“I called Taylor Sheridan to ask him just for some meat for the event. Taylor said, ‘I’ll only give you the meat if I can come cook it.’ And Taylor Sheridan shows up to cook.”
Guy Fieri is reminiscing about a 2023 fundraiser he held for Maui fire relief that made $1.7 million for restaurants, service workers and the local Salvation Army. He has endless stories as fascinating as the powerful “Yellowstone” showrunner parachuting in with his ranch’s beef, but he’s always quick to move the spotlight away from himself.
Although Fieri has an eye-catching appearance, he’d much rather talk about the generosity of friends, the skill of the team that helped to build his Flavortown empire, and the restaurateurs who serve up creative meals on his longstanding Food Network show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
It’s no surprise that when asked to reflect on the show, which has earned him his ninth executive producer Emmy nomination this year, he immediately wants to share the wealth.
“It’s recognition of all the hard work of so many people — from the ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ locations themselves to my crew,” he says. “Honestly, it’s really about everybody else. That’s the truth of it, and I want them to get the trophy and celebrate the moment after all this time that I think is well deserving of them.”
For the uninitiated, “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” is a travel show with Fieri dropping in on mom-and-pop spots to showcase the special dishes and local color that make these hole-in-the-wall joints unique.
The team is about to film the 20th season of “Dives,” and Fieri isn’t kidding when he refers to the crew as a family affair, given he’s been with them for so long. For example, Anthony “Chico” Rodriguez has been Fieri’s DP since day one of “Dives”; he still works on every show that Fieri does.
“Most everybody has been here 10-plus years,” Fieri says of his team. “The great thing is so many of the players have been cross-trained and have evolved into new positions. I’ve got two or three that were PAs that now operate cameras. They came on as PAs because they wanted a chance to be on the team, and you never know when that break is going to happen.”
When it comes to the creative vision of the show, Fieri admits he’s not looking to fix what ain’t broken but rather uses new seasons to nip and tuck the show’s presentation. His first-ever lesson on this came during the early days of the show, which he affectionately calls “Triple-D,” when he had a light bulb moment of how to better profile the business owners.
“When I first started ‘Triple-D,’ and I recognized how much voiceover we were doing in the show, I thought, ‘Wait a second. That’s all the stuff that we need to be talking about in current time,’” he says. “From the beginning, when we would do ‘Triple-D,’ I would be in the VO booth for two hours doing a tremendous amount of VO for the show. Now it’s very limited.”
More recently, the changes have been to spice up an already successful formula.
“We’re not going to change the recipe because people have been coming there to get their chicken pot pie for so many years,” he says. “You don’t want to go and ‘chef it up’ too much. You’re going to stick with what’s been done. But do we play some games? Do we mix things up a little bit? My son Hunter does quite a few with me. I’ve started to bring some other chefs that we know from the network, from ‘Tournament of Champions’ or ‘Guy’s Grocery Games.’ I’ve highlighted some celebrity chef restaurants. So we do little things, but never move off the mark of what is the principle of ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’, and that is what I call ‘the fabric of the community.’”
That community aspect has always been the beating heart of the show, one that seems more urgent in 2026 than ever before. “Dives” is one of the biggest series regularly showcasing global cuisine on television screens all over America, as many of the establishments Fieri visits are run by immigrants or first-generation families who focus on traditional preparation and recipes to give others in their community a taste of home, as well as welcoming outsiders.
“You know how many people walk up to me and go, ‘Oh, you’re the dude from the diner show. Yeah, the deep-fried pizza, burger, milkshake, monster-fried things.’ And I look at them, and I go, ‘You really must not watch the show that often,’” Fieri says. “If anything, there’s really a tremendous highlight and recognition of ethnicity. That’s one of the things I love about it is we’re a melting pot. The United States is a melting pot. And what better way to show culture than through food?
“Not everybody likes the same sports. Not everybody likes the same politics. Not everybody likes the same music. But the common denominator of people really is food, if you think about it,” he continues. “That’s one of the pieces that I love: When you talk about food, you talk about culture.”
Despite his passion for food, it seems impossible to understand how Fieri is able to keep mustering up his trademark enthusiasm after decades on the job.
“Is 20 years a long time? It’s a really long time,” he says, laughing. “But the truth of it is, knowing what it does for my industry … restaurants are my life. I’m a chef that gets a chance to celebrate and highlight his brothers and sisters. It’s the greatest thing. Knowing some of these ‘Triple-D’ locations for as long as I’ve known them, and knowing what it does to their life, it’s overwhelming. I’ll do it as long as the network will have me do it. I’ll do it as long as there’s the need, as long as the fans love it.”
When pressed about the future, Fieri speaks about “Dives” as his true calling.
“Do I have some sleepless nights? Yeah. Do I put pressure on myself to keep this alive, keep my team employed? These restaurants, they create petitions, they lobby on social media. They write letters. You wouldn’t believe the efforts that people make to get their restaurant, or their favorite spot, on the show,” he says. “The old joke among our crew is, ‘How long are you going to do this?’ I say, ‘You know what? You may see me doing it in a walker.’ It may go that long, because it wouldn’t be in my style to turn off the faucet of opportunity for what it does for these restaurants.”
And although it’s not the end goal, Fieri wouldn’t mind that Emmy.
“I look at things optimistically,” he says. “I look at it and say, ‘Wow, it’s cool to be invited to the big dance.’ Hopefully one of these days, being that we’re the cable network consistently doing it for this many years, maybe this year is their year.”