February 8, 2023 • 38 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today's episode, we're riding the bus to Flavourtown with the one and only Guy Fieri. He shares incredible tales from the early days, his time in France and why Super Bowl is so important to him. Guy even spills the beans on how Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives came to be.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome in Everybody Too, Unbreakable a
mental health podcast with Jay Glazer And this podcast. It
allows me to kind of run the gamut on guests,
(00:23):
but it also allows me to bring my best friends on.
How cool is this? I get paid to talk to
my best friends, And when I say best friends, I
truly made it. In the case of this man, he
and I became friends a long time ago. We've kind
of had a similar journey as far as we didn't
do it the conventional way. We did it different ways.
But man, when I tell you all that I have
(00:44):
battle buddies that I kind of lean into a reach
out to when I'm having a bad day, and a
lot of times they don't know that's why I'm reaching out.
This is one of those guests. He is on every
show on the Food Network. He is everybody's favorite restaurant
tour and but he's also one of my favorite humans
on the planet because I've leaned into him on many
occasions when he just thinks I'm calling for a laugh,
(01:06):
for he thinks I'm calling just to funk around with
him over something, but it's it's really for something a
lot deeper than that. It is the one and only
got Fieri. What has happened to my brother? Now? I'm
calling you by your proper name because you fucking finally
got my name right after twenty years of friendship. Listen,
Jay Glaze. I'll tell you it's funny that you say
it that way, that you that you reference the friendship
(01:28):
that way, because we met right around this time super Bowl.
It's Super Bowl, and I knew I could tell in
five minutes whether or I'm gonna be friends with somebody
and what level of friends will be. And I don't
meet people as as crazy as me very often, and
you're crazy, you're unfortunately. But now it's been a it's
been a great friendship. And I think that that he
goes both ways in terms of needing support and and
(01:52):
that shoulder and that confidence and that you know that buddied,
it's been through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
And if you haven't been through the good to bad
and the ugly, I don't you really have the Sometimes
you don't really have the ability to understand. Sometimes the
depth of issues that people are facing. But you've You've
done it for me, You've done it for everybody that
I've known you to be. Everything that you've been around
so well, you know, it's interesting to like the two
(02:15):
of two of us met at the Dallas Super Bowl
whatever year that was, you know, years and was sent
along those lines. We're doing a show him where he
was on the pregame show with Fox. But then I
saw him out at a party. I think I was
with the cast of Sons Anarchy, and you wouldn't let
me leave the party because You're like, dude, I've got
to talk to you the way you've done your career,
and I'm like, you know, the way you're doing your career.
And you and I think we're kind of at the
(02:36):
same point, like people are kind of like almost trying
to figure us out at that time. We're too crazy
men that we're just doing it different than everybody else,
and people are almost trying to figure us both out. Right,
I think that was it. Um, I don't know who
is not letting who leave the party, But that's not
getting the semantics right now. Let's where we can talk
about you me, Sean Payton and Snoop Dogg in New Orleans.
But all right, I want to hit your career. And
(02:57):
you know, people see what you are now, they have
no have no idea how you started. And so I
want to go back to the beginning, like how did
you get even break into where you were? Where you
Kim Chef, Like, bring us back to the beginning. It's incredible.
I love I like how you just dropped in break
in Ja. That's really nice because I know you can
end up telling people and that's I'm not gonna I'm
(03:18):
not gonna talk about that. I'm not gonna talk about
you breaking into my house at four o'clock in the morning.
I'm not gonna do it. I just won't. You won't.
I'm not the one that lost the key. You cannot
your assistant. That's your fault. You almost got me killed.
I didn't almost get you killed. You decided to be
batman and scale my house twenty feet and break into
my house, and I didn't forget my key, otherwise, forgot
(03:39):
the code outside otherwise outside, and I forgot my We're
gonna do that anyway. I knew I was getting druging this.
Let's talk about something possible. So any how I grew
up in northern California. You ever saw the movie Outbreak
with Dustin Hoffman. That's a little town that I was
raised in, a little town called Ferndale. Amazing place. Do
you ever get a chance to go see it? Amazing place.
