrari in a regular car.

25:56They all have four wheels. They all have a steering wheel. They all have this and that. But the reality of it is, is the attention to detail, the quality, the workmanship, all of it really does matter when it comes down to it.

26:09Rob Lowe:So what is it? And obviously there's a, and you already alluded to it, there's the nexus of quality, ingredients, time, care, precision, and then cost profile, right? There's like, you gotta hit, at the end of the day, it's a business. You have to hit that right, correct? Hey, when you and I put the business factor of it together, that's kind of when you can blow anything. Really? Well, look at it making TV and making movies. No, I understood. Oh, yeah. Okay. You're a producer and a director. Put it that way and I know. Yes, yes. 100%. When you go into a project and you say, let's get the right person, let's shoot it at the right place.

26:51Yep. Let's do it for the right reasons. Fair enough. And let's stick to our guns. all of a sudden the rest that takes care of itself if you do it right exactly so i have these mom and pop joints that i go to that fall into that same thing i'll look at them and i'm like you're making money oh yeah we do really well and like you this is the most difficult you could take to make this is the way my grandpa did it this is what's made us famous this is how we choose to do it, this is what I'm doing. And I'm like, amen. If you've got those principles and those values that's how you do it, that's how you get it done.

27:30You can really screw up a great recipe, be it TV, movies, life, whatever, as soon as you start putting the business into it, because you put that business algorithm together and you start pulling away from what got you there in the first place. Let me ask you this. I'm not saying that you should just throw caution into the wind and cook whatever the hell you want and not worry about your bottom line. I'm not saying that at all, but there really is that finite apex that takes place, that nexus, as you call it. There's that that takes, that happens. But, and it's not easily reproducible. I've seen a lot of places that have done great with one and two locations.

28:07Rob Lowe:You just took the words out of my mouth. Like, here's a great one I always think about. It's way, way, way not in our vibe, but the Russian Tea Room in New York. When I grew up, the Russian Tea Room in New York was a thing. It was a big business thing. It was in movies and in the movie Tootsie. There's a whole scene that takes place there. There was one of five places that people went to be seen and it was good. It was great. They shut it down famously forever to redo it. They opened it, same location, but it had been closed for like, I want to say almost two and a half years, maybe three. It's never been back in the consciousness since, never.

28:47Rob Lowe:Still there, but it's just never. Or, and I wonder if maybe these are just zeitgeist, places that were also really zeitgeisty, but you also see it in places that weren't zeitgeisty where they tried to just expand to a different location. And why does that sometimes not work if the theory is the food is exactly the same? Let's take a sequel to a movie. You've got a great story that's already been established. I mean, besides The Godfather, you know, and there's discussions of which godfather was better than you know two you got two's the best come on two's the best i didn't want to say it two's the best but that's never happened i mean how many times has the the sequel become better than that you know but maybe because they clean things up or explain things or that a better budget or whatever and did you do you watch the offer right yeah of course that was the greatest thing being a godfather fan i'm a huge fan i went to teramina italy to go to the godfather house oh my god it was my kids haven't seen me geek out which stabs the guy is no not the not the one where where uh where uh apollonia dies in the car oh that yes yeah so we went to that house it was and the guy that owns it is fifth generation of the family that owns it since the 1700s or late yeah and he took us and toured us around and showed us the whole thing.

30:09And he, I mean, he had it depicted from every scene and so forth. The older guy, 80 years old, but it was the coolest thing. And here I am. And my kids laughed at me the whole time. They're like, is this what we look like when we went to Disneyland the first time? I mean, like you won't shut up. You won't take, take a picture of everything. Take a picture of me by the fountain. Take a picture of me where the car was. Amazing. It was, yeah. I feel you. I feel you. But what happens is, and I don't really have the exact definition of why that falls out, but certain things just aren't reproducible.

30:42Certain things have history that it was a story or you fought, you waited so long to get the reservation to get into the Russian tea room. Or you knew that, and so it can fall out of favor and the recipes never change. But I've seen it happen with big time restaurants that want to go from the East Coast to the West Coast to the West Coast to the East Coast, where it just doesn't translate. And they take the exact same pictures off the wall, put those same pictures in the building, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it doesn't translate. In a food, a restaurant experience, got to remember. That's what I tell all my restaurant, my general managers and chefs.

31:22We're not coming just to eat something. They're coming for an experience. They're coming for the service. They're coming for the energy. They're coming for the attitude. They're coming for the music. They're coming for the smell. All these components make up the experience of coming to a restaurant. It's not just eating something. Because if they just want to eat something, they can DoorDash it.

31:40Rob Lowe:Well, that's another quote. Let me ask you this. What has DoorDash done? That has to have changed the industry. It has to have. If I were to use a food term, it's pasteurized the restaurant business. Because it's pulling people out of the experience. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny because my wife and I, we love sushi. And, you know, I don't always want to go out, especially when I'm back from being on the road. But it's just one thing I will not order is sushi to go. Just will not order. And the thing is, is I know the restaurant so well. And I know that they're going to make it fast. I know we're going to get it here within 10 minutes, even if, you know, my rider goes and picks it up down the street.

