In the Kitchen With Guy
Next Up: Triple D Nation, the spinoff of Diners, Drive-Ins and
Dives on Food Network, in which he revisits some of the most memorable joints from the original show. (A new episode premieres Aug. 24 at 9 p.m. ET.) He also recently opened his newest restaurant, Guy Fieri’s Jebel Ali Kitchen & Bar in Dubai.
His pet project: Hunt & Ryde Winery in Healdsburg, Calif., named for his sons, Hunter, 22, and Ryder, 12. “I wanted to have something to give my kids,” says Fieri. Launched in 2013, the boutique winery and vineyard produces well-rated organic pinot noir, zinfandel and Bordeaux blend wines available online. “We make wine that I like to drink!” he says.
It’s not all indulgence: “I eat sensibly throughout the week. I eat a lot of whole grains, and I’m a vegetable junkie,” says Fieri. “I drink a lot of fruit and vegetable juice every day.”
Feeding his community: Fieri’s “ranchelita” (as he calls it) boasts a large organic garden. Much of the harvest is donated to local missions and other charities.
Fieri also has a new interest in providing disaster relief. When wildfires raged through Sonoma County last fall, Fieri and his family had to evacuate. Their home was spared, but he assembled a team, hooked up his large-scale trailer with a smoker and started cooking at a nearby fairgrounds. “My son Ryder and I were there in the serving line feeding people,” he recalls. “We saw the head coach for Ryder’s sports, we saw people that worked at the bank, we saw people that were teachers, we saw all different types of folks. That’ll get you real clear.” Working with volunteers from Operation BBQ Relief, “in five days we fed something like 36,000 people.”
That experience inspired Fieri to commission a 48-foot-long trailer built as a complete kitchen on wheels that can be deployed anywhere in the continental U.S. “When there’s a disaster, I’ll have the ability to pull this trailer to any part of the country. It’s fully self-sufficient,” says Fieri. “I can call any one of my chef buddies and say, ‘You’re down in Houston, you’re down in Florida—can you get on this trailer?’ Even if we’re making pulled pork and rice and beans, it’s feeding somebody when there’s nothing to eat.”