I just shot a show about it, a one hour
(03:59):
show on Network. Guy's hometown, Flavor Town to Ferndale, that's
the name of town. But so I go up to
this town. My parents both worked, they had a small business,
uh Western clothing store, and both really hard working people,
both good cooks, and in nineteen seventy six, I was
eating sushi and spinach pasta, and I mean it's really
(04:20):
advanced and food at that at that age or my age.
So long story short, the deal and my family was,
whoever cooked got to make a decision what we were eating.
And I I mean I was eating my friend's house
and they're having things like meatloaf and meatballs and so forth,
and we weren't having that. We're having steam, salmon and
vulgar and and you know, broccoli and a spirit. I mean,
it was just a very different world of food in
my house. So they're so they were really your first
(04:41):
teachers then yeah. But the thing was is I knew
I had this craving. It's so funny because my craving
then was meat and all that kind of stuff. And
now I'm back to where my parents started me as
a kid. I'm a huge vegetable grains fan and raw
food fan and so anyway, so I started cooking, and
I remember the day I cooked my first dish. The
about nine and I cooked a steak nine years old.
(05:03):
Years old. My parents worked, so I knew that if
I could do something to help the family, that it
would be a really cool thing to do. So I
cooked a steak and all I knew was butter and
soy sauce. I mean, those are just two things I loved.
And I cooked the steak and I put it there
and my parents sit down and they were so amazed
that I had made dinner. They walked in. My dad goes,
what are you doing, and I go, Mom said I could,
and my mom looks as he goes, well, he was
(05:24):
complaining that we didn't need any meat, and I said,
if you know, if you want some, if you want
a steak, then you cook it. So I went to
the store, got the steak, came home and I cooked it.
My dad takes a bite of the steak and I'm like,
he's gonna kill him, and he looks at me goes,
it might be the best steak I've ever had. Wow,
done zo. That was it. Wait a second. If I cook,
I don't have to do the dishes. If I cook,
(05:46):
we get to eat meat. And if I cook, I
make people happy. I'm like, man, this is my this
is my damn. And so that became the that was
the genesis of it. And then as time went on,
and I mean I cooked jay, I would stay home.
I would fake six. From school, we got the Julia
Child's or I don't know, it was one of the
cookbooks and I was just reading and I'm like, wait
(06:09):
a second, they give you the answers to make this stuff.
HiT's right here, just foll overto I mean, I'm like,
this is this is awesome. And so I started cooking
anything I could get my hands on. When I was
about fourteen, we had exchanged students from Norway and we
had exchanged students the next year from Sweden. I want
to be a change student. But my high school didn't
(06:29):
teach language until you were a junior, and senior in
the only top Spanish. So we had a friend of
a friend came to Thanksgiving and he was a wine
cork salesman from France and his name was Pierre la Choux.
And I sat next to Pierre Thanksgiving and I said, Pierre,
I want to go to France. Can you get me there?
And he's looking at this, and maybe I was thirteen.
He's like, yeah, maybe I could have you speak French.
(06:52):
I go no, and he goes speak French and then
talk to me. So I went to my parents and
said I want to speak French and Dad's okay. He
says why and I said, I want to go to France.
It would be in a shame suite. He says, I'll
make you a deal. If you could pass at one
one year of conversational French at the junior college, then
I'll let you go. So I wrote Pierre. I said, Pierre,
I'm gonna take French at the junior college and if
(07:15):
I passed, my dad will let me go to France.
Pierre says, if you pass, I'll get you into a
high school in the town called Shanty. We would say Shantilly.
That's with a Shantilly race. Tracks Antilly cream. That's things
here there. So yeah, I'm working this deal. I'm fourteen,
so I'm working the deal. So I get I get
to my sophomore year in high school. I registered for
the class at the junior college. And my mom has
(07:37):
to drive me at lunch from high school to the
junior college because I can't drive. I don't have driver.
I go to the class. I take the French class.
It's unbelievable. I passed with a beer. All I had
to do was passed with a beer better. And then
I got to drive the second sepentsiter I got drive,
I passed. I can't speak a word of French when
I got When I passed, I just gotta take the test.