32:26There's something about the experience. Even if you're not sitting at the sushi bar, you're sitting at the table when you're eating the sushi. I don't know if it's the conveyance of it was just made and you're just receiving it. I don't know if it's the fact that the music or the ambiance or the experience that you're in. I don't know. But sushi to me doesn't taste half as good eating it to go as it does there. So what happens is this younger generation, I don't think, is engaged in the experience of the restaurant and the feeling and the service. And then we're just about the consumption. So what I'm seeing in the industry is we see this ebb and flow.

33:00So I guess people that are spending more money on the delivery than they're spending on the actual food. Yes. Oh, for sure. You know, but we have to, if we love these things, it's kind of like, you know, you'd probably know more about it than I do, but this whole generation of what's taking place with AI, you know, the authenticity in film and the authenticity in TV and so forth. And then now AI having its play into it. You're kind of like, like, well, what are we supposed to watch? Like where, where's the real acting coming? You know, what's being lost. We don't take control of the creativity and the authenticity and the realistic, the truth of it.

33:36We'll get ourselves down the path again. We were in a space, Rob, back in the mid-80s, early 90s, where microwaves were leading the way in restaurants. People were making food and it was sous vide and things were being heated up. It was like, wow, the steak dinner is so cheap. Yeah. It was grilled two weeks ago. you know, somewhere else and all it's done has been reheated for you.

33:59Rob Lowe:Well, it's funny you say that because I wonder if the answer isn't the same. I obviously spend a lot of time in my business and talking to people about that thing. And a lot of people think that where it's headed is like, if you're shopping, you're either going to end up shopping at Hermes and Chanel or Target. And, and that the in-between is, it will be door, people will just be, they'll be door dashing 24 seven. And then when they, when they really, because the people are not idiots, we haven't forgotten, like, as you say, they haven't forgotten it, but they didn't grow up with it. And it certainly wasn't the only way to get it.

34:44Rob Lowe:And so, you know, for date night or something special or to be cool or to like meet up. They'll do those things that you and I love, but they're not gonna be what they were. It's not coming, I'm talking about my business. It's not coming back in that way. So the handcrafted movie-making experience that the Godfather 2s and all those amazing movies, they'll still be, they're not going anywhere. And you could actually say they'll even be more valuable. They'll be the real diamond, not the lab diamond. But then on the other end, just day in, day out, you're doing your door dash and you're doing your thing.

35:29Rob Lowe:I mean, that's kind of, I don't see a counter argument that holds water to that. We're seeing the parallel in all industry. You know, it's not just one thing. You know, where's the taxi gone? and now we have the self-driving cars. You know, it's happening across the board. The sad thing for me, though, is to see these industries that, you know, like, for instance, the restaurant industry. How many people does it support? You know, when we had the pandemic, I went out and raised a bunch of money for restaurant workers. You know, everybody was focusing on their industry or whatever their cause was and so forth.

36:09And mine was, I understood how many restaurant workers live paycheck to paycheck and how many small mom and pop restaurants live paycheck to paycheck. And everything that they have in their walk-in right now is all the money they have. And so I sent out these videos on a Sunday, 43 different CEOs and CFOs of big companies from Pepsi to Uber Eats to Tito Vodka to Bezos, you name it. I sent this video. I said, hey, listen. Individually, I sent them. I said, hey, Pepsi, you've been in our restaurants for years. and our industry is shutting down. We're going to have, you know, 2 million workers that aren't going to have any paychecks coming.

36:49And you've been benefiting from our industry for a long time. Please help our industry. And the next day, Pepsi sent me a million dollars and said, whatever you're doing with the money, just please make sure it gets the right people. We raised$26.8 million. The National Restaurant Association helped me and we gave out$500 grants to over 45 ,000 restaurant workers. And granted, 500 bucks wasn't going to save the world, but it did show the industry, hold on. Industry leaders, industry professionals, people that are in this business love you and appreciate you and know that you're going through this and we want to be there for you.

37:24And here's a little gift. Here's just a little token. And we've got to keep this industry alive. We've got to keep the truth in the industry because there'll be a time when it'll ebb and flow and people come back to go, what was it like to go to a pizzeria and see the guy throw the pizza in front of you, you know, and just smell it cooking in the oven. You can't ever replicate that. That feeling, that experience of smelling the pizza, watching it, the anticipation of it coming, that's part of the experience. Yes. You don't get that. Waiting for the car to show up or waiting for the robot to deliver the pizza to you, you've just lost half of the romance, you know?

38:02So where does this put us? But, you know, hopefully it's going to be guys like you and me And there's different people that we see in different generations that become, you know, historians, if we want to call it that, of the way it was done. But I have such a, you know, like we have a small little knife company we're starting called Trade. And, you know, we're working with making knives. You know, I have a blacksmith shop here at my ranch and we make knives. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this is way more work than I ever thought it was going to be. But it's these kinds of things of like getting back to the artists and people, because if we're going to lose it, where are we really going to be?

38:36Like who knows? I remember my son got his first truck, my son Ryder. I made him go out there and figure out how to get the tire out of the back, lower it down and change the tire. He goes, we have AAA. I said, when we don't have cell phones, we're in the mountains and we don't have AAA, how do you change the tire? But you and I had to do that stuff as kids and we're just losing track of this. So I'm not going to be one of those old guys who goes, when I was a kid, you know, this, this, this, this. Yeah. We either need to do something to support it or we're going to lose it. So maybe everybody should just remind.

