Do they just throw away all the unused groceries on "Guy's Grocery Games?" And
why did they build a fake grocery store instead of just using a real one? Keep watching to find out!
If you've ever watched "Guy's Grocery Games" and thought to yourself,
"That looks like a real grocery store," that's because functionally, it is. The first season
of the show was filmed inside an actual grocery store, Fields Market, in the West Hills, Calif.
After the first season ended, however, everything moved to Santa Rosa, Calif.,
so host Guy Fieri could be closer to his family and other business ventures.
So Food Network did the obvious: it leased a 15,500 square-foot building
and built its own replica grocery store just for the purpose of filming.
"So where you are right now is a gigantic warehouse.
It's never been a grocery store before, but now it is home to Flavortown Market."
While most grocery stores take two years to complete construction, the aptly named Flavortown
Market came up in just two weeks according to Food Network — and that's not due to cutting corners.
In fact, not only does Flavortown market contain all the products a typical store would carry,
but all of its aisles are wider to allow contestants to run through the shop more easily.
It's a fully functional grocery store in every way except one:
nothing is for sale because it's not open to the public.
Not only is Flavortown Market built to be a functional market, but it is fully
stocked to boot. Of the more than 20,000 items in Flavortown Market, there are 241 types of produce,
more than 67 meat items, and a full assortment of fresh and frozen foods,
including deliveries of 442 pounds of fish per week. If you see a product on the shelf, it's
an actual item, not a placeholder or a fake. The items even have their own barcodes for checkout.
Every aisle shown is real, including the equipment aisle,
where contestants are able to grab more cooking gear if they need it. "Guy's Grocery
Games" judge Brandi Milloy told PopSugar that the products team strives to provide
all the products contestants could need, including rare and unique foods. She said,
"There is no such thing as a 'fake aisle' in Flavortown."
Set designer Scott Storey told Reality Blurred that the only things you won't usually find in
Flavortown Market are a pet food aisle and a baby care aisle. One would hope they wouldn't be needed
for a cooking competition anyway - though in later seasons they added it in, perhaps as a joke?
"You make me some cat food brownies and you feed them to Buddy and I'll just give you the money!"
Between lights, refrigeration, freezers, and the sheer volume of a 15,500 square-foot
warehouse-turned-grocery store, it takes a lot of power to keep Flavortown up and running. In fact,
according to Food Network, it takes 2,400 amps worth, which is enough to power 12 houses.
Most of the electricity is used by the large cooling section. Remember,
all that meat and produce shown on TV is real. In addition to this, there are
around 500 lights in the market that need to be powered, including lighting on the shelves to
help contestants find products quickly. All of this results in a huge amount of energy usage.
With all the food available in Flavortown Market, it seems unreasonable to expect
contestants to cook and serve everything in the market during their time on the show.
So what happens to all the extra food? There must be a lot of food waste, right?
Well, there's not as much as you'd expect. According to Food Network,
all of the fish and meats come vacuum sealed so that they last as long as possible. Fresh produce
is also delivered every week, and anything that is no longer usable gets composted.
But that's not all. At the end of the week, all perishable items are checked,
and anything that is nearing its expiration is donated to local food banks.
Even the food scraps and leftovers are donated to farms to feed animals and livestock.
Thanks to the efforts of the people behind "Guy's Grocery Games,"
truly nothing goes to waste, reducing its overall environmental impact.
"We logged every bin of everything we get from the show. We weigh
absolutely everything that goes into the program."
It should come as no surprise that a show that puts in the effort to build its own
grocery store and fully stock it would also pay incredible attention to little details.
When choosing items for the store, producers get products from local fish and meat providers
and work hard to provide more than one option for different brands. They don't want the show to feel
like it has large sponsors, so they try to include products that have cool labels or funny names.
And while almost everything in the Flavortown market is real, there are a few props. The set
designers of Flavortown Market included items such as magazine racks to really drive home the feeling
of being in a real supermarket. There is even a check-writing platform on the checkout counter,
even though no one shopping at Flavortown Market would need to write a check.
Additionally, there's a store hours sign on the market's door.
It takes a lot of cameras to film a single episode of "Guy's Grocery Games." In fact,
it requires nearly 30 cameras to film an episode. That's a lot of cameras,
but according to Food Network, they are all needed to make sure nothing is missed.
In a game where contestants are running through aisles in every direction and there are several
moving pieces, it takes all of those cameras to cover everything. There need to be cameras to
focus on the judges, on Guy Fieri, and on each of the contestants as they cook and dash through the
aisles. With so many shots, even full-size cameras can't capture all of the action.
That's why they also include mini ones attached to the carts that contestants
take while shopping in Flavortown Market. Well… most of the carts.
"Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Flame throwing, nitro burning, air horn blowing grill basket on GGG!"
Watching an episode of "Guy's Grocery Games" only takes an hour,
but filming an episode takes a lot longer.