(07:59):
And but I understood the concept of the language and
maybe haud of vocabulary about five or six words. But
I could pass the clops And so my parents said, yes, Pierre.
Pierre knows an old guy that fought with the Americans
in the war. He's a principal of the high school.
He says, yes, you can come to my high school.
I live in a boarding house. I go to the
high school and and that was it. Man, and I
(08:21):
got on that plane. You know we talked about unbreakable.
I got on that plane. I was sixteen. I just
turned sixteen. I just got my driver's license. I was
so excited to drive and in France, get drive to
your eighteen. And I got on that plane and I cried,
what am I doing? I'm sixteen, I'm leaving my mom,
dad and my little sister for a year for your
passion though, But I I mean, I mean, like take
(08:44):
off a big bite and then have to do it.
And I but I got there, and you got thrown
right in the deep end. What you're saying, yeah, huge
deep end. Didn't speak the language, learn how to speak
the language when I was there. I mean I just
I had there was you know, a line of how
do you say that? Kept a note of patent pay
for someone would saying it work to me. I'd write
the word down. I'd get home at night to the
to my room because I didn't live with the family,
(09:05):
didn't reporting him, and I would conjugate the verb and
conjugated past future tents and and and then I put
it on the wall. And if it was a now
and I'd make the translation put on the wall. And
then that's how I learned the language, and by the
time I left, I could speak at about it a
fifth grade level. I could read it about a second
grade level, right at about a first grade level of
(09:25):
second grade level. But I could get through it. I mean,
I could go anywhere I want. It's when I ate
food in France. I was sixteen eight France and that
was it. Man, I knew. I wrote my parents and said,
I know what I'm gonna be. I know what I'm
gonna do. Came back, never finished high school, went straight
into college, graduated college or how did you not finish
high school and goes through to the college, because I
should know again, Jay, It's just it's just like you, brother,
(09:47):
it's a little bit of the hustle. I had taken
the junior college classes with the permission of the school
and my parents, so I was already in the system.
So I just went back to JUNI you just send
up more buses. So the high school calls my senior year.
Everybody's driving to school for the senior year, you know,
(10:09):
kind of the parade of cars going in, and I
just peeled off and drive and go to and go
to Eureka, which is the big town where I'm from
or Buy my town, and that the councilor in the
principal called my dad and said, hey, guy didn't show
up for the first day of school. And my dad's, yeah,
I don't think guys coming back, not coming back. What
do you mean he's not coming back? Yeah, I think
he's I think he's gonna go to college. He can't
(10:31):
go to college, he doesn't have And he's like, well,
I don't know. You have to talked the guy about that.
And by then I was enrolled in school. I had
a job working as a as a Flambay captain as
you know, as a cable side cook at a at
a fine dining restaurant. Went on to college and Sacramento College,
and then I went to un l V, graduated un
(10:51):
l V, came out of there again. It got into
running restaurants. That opened my first restaurant when I was
twenty six. Did the restaurants opened up? What was our
first What was our first restaurant? Johnny Garlics, You're in California,
so we got a wine country I wanted to be.
I didn't want to be quite back in Ferndale, up
in northern California. Well, I didn't want to be in
(11:12):
San Francisco. Do you want to be in a big city.
I want to raise my family in a cultural environment
where we had good connection to the farms and the community,
and there were cultural you know, community events and street
fairs and farmers markets and and that kind of stuff.
I want to be very in touch with my kids schools.
You know, I wanted to be in a big little town.
But how did you get the money coping your first restaurant? Well,
(11:34):
that's another deal, Jay, um So. I went to college
in Vegas and I bet it all on red. Now
I'm just um So. I wouldn't put it past. I
went to Actually, I was not a gambler, but I
was the great. I was the great palm shop because
I always had money. I you know, worked my butt
off all through I paid me a way through college.
I was a deal. I didn't want my parents paying
me paying for college. As soon as I became as
(11:56):
soon as I was independent, I'm like, you did your job,
Thank you very much. I have the best parents in
the world. I love my mom and dad, and I
couldn't say thank you enough. But I'm like, I can
do this. I can do it on my own and
so I paid my way through college, and so I
was very frutable with my money. But I always had money.
