People Who Can't Stand Guy Fieri

There are some people that the world just seems to love to hate, and celeb chef Guy Fieri is one of them. Detractors loathe everything from his attitude to his clothing to his hair, but in spite of all the haters, Fieri still remains a very successful celebrity chef. 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 him rolling in money.

Fame and money don't guarantee you fans and, while Fieri certainly has plenty of admirers, he's also been called out for his shenanigans quite a few times. On top of that, he's gotten involved in some feuds and has done a good job of alienating entire groups of people. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the people who can't stand Fieri, by the end of it you'll be wondering how someone so hated can remain so popular.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives was a huge win for the Food Network. Hosted by Guy Fieri, the successful show had a lot of behind-the-scenes drama that the show's creator, David Page, revealed to City Pages in a scathing tell-all. Most of the drama was centered on — you guessed it — 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.

After Page was kicked off the show, he placed the blame on Fieri, who he claimed wanted him out. "Guy will say whatever he needs to say to prop up his image of Guy as a really nice guy," he said. "Everyone has to be part of Team Fieri. Team Fieri didn't feel any such reciprocal obligation."

Before allegations of sexual harassment ruined Mario Batali's reputation and destabilized his career, the chef was known as a mild-mannered, easy going guy. Even the Batali of a few years ago had some harsh words for Fieri, though. On an episode of The Chew, on which Batali used to be a co-host, the chef openly made fun of Fieri... and possibly Anthony Bourdain, another chef who had no great love for Fieri.

On the show, Bourdain made an appearance to whip up a Korean stew called Budae Jjigae. The recipe, which calls for an assortment of meats, kimchi, and noodles, is featured in Bourdain's cookbook, Appetites. It's a pretty simple recipe, and Batali was quick to point that out. "This is a dump and stir?" he said (via Eater). "Guy Fieri could make this dish!"

He may have meant to take aim at only Fieri, but Bourdain seemed to take the insult a bit personally. "Oh that's so cruel man, so cruel," he said.

We can't fully confirm that restaurant critic Pete Wells personally hates Fieri, but his 2012 review in The New York Times of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square seems to indicate more than ambivalent feelings towards the chef. 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 at his own restaurant.

"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?" wrote Wells. It gets worse from there, as Wells proceeds to tear down various dishes and drinks, criticizing everything from the food itself to the names of the dishes. This is no impartial review. Only someone who truly detests Fieri would compare one of his drinks to "nuclear waste" and ask why the watermelon margarita "tastes like some combination of radiator fluid and formaldehyde."

In 2017, it was announced that Alton Brown would be starring in a revival of his Food Network show Good Eats on a new show called Return of the Eats. Brown couldn't help but get a jab in at Fieri during his announcement of the show at Dragon Con (via First for Women). "The only problem that we still have to work out is that, well, essentially, in order to make room for the show on Food Network, they're gonna have to cut Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives down to seven-and-a-half hours per day," he said, poking fun at the Fieri-hosted show. "I know, I know. Eight hours is the standard, but if they could just make do with seven-and-a-half..."

This isn't the first time Brown has lashed out at Fieri, either. In 2012, he mocked the chef — and New Yorkers — on social media. "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," wrote Brown on Twitter.

David Chang is all aboard the Fieri hate train and has been bashing him since the 2000s. Chang has something of a cynical personality and detests everything from cupcakes to pretty much every single restaurant in San Francisco. On a panel with fellow Fieri Hate Club member Anthony Bourdain, Chang announced some of the things he dislikes at 2009's New York Wine & Food Festival (via Grub Street). Chang's animosity towards Fieri seems to have layers. On the surface, there's the obvious dislike for Fieri's personal style. He criticized Fieri's "f***ing sunglasses and that stupid f***ing armband," going so far as to say that if he ever dressed like that to "throw [him] down the stairs."

Chang also seems to resent Fieri's inexplicable success when more seasoned chefs have yet to get their big break. "Gray Kunz and Christian Delouvrier, the two greatest chefs in New York, are still trying to make a living," he said.