39:07And that's what the restaurant business used to say. There was a company called S.E. Rykoff, and they said, enjoy life, eat out more often. And this was a promotion they were doing back in.

39:15Rob Lowe:No, no, I it's funny. You mentioned two things that just that phrase, eat out more often. And the national restaurant is not the NRA guns, the NRA restaurant. My grandpa was the local president of the NRA. I mean, I just remember this is like overwhelming childhood shit for me.

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40:26Rob Lowe:If therapy has been sitting in the back of your mind, Rula is a pretty simple way to take that first step. So turn off the talk track that's keeping you from progress and head to Rula.com. That's R-U-L-A.com to find a therapist the easy way. Guys, let's face it. As we get older, we can't just skip sleep and eat whatever we want and still feel great the next day. But if you're entering your men's health era, you know it can feel complicated. Sprouts Farmer's Market makes it easier. Not only do Sprouts have the high-protein foods, nutrient-dense organic produce, and innovative snacks your body craves, it's also got the newest supplements, vitamins, joint support, even creatine to help get you feeling more like you used to.

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42:34I didn't know that you and I were so close in age. You're a couple of years older than me. But because I've always, you know, you're Rob Lowe. I mean, it's just like I've seen all your success. And by the way, can I just give you a shout out? So my admin, Natalie, who's my executive that runs my life, my wife, Lori, who just confessed to me today as I was telling her that we were doing this, said, oh, I had Tiger Beat and all the posters of Rob Lowe up in my room. I said, why are you telling me this? Because you know I'm going to sell you out on this. Amazing. And then Lauren, who's my publicist over at Food Network, who's on this right now.

43:09And I said, that's interesting, Lauren. I haven't seen you on one of my interviews in the last three or four months. Interesting. Hi, Lauren. Rob Lowe interview. Lauren, Rob Lowe. Oh, but anyhow, you're such an icon and you've done so much and you've, and you just had such a positive, uh, image and recognition and huge S.E. Hinton fan. I think that was one of the only books I ever read, you know, when, when reading wasn't the funnest thing to do. And then I see you guys come out, you know, stay golden pony boy. I mean, it's one of my quotes. I still use give a goodbye to somebody, but you've done all this stuff and you're still so relevant and still so tuned in.

43:46Uh, I really, by the way, I didn't get to say it from the beginning of this. Thank Thank you for the invite to be here. Oh, thank you. Because this is, and then when I started to, you know, think more about what we were going to have, I don't know what we're going to talk about. There's just so many commonalities. Granted, we grew up in different worlds at different times with different career paths, but then kind of meeting at the, you know, meeting back at this, how many commonalities or how many, you know, common interests we have is really kind of cool.

44:12Rob Lowe:No, it's unbelievable. From the watches to the blings, to the, to like the local food stuff. I mean, so the kids, to the kids, eating hot wings, hot wings. So let me ask you, I have, um, uh, not that I'm like, uh, who's the guy that does the pizza reviews? It's not that I'm Dave Portnori or anything, but, but I do, but I do love myself a good pizza. So are you ready for my, my three top pizzas? I want to see if they compare yours. I'm dying. I'm dying to hear this. Okay. I'm going to go counterintuitive because I've just recently rerouted them to see how they're doing. and I'm going to put my favorite pizza in the world in, of all cities, San Francisco.

44:54Rob Lowe:And it is going to be Tommaso's. Do you know about Tommaso's? I know Tommaso's. Wow, that's funny. Okay, I'm going - How did you find Tommaso's? You're a world traveler or something. I mean, is there six of you? Dude, that's the kind of shit I want. I want Tommaso's. Recently, I'd forgotten the name of Tommaso's and I asked somebody in San Francisco where I should go for pizza. They're like, oh, you've got to go to so-and-so. And I went in and it was the fucking some goddamn, you know what I'm talking about? It was one of those places. Right. And I was like, God damn it. No. And so I rediscovered Tommaso's.

45:28Rob Lowe:It's great. And then the other one is, and I always forget the name, in the north end of Boston. It's a woman's name.

45:40Rob Lowe:God, I'll think of it. But they, but what they, and then, and then of course, Johnny's in New York, bleaker, I think is my favorite. Oh yeah. But you know, it's, it's the age. Where they won't cut it, where they won't cut it into slices and you can't get it to go. That's right. That's right. That's my favorite. So. But those are all, you know, what they have in common is, is all of the ovens are really, really old. Really old. And I wonder if that's part of it. I think it is the ovens. I mean. Regina's. Regina's. Regina's. Regina's. That's it. So I think there's so many, when I see a pizza go for$5.99, it just breaks my heart.

46:22Not that it's not consumption, it's not food, and it's not carbohydrates, and people aren't enjoying it, and it's cheese stuff. But a real pizza, the time and energy that it takes. I love pizza. We do a lot of pizza on Triple D. The pizza and what it takes to make it, and the fermentation of the dough, and the styles of the dough and the styles of the pizza, like Detroit pizza is really starting to get a bigger following now. You know, it used to be, you know, thin pizza and Chicago style pizza. By the way,

46:50Rob Lowe:you know, not to rain on your pride, I don't love Detroit pizza so much. Don't love it so much. And by the way, I'll tell you another thing. How about same with Chicago? I was just there. I retried it again. I like the pizza I like. I don't. I'm not anti. but give me a regular pizza. But anyway, I digress. Continue, sir. In Chicago, there's two types of pizza. There's thin pizza. Yes. You're on the south side. Yep. Vito and Nick's. Do I get it wrong? Vito and Nick's, Nick's, and Vito's? One of my favorite places. Awesome. Triple D. 15, 16, 17 years ago. But it's thin crust pizza, and they cut it in squares.