My dad was always the thing about have money in
your pocket. So people would come to me in the
dorm or in the and say, hey, man, I got
(12:17):
this football back coming up, and you want to buy
a TV, Like, well, yeah, you know, I got twenty bucks.
I'll give you. No, it's just two and at all TV.
I said, I'll hold the TV. You win the money,
you just give me back. You double my money back
and good. Otherwise I keep They got J d J. Anyhow,
the point was when I opened Johnny Garlics with my buddy.
Here this this guy who was another manager in the
(12:38):
in a restaurant chain that I worked with. We found
a great deal on a restaurant. We tried to get
alone with the loan process was gonna take too long.
This was a got to get the deal done. Today.
Apparently have five thousand bucks to my name. Laurie was
pregnant with Hunter. We had a car with four in
a thousand miles on it, a pickup truck and two rottweilers.
I called my mom and dad, I said, I found
(12:59):
the ice. I got I got the deal. I can't
get this loan to go through, and I need to
make this happen. My dad does he hang out a
second penny, guys on the phone. He found the restaurant deal.
You're good, Yeah, he goes, all right, we're gonna mortgage
the house. How much you need? Wow. So my parents
are one year from retiring from their business, our home
(13:20):
that I was raised in, and my dad mortgages fifty
thousand bucks off it and gives me and lends me
fifty tho. I paid him back in six months. Wow.
But that was started, okay, and then well, so that's
what's is great. I want people to understand this too.
Every time we have a guest come on and they
talk about success, it is about hustle. It's about out
work in the world. That's how your dreams come true. Right,
(13:42):
you're the luckiest guy in the world when you outwork
everybody in the damn room, is right. I walked in that,
I'll walk it. Well, I'm saying your luck comes because
you're the fucking guy out work in the world. That's
what I'm saying. It happens for you, Like I walked
in that giant locker room. I'm like, all right, I'm
gonna do a different everybody, and I'll be the last
motherfucker standing here. I'll work them, not by a little bit,
(14:03):
by a lot. And that's how that overnight success comes.
That's how that quote that luck comes. It's not luck,
You're right, it's because we take manager into our own
hands and how work people are doing different. So now
then you want to talk about a different route, tell
people a second. I want to say something about that
because I want to I want to add to what
you're saying. So under this arm back in the day,
(14:25):
was just this tattoo of this horse shoe and I
put that horseshoe on my arm because everybody said I
was lucky. It's like guy always wins guy, oh you know.
And I used to go around talking about how lucky
I was. And an old guy who I have his
tattoo on my arms cat named Jack LaVar. Jack Lebar
was probably one of the biggest thing besides my dad.
(14:45):
Jack Lebar was probably the biggest influences. And we lost Jack,
but not too soon because he taught me a lot.
And one of the things he said to me goes,
stop stop saying You're lucky because it's not luck. He said.
You have spent your life working your ass off, educating yourself,
and most importantly, you surround yourself with great people. He says.
(15:06):
You have an army of friends, an army of colleagues,
and you make things happen. Things don't happen to you.
You make things happen, and that's very and that's what
you are. Ja. This isn't luck. This is determination and
drive and will and focus and never say die, attitude
(15:28):
and being unbreakable. And that's one of the reasons that
I think you and I are so close is that
nothing was ever given to us my parents, my parents made,
I think, but the most of my dad, my mom
and dad have made in their life was in one
year open doors. We checked doors down. That's the whole point.
So it's not it has nothing to do with luck.
What has to do with is setting a plan? What
(15:48):
has to do with this determination? What has so all
of those words all equal, getting the goal or having
the success, and and luck has nothing. Luck has nothing
to do with it. So I don't want people. Here's
the thing, Jay, I don't want someone to look back
at and say I'm unlucky. I lost my little sister
twelve years ago, my dad got pancreatic cancer five years ago,
(16:09):
and then just beat liver cancer two months ago. Do
you want to talk about luck? If we're gonna go
into a luck category, I got bad luck. I don't
play that. That's bullshit. I love that, dude, I love it.
