Guy Fieri

THE FOOD NETWORK'S STORYTELLING BAD BOY WHIPS UP SOME SPECIALS: PANFRIED MEAT CRUST, PICKUP-LINE FLAMBE AND

THINLY SLICED THUMB AU JUS A

Ql

PLAYBOY: You have spiky bleached hair. tats, bling, money, millions of fans and serious attitude. When did chefs become the new rock stars?

FIERI: All I know is we all gotta eat, and not everybody knows how to cook. So if you're the guy who can rock the kitchen, people go crazy for you. People such as Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Tom Colicchio, the Iron Chefs— ^•^ they've turned food making into a kind of arena spectator sport with their TV shows and competi­tions, and their restaurants, cookbooks and prod­ucts have made them rich. Me? I'm just a dude who always loved to cook. At a certain point I got to the reality I wasn't going to be Evel Knievel or a pro football player, which were my childhood dreams. So I thought, Hey, why not be just as frickin1 cool with a frying pan in my hand?

Q2

PLAYBOY: Gone are the days of "A woman's place is in the kitchen." But what exactly is a guy's place in the kitchen right now? FIERI: Men have al-, ways been cooks. Since the first saber-toothed-tiger burger, guys have been grilling and thrilling. My dad was always my role model. He could make anything in the kitchen, even

when we were basically living out of a van in California. I remember once he traded a pair of cowboy boots for salmon. He liked to cook healthy, veg­etarian mostly, with a little fish and stuff like bulgur. Yuck. One night we had eggplant parmigiana, and I said, "Why can't we have chick­en parmigiana like everybody else?" That was the fatal day.

Q3

PLAYBOY: Did he hit you

with a piece of tofu? FIERI: Actually, it was my mom who got mad. She said, "If you don't like the food, you cook." So being the confident 10-year-old I was, I rode my bike to the grocery store and told John the butcher to give me a bunch of red meat. He slapped down two big fat rib eyes, and somehow I managed to get dinner on the table that night. I remember watching my dad. He took one bite, put down his fork and glared at me. It's as clear today as it was (continued on page 183)

Guy Fieri

(continued from page 123) 30 years ago. "You know what, Guy?" he said. "This might be the best steak I've ever had." Total relief! And on top of that, my sister had to do the dishes. I was hooked, man.

Q4

playboy: You never went to cooking school?

FIERI: I left home when I was 16 to go to Europe as an exchange student. Before that, I cooked for my parents a lot. Their friends would come over, and I'd put on a whole Asian dinner—chopped the stuff, made my version of wonton soup and all those things. If I didn't know a recipe, I'd make it up, trial and error. France really opened my eyes to great cooking. Then I came back, majored in hospital­ity management and lived with a bunch of college students, who were my guinea pigs. I had a skill nobody else had. You get away with a lot in college if you can feed people.

as

playboy: It sounds as though that came in handy with women.

FIERI: I saw some possibilities, definitely. When I was 18 or 19 1 got a job as flambe captain at a hotel, cooking table-side with the brown polyester outfit, the dickey, the whole getup. I realized success is all about your style. I'd meet these families having dinner and would always find the older daughter who looked bored. "Hey, you want to see an extra-big flame on your scampi?"

ae

IM.AYBOY: Was it a winning pickup line? FIERI: Sometimes, but I effed up on that job. They taught us this technique of open­ing and closing the jar of Grey Poupon mustard with one hand for the steak Diane presentation, [rolls eyes] One time my cart got stuck, so I yanked it, and ch-ch-ch, the Grey Poupon fell, hit the side of the cart, the lid clicked off and a globule of mus­tard flew through the air and shhhpwakked this grandma on the forehead. Her bee­hive hairdo flopped down, and there was mustard everywhere. It was the couple's 50th anniversary, and I was thinking, I'm a dead man. But her old man thought it was the funniest damn thing he'd ever seen. Dude tipped me 40 bucks!

Q7

playboy: Do you separate fancy food from the food in your book and on your Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives} FIERI: I don't separate fancy food from the rest. Good food is good food, though there's definitely way too much fussing and phoniness out there in the food world, with people talking about ingredients you need an advanced degree to pronounce. That's not to say I don't like five-star din­ing. But costwise, I don't know. Even with flavor. If you prepare it right, a burger can taste better.

G8

playboy: How can a burger taste better than filet mignon?

FIERI: The core fundamental is great meat. Go to a good butcher and ask them to grind a great piece of chuck right there. With chuck, you don't need to add a lot of ingre­dients at home. It's quintessential^/ great as it is. Cook it medium rare. Some people like a charbroiled or wood-fired taste, but I use a flat metal grill top or a big flat pan. That way you get a little bit of fat, and with fat comes the crust. Crust is key. We're a culture of crust, and that crunchy outside is what makes a crowd go crazy for a burger.

Q9

playboy: Speaking of crowds, what is the secret to a memorable Super Bowl party? FIERI: It's the greatest sporting event in the world, so do it up a little. It doesn't have to be expensive. At my house I've got my buddy Kleetus at the stove, cut­ting fresh tortillas into wedges and frying them into tortilla chips. It's so much bet­ter than out of the bag. Then my buddy Opossum makes fresh salsa. Chicken wings are great, but bake them, then panfry them in a nonstick pan to get a little more crust on top. Oh, and ice. Nothing's worse than a party where you have to dig around the beer cans for ice. It makes my hair stand on end. [laughs]

Q10

playboy: What's the deal with your hair anyway?

