The Unexpected Food Network Star Who Had A Vegetarian Childhood (And Hated It)

Intuitively speaking, you probably don't expect "vegetarian" and "Guy Fieri" appearing in the same sentence. Whether preparing brie-smothered pork chops, guzzling Coney dogs, or serving up his carne asada-loaded trash can nachos, the popular image of the host of Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" is that of an unapologetic and gleeful carnivore. Fieri's career may have gone quite differently had he not spent much of his youth as an unhappy vegetarian.

Appearing on the podcast "Now What? With Brook Shields" in 2023, Fieri said that while his upbringing was not strictly vegetarian, his family's diet involved a lot of macrobiotics, and joked that "no one would trade lunch with me at school." Fieri grew to envy the meals his friends would enjoy, saying: "I would go to people's houses and I'm like, 'What is meatloaf? You're telling me there is a whole thing of meat coming out, and we're going to eat this? With ketchup?'"

Fieri attributes his becoming a cook to one pivotal incident. As a child, he once entered the family kitchen to find his mother preparing eggplant parmesan and asked why they couldn't have chicken parmesan like "normal families." His mother replied that if he didn't like the way she cooked, he should do it himself. That day, Fieri went out and bought several ribeye steaks, which he cooked with butter and soy sauce. When his father returned home, he was surprised to find his son had prepared dinner. Yet after taking a bite of the steak, Fieri remembered, his father looked him in the eye and said: "Guy, that might be the best steak I've ever had in my life."

Despite the prominence of meat-centric delicacies on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," Fieri has characterized himself as a "veggie junkie" who has even expressed interest in writing a vegetarian cookbook, with the everyday diet of his household being roughly 85% vegetables. Sadly, a major reason why Fieri underwent such a profound reversal of his childhood aversion to vegetarian food is rooted in tragic loss.

Fieri's younger sister Morgan had been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma as a child, but had overcome the cancer, only for it turn return in adulthood. Whilst undergoing treatment, the vegetarian Morgan requested that her brother make her some "real meals." In the final year of his sister's life, Fieri dedicated himself to learning as much as he could about the possibilities of vegetarian cooking so that he could do all he could for Morgan before she passed away in 2011. Reflecting on this experience in his interview with Brooke Shields, Fieri declared: "It changed my life as a chef." Fieri has since regularly invited families affected by cancer to the recording of his shows through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which would later present Fieri with the Chris Greicius Award for his philanthropy.