So you open Johnny Garlics, but then you kicked another
door down. Tell us how you got onto the Food Network?
Because I love this story and most people don't know
(16:30):
this well. I read that story is not told enough.
I read that book called You Too Can Be on
Television by Jay Glazer. It's one page long and scratching,
stiff book, drawing by number. Yes, really well done. Forward
(16:51):
by Michael Strahan. Um, So here's the gosh. You want
to talk about this? So I'm always the one that's
encouraging people. I try to push people all the time.
You not talk about it, but to do it. And
you know, there's a great story of a guy that
wants to win the lottery and and wants to donate
all the money to goodwill and to people and helping
(17:13):
and he's finally so distraught after five years, ten years
of trying to win the lottery that he's gonna you know,
that he's gonna end at all. And he says, uh,
they can't believe that. You know, he's prayed for so
long and it's not happening. Sky's part in the booming
voice comes down and says, could you just at least
buy a lottery ticket, you know, don't don't talk about
(17:36):
it happening, don't think about it happening, don't wish it
was going to happen. Put it into action. And I've
always been that guy telling my friends, and I pushed
more my friends into business. Say one of my really
one of my best friends, r L has the salon
and I told him from day one, whenever this building
comes to show, you buy this building. They came for sale,
(17:57):
and he's like, how do I do this? I said,
we're gonna do it. However, we gotta do it, and
he persevered to it. He bought his first big building.
So I've always been that guy. Well, a show comes
on the Food Network and it's called the Next Food
Network Star. I don't watch TV quite frankly, I had
never even watched the Food Network, not one time. I
saw one five minute clip of Rachel Ray and I'm like, wow,
look at that girl. Go But I've never seen the
(18:18):
food because I'm a chef. I owned restaurants, and I
don't watch TV really a lot anyways, except for Fox Football.
I said it before you did, um, but I don't
watch off TV. So the second season is coming, and
everybody they told me the first season, and you guy
should go in the show. You should be on the show.
I'm like, God, even don't get it. They said, it's
like it's like, uh, Food Network, American Idol. I'm like, okay, whatever.
(18:41):
So I get pushed enough and finally I sent in
a demo tape. And the demo tape is ridiculous. It's
such a I'm mocking it so bad because I don't
want to do it. I mean, really, why do I
want to go on TV compete with a bunch of people.
I've seen some reality TV stuff and then all the
all the bullshit and then get kicked off. And I said,
I'm successful. At that time, I had four restaurants. I
(19:01):
was doing great, and I one day I said, okay,
I push everybody else. I'm trying to set the example
for my son's um writer hadn't been born yet, and
I said, all right, I'll send the tape, and so
I sent that. I started DVD and so I said that,
and I get picked. So I go out of the
show and I go onto it with this attitude and
kind of like, hey, you know what, I'll just take
this positive opportunity. Never been to New York, never met Emerald.
(19:25):
Let me just see what this is like. I show
up in a leather jacket, shorts and flip flops, middle
of November and New York snow on the ground. And
I walked into a room and everybody's buttoned up in
white chef coats. I'm like, oh boy, you ain't Northern
California anymore. And I didn't squeeze it too tight. I
just did what I did. I just who I am
(19:45):
wasn't going to change. And he said, jump up on
that rock and look at the camera and say and
the next Foe network start And I go, f you,
I'm not saying that, because I know what you guys
will do with that. You'll take that and put it
out there and I'm gonna look like the biggest, you know,
jerk in the world. I said, I'm not saying any
of that stuff. I said, I'm just here. You want
me here, here's what you get. And I ended up winning.
(20:05):
So I end up winning the show. And I had
a show called Guys Big Bite, which they did great.
Now it's called Guy's Ranch Kitchen. It's been running for
a long time. There's been sixteen years now. But the
next show they gave me, they gave me a pilot show.
