Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp Giveaway

The T.V. show “Extra” is sending one winner to the Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp — to rock out with Guy Fieri, Steven Tyler and more.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith

Click on ExtraTV.com for more information. You'll have to register with their site and enter the "secret word" from Tuesday's show. It's not a difficult secret word to figure out.


More on the Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp here.

Guy Fieri to the rescue!

Another video from the Way Back Machine.

Guy Fieri and more at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival

Guy Fieri makes a wicked batch of margaritas for the audience at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, in February 2009.



For more Swirled Ice video with Guy and Rachael Ray, click here.

The Food Channel shares a photo montage from several SoBe events here, and from the BubbleQ event here.

And FiendDish.com shares photos here.

Louie's in Texas - on DDD

Laura Jacobus from the Eats Blog at GuideLive.com said:

Louis Canelakes, owner / operator of Louie's in Texas said the joint was slammin', and his phone hasn't stopped ringing since his segment on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives aired. He even heard from an old buddy of his from Waukegan that he hasn't talked to in years.

But my favorite story about the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives crew was about what happened one day after they finished shooting at Louie's all morning. Lou and Chris decided to go to Avila's on Maple for lunch, which they do often. They discovered when they arrived that the Diners crew had gone straight from Louie's to Avila's, so it was closed. (Richard Avila is the one who recommended that the crew shoot at Louie's, by the way.)

Lou decided to just walk in the back door and crash the party. Guy Fieri spotted him first and said "What are you doing here?" to which Lou replied "First you ruined my morning, and now you're going to ruin my lunch?" (with a few expletives thrown in). Guy said he'd fix them lunch and proceeded to cook them Avila's brisket gorditas himself, which Lou said were the best he'd ever had there. Guy even waited on them.

Lou, who started out calling Fieri "Hairdo," said he's a good guy -- "one of us," meaning a restaurant guy who just happened to go into showbiz.

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode guide

Guy Fieri to host Oaks Bourbon Brunch in May 2009

Kentucky's Courier Journal reports Guy Fieri will host the inaugural Marriott Oaks Bourbon Brunch on Friday May 1, 2009.

The event features Guy Fieri, renowned pastry chef Gale Gand and mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim with on-site cooking demonstrations, savory food and beverage pairings and incredible silent and live auction items — all for a great cause.

"At the brunch, Fieri will put on a cooking demo using Kentucky Proud products in the bourbon-based courses, mixing in a dash of his signature flair."

Brunch will be held at the Marriott Louisville Downtown from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Tickets are $125. Proceeds benefit the Louisville-based Home of the Innocents.

The Home is the region's open arms to kids in crisis — caring for children of abuse, abandonment and neglect, those who are medically fragile, and children with autism. Last year alone, the Home provided services to over two thousand children and families.


For more information about the event, please contact Ina de Mattos at (502) 596-1016 or idemattos@homeoftheinnocents.org.

Pork En Fuego - as seen on The Tonight Show

Scene from The Tonight Show

Pork En Fuego
Courtesy Guy Fieri

1 pound Pork Tenderloin, silver skin removed, sliced into 1" rounds
3 Strips bacon, sliced into ½" pieces
1 ½ teaspoons Cayenne pepper
1 ½ teaspoons Cumin
1 ½ teaspoons Granulated Garlic
1 ½ teaspoons Basil
1 ½ teaspoons Oregano
1 ½ teaspoons black pepper, (freshly cracked)
1 ½ teaspoons Paprika
3 teaspoons Thyme
½ large yellow onion, diced (¾ cup)
1 ½ Tablespoons garlic (minced)
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 ½ Cups Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/3 Cup hot cherry peppers, chopped
1 cup chicken stock (low sodium)
1 Tablespoons Worcestershire
½ cup Cabo Wabo Tequila
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup green onions, sliced thin
1 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
1 ½ Tablespoons basil, julienned
4 Ciabatta Rolls (split, spread with garlic butter and grilled)
8 pieces Havarti Cheese