Former contestants have opened up about the long day of filming it takes to appear on an episode.
Contestant DeAnna Germano told Syracuse.com that their day started at 5:00 a.m. when they
were picked up at their hotel and brought to the set. After they got into appropriate clothes and
makeup, the competition started. Each of the competition's three rounds lasted 30 minutes,
which included shopping, cooking, and serving to the judges.
You might think that the contestants' work would be done once the competition ends, but they still
had plenty of tasks to complete after competing. Contestant Tracy Shepos Cenami told Delish that
even once you're done, you have to participate in the interviews that run during the segment,
which can last two-to-three hours. Finally, the contestants are able to return to their hotels
around 6:00 in the evening, wrapping up what many people might consider a daunting 13-hour day.
But while that's the end for the contestants, it's not the end for the judges, who film more
than one episode each day. Once the first group of contestants is gone,
a new one comes in, with the judges changing outfits for the new episode. By filming one
and a half episodes each day, the show is able to film two seasons in a little over a month.
Getting onto TV can be a goal for many people,
especially chefs who want to promote their skills and advance their careers.
Luckily for fans of "Guy's Grocery Games," there is more than one way to appear on the show.
Potential contestants can apply to be on the show by filling out an online form.
While the 51-question form is long, former contestants report that the overall process isn't
too bad. Firefighter A.J. Fusco, who appeared on a special firefighter episode of the show,
said that the long process included Skype interviews and video submissions
before officially being chosen and flown to California for shooting.
Not everyone who appears on the show applied for it, though. Sometimes, talent scouts reach out
to people they think would be good for the show, as was the case for chef Keith Clinton. Clinton
told The Memphis Flyer that he received a phone call at the restaurant he worked at one day from
a talent scout. They had seen his posts online and thought he would be a good fit for the show.
When it comes to "Guy's Grocery Games," Guy Fieri lives up to his reputation as a nice guy,
according to those who have been around him on the show. Former
contestants and show staff have described how Fieri takes care of the contestants.
Judge Brandi Milloy recounted to PopSugar how before each show,
Fieri takes the time to talk with the judges about the contestants. He goes over the
backstory for each of the upcoming chefs and reminds the judges that the contestants have
left their families to be on the show, so the judges need to take things seriously
According to Delish, Fieri also talks to the contestants before filming, reminding them they
are there to have fun and show the world their skills. Fieri doesn't stop there — he has been
known throughout the show to give hints to try and help contestants. He has also been known to lend
a helping hand to chefs as they look to improve and enhance their performance. All of this comes
from his own goal of wanting the chefs to do well and come away with a valuable experience.
"Make sure you do some treatment to that duck, because
something that processed center of the plate gets a little bit of heat around here."
"Guy's Grocery Games" is known for its fast-paced structure and games that keep you guessing. Guy
Fieri keeps guests on their toes by getting tricky during countdowns, and waiting until after food
has been collected to reveal the true challenge. All of this leads to a chaotic game that requires
ingenuity and adaptability, and unfortunately, there is no way for contestants to prepare for it.
Contestants don't know what the challenges will be until they get there. Former contestants
have said that there is no way to prepare for the show because you simply don't know what's
going to happen. This is in contrast to some other shows which allow contestants to bring
recipes ahead of time. Given the nature of the show, where contestants don't always
know what ingredients will be available to them, preparation simply isn't possible. Contestants
are forced to think on their feet, making for a challenging yet exhilarating experience.
"We have got three totally insane culinary games for you that will make your hair stand on end."
For a show that relies heavily on authenticity and the real shock and surprise on contestants' faces,
there are still elements of the show that are staged. This is
partly to make sure producers are getting all the shots they need.
In "Guy's Grocery Games," the initial shot requires all contestants to enter Flavortown
Market through aisle six. It doesn't matter where the contestants need to go to get their
ingredients — aisle six has to be the first stop. That is because a camera is stationed there to
get a shot of all the contestants running together at the start. Sometimes, however,
this means that contestants are forced to double back to the aisle they actually want to go to.
With all of that running around, it's a good thing Flavortown Market is chock full of food.
Someone could get hungry making all of those mad dashes.
Getting eliminated from anything is agonizing. That is why it is
comforting to know that on "Guy's Grocery Games," the decision on who
goes home is just as difficult for the judges as it is for those going home.
While many of us feel like we know who will go home from watching the rounds,
former judges say that during filming, this simply isn't true.
The decision on who is going home isn't made beforehand, and isn't made lightly — the judges
never know who is going home during the cooking rounds. A decision isn't made until after they
debate — sometimes heatedly — about who deserves to stay and who has to go home. The judges know
that their decisions impact real people, which is something Fieri makes sure they remember.
While someone has to go home, the judges always take the time to think fully about
the decision and try to be as respectful as possible during the announcement.
Just another reason to love "Guy's Grocery Games."
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