Happy Birthday, Guy Fieri!


Celebrity chef Guy Fieri (originally named Guy Ramsey Ferry) is more than a flavor guru who wears cool sunglasses and has spiky hair with frosted tips. Here are eight facts about the celebrity chef that you may not know, in honor of his birthday.

1. He started working at age 10.

When Fieri was just 10-years-old, he built a bicycle-powered pretzel cart that he called “The Awesome Pretzel.” Fieri took the money he collected from the cart, along with a little change made from dishwashing, and used it to study abroad in Chantilly, France.

2. He makes wine.

Hunt & Ryde Winery – named after his sons, Hunter and Ryder – features a Zinfandel, a Bordeaux blend, and a “bomb-ass” Pinot made from the grapes grown at Fieri’s personal vineyard.

3. He was trampled by a horse at age 10.

At age 10, Fieri was thrown off of a horse and then subsequently trampled. He suffered from damage to his liver and a bruised heart. But, because his parents were about to jet off to Europe, an attorney had to sign a court order allowing for an emergency surgery.

4. He has a pet tortoise.

Fieri owns a sulcata tortoise named Pops who lives in his backyard in Santa Rosa, California.

5. He’s not a fan of Anthony Bourdain.

Anthony Bourdain has made his opinions about Fieri clear – “The minute that you become a father, certain truths become immediately obvious to you. The first second you see your daughter’s head corkscrew out of the womb and open her eyes, they are pretty much saying ‘Lose the Ramones shirt’ … I’ve made some adjustments in my life [since becoming a father]. So I sort of feel in a heartfelt way for Guy. I wonder about him. He’s 52 years old and still rolling around in the flame outfit.”

In 2011, Bourdain poked fun at Guy after his yellow Lamborghini was stolen, writing “Hey, this Lamborghini I ‘borrowed’ is a nice ride. But, it smells like Ed Hardy in here … and there are naked pictures of Howie Mandel in the glove. Ewww!”

6. Melissa McCarthy’s Bridesmaids character is based on him.

“When I first read it, the first person I thought of was Guy Fieri,” Melissa McCarthy told Conan O’Brien of her role in Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids. “I kept trying to wear my glasses on the back of my head. I tried for a long time to get them to let me wear short, white, spiky hair. They’re like, ‘You can’t actually be Guy Fieri!'”

7. He’s pretty peeved with The New York Times for their zero-star review.

In 2012, the New York Times gave Fieri’s Manhattan restaurant, Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar, a zero-star review.

“He could’ve made such a great comment,” Fieri said in response. “But he dropped down to third grade and said every mean, vile thing that he could say and discredited himself. Do I have faults in the restaurant? I have faults in the restaurant today! Everybody does. His assignment was to give me no stars. He had it already planned.”

In response to Fieri’s comment, Wells asserted that, “Nobody’s ever assigned me to give a restaurant a good review, a bad review, or any other kind of review. The Times doesn’t work that way, and I don’t work that way. The place had the same shot at earning a star or two that I’d give any other restaurant. The review tells you why it didn’t end up with one.”

8. He’s extremely picky when it comes to meat.

Guy Fieri’s eating philosophy is simple.

“You can live super healthy and get hit by a truck and others eat the pork rinds, drink, and live to 100. So I eat, but I do not appreciate the parts of the animal that had a job. Parts that are licked, make sound, push, filter, walk, and so on are not for me.”

[Featured Image by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment]

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