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I can& #39;t reference this THR piece on Guy Fieri without telling my own personal GF story that I think about ALL the time. This is a thread no one asked for but I don& #39;t care. 1/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/guy-fieri-the-food-network-restaurant-industry-covid-19-tv-deal?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social">https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/...
Five years ago, my in-laws invited us on a vacation to Hawaii for a few days, which was an awesome invite to receive. On day 2, my father-in-law and I are having drinks when we spot Fieri cruising past us w/ his family. On reflex, my F-I-L shouts: "GUY! HEY! BIG FAN, MAN!" 2/
Fieri responds by vaguely looking in our direction then walking away. It was NOT the reaction my F-I-L had anticipated. Disappointment slowly spread across his face. I watched him bottle his emotions, pushing them down into the pit of his stomach, as is his Catholic tradition. 3/
Throughout the rest of the day, I watched my F-I-L attempt to reconcile the event, a strange feat of psychological gymnastics that finally landed on something like "He& #39;s a celebrity. He& #39;s here with his kids. I shouldn& #39;t have shouted at him like that." 4/
That& #39;s right. Fieri had blown off my F-I-L and in an attempt to rationalize it, my F-I-L decided to fall on the sword and accept full blame. It was admirable. Though we could all see his wheels spinning, quietly wondering why his favorite food TV personality blew him off. 5/
The next day we were back in the same spot having a beer when... Fieri approaches! From 200 ft away, he beelined right for us. My F-I-L was unusually reserved, clearly not wanting to repeat yesterday& #39;s miscue. But that all changed the moment Fieri extended a handshake. 6/
"I& #39;m Guy Fieri." My F-I-L smiled, relaxed his shoulders, seemingly exhaling for the first time in 24 hours. Guy apologized for yesterday. He said he hadn& #39;t heard my F-I-L shout his name, and when they got to the car, his son had told him what happened and he felt horrible. 7/
After apologizing, Fieri hung out for a bit and we talked about the island, about family and about food. A genuinely good hang and it was so non-pretentious and effortless that you got the feeling he took the time to do this with fans all the time. 8/
Admittedly, as a bit of a food snob myself, it changed my perception of Fieri (the creator of donkey sauce), and I started to understand how and why he became a champion of mom and pop diners (and drive-ins and dives). 9/
At the end of his visit, Fieri recommended a noodle house 45 min outside of town that was more of a locals only joint. Told us his fav few dishes. Obviously my F-I-L and I went there right away for lunch and ordered them. 10/
