All The Best Details From The Guy Fieri New York Times Profile

The hair, the shirts, the sunglasses. You think you know Guy Fieri, and then The New York Times publishes a profile of him, and then only you realize...that you basically got the gist, but there is, still, even more to learn.

It's a fun read, but for those of you who, like me, are prone to opening tabs of articles to read later and then not reading them before Chrome inevitably crashes, here are some of the best tidbits from the piece.

• Fieri's parents were hippies, who, growing up in northern California, would cook "enough bulgur and steamed fish to kill a kid," according to him. He started inventing his own concoctions as a result. He also sold soft pretzels from a cart as a child.
• In his 2005 audition reel for the Food Network's reality show The Next Food Network Star, he dazzled with something called a "jackass roll" (rice, pork butt, fries, and avocado).

• He's finally gotten the respect of the establishment. Bay Area chef Traci Des Jardin said, "I don't think he had the respect of people like me or people in the food industry. He has earned that respect."
• He and Anthony Bourdain didn't get along. At the roast of Anthony Bourdain, Fieri actually ended up getting roasted pretty heavily. According to South Beach Wine & Food Festival founder Lee Brian Schrager, it was "the single most uncomfortable night of my life."
• He helped raise over $20 million for out-of-work restaurant workers during the pandemic, but is also anti-union and speaking out against welfare. So, you know, normal rich people stuff.

• He calls his body "semi-chunky" but it seems like more of a branding thing than anything else; according to writer Matt Flegenheimer he's pretty lean in person, and he loves vegan food.
• He loves hanging out (and going fishing) with Vanilla Ice, who he calls Ninja, which Vanilla Ice says is a reference to his 1991 song "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Vanilla Ice has also been renovating Guy Fieri's new house in Palm Beach County, Florida, which is not too far from his own.
• Fieri is always "on." Many of his friends nicely (allegedly) compared him to a natural disaster, with one going as far as to call him "Hurricane Guy." But Fieri thinks he's mellowed out over the years. Or, at least as mellow as you can be in Flavortown.

Fingers crossed for a part two that takes us on a wardrobe tour.