Combine dry spices and rub on pork slices. Set aside. In a large sauté pan, over medium high heat, cook bacon until just crisp. Add in onions, sauté until lightly caramelized, add in pork, garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 4-6 minutes, turning pork as needed. Deglaze with tequila, add in tomatoes, hot cherry peppers, Worcestershire, remaining stock and let simmer for 5-6 minutes to finish pork and combine flavors. Add butter, half the green onions, cilantro and basil. Add salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. Serve immediately, piling over bottom of roll, topping with cheese, capping with top, offset... garnish with remaining green onions.



Yield: 8 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 35 minutes
Ease of preparation: Moderate

Guy Fieri on the Tonight Show

If you are looking for Guy Fieri on The Jay Leno Show, click here for the 10 @ 10 segment from November 2009, or click here for the segment with Kim Kardashian from January 2010.

Here is the video from Guy Fieri's segment on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, March 20, 2009.



If you are experiencing difficulties with the embedding, try viewing the video here.

According to the Press Democrat, the two T.V. hosts talked about cars backstage. Leno took Fieri outside to see the car he was driving that day, a Corvette ZR1.

Jay Leno and his Corvette

"Carlson Restaurants' TGI Friday's has reached out to six to eight agencies in a review of creative and media duties on its brand," according to BrandWeek.com. If there is a change in ad agencies, it's unclear at this time if it will affect Guy's status as spokesman for the restaurant chain.

Thompson and McCoy," owners of The Orchard House in Idaho, "still don't know exactly how the network found out about the eatery. 'However it happened, it was just amazing,' Thompson said. 'We were just blown away.'

Kris Thompson, Guy Fieri and Sherri McCoy

And a recent press release states that on January 6, 2009, Guy Fieri and his "Triple-D" crew visited Chef Point Cafe in Watauga, Texas to shoot a segment that will be aired on Monday, April 6, 2009, at 9 p.m., coinciding with the series' sixth season premiere.

Chef Franson and Guy Fieri

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode guide

Commercial for Flowmaster

I wonder how long ago this was made?

Update on Triple-D taping in Portland

Kelly Clarke of the Willamette Week Online was on hand to sample Portland's tastiest sausages and visit with Guy Fieri and the crew for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives today in Portland, OR.

She caught up with the taping at Otto's Sausage Kitchen; "Fieri sat next to me and cracked jokes about pork love and asked my dad about car parts while the cameras rolled." And she learned a thing or two ... or five ... about the Food Network and television in general.

"The crew shoots around 15 to 17 half-hour tapes for each location they visit ... edited down to around seven minutes of screen time for each restaurant."

The filming crew is "on the road around 240 days a year. "

"TV people don't like it when you really eat. 'Eat slow,' begged one assistant"

"That car that Fieri motors around in? Not his. It belongs to the show's executive producer ... (towed) across the country"

The quote of the whole article:

"Portland's bitchin'," Fieri told me as he waited in the sunshine for his crew to set up the next shot at Otto's. "It's days like this that make me wanna buy three houses here. But the rainy season makes me want to kill myself."

A real Portlander couldn't have put it better.

Other places visited by the Triple-D crew included Pine State Biscuits, Arleta Library Cafe and Pok Pok.

To view a map of all of the restaurants Guy Fieri visited in the Portland area, click here.