FIERI: About 10 years ago I was in Vegas with a bunch of buddies. It was my buddy Reno's birthday, and we were shaving his head. My buddies and I are a little bit on the wild side. But it gave me the idea to try some­thing new. Next thing I know, I'm telling my hairdresser, "Do whatever you want." She sits me down and puts a plastic bag on my head. When she takes it off, my hair is Colonel Sanders white! And I go, "Oh no! Man!" I used to dye it blackish purple in the winter, but now it just stays white.

an

playboy: Who's hotter in person, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentiis or Padma Lakshmi?

FIERI: Get out of here! If my wife finds out I answered a question like that, you're look­ing at the next dead Food Network star. Those ladies are all amazing and sexy, and I have my opinion, but I'm not sitting here playing candyass.

Q12

playboy: Do you believe certain foods are aphrodisiacs?

FIERI: I'm not a great believer in "12 oys­ters and you get a woman in bed." But I will say women who know how to cook are hot. Especially when you're together in the kitchen, it's sexy. You're activating each other's senses—the smells, the flavors, the textures. Baby!

Q13

PLAYBOY: Let's say you're not a great cook. You have a woman coming over. You want

to impress her. What's the foolproof plan? FIERI: Practice. Don't jump into shrimp cre-ole or whatever if you've never made it be­fore. Do a test run a couple of days ahead. And stick to dishes that aren't too danger­ous. Pork's my favorite. Google a recipe for pork chops piccata style—grilled or pan sauteed with lemon, capers, garlic, white wine, parsley. She'll be eating out of your hand, as long as you don't overcook it.

Q14

playboy: Bagels or doughnuts? McDon­ald's coffee or Starbucks? Ben and Jerry's or Pinkberry?

FIERI: Let's see. Bagels by a mile because, despite my boyish waistline, I'm not a sweets guy. Starbucks, mainly because in comparison to Mickey D's it's still the little guy, and the coffee's usually good. Ben and Jerry over Pinkberry. Any dudes

who can get their names on a couple mil­lion cones and make people happy are my kind of guys.

Q15

playboy: What's one food you hate? FIERI: Squash. I can't be in the same room with it. Ever)' time a piece of squash comes near my mouth, I want to heave.

Q16

playboy: You own several restaurants. What's something you secretly wish you could tell your customers? FIERI: Stop stealing stuff. People steal things from restaurants, anything with a logo on it. One guy came into my place Tex Wasabi's and stole this huge leopard-print welcome mat—rolled it up, put it under his arm and strolled out the door. Also, don't eat the whole plate of food and

then tell me you didn't like it. We know that's bullshit.

Q17

playboy: Who's the best chef alive? FIERI: Oh man, you're killing me! But if 1 have to go with somebody, it's Masaharu Morimoto, the Japanese Iron Chef who now works out of New York. In the Asian realm especially, nobody does it better. My greatest honor would be to work in Morimoto's kitchen, even for a day. That dude will forget more about cooking than I'll ever learn.

Q18

playboy: Name one or two dives worth driving across America for. kieri: How about three? Ted Peter's Fa­mous Smoked Fish in St. Petersburg, Flori­da. These guys make unbelievable smoked mullet. That probably sounds disgusting, and I'm no fan of mayonnaise and fish, brother, but that fish spread—pow! It'd knock your socks off. Number two. Mo Gridder's BBQ in Hunts Point, the Bronx. You may not be able to find it because it's in a trailer outside an auto parts store. Trust me. though. Finally, Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe in Victorville, California. One family flipping burgers for 60 years on Route 66— need I say more?

Q19

PLAYBOY: What's the worst cooking mishap you've had in front of a huge audience? FIERI: We were doing a show in upstate New York with 2,000 people in the audience. I came out onstage, the crowd was clapping, cameras overhead, cameras to the side— the whole thing. I wasn't into this damn demo for more than 30 seconds and I cut this chunk off my finger. 1 thought it was my whole thumb. The butt of the knife had driven through. And it was so bloody. Ever seen blood when it's blue? That's what the hell I'm talking about. I was like, "Oh shit!" Do I tell all these people who've paid good money that I don't even know how to use a knife? I made the blink decision to keep go­ing. I tied the towel around the thumb like a tourniquet and just barreled through. That finger was sore for the next four years.

Q20

playboy: What would you want your last meal to be?

FIERI: I'd love to say [exaggerated highbrow voice], "Oh, I would enjoy to have a dish I once had in France," but I gotta go with spaghetti and tomato sauce. It was my favorite dish as a kid, and it's still my baby. Don't get me wrong; it has to be done in the proper Italian way, not just "Here's ajar of tomato sauce"—blop. I'm talking phenom­enally fresh tomatoes, a little basil, a little oregano, a little sea salt. My favorite spa­ghetti is bucatini, thick with the hole run­ning through the center, al dente, almost Roman style, like a broom brushing the plate. An oven-warmed plate topped with some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Twisted on the fork. No spoon. That's heaven.