And I did the pilot and it was called Gotta
Get It. And there was a show about kitchen equipment
and gadgets, like you pour cream and sugar in a
ball that's frozen and you're kicking around the yard and
(20:28):
makes ice cream. Or you have an oven that's you know, Bluetooth,
and think fifteen years hego sixteen years ago. Bluetooth talks
to your phone. You can turn your oven on from
you know, your office. So I did the thing and
the pilot they did this pilot. I don't know what
the pilot is. And they did it and they said, uh,
the pilot got picked up for ten episodes. And I'm like,
oh man, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be able
(20:49):
to do that. Like what I'm like, now, I I
can't I can't do that. You did the pilot. I said, well,
I don't know what doing a pilot means. I thought
you got I think the show suck. I said, I'm
not a gadget chef. I'm just a regular guy. You know,
I don't I don't have a avocado slicer when you
peel it kind of thing. I just do the way
(21:10):
we're supposed to do it. So then the president of
that production company calls me, rips me. I'm sorry, I'm
not doing it. Then the finally, the president of Food
Network calls me. Brook Johnson calls me. She says, you're
turning down a primetime show. Why did you apply for
our show? I said, because because I had to do
it to prove that I could do it. She so,
you don't want to be sorry, I said, I would
love to do a show, but if the show has
got to resonate with me, you're not gonna fake this.
(21:33):
I'm not an actor. She says, you know you could
be losing your whole future with Food. I said, I apologize.
I'm not trying to be somebody I'm not. I'm not,
which authenticity is huge to me. And so that was it. Man.
Everyone was pissed and I didn't have an agent at
the time, and but everybody around me was like, whoa
you crazy? And then they came back six months later
(21:54):
and said, Okay, we're gonna give you one more try.
We have a show called Diners, Drive Ins, and Die.
That's that sounds like me dives, I'm down, and that's
what started. Wow. Could you ever imagined like when when
at one point did you realize like, oh my god,
my life has changed. When I was in Dallas for
(22:16):
Rich Crackers, standing on the Fox stage with this bulldog
that's working me over faster, quicker, funnier, wittier than me,
I went, wow, and I'm actually going somewhere with this stuff.
I don't know, Jay, it's it's been when I look
at the things that you know. I did an event
the other day or a couple of months ago with
(22:37):
Tim McGraw. I loved him, a great guy, and we
did a fundraiser raising money for veterans, active military, and
first responders. I did a food and wine side of
things in an auction. Tim did a concert. We only
did it for five people, and then we had a
celebrity softball tournament the next day, just a small group
of people. We raised over a million dollars, but more importantly,
(22:58):
we raised a ton of awareness. And as you know,
because you work with veterans a ton and and you
know what is needed inside of this. It's just it's
if the world could really comprehend what veterans go through,
they would be they would stop in their tracks and say,
wait a second, I want you to go back to
Donner's driving Dodge. At what point when you're doing that
show you realize, oh my god, I'm not just the
(23:22):
guy from Johnny Garlics anymore, like oh my god, ship
has changed. None of it really hit me right between
the eyes, like really got me. Doing Make a Wish Foundation,
which was probably my favorite thing that I've ever done
with my career, working with kids that are terminally ill,
having my sister lost my sister to cancer. That was
(23:43):
something like when these kids could go do anything, they
could go anywhere, they could meet anybody they want, I
would you would assume I'm surprised how many celebrities won't
participate in Make a Wish. That still blows my mind.
But for me, it was like they want to be
with me, They want to you know, so these kids
would come to Triple D and I was so that
was probably one of the big like wow moments, like
(24:04):
that's you know, but I'll be honest with you, and
this not to sound hollywoody, but when I got my
star in Hollywood, I had restaurants right around the corner
from Hollywood Boulevard and from where all the stars are,
and I remember walking by them going to the band.
When that happened, my dad would just be pancreatic cancer.
(24:26):
Matthew McConaughey came and spoke on my behalf Hunter spoke
on my bath. A bunch of my friends and fans
are there. That was the moment I kind of went,
unless they rip up the sidewalks in Hollywood, my grandkids,
grandkids will see that name. And it was that people like,
is this the dream come true? I said, I'm a
I'm a hippie kid from Firdale. Okay, I never even
(24:49):
a million years anticipated that that would happen. That morning, folks,
we talked about you know, I've talked to a lot
on this show about loyalty. I knew how important to
supposed the guy guy knows this now. I had a
back surgery that morning and I scheduled it for six am,
So here's a procedure so I can get to the
(25:10):
star to be there for my brother, right, And I
was all sorts of propofoled out, probably had more fun
than anybody, but I was there for you on your
big day. And that's what you want people to understand.