Byways Cafe - Retro
Arleta Library Bakery and Cafe - Biscuits, Bagels and BLT's
Otto's Sausage - Go-To Joints
Pine State Biscuits - All Kinds of Classics
Podnah's Pit Barbeque - Only At This Joint
Blueplate Lunch Counter and Soda Fountain - Old Time Favorites
Pok Pok Restaurant - You Can Say That Again
Bunk Sandwiches - Upper Crust

Triple-D filming in Portland this week

Reports on the Internet claim that Guy Fieri will be taping for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in Portland this week, Tuesday March 17 through Thursday March 19, with follow-up taping by the crew on Friday March 20. The conjectured "to-tape" list so far:

Podnah's Pit
1469 NE Prescott St
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 281-3700

Pok Pok Restaurant
3226 SE Division Street
Portland, OR 97202
(503) 232-1387

Blueplate Lunch Counter and Soda Fountain
308 SW Washington St
Portland
(503) 295-2583

If you plan to visit this places, be sure to call ahead and confirm the places are open to the public during filming.

*update*
From their blog, EatAtBlueplate says:

We will be closed on Thursday & Friday to make room for cameras and such. However we do need happy customers to come in and eat (for free!) and be interviewed by the Triple D crew. If you are interested, come by on Friday from noon 'til 2. First come, first serve. You may have to hang around and eat/drink what's put in front of you, but hey...you might end up on TV!
Air date not confirmed, however they *think* by end of Summer.

*update*
To view all the Triple D restaurants Guy Fieri visited in the Portland, OR area, click here.

Guy Fieri to appear on the Tonight Show

Tonight Show with Jay Leno (11:35 p.m. ET on NBC)

March 16, Monday: Julia Louis Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine), Jim Norton, Randy Rogers Band

March 17, Tuesday: Portia DeRossi (Better Off Ted), D.L. Hughley, Soundtrack of Our Lives

March 18, Wednesday: Reese Witherspoon (Monsters Vs. Aliens), Keith Olberman, Naturally 7

March 19, Thursday: Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives), John Cena, the Mercedes Benz Outdoor Concert Series with Kelly Clarkson

March 20, Friday: Seth Rogen (Monsters Vs. Aliens), Guy Fieri, Chris Cornell

Guy Fieri to co-host a UNLVino event in April

The UNLVino wine tasting event kicks off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 16 2009 at the Palms Pool and Bungalows with “Bubble-licious,” featuring champagne and sparkling wines. If you’ve ever experienced Las Vegas in the spring you know this evening outdoor event will be spectacular. Guy Fieri, celebrity chef and Food Network television personality, will co-host.

Created by Larry Ruvo, Senior Managing Director of Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada and Jerry Vallen, founding Dean of the Hotel College in 1974, to date, UNLVino® has raised millions, making this one of the largest endowments for scholarship and student activities at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and possibly the most unique educational fund raiser in the world.

Poolside at The Palms

Advance purchased tickets are $100 or pay $125 at the door. Home to the Playboy Club, the Palms is located on Flamingo Road, just west of the Las Vegas Strip. The Palms is popular hotel for celebrities, a great place to "vacation like a rockstar" during your wine tasting vacation.

Tickets
Must be 21 to enter
No children; no refunds

New Episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives airs Monday

Fans of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives have had to wait a few weeks for a new episode. The waiting ends Monday night.

Staff Writer John Burgeson of the Connecticut Post reports that the "Super Duper Weenie, the hot dog emporium at 306 Black Rock Turnpike, gets to sizzle in the national spotlight Monday when it's featured on 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,' a program on the Food Network."


Guy Fieri is "just like he is on the show," John Pellegrino Jr., one of the owners of Super Duper, said about the program's host, Guy Fieri. "He comes in and asks a ton of questions; he's really into it."

Pellegrino said the program was taped over three days last October. Fieri spent the entire day at Super Duper Weenie on the last day of production, he said.

The Super Duper Weenie owners initially met Fieri last summer while catering a house party in Greenwich, which is one of their other lines of business. "Guy was cooking on the truck with us and everything," Pellegrino said. "He even signed our truck."

