The Unexpected Foods Guy Fieri Grew Up Eating

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri has always been drawn to food. Even as a child, the dynamic Fieri wanted to open himself up to experimenting with different types of cuisines. Here's an interesting story from his younger years: Fieri tried a pretzel at Lake Tahoe when he was 10 years old and was blown away. In fact, he was so excited that he decided to start selling pretzels from a little cart with his dad's help.

Indeed, Fieri was inspired by his culinary experiences as a child, when he first got introduced to new dishes. "This [pretzel seller] steams it and he dips it in a little bit of salt and he put mustard on it, and I always loved flavors like that when I was a kid," he recalled in an interview with The Sporkful with Dan Pashman. And of course, Fieri's love for food doesn't stop there; he also made it a point to sample as many dishes as he could, always curious about the possibilities. 

This is true: when Fieri was a kid, he had a diet mostly composed of vegetarian foods. This may come across as a surprise to many fans who know that Fieri is now known for his love for items such as barbecued meat. "We ate a lot of vegetarian — we were vegetarian — and I hated it ... but of course what do you do? You go back to your childhood, and now I'm a veggie machine," he revealed to Insider. Whoa!

As a child, Chef Fieri feasted on meals like steamed fish; he also experimented with the foods that his folks loved such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans. Fieri craved more, of course, and got his way when he struck a deal with his parents: he could prepare some dishes himself. To that end, the young Fieri embraced the challenged and prepared steaks for his family members, winning them over. What motivated Fieri further was the fact that there was an advantage at stake: taking charge of cooking meals meant that he wouldn't have to wash the dishes later, and someone else would have to do the chore. "That's when the bell went off," he added. "Ding, ding, ding!"