That loyalty is a dying art and it's beautiful and
that's what we need to do. And Man, to see
(25:32):
you up there that day with again, I was a
little hazy from the anesthesia, but I'm sitting up there
to him going, oh my god, Matthew McConney is introducing
him and like, look what he's become. But but the
difference is from the day I met you and now
you've never changed. The authenticity has stayed the same, and
that's where people you Again, I think they looked at
us a certain way of these fucking crazy guys who
were these guys, But we've never changed. So the authenticity
(25:53):
is what our equity really is. Just touched on something,
Jake that I think we have to flex on more often.
And I don't know why that my word these days
lean into flex on. We always assume that people know
how much we love them and how much we respect
them and how much we honor them, and how much
we would do for them. And unfortunately we have this
(26:15):
perception in our mind that we don't often explain or
share or lean into as we need to. And you
did that day. I mean you do all the time.
J J doesn't send me messages, you guys. Uh. He
doesn't send me text on us. He sends me recordings,
which are great. I mean, because you really can get
the sense, you can get the inflection, you can get
them on it. You can get all the different modulation
(26:36):
and the dramatic pause and the whole thing. I think
they're way better than a text message. And then when
I don't hear from your while, send them to you
just to make sure because I know you're so busy
that your head's on straight. But the thing is is
I think, and that's a great thing. It's it's part
of your book, Jay, which I've shared your book with
so many people, and it's so interesting because I have
you gave me like ten books and I have them
(26:57):
in my office and I think I'm down to like too,
because it will be every once in a while when
someone will be here and we'll be talking and they'll
kind of be giving me some of this because I'm,
you know, one of the older guys in my group.
And someone'll be talking about and say, Matt Cousins going
through this thing, Go you know what I got this buddy.
You know Jay Glazier is he said, he wrote this
book and he does this program with these veterans. I said,
(27:18):
you haven't take this book, and like it's your copy.
I'm like, it's my only copy, which is also called
Unbreakable by the way, right, it's my only copy, but
go ahead and take it. And I've had more response
from doing that with people. But the point is lean
in and and share that message. So I'm sharing the
message with a great friend who's helping a cousin or
(27:39):
one of my great friends who needs help. And uh,
we have so much power. We don't exercise our power
as friends and family, I think as often as we
need to. We're so busy in their social media and
there's all all this stuff going on, and we really
do have the power to move the pendulum of energy
and spirit and mental health and so forth, more than
(28:01):
we know we do, or more than we exercise that
we do. And that's the whole thing with mental health.
Because of social media, we all kind of think our
lives stuck. We're all comparing ourselves to somebody else. We're
all looking down at our phones constantly, and we're losing
that connection. So by me talking about this and giving
it words and showing other people, man, I struggle on
the top of my game, and I struggle now just
as much as I ever have, maybe a little less
(28:23):
now I'm about because now I understand how to open
up some people more and to show my vulnerability more,
knowing that their strength. That no one I can call
a guy Fieri when I'm struggling, and that man, I
got people there for me, and I don't have to
suffer alone anymore, and suffer in silence is huge and
that's what our that's what our jobs are, and that's
the thing that I think we have to get over.
And social media is honestly, there's really positive aspects of it.
(28:47):
It's awful, but then there's really negative aspects of it.
And what I always try to remind people of is
you have to do things. If you want your car
to run great, you have to do things to your
car if you want you if you want to if
you want to continue the life of your car, you
gotta wash it so it doesn't rust, you know, washing
action that change the oil so it runs properly, change
(29:08):
the brakes, change the tires. You gotta clean it. You
gotta give it some love. You gotta take care of
it if you wanted to perform. Well, we don't think
they've got the same thing with the with the brain
and the body. We need to exercise. And I'm not
saying every it has to be is ripped as J.
We have to eat properