This Rachael Ray Advice Changed Guy Fieri's Life Forever

It would certainly appear that superstar celebrity chef Guy Fieri has enjoyed quite the charmed professional life. In 2005, on somewhat of a lark, according to Biography, Fieri sent an audition tape to "The Next Food Network Star." Beating out more than 1,000 others who had done the same thing whether on a lark or otherwise, he was selected to compete. Emerging triumphant after meeting the cooking challenges presented by the likes of Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, Paula Deen, and Rachael Ray, Fieri landed the now-iconic series, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives," in 2006 and has been winning over television audiences with is adorable aging surfer-dude charm ever since on this show and various others. Of course, it wasn't all luck, not by a longshot. 

To get to where Fieri is – i.e., the highest-paid cable television chef on cable as of this writing – has got to require extraordinary talent. It also requires impeccable instincts with regard to food, taste, and how to turn both into marketable entertainment. Moreover, it requires the good sense to follow the good advice of those who have traveled the same road. Take, for example, the advice that culinary elder stateswoman Rachael Ray offered Fieri way back in 2006. It turned out to be life-changing, but only because Fieri had the good sense to take it in. 

When Guy Fieri was just embarking on his career as a television chef, he couldn't have known where it would eventually take him, but he seems to have had an innate understanding that the celebrity chefs with whom he was now rubbing elbows had something to teach him, and not just about food. In fact, Fieri told Delish that it was Rachael Ray who gave him the best advice of his life. Ray, who was one of the "Food Network Star" celebrity mentors back when Fieri made his debut, shared many pearls of wisdom with him and the other competitors. But it was something Ray said to Fieri the very first time they met that has stuck all these years. 

"Don't burn tape," Ray advised Fieri. Three simple words which he took to mean, if the cameras were rolling, always keep going. "Even when your mic falls off, or the lights go out, or you think nobody's watching, you don't give up," Fieri explained to Delish. While that advice doesn't sound all that different from saying "the show must go on," Ray's words truly resonated. 

As much as Fieri feels he owes Ray for offering such sound showbiz advice at such a tender moment in his burgeoning career, he also is grateful to other Food Network stars who paved the way before him. "I really attribute my success in life to the people around me at the beginning of my career."