The late, great Anthony Bourdain was never one for pulling punches, and some of his best zingers were reserved for Fieri. To be fair to Bourdain, in spite of a long-running feud between the two, he admitted to not loathing the guy but rather finding him easy to make fun of. "I find Guy Fieri a rich and deep vein of comedy, there's no doubt about it, and he's worthy of a solid and maybe relentless mocking as anyone who has made his sartorial choices deserves," he told Adweek. "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. "I have no hate in my heart for the guy," Bourdain told New York Daily News. "He doesn't make me angry."

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, either — there's video footage to prove it. TMZ leaked the tape in 2013 of Ramirez punching Fieri through the door of an SUV. According to TMZ's source, "it was just dudes being dudes," but does the "boys will be boys" mantra really hold up when one person starts crying? In the video, Ramirez openly weeps as his boss beats him up.

Supposedly, it was just a drunken brawl that got out of hand. Ramirez and Fieri had allegedly been drinking on a flight to San Francisco, which led to the fight. It's a plausible story, but we bet that Ramirez is still holding a grudge.

Going into business can be tricky. If things go badly, your business partner is bound to hate you. Guy Fieri's former business partner actually brought him to court after their business arrangement fell through. In 2015, Fieri wanted to bow out of his involvement in Johnny Garlic's Inc., a California restaurant chain that he and Steve Gruber co-founded in 1996. It seems that Gruber didn't care too much about Fieri leaving the chain (a possible indicator of the bad blood simmering between the two) but he did object to not being given the opportunity to buy out his former partner. Gruber filed legal paperwork, asking for time to buy out the chef's shares in the company. Since Gruber and Fieri couldn't agree on a fair price for Fieri's 50 percent stake, Gruber had to bring him to court and ask them to appraise the company.

Gruber eventually bought out Fieri, but it's safe to say that the end of the partnership was far from amicable.

It's generally a wise idea to stay on the good side of your neighbors. After all, you have to live near them, and no one wants hostile eyes following you every time you walk down the street. In Fieri's case, unhappy neighbors led to noise complaints after he planned to open a wine tasting room on his property. His neighbors were not okay with Fieri's plans, and actually showed up to picket a public hearing that was to rule on whether or not to allow Fieri to open the tasting room.

Some of the neighbors' reasons for not wanting the room to open were hilariously snarky. "The applicant has thought of everything except a place for his noise," said Judy Tembrock (via GQ).

Another neighbor, Clay Jackson, complained that Fieri was already making enough noise at his property. "A race car was fired up next door by the applicant's staff with no warning," he said. "The noise very nearly seriously injured one of my show horses."

One family even had to move, saying that loud guests at Fieri's home left trash everywhere, forcing them to sell and get out of the neighborhood. Needless to say, the tasting room was not allowed to open.

Whether you want to give Fieri the benefit of the doubt on this one is up to you, but the chef has been reported to dislike the LGBTQ community. According to David Page, creater and former producer of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, the chef needed to be protected from interacting with LGBTQ people. "Guy had decided that the two men running the restaurant were life partners," Page told City Pages about filming an episode of the show. "He said, 'You can't send me to talk to gay people without warning! Those people weird me out!'"

To be fair, Fieri has denied that this is true. His spokesman told Eater that Fieri is "a standup guy who does right by people," adding that the chef's "own sister, who recently passed away, was gay." In 2015, Fieri even officiated a wedding for 101 same-sex couples in Florida after the ban on same-sex marriage was lifted. For some members of the LGBTQ community, however, the damage has been done.

This is another one of those allegations that you're going to have to take with a grain of salt, but if what Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, creator David Page said about Fieri's predatory ways is true, then women have plenty of reason to hate him. "Anytime any woman mentioned 'cream,' Guy went into a sexual riff," Page told City Pages. "When cutting the show, you had to tell the editors to watch Guy's eye line, because it's always on breasts." Talk about creepy. Fieri also allegedly liked to make poop jokes on set, making you wonder if he's a 12-year-old trapped in an adult's body.

Whether or not this is true hasn't been definitively proven, but all it takes is a whiff of sexual misconduct to ruin a chef's reputation. Other celeb chefs like Mario Batali and Guy Isabella are being forced to own up to their inappropriate behavior over the years. Could Fieri be the next person to come under fire?