47:30Oh, the squares. That's what they did in Ohio,

47:32Rob Lowe:where I grew up at. Casano's. Casano's and the squares. I love the squares. Love them. Okay. So I'm a big fan, because you get a little bite of this. The little tiny little like weird shaped one that's in the, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, the little funky corner. Yes. Okay. Yes. So I'm not a huge deep dish fan. To me, it reminds me more of focaccia bread. Yeah. But you know what I say to people all the time is if you have an opinion about something with food, please revisit it once a year. Yes. Okay. Because so often you've tried something. Like I remember the first time I tried Cincinnati chili. Okay.

48:06I remember the first time I tried it. Oh. I wasn't that big of a fan.

48:09Rob Lowe:Skyline Chili, big deal. I see that's a perfect example of the stuff that I'm obsessed with. But then you go to Skyline Chili. Yes. Or there's a place called Blue Ash that we shot Triple D at. You go and get the right Cincinnati Chili done the right way. Yep. Huh. Spaghetti? That's right. Chili on spaghetti? Yeah. You know, I've made it for my friends here in California. And they're just like, this is the most whack thing in the world. But this is awesome. Yeah. So I was cooking some Brussels sprouts the other night for some friends. We were up at our ranch. And really charred the hell out of the Brussels sprouts.

48:37in a cast iron pan with a little bacon fat, some onions, a little bit of garlic. And they look to the point where like, should we eat this? I'm like, no, no, no, just try it. You're going to love this. The char to the bitterness of the Brussels sprouts is going to go fantastic. And she looked, our friend Jen looked at me and goes, I hated Brussels sprouts. I've always hated Brussels sprouts. My mom made them. She was from the Midwest. I hated Brussels sprouts. So what I see to people all the time, don't go get so steadfast on your opinion about something in food because A, you might not have had it the best time.

49:08B, you might not have been in the best headspace. And here's my favorite thing that parents ask me all the time. How do I get my kids to eat? How do I get them to eat diversified food? Feed them when they're hungry. 1977, Northern California, my hippie parents are having me eat sushi. When your friends are staying over for sleepover and there's raw salmon and going on a clump of rice and your friends are making funny on Monday at school, but you, we didn't have snacks in the house. We weren't a big snacky again. We were hippies. We had corn tortilla chips, but we didn't have a bunch of snacks.

49:42So by the time I made it to the dinner table at six o 'clock sharp, whatever was in front of me, most likely I was going to eat just because I was starved. And it's, if you're looking to, if you're looking to expand your culinary profile and your inventory of what you'll eat, eat hungry.

50:00Rob Lowe:and conversely if you're looking to lose weight eat when you're like have a snack before you don't ever sit down for a meal famished I served Thanksgiving one year um it was during the pandemic uh and I served it courses it was only the family we didn't have all the friends that you wouldn't have the big group and I served it in courses and what happens and this is this is a real truth like I lived in France I was an exchange student in France when I was 16 and everything we ate, even a common Tuesday night dinner, we ate courses. And it was a little bit of this. Then it was a little bit of that.

50:36And by the time we're at the second course, I'm still starving. But your stomach catches up to your brain. Right. And you get to this point where you're satiated. You're like, okay, I'm good. You'll eat half as much. You load that plate up on. You'll eat everything that's available to you. you go into that food coma at the end of it, and you've consumed twice as much as you needed to. But if you really sit there and you look at the three little muscles that you get to have, and you get to have it with the broth, and you get to enjoy it, and that's all you're getting for that round, then, and you're waiting with anticipation for the next one, it'll finally catch up, but you'll find that you eat half as much.

51:16So I did a Thanksgiving that way one time where we just ate everything in a little bit of a course, and we didn't eat one-tenth of what I had prepared.

51:25Rob Lowe:So that notion of stomach catching up with your brain or your brain chemistry, whichever it is, I've heard that a bunch. And I always thought that makes sense, but I wonder if it's true. Sounds like it is. I try to do that when I'm eating is I'm a big salad fan. I know that everybody doesn't say Guy Fieri and salad go hand in hand. I'm a huge salad fan. I love raw vegetables. I'm a carrot junkie, onion, pepperoncinis, olives, you name it, I want to eat it. Anything pickled. And I'll always eat my salad first. for the whole dinner. I'll eat myself, even if we're serving it as a big, we had a big dinner the other night and I just sat down and ate my salad before I even served myself the rest of the meal.

52:03And I look at it this way of one, I'm kind of fulfilling myself because I'm starting. And two, it kind of gives me a little bit of a break and we need as much roughage as we can get. And all those salads are eaten, you know, the French we'd eat them at the end of dinner. But yeah, I think that moderation, and that's what people ask me all the time. How do you keep the way you're at with being a chef and being on the show? I intermittent fast. I don't eat until noon every day. Same. Same. See? No, I'm serious. I get up in the morning. I drink a ton of water. I probably drink a gallon plus of water a day.

52:40I carry my Yeti around with me everywhere I go. I'm a water. The more readily available water is to you, the more you will drink it.

52:47Rob Lowe:Yep, it's true. I drink it like it's a job. I literally have to drink it like it's a job in fact I have a bottle the bottle says keep going I have a bottle that says keep going you're almost there you're at your goal if I get about halfway and I know I'm going somewhere like I'm going to get the car and go somewhere I'll just chug this one and then I'll fill it full so it'll be full to go and I really do I play that same game with myself about really keeping that water intake at our age that does make you get up in the middle of the night more than you probably want to That's right. Black coffee.

53:21I used to drink coffee with a little half and half, just a touch. But it starts your body discussing whether or not it's going to store sugar or burn sugar. So anyhow, intermittent fasting and then eating in moderation. And I'll get a sandwich. I love deli sandwich. I'll eat half of it as slowly as I can. And I'll put the other half away and just try to give myself 15 minutes to make that decision if I really need to have that other half. Wow. And people are like, really? You do that? And I'm like, if I don't do that, I'll house everything.

53:54Rob Lowe:Oh, bro, I will. I'm capable of housing an entire pie pizza. Easy. 100 percent. Last night. Pack it up. Put it away. You know where else is interesting? So ice cream. I'm obsessed with ice cream. And here's what's interesting. If I take a pint of ice cream when I'm hungry, all bets are off. But if I get one of the little smaller serving ones by itself and I'm in a different room and I have it, I'm like, I'm good. This was great. If you take it out and you know how much you have, you'll be like a little kid when you just didn't want to eat it. Because you only have so much left of it. You know, like you can only get the little kid chip bag.

54:40There's three more. There's three more Doritos in here. I'm just going to make sure that they, you know, and don't ask for one. No, it really is that. It's, and I love, what's your flavor, by the way?

54:52Rob Lowe:I've gone back and forth. And talk about, this is what you're saying, revisit things. I was like a traditionalist. I didn't want all, like I was not in with the Ben and Jerry's revolution. Okay, let's just say that. I was like, the fuck out of here. Put that shit in my fucking ice cream. That's like, was sort of my thing. And then over the years, I was like, you know what? cookie dough and ice cream is pretty sick. And so I, my thing is currently just plain old coffee, but I have expanded my ice cream palette. I mean, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a milkshake guy, really of anything. That's, that, that's my, my number one thing.

55:33Rob Lowe:That's I can. Right. So I'm a coffee guy. I'm not a real big sweets guy. Like when we talked about pie, like a blackberry pie to me is the pie. Blueberry for me. Because it's a little bit blueberry. A little bit sour but in that same idea you know there's a little there's a little there's more than just sweet. Yes. I could never get around chest pie. No. I could never get around the super sweet pie. That just was not my jam. Or a true cherry pie not canned cherries but real cherries. But I'm a coffee ice cream or a mint chip. Yeah. I like me some mint chip. I do. I'll go for some mint chip. Let me ask you this though.

56:13Rob Lowe:On mint chip. Quality versus quantity. On mint chip. I mean, it has to be green. Thank you. Has to be green. Okay. It's like make it pastrami without, you know, people make pastrami and they don't want to, you know, they don't want to put the nitrates in it. You know, they don't want to, they don't want to get the curing salt in there because they want to make it. You look at pastrami and it's gray and brown and it's not. No. It changes the flavor. I don't go, okay, if I eat it with a blindfold on, fine. Yes. But otherwise, it's, you know, you're going to have to have that little bit of indulgence to get through it.

56:48I'm with you. Yeah, this is, it's so funny because if we start talking more about food and we start engaging people in this conversation, we start to draw people in, like my nephew that's sitting here across the table from me, and travels with me all over the country, and an Ohio boy, a Columbus boy or close to it.

57:08Rob Lowe:Amazing. And he hadn't been out of Ohio maybe more than twice. And now he's been all over the world. And it's so funny because he had his birthday the other day and I said, what do you want for your birthday dinner? And he said, I want Chinese food. And he laughed at me because he goes, do you understand that two years ago for me to say, what do you want for your birthday? I want Chinese food. He goes, would never have happened. He goes, I want roast beef, mashed potatoes and some carrots. And now he wants sushi and he wants all this kind of stuff. So I think it's our responsibility, Rob, as this older generation.

57:43I don't want to say older generation. I know. I know. Okay. But I think it's our responsibility to continue this dialogue with our kids and our family and our friends. Anybody that will listen to us to go back and watch nostalgic movies, to go back and ride in an old car, to go back and watch a funny Dr. Pepper commercial, to go back and eat food, to go to these places that you didn't DoorDash that you just went to. And we have to continue to instill in people. And one of my favorite things to talk about is participate in your community and do fundraising and do charitable work. That's probably the greatest part of my career at this point.

58:26Done the shows, built the businesses, have all these things. But philanthropy, that's my real end goal. That's my fourth quarter game. And my foundation is called the Guy Fieri Foundation. And our motto is serving those who serve us. So we go around when there's a disaster. Our foundation, we have these big rescue trailers that are 48 feet long. And we go around to different disasters. So when the Palisades fires happened, which was so devastating, we went down and served 25 ,000 meals, but we only fed them to the first responders. So anybody that was down there working, anybody that was down there, National Guard or firefighters or EMTs.

59:06Rob Lowe:I saw your trailer. It was amazing. It was amazing. And so that's what we do. And then when we don't have disasters, we just go around. We'll be in Naples, Florida next week. And all we'll do is we'll call up the local sheriff and just say, hey, listen, call up all your EMTs, all your fire departments, everybody that's in your municipality. reality we're going to come in with our trailer and we're going to put on a luncheon for you for 500 to a thousand people how many people you want to invite we're going to cook it for free and just do something to say thank you just thank you for taking care of our community thank you for keeping this country free and we also do it at military bases and so forth so i think that all these things that we were taught and i don't think they were taught as explicitly as i'm saying them to you right now, we have a responsibility to make sure we continue to educate.

59:55They're so educated with the computers and all the resources they can use and so forth, but we need to get them really boots on the ground and keep them in front of the great movies, in front of the great shows, in front of the great food, in front of the great charitable work. Otherwise, we're going to pasteurize this entire world, this entire society, and become so disconnected that we don't make an actual phone call anymore. You know, my big thing in my company is handwritten notes. You know, write somebody a note. You're only saying three lines, the same thing you were going to text them. But when a piece of mail shows up with your name on it, you got to get a little.

1:00:30Rob Lowe:You get a tingle today, right? Right. Somebody writes you. I just know whenever I get a hand written note, that person's a fucking baller. Do you know what I mean? Right. You're just like, See, Ian? See, I tell Ian that right there. I tell him, I tell my kids all the time. You know, one of my agents, Jason Hodes, he's with WME. Greatest, you know, agents are their lifeline. And Ryder, who's my youngest son who goes to San Diego State, he's the one I did versus with, really wanted, and he works for the San Diego State basketball team. San Diego was hosting the NCAA. And Ryder really wanted to go.

1:01:03He's a basketball junkie. And so Jason hooked him up. And somebody got through there. And I said, Ryder, and he goes, I already wrote the card. Yes.

1:01:17Rob Lowe:That's some good fathering, good parenting right there. That's what it takes, buddy. Well, that's what it takes. And you've been a great example of that. You know, that's why I said that Hot Ones, I mean, we're so happy that we got a chance to do it. But honestly, Rob, you were the, they baited me with you. They're like, that's what Rob did. And I'm like, I love Rob. That guy's awesome. I'm going to have to go back and watch that. I remember, my memory is like, I think I, oh, I can tell you the really gnarly part of it. It was in the middle of, as you know, when you have a new show coming out, you might do a day of publicity, an entire day.

1:01:50Rob Lowe:All right, Hot Ones started at 8 a.m. You do not want to eat that at 8 in the morning. Hey, I think mine was at 10. Oh my God. And I had, listen, Rob, I had a day of publicity. I was up in New York to do publicity. So Ryder flew from San Diego overnight because he's in school. I flew up from Florida. We met. We did hot ones. And I'm a hot junkie. I love hot food. Same, but not at 8 a.m. before I have my coffee. I got after it. And I don't want to tell you about the outcome because it's going to air in June. but Ryder, my 20 year old, he's a little bit more mild mannered than Hunter. Who's a little bit crazier, but here's Ryder bringing it.

1:02:37I mean, this kid went after me. It was, it was out of control, but that's what I watched you guys. And didn't your son end up winning?

1:02:46Rob Lowe:He did. He did. I don't like to admit it, but we never do. I don't like him. I don't like passing the torch. I don't, man. You've done a great, you've done a great job. I met your son, like I said, I met him at Hunter's birthday. We were down in LA. Or no, excuse me. Was it Ryder's birthday? I think it was Ryder's birthday. Were you guys at On the Rocks? Were you at On the Rocks? Is that possible? No, we were at. We were at a buddy of mine has a big house in Beverly Hills. And he said, hey, I'd love to host that party. And we did it. And so anyhow, someone introduced me to your son. Yeah. And we're sitting there talking.

1:03:20And he's grounded. Just grounded and cool. And it was a pretty crazy evening. and just grounded and cool. And I told him, you know, probably 10 times, dad is such a legend. I mean, that guy is, and I can just sit there, I'm talking to him like, man, that guy can be as much of a legend as he is and everything, but that kid is grounded and that kid's normal. And that kid's not running around, running his mountain, you know, because you know that there's some kids in that era that could be, you know, taking it a little too far, but it was just really cool. So then to see it all come to, you know, then the full circle and then to get a chance to find the Meech is awesome.

1:03:51But I want you to keep this in mind because everybody needs a buddy in the business. Everybody needs that. Hey, how do I, God, I'm in Chicago. Where do I go? I'm not going to Regina's. Where do I go for great dumplings? You hold me on speed dial, buddy. And I'm also great for what do you do with those darn holiday leftovers? So I've got an overcooked prime rib guy. I don't want to throw it away because I'm not good at throwing stuff away. What should I do with that? Or what chili crisp is my go-to these days?

1:04:20Rob Lowe:Okay, I'm going to take you up on that because I... It's not a shallow offer, my friend. No, it's not. It's a... Are you kidding me? It's a great offer because I trust you implicitly for knowing what I'm looking for. Do you know what I mean? Well, we are pretty close and there's so many common... Like I said, there's so many commonalities and I... Bullshit, bullshit. You know, I don't get into it because somebody told me it was great. You know, I have to really... I do trust the people that tell me, but it's that reality of... We're too far down. We're too long in the tooth now to be playing games.