Airing on Monday, March 16, 2009:

Bert's Burger Bowl (no website)
235 N Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-0215
map




California Tacos (no website)
3235 California Street, Omaha, NE 68131
(402) 342-0212
map





Super Duper Weenie website
306 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield, CT 06825
(203) 334-3647
map

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives episode guide

Guy Fieri hits the San Diego nightlife

Reports are that Guy Fieri was at Jimmy Love's in San Diego on Saturday night, March 14 2009. And this wasn't the first time. In her Yelp review of the club in July of 2007, Kelly H. of Pasedena said:

Ok so why five stars you are wondering? Cover charge, bathrooms downstairs, and persistent old men? I saw a celebrity. That's right folks, a television star was at Jimmy Love's. Ok so it wasn't Paris or Lindsay Blowhan (and thank goodness or I would have left), but I was excited anyway. I noticed him when I walked in and thought - wait, I know that guy.... It was Guy Fieri from the Food Network. Yeah I'm a nerd for knowing who he was but oh well. Actually talked to him a few times through the night, and my comedy was definitely A game, so he even proclaimed me to be "Fantastic!" My life is complete.

Guest DJ: Guy Fieri

Partying on a Saturday Night

Guy and one of his security guards

Guy Fieri added on to the Metropolitan Cooking Show

The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining shows have been announced.

West Palm Beach, FL - March 28 - 29, 2009
Guy Fieri is not listed as a presenter.

Atlanta, GA - April 18 - 19, 2009

Guy Fieri (profile) is scheduled to present at The Celebrity Theater on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from noon to 1 p.m., and from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Purchase tickets. Ticket prices are $45-$74.50 advance and $50-$80 onsite; tickets include General Admission.

He is also scheduled to sign books on the show floor on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 1:30 p.m. to 2;30 p.m., and from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Purchase tickets. You must purchase a ticket in order to reserve a space in line to have your book signed by Guy Fieri. Tickets are $10 advance and $12 onsite; there will be 250 tickets available. Anyone who purchases a ticket is guaranteed to have a book signed. Please limit one book per person.

Washington, DC - November 7 - 8, 2009

Tickets are now on sale for the DC show at The Washington Convention Center.

Guy Fieri (profile) is scheduled to present in the Celebrity Theater on Saturday, November 7, 2009 from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Purchase tickets. Ticket prices are $45 - $75 advance and include General Admission.

He is scheduled to sign books on the show floor on Saturday, November 7, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., and from 4:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Purchase tickets. You must purchase a book signing ticket to reserve a space in line to have your book signed by Guy. Tickets are $15 advance and $17 onsite; there will be 250 tickets available. Anyone who purchases a ticket is guaranteed to have a book signed. Please limit one book per person.

NOTES:
They will have a limited number of pre-signed copies of Guy's cookbook on sale soon. You may also buy copies of his cook book on-site at the Show in the Tiny Kitchen booth.

If you planning on bringing a group of 20 or more to any the MCES events, contact Brion Gutierrez, Group Ticket Sales Manager, for group ticket pricing at brion@thetinykitchen.com or 703.321.4890.

Shrimp Eating Contest on Guy's Big Night

So, what do you think?



Competitive food eaters everywhere think this is great!

Guy Fieri - on Saving Grocery Costs and Food Trends

Another interview from Canada today; mostly stuff we've heard before, but there were two interesting questions, I thought.

From FoodTV Cananda, by Elana Safronsky:

E.S.: On Guy’s Big Bite, your recipes are already fit for budget-watching – you cook in bulk and often with very affordable ingredients. Do you have any specific advice for the hard times these days, on how we can stretch our food dollar?

G.F.: That’s a great question! These things that we buy – convenience foods like sauces, chicken stock, beef stock, marinara sauce [see Guy's Marinara Sauce recipe below], Alfredo sauce – you can make all this stuff. I think that’s probably one of the most critical things people can come to realize. Chicken stock for example, think about the health factor, let alone the savings – the lack of sodium and how you can fortify it at home, beats anything you can buy.


Chili is one of my favorites; you get some dried beans – they cost nothing – soak them, and then make turkey chili, or chicken, whatever you want!

[Guy's Chili recipe here]

Instead of buying all the pre-processed, pasteurized cans of whatever – make it! I make ten gallons of tomato sauce at a time. I lay them flat in Ziploc bags, let them freeze and then you have a little catalog of sauces sitting there. Grab them, and within ten minutes of soaking them in some warm water you’ve got the best sauce that cost you one third of what it cost to buy it ready made.

E.S.: Any word on upcoming food trends?

G.F.: I think we’ll continue to move forward in this realm of healthy eating. People are becoming much more conscious to the reality of they are what they eat. With cancer on the rise and all these different things going wrong, I think we’re going to find more creative ways to get healthy food into people.

We’ve gone through our fads of taking pills and we’ve gone through fad diets, like drinking only salt water and lemon juice. It’s time now for true healthy practices like, for example, Heirlooms. I think we’re going to start seeing them produced on a larger scale, as opposed to just farmers' markets. People will start to recognize that these are wonderful specimens – I’m mean come on! We are talking about going back to the way it started! As opposed to what we’ve mass produced into this perfectly, genetically shaped Roma.



But I’ll tell you one thing: Food Network is definitely leading the way. We’re hot, and we right on the front lines of what’s going on. We are where it’s at!

Guy's Marinara Sauce:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, minced
4 medium garlic cloves, smashed
6 cups canned San Marzano tomatoes
1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
1/2 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh oregano leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In medium saucepan, heat olive oil, add onions and cook over medium to low heat until onions are transparent. Add garlic and cook until almost brown and then add tomatoes. Cook for 1/2 hour over low to medium heat, then add basil and oregano and continue to cook for 30 minutes longer. In a food mill or a blender, puree into a sauce. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Yield: 3 cups

Guy Fieri - on URS, DDD and Life on the Road

The Appetizer, part of Canada's National Post, asked Guy a few questions about Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Diners Drive-ins and Dives and just life in general. Canada is premiering Ultimate Recipe Showdown starting on Wednesday, March 11.

Guy said that URS is good TV. "As a chef, as a restaurant owner, as a food TV guy, for me to see everyday cooks get a chance to win $25,000 for their favorite mac 'n' cheese comfort food, I think that's awesome. If you're a fan of food and a fan of people, it's killer."

Many people ask if the car Guy drives on DDD is his or does it belong to the show. He answered that question, "That's not my car in the show." But he does have seven cars. He says his favorite is a '71 Chevelle, but he does not allow anyone to eat in the car. No Drive-Ins for Hunter, I guess! He said in an earlier interview, "I'm not a big eater in the car. I have two little kids, and they make enough of a mess."

1971 Chevy Chevelle

"That said, one of my favorite places is called the Bar-B-Q-King in Charlotte, N.C. I can park and eat barbecue in the flatbed of my truck all afternoon."

2004 GMC Sierra pickup

Guy Fieri, on having 20 pairs of one-of-a-kind skateboard tennis shoes by Globe: "Yep, my wife hates it. I have more shoes than Imelda Marcos." And as for his signature look and clothing choices, "More often than not, I just wear whatever shorts I walk in with. I'm not trying to make a statement, it's just what I wear. It's fun. I like to be comfortable. Right now, I've been wearing more T-shirts."

And the spiked hair? He says he doesn't own a comb! "It's how I wake up, really. It's funny. I was on a shoot once and this woman came up to me and gave me this half-used tub of hair stuff and said, I love your hair, you've got to try this. I stuffed it in my bag and then when I ran out of hair product on the road and needed something, I pulled it out and tried it. Now I get this stuff by the case, it's killer stuff." J Beverly Hills Clear Waxx. Apparently this is a common question. He told Express Night Out, "I was in an airport, and a woman just walked up and gave me some. It's the best stuff in the world."
He says his favorite Food Network moment was when he won the Next Food Network Star. "I never thought in a million years that I'd win. I was just stoked to be on the show." And he doesn't have a least favorite moment, "... it's more about being away from my family. I'm on the road a lot. I love what I do, driving around, introducing people to new food and being a food dude, but it's hard being away from my wife and my two boys."

"I love what I do. I think that's got to be at the core of it. I'm recognized in an industry that, frankly, could use a lot of help right now. If I can go around and point out these great independent mom and pop joints to people, that's great. And the stories that people tell me and the letters I get from the places I've featured on the show, I mean, I start crying. I'm a giver, I'm an Aquarius, I come from a family where giving means a lot more than getting. So, when your only real pain is being away from your family at times, then I guess I've got it pretty good."

And his "showcase dish" for friends and family? "Everything. There's no rhyme or reason; it's whatever wild idea I get. This is so sad; I'll wake up in the morning and ask my wife, 'what do you want to have for dinner tonight?' And she'll be like, 'Will you give me a minute, I haven't even had my coffee yet.' But I'd have to say, I like a good, beefy taco salad."

Guy Fieri - recipe for February 2009

Ok, let's start this easy.

Photo from FoodNetwork.com

HALIBUT VERACRUZ
from GuyFieri.com

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup yellow onion, sliced thin
3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 medium jalapeno, sliced thin
2 cups tomato, diced
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup Spanish olives, cut in thin rounds
2 medium avocados, peeled and diced
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 (8oz portions)fresh Halibut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook until lightly colored. Add tomato, jalapeno and white wine. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes until wine is reduced by 2/3.

While sauce is reducing, heat butter in a separate skillet over medium heat. Season fish with kosher salt. When butter is melted and warm add seasoned halibut filets to the butter pan. Cook for two minutes and then transfer halibut pan to oven.

Remove sauce from heat when reduced appropriately. Stir in olives, avocado, lime juice and cilantro. Remove halibut pan from oven after 10 minutes (or when filets are fully cooked). Divide sauce equally among four dinner plates. Flip halibut and place one portion (caramelized side up) in the center of each plate.

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ease of preparation: intermediate

Ok, so the picture doesn't exactly go along with Guy's plating suggestion, but the idea is there, and the two recipes are virtually identical. I'd love for there to be recipes on his that aren't already on the Food Network.

I tried this recipe with boneless skinless chicken breasts and it went over swimmingly! I also changed it up a bit, by adding the lime juice in at the same time as the white wine, allowing the lime juice to reduce with the wine sauce. I think I got a bolder flavor that way which suited the chicken.

I see a reviewer on FoodNetwork.com has tried this recipe with tilapia, but the fish fell apart and it "appeared to be more 'goulash' style, but was a good dish regardless!" So lesson learned, stick with a heartier protein.

Guest Blog

Here is a response that I think I was looking for, a letter sent to me by the friend of whom I spoke. In her own words .... ~D

Dear Dora,
First of all, thank you for your kind words about me and your considerate loyalty. I am humbled by it. Secondly, I think you've done a really nice job with this blog / fan site. Looks like you learned a lot, eh? *laughing* Kudos to you! And I do hope you take it back up again. There's an obvious passion here, always the first and best ingredient in a fan site or in any endeavor for that matter. And third, thank you for the opportunity to guest blog.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dear readers,
I didn't know about this blog until Guy told me about it last week. After our now three (granted, rather uncomfortable) meetings, I respect him and his work very much.

[Article about their first meeting here.
Video from that meeting here. ~D]

I think what this all boils down to is impressions - first impressions - that devastatingly brief period of time when we assess what another person is all about, based on little to no information.

I only started watching the Food Network some three months before I met Guy and had seen all of 10 or maybe 15 episodes of his shows. I didn't even know his name until maybe six weeks before I met him. In the three weeks between finding out I was to have dinner with him and our trip to NY, I did a ton of research so I wouldn't sound like a complete dolt.

