Guy Fieri and "Dude Food," an article from Time.com

Josh Ozersky from Time.com recently wrote an interesting article, "Real Men Do Cook Quiche: The Rise of Dude Food"

Just about anyone over the age of 35 recalls the book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, an iconic satirization of typically male stereotypes, written in 1982 by Bruce Feirstein who coined the term "quiche-eater" as an insult to a man's very masculinity.

Ozersky examines male gender extremes in culinary celebrities and publications, past and present.

Make no mistake: Guy Fieri is the Dudai Lama. Nobody else comes close to manifesting effortless machismo the way he does on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives; no costume department could ever have come up with his look: spiky, bleached hair, bowling shirt and perpetual sunburn. Fieri's effusiveness, his trademark exclamations ("fierce," "kewl") — he's the guy whose house you want to be at for the Super Bowl. He's the guy you want to organize your bachelor party.

If he's into food and cooking, there can't be anything remotely metrosexual about it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Fieri is the anti–Ted Allen. Fieri is not hip, he doesn't have good taste, classy women wouldn't approve of him, and yet he swaggers happily on his charmed path, oblivious to all his shortcomings. He's just himself, totally and utterly inhabiting his dudeness, in a way that could never be faked.

Guy Fieri just loves being Guy Fieri. Even his occasional self-mockery is a form of preening. What could be more manly than that?

I'll only correct Mr. Ozersky in that I don't recall "fierce" being in Guy's vocabulary. "Gangsta," on the other hand, has crept into several recent Diners, Drive-ins and Dives episodes, a compliment roughly equivalent to "killer," in a good way. :) Read the full article here.

Guy being Guy is the very definition of his brand. In December of 2005, when Guy Fieri flew to New York for the Next Food Network Star, like Polonius's last piece of advice to his son Laertes, Guy's father advised Guy to be himself. And it worked.

When Guy did his first shoot for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, he dressed as himself, spoke as himself, and surprised executive producer David Page that Guy's way of doing the show surpassed even David's initial vision of it. I think David was looking for another Al Roker to do the show. Instead, he got Guy. Thankfully! Haha.

In both cases, Guy was himself, and people ate it up. They're still eating it up, as you know.

The set of Guy's Big Bite exudes dudeness. "Guy Fieri now plays rock music in the background while cooking on Guy's Big Bite; this has made it more killer than I had thought possible!" - Clevelandjoe from Twitter.

Some of the initial criticisms of Minute to Win It centered around a LACK of Guy Fieri's dude-icious brand in the set. But things, they are a-changin'. BuzzerBlog recently wrote,

I’ve noticed they got away from their Millionaire clone set and now, accidentally, it looks like it’s taking place in a college gym with the wood floor everywhere. But regardless, it looks a lot brighter ... and they’ve ditched all traces and awkward edits from removing the models and mammoth smoke machines, so good on them. They’re really trying here.

Read BuzzerBlog's full article here.



Jonas Brothers Special - Cheered on by his family, Kevin Jonas goes all out to win big for his charity, Change for the Children Foundation. Video expires 6/4/10

Related Posts:
How did Minute to Win It premiere do?
The Guy Fieri brand is "the real deal"
Interview with David Page