1:04:51I'm not going to send you somewhere because it's the place. No. I'll send you to that other place. You know, when you get to the place, go around the corner.

1:04:58Rob Lowe:You know, it looks like it sucks, but it doesn't be worth it. Don't eat it. Yeah. I want the place behind the cool place. I had a lady one time. I was doing a demo. It was like 3 ,000 people. I was in, I don't know where I was, D.C. I'm doing this demo. I'm cooking and so forth. And cooking demos can get a little boring. So I always leave an open mic for people to ask questions because I'm ADD. so I can do 10 things at once, you know, and I get cooking and the lady says, hey, you know, so I went to this location that you went to in Long Beach and it was horrible. I said, oh shit. I go, I'm sorry.

1:05:33She goes, yeah, we went there because you said, and we went there and we had the cheeseburger. It was terrible. And the way that that it was terrible. And I go, oh God, I'm so sweating in front of everybody that this is going wrong. I said, ma 'am, I apologize. I said, I remember the location, but I don't remember trying any of those things. I tried the blueberry pancakes. He goes, oh, we had those. Those were fantastic. Those were delicious. But everything else, like, and I go, hang on a second. I'm not saying that everything on the menu is fantastic. All I'm saying is I had this dish and this dish was really good.

1:06:11And granted, it's restaurant business. People can have a bad day. You know, maybe they screwed up. Maybe the cook didn't show up and the busboy was cooking. I don't know. But don't crucify me. No.

1:06:22Rob Lowe:So, you know. Blueberry pancakes, another great one. Another great one. So you have a tournament of champions. Is that back this year? It is, right? Oh, it'll never go away. It'll never go away. Listen, it was built, just as you have built shows and produced and directed shows, you do a lot of it because you see talent that needs to be highlighted and stories that need to be told. And so much of that's what's going on in my life. I've been in this game now, in the food television game for 20 years. And as a chef and a restaurant owner, I see so much incredible talent out there. And I'm like, man, I want to give these brothers and sisters of mine, I want to give them this platform to be recognized.

1:07:09I'm a huge MMA fan, huge MMA fan. And, you know, I like to go around and joke and say that I want to be the Dana White of food competition. I get that.

1:07:16Rob Lowe:I think that's a great... And I love Dana. He's a great guy. I can see you guys. He's built so many careers. Yeah, exactly. You know, he's done so many... He's helped so many people find stardom and find financial security and things that they never would have had. So he creates this platform. So that's what I want to do. Iron Chef had kind of gone away and there's a lot of great competition shows that are out there on all different types of networks. No shame. I'm just happy to see people getting a chance to be recognized. But I said, I want to make the best. I want to make the best of the best.

1:07:46And I love bracket competition. I love NCAA. That's, I mean, you see all the upsets and things that are going on that have been taking place. I have to call Ryder to get the update. Yeah. But that's what I wanted to create. One and done. Move on. Big, big money. Like, huge money. So, Tournament of Champions was started. Live audience. What you see is what you get. No bullshit. No changing the rules. No changing the clock. and this thing called the randomizer that creates the criteria, no two competitions will ever be the same. There's nobody that could be sitting at home or in their kitchen saying, okay, if this, this, and this happened, this is what I would do.

1:08:21It's impossible because you never know what's going to be on the randomizer. Dude, I'm familiar with the randomizer.

1:08:27Rob Lowe:I got my own randomizer on the floor. Activate the randomizer. You got to have a randomizer in your life. Everybody needs, we need pocket randomizers. What should I be having tonight? Yeah. I remember when my production team that we were getting ready to do the show about two weeks prior, and they said, hey, great news. We have the randomizer made, and we made it like a digital slot machine in Las Vegas. And I said, absolutely not. One, I don't trust a digital slot machine in Vegas because it could just be whatever algorithm they put in there. I want the clickety-clickety-click wheel. I want the Price is Right wheel, just five of them.

1:09:04And they're like, what? And I'm like, no, that's what I want. And they had to go and spend a fortune to get somebody to make it within two weeks because we were getting ready to air. But that is still the randomizer that we use. And the way it got called the randomizer is about five minutes before we were going to film. And they said, by the way, what are you calling the big goddamn machine? And I'm like, I don't know, man. It's so random. All the stuff that's on there, it's a randomizer. And they're like, okay, let's roll those cameras going with the randomizer. And I'm like, that's what we got stuck with.

1:09:35But it fits now. But no, that Tournament of Champions is really life-changing. And we get a chance to see some of the, I think, the greatest chefs in the world. You've got to have a real, you've got to really have a backbone about you. You've got to really have truth and belief in yourself to go and do this because it is, it's scary. People get PTSD from this. It's gnarly, gnarly, gnarly. Oh, the outtakes of competition shows and cooking shows in particular are really gnarly, what goes on behind the scenes. You want to come behind the scenes. Tears, holes in the wall, kicked over things, people getting pissed, people getting happy, people finding their higher power, people calling their wife, their husband.