And like a commentator below, my first impressions of Guy were that he is genuine and a kind-hearted person. So I walked into dinner as my completely unguarded, bawdy and sometimes raucous self. I mean, of any Food Network star, isn't Guy the one you'd most likely be raucous with? No? Ok, maybe Paula Deen. (that was a joke, y'all!)

I think Guy's first impressions of me were fine. He said I reminded him of a gal pal of his from High School, meant as a compliment or so was my impression. I also think he expected to walk in there and meet four fans. He didn't. Aside from the research I had done, only one of the remaining three of us is familiar with Food Network programming. The third gal had heard about it but not watched it, and the fourth doesn't even have cable television.

But at some point during the dinner, I think sometime between the salad course and the entree, I offended Guy. I don't know what it was that I said - I asked my girlfriends later what they thought it could have been, and they didn't know either. But at the end of the night, Guy was furious. ("Furious" was Ms. Mueller's word. And accurate.)

In hindsight, I can only assume there was a misunderstanding - one of those "message sent was NOT message received" kinds of scenarios. A gal does not fly across the country just to offend the very person she went there to meet. The important point here is not what I intended to say, but rather what impression I gave. Not unlike in restaurant management – one doesn’t intend to send out a bad plate or provide poor service, what counts is the impression with which the guest walks away.

Regardless, I'd obviously stuck my foot in my mouth and followed up on my faux pas with an apology note to his guestbook and with a personal hand-written note, hand-delivered a few days later.


[That yellow envelope contains the note. ~D]

I didn't apologize just because Guy is a "star." Star-status means very little to me. I did it because he's a nice person, and I'm a nice person, and that's what nice people do when they make mistakes. So at this point I'm thinking its all water under the dog, and let's just all move on.

Dora's account of my second meeting with Guy in Seattle is reasonably accurate in facts, albeit with the Drama Volume Knob turned up to 11 a la Nigel Tufnel's amplifier. (bless ya Dora, but you'll want to tone down emotive comments made in whirly-girly venting sessions)

~D

I could be wrong, but it's my belief that Guy was under the impression we sought out that get-together in Seattle. That's only partially true. We had heard he was a fan of Royal Bliss, and for a myriad of reasons I was eager to facilitate that meeting for both sides. I love hooking up cool people with cool people! And I love supporting good people doing good things.

To Guy's credit, he said last week that he was sorry he missed that meeting. He said that he loves the CD (duh, it totally rocks!), his assistant has the band's contact info and he'll try to make contact. One can not ask for more than that.

[Well I can ask for more than that! But this is your blog. So please continue. ~D]

----------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Guy Fieri, Guy's agent, publicists and Food Network exec's and employees everywhere,

My article is scheduled to be a feature in next Sunday's paper on March 15. I think you'll like it. Guy, thank you for agreeing to do the interview last week.

I've been very appreciative of every experience I've had with and surrounding the Food Network, particularly those people I met at the NY Wine & Food Festival, the multitude of people who put together that dinner that I didn't meet and especially the contributors to the FN Dish. "Stars in my book, the lot of ya!"

I write this as my 11 y.o. girl is baking a double-batch of chocolate chip cookies all by herself. She's blossomed from a quiet, withdrawn girl with almost no self-esteem to a talkative girl full of wit, charm, self-confidence and most importantly full of joy, in large part due to the time she and I spend in the kitchen.


[Look at that smile! ~D]

Guy, "Cook With Your Kids Day" isn't a day in our house. It's every day. And the side of our refrigerator is literally covered with printed recipes from the Food Network. And yes, quite a few of them are yours.

I can only hope that if and when we see each other next, my comments here will have alleviated any awkwardness. Fill up your shot glass with good Idaho potato vodka and cheers to you and yours,

Linda "Lana Banana" Alexander

p.s. Guy, you gotta get the new CD! The one I gave you is good, but the new one is somehow more of the same and better. :-)
--L