We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Across diners, dive-ins, and drives, Guy Fieri has picked up all kinds of cooking tips and tricks for making better food. Yet while the celebrity chef has an arsenal of culinary advice, he generally steers clear of taking any shortcuts. In a May interview with The Kitchn, Fieri noted that he likes to go all-out in his cooking, making elaborate dishes and homemade sauces in lieu of using anything store-bought. “I’m not much of a shortcut guy,” he said in his interview with The Kitchn. “Some might say that I’m the opposite.”
Case in point: Fieri gave the example of camping trips with his friends and family. Rather than keep things easy with simple fare — hot dogs, hamburgers, and s’mores — Fieri opts to tackle more elaborate campfire dishes, no matter the challenges. “When we go camping, everyone else cooks hot dogs and burgers,” he explained. “We bust out full Chinese spreads or chicken Parm, garlic bread, and big batches of pasta. But I’m still making that pasta sauce versus going with store-bought — camping or not.”
Such dedication to doing everything from scratch — whether in his own kitchen or at a campsite — isn’t necessarily driven by responsibility or pride. Rather, Fieri’s commitment is the product of one simple fact: He loves to cook and likes to share his passion with those around him.
Guy Fieri generally avoids taking kitchen shortcuts out of a passion for cooking
For celebrity chef Guy Fieri, cooking isn’t merely a means to an end meal, but it’s also a process of love. “Cooking is my favorite pastime and how I spend time with family and friends,” Fieri said in his interview with The Kitchn. “I don’t want to shortchange myself or them.”
As such, he opts to make every meal as good as can be, avoiding shortcuts (alongside the seven foods he won’t touch). If you’ve ever seen Fieri’s show “Guy’s All-American Road Trip”, it’s slightly easier to understand how Fieri pulls off intricate cooking on a campfire stove. A few helpful tools — such as Blackstone’s tabletop griller — ease the process, bringing Fieri and his camping counterparts straight to Flavortown.
This refusal to take shortcuts applies across Fieri’s dishes, though he likes to make a few key meals for his dinner guests. In that same interview with The Kitchn, Fieri singled out a recent meal of broccoli rabe with Italian sausage orecchiette. Of course, every member of his family has a different favorite dish, so the meals change frequently. No matter what he’s cooking, though, Fieri promises to make everything himself — and always chooses to take the long road.