1:10:23I mean, it's a gamut of emotions that goes on. And, you know, it's, but for me, it's really a chance to celebrate the people that I love and I respect and I admire and to be the ringleader of this is an amazing opportunity. It's really what, it's what I love so much about what I do. And I would have probably been done a long time ago. You know, I'm very satisfied and fulfilled and have a great family, great wife, great kids. And my philanthropy, as I said, is my big, you know, my big focus. But knowing what these shows like, we have a new one called Flavortown Food Fight, which is another one of bringing chefs you may not know of and putting them in the environment that they're best, which is, you know, cooking in restaurants.

1:11:06But doing these things and then Triple D, you know, just going around and putting a spotlight on the places that already exist and saying, hey, by the way, next time you're in Schenectady, check this joint out. I love that.

1:11:17Rob Lowe:I mean, that's the mothership, but it's still the best. It's the greatest. It's the best. Yeah, no, it's really cool. And congrats on this podcast. I don't know when you want me back next, but I'll be available every week. Dude, we got to make it happen. We got to do a food tour or something. We should do something Ohio-centric. Hey, I have a bunch of cousins that are always hounding me. I get more friends just randomly. Hey, by the way, the next time you're in Duluth, check this place. I mean, I got a laundry list of them and I, and I send it to my production team. Like, Hey, we ever, if we go to Duluth, put this on the menu or you'll put this on the, on the piece, but I'll make you this deal, Rob.

1:11:58You tell me where you want to go. We, I, here's the way we shoot the show. We're going to be shooting in. Yeah. You want to go to Tampa next week? Next week? We're shooting. No. Tampa's awesome this time of year.

1:12:13Rob Lowe:I know it is. And I love Tampa. I love Florida. I need an excuse to go to Tampa next week. Going to Tampa next week. So we'll shoot six locations within like 30 or 40 miles of Tampa. Right. And then those, those locations get broken up into different packages of like, we don't just do a whole show about Tampa. Right. It might be like a mom and pop barbecue joints, or it might be, you know, places you'd never expect or whatever we, we develop show, but you, you come up with an idea of an area you want to shoot and you and I'll bounce out, uh, find a, a time that works and we can hit, I'll have my team do the research.

1:12:48We usually find like 20 locations and then narrow it down to six.

1:12:51Rob Lowe:All right, and I'll throw it out to the audience. Give us, call the low down line. Where do you want to see, Ryan? Where do you want to see the guy and low? See us out there doing our thing. That'd be great. The low down line, I'm telling you, and I really mean that. I don't make shallow offers. We could have a lot of fun with it. And I even, you know how to drive a stick. I mean, you're that era. Of course. Yeah, I know. You know how many people go now to drive a stick? Don't get me started. It's pathetic. It's mind-blowing. God, how great was it that day that you figured out as a 15-year-old, 14-year-old, whatever it was, that you conquered the clutch?

1:13:30Hey, it was driving three on the tree that killed me. Three on the tree. Come on, man. The tree. Yes. I have an old Cadillac limo. I collect cars, and I have this old Cadillac limo. it's 41 cadillac with three on the tree and i jumped right in it and i just remember everybody going you know how to drive three on the tree because even people that could drive a clutch in a you know four speed yeah but would just or a three speed you know this would say you could drive three on the tree oh three on the tree was the that was the game changer i'll tell you a funny one about there there was uh in in florida where i live there was some people that were breaking the fob of somebody's, you know, they don't have a Verde box.

1:14:16And anyhow, and so the cop was telling me, he goes, yeah, we figured the guy ripping off the car was older. And I said, well, what do you mean? He goes, well, he was able to copy the fob and he was able to get in the Tesla, but he didn't know how to start it or drive it. He goes, so that's how we've determined he was an older thief.

1:14:35Rob Lowe:I thought that was hysterical. That's really good. And that is good detective work, is what that is. Right? Well, listen, thank you for coming on this. This was so, I was really looking forward to it. And I'm going to take you up on your offer. I need your intel as I travel the world. I'm always around and I'm going to, I'll get your number from the team and I'll hit you up because I would love to know where to go to get the, give me the triple D treatment, basically. That's what I'm looking at for. Well, I can't say you're going to have to participate in your intermittent fasting and you're definitely going to have to work in moderation.

1:15:08You know, the only thing that is my kryptonite is dumplings. I am a dumpling junkie.

1:15:14Rob Lowe:I like a good dumpling. Well, we'll have to talk about dim sum. We'll have to get into that. We don't go. It's a whole another hour and a half. I know it is. It's the best. But listen, yeah, no, I meant it. And again, Rob, thank you for the invite. Thanks for being such a positive light in our world. You always have a great attitude. You always had a great smile. You look like a million bucks. My wife and I are definitely going to have a discussion about the posters on the wall. That'll come up later. Give her my big, big hug for me. That's great. There was no Tiger Beat restaurant magazines with my picture on anybody's wall.

1:15:49Maybe a Flavortown and me in a flame shirt. I know. Made some college dormitories. That's about it. But no, you're awesome, man. I'm down anytime. No shallow offers have been made. I'm 100 % and let's go do it. Thanks, brother. I'll talk to you in a bit. You're awesome. Say hi to the kid for me. Thank you.

1:16:13Rob Lowe:Here's the problem when you have somebody like Guy on the show, who's, now all I want to do is buy a sick watch. I want to buy some bling and I want to eat myself into character actor status. That's like, all I can think about is food right now. So I am going to go eat. And thank you to Guy for being on it and you for listening. And we'll see you next week right here on Literally.

1:17:08City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally.

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