Tuesday, June 4, 2013

In Defense of Guy

Writing does not come easy for me nor does finding what to write about.  Keeping the hungrily waiting hoards at bay whilst looking for a new story to entertain, provoke thought, question the status quo can be challenging.  It is easy to mock, ridicule, make fun and become what is known today as a "cyber bully" by only poking fun at or skewering others.

Today I will try to make amends to that. Like writing, the culinary world is a demanding beast. It is like watching the titan Cronus devouring his son.  Hard work, talent, skill, and determination  are demanded through endless hours of sometimes anonymous thankless tasks.  Public awareness of food along with celebrity chefs have flooded television and the internet.  Cooking schools and culinary programs are flourishing with talented hopefuls grasping for the brass ring of stardom.  One of these celebrity chefs and punching bag for his peers has been chef Guy Fieri.  This is not however one of those posts to knock him down. 

I have never met him on a one to one basis but have spotted him from time to time in our shared hometown of Santa Rosa, CA.  I was able to try his restaurants while I lived in Sonoma County and well... let's say I was underwhelmed.  Let me put it this way; for my money at a celebrity chefs' restaurant, I'd go with John Besh or Emeril Lagasse.  This posting is about defending the Guy.

According to Wikipedia "Although Fieri has no formal training as a chef, he worked at restaurants during high school and then managed and owned restaurants. Fieri attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Management in 1990."  For those who do not know, before CCA (California Culinary Academy) http://www.chefs.edu/San-Francisco, CIA (Culinary Institute of America)  http://www.ciachef.edu/, Johnson and Wales http://www.jwu.edu/culinary/, crossed anyone's mind in the 1980's it was about it was the University of Los Vegas http://www.unlv.edu/academics/degrees.  They were the proving grounds to see if you had what it took to succeed in the hotel/restaurant world.  Not New York, Boston, Los Angles, San Francisco, Berkeley but Vegas, baby. 

The world was your oyster if you could survive the shark tank of Los Vegas.  Wikipedia  goes on to state "After three years in southern California, he became District Manager of Louise's Trattoria, managing six locations along with recruiting and training for the restaurants."  Managing restaurants requires skills above and beyond your basic knife skills.  Demanding schedules, demanding budgets, labor issues, logistics, quality control, customer service, portion control, staff training, staff development, public relations, media relationships, menu development any one of which could break a lesser mortal in this kind of environment.  Guy did not break but, began to learn what it took to become successful. 

With The Next Food Network Star, Guy Fieri started to become a household name.  Fast forward and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives takes off. Ardently pretentious, self righteous, sycophantic food critics, foodies  and media suck-ups dismissed this show and him but, his fans loved it. The rest as they say well is history.

Guy Fieri  has now opened several new restaurants.  He is now selling the cookbooks, aprons, culinary accoutrements and knives.  He has also branched off to frozen foods, sunglasses and bobble headed figures of himself so this may easily dismiss Guy as a media whore.  But wait my intrepid readers there may be more to Fieri than meets the Guy.   According to the Food Network's Guy Fieri web page "Passionate about empowering today’s parents to include their children in the kitchen and educate them about eating healthy, Guy helped draft California state legislation proclaiming the second Saturday in May annually as Cook With Your Kids Day. While it was passed unanimously by the California State Legislature in 2008, in April 2011 Guy received a new resolution that recognizes Cook With Your Kids Day every Sunday. Invited by the U.S. Navy team to cook at the White House, Guy spoke to politicians about making this a nationally recognized holiday. In August 2010 he officially launched CWK (Cooking With Kids, www.cwkfoundation.org), a program that encourages developing healthy eating habits to address the childhood obesity crisis and strengthen the family unit by sharing quality time in the kitchen.

A longtime supporter of law enforcement and the military men and women serving our country, Guy has an ongoing Armed Forces Entertainment commitment and has visited bases in the Persian Gulf, Guantanamo Bay and Hawaii, all as a guest of the U.S. Navy. He entertains the troops and inspires the military culinary specialists with instruction and inspiration.

Has Guy helped or hurt the culinary world?  The jury is still still out on that one.  Guy is not the first chef to put out cookbooks, do television, sell knives and cookware or promote canned soups and frozen foods.  Others have also done so, including chefs Paul Prudhomme and Wolfgang Puck.  Julia Child, Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet), Graham "Galloping Gourmet " Kerr, the incomparable master chef Jacques Pépin forever left their marks on the public.  Even the iconic master chef Auguste Escoffier wrote cookbooks which are still regarded as standards today.

Guy Fieri has helped many small business by showcasing them with his best known work, the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives; some of which may not be open today if it was not for his show.  He has appeared as himself on more than 40 different cooking shows, children's programs (doing voice-over) and has hosted three cooking series of his own as well as the network TV game show Minute to Win It.  Guy has also lent himself to be used as a spokesperson for TGIFridays and for Flowmasters, a California based performance muffler company http://www.flowmastermufflers.com/ which continues manufacturer in the US instead of China.  At times he has appeared ubiquitous on our television screens.

Will Guy Fieri ever become a culinary visionary giant like Auguste Escoffier http://www.escoffier.edu/, James Beard http://www.jamesbeard.org, Jacques Pépin http://www.kqed.org/food/jacquespepin, Thomas Keller http://tkrg.org/ or Eric Ripert http://le-bernardin.com/about/#eric-ripert?  Uhhh... most likely not.  I think chef Guy Fieri is much happier making people happy with comfort foods at a reasonable price most families can afford.  His clientele doesn't need the elitist palette of a food critic and his menus are simple to enjoy. 

That is the Guy Fieri we have come to know. Successful television personality, successful businessman in very challenging economic times, hard working entertainer,  knowledgeable self promoter and successful cookbook writer.  Guy is about fun and having fun.  With his hilarious signature laugh and his shocking bleach blond hair, he's not trying to win any McArther Foundation Grants – he's there to promote the enjoyment of good 'ole fashioned American food (whatever that may be from one diner to the next) and put a little bit of accessibility on our plates.

He's a lot like Elvis who laughed all the way to the bank.  Hell, he's probably laughing right now!  Guy reminds us to lighten up and enjoy the ride (in our classic American muscle car if we have one). He sure is; especially after getting his car back http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/08/10/teen-accused-in-guy-fieri-car-theft-targeted-in-marin-juvy-hall-break-in-attempt/.  Fieri may be the court jester of the culinary court, but let us not forget that often, the jester held the king's ear and had great influence.  Guy Fieri reflects that very well, sometimes to a fault.  He's only a reflection of what we make him out to be.          

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