There are people who loathe everything about Guy Fieri, from his attitude to his bleached,
spiked hair.
If insults could be converted to currency, Fieri would definitely be laughing all the
way to the bank, but fortunately he can rely on his cooking chops to keep himself rolling
in money.
Alton Brown
In 2017, Alton Brown announced that he would be starring in a revival of his Food Network
show Good Eats.
And he couldn't help but get a jab in at Fieri during his announcement of his new show, Return
of the Eats, at Dragon Con.
The only problem?
Scheduling around Guy.
Brown said,
"They're gonna have to cut Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives down to seven-and-a-half hours per
day."
This isn't the first time Brown has mocked Fieri, either.
In 2012, he called out the Dives host on social media, tweeting,
"I am planning on visiting Guy Fieri's NYC eatery this weekend because it can't be as
bad as all those snooty New Yorkers say #wishmeluck."
David Chang
Momofuku founder David Chang is all aboard the Fieri hate train and has been bashing
him since the 2000s.
Chang is notoriously cynical, detesting everything from cupcakes to pretty much every single
restaurant in San Francisco, but his animosity towards Fieri has layers.
On the surface, there's his obvious dislike for Fieri's personal style.
He's criticized Fieri's sunglasses and armband, going so far as to say that if he ever dressed
like that, someone should, quote, "throw him down the stairs."
Chang also seems to resent Fieri's inexplicable success while more seasoned chefs have yet
to get their big break.
Anthony Bourdain
The late, great Anthony Bourdain was never one for pulling punches, and some of his best
zingers were reserved for Fieri.
"When was the last time you remember just like, laughing til you cried?
Screaming laughing?"
"Guy Fieri's tweet that he was on his way to a Nickelback concert!”
To be fair to Bourdain, in spite of a long-running feud between the two, he admitted to not loathing
the guy, telling the New York Daily News,
"I have no hate in my heart for the guy.
He doesn't make me angry."
Still, Bourdain found Fieri easy to make fun of.
In 2016, he told Adweek,
"I find Guy Fieri a rich and deep vein of comedy.
[...] But is he bad for the world?
On balance, probably not."
Bourdain added that he was offended by the very idea of a Fieri restaurant in New York
City's Times Square, but grudgingly admitted that there are people who like Fieri's food.
David Page
Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives was a huge win for the Food Network, but the show
had a lot of behind-the-scenes drama that its creator, David Page, revealed to City
Pages in a scathing tell-all.
Most of the drama was centered on none other than Fieri himself.
According to Page, Fieri was a little-known chef when the show first aired.
As his fame grew, he stopped returning Page's calls and began to avoid the man who had helped
give him his big break.
Eventually, Page was booted off the show entirely.
Afterwards, Page placed the blame on Fieri, who he claimed wanted him out.
He told City Pages,
"Guy will say whatever he needs to say to prop up his image of Guy as a really nice
guy."
Pete Wells
We can't fully confirm that restaurant critic Pete Wells personally hates Fieri, but his
2012 New York Times review of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square certainly indicates
some strong distaste.
To say that Wells tore the restaurant apart would be an understatement.
His review was addressed to Fieri himself, asking if he has ever eaten in his own restaurant.
In one memorable passage, describing the onslaught of unusual food names, Wells wrote,
"Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where
adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex?"
It gets worse from there, as Wells proceeded to tear down everything from the food itself
to the names of the dishes.
Only someone who truly detests Fieri would ask,
"When we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think
about?"
Fieri's restaurant closed in December, 2017.
Ariel Ramirez
Fieri's stylist, Ariel Ramirez, hasn't gone on record with his dislike for his employer,
but it's safe to say that, after your boss kicks you, you're going to harbor some ill
feelings towards him.
The altercation between Ramirez and Fieri isn't just tabloid fodder: there's video footage
to prove that it happened.
TMZ leaked the tape in 2013 of Ramirez punching Fieri through the door of an SUV. Ramirez
even openly weeps as his boss beats him up.
Supposedly, it was just a drunken brawl that got out of hand, as Ramirez and Fieri had
allegedly been drinking on a flight to San Francisco.
It's a plausible story, but it's an incident that's surely not easy for either man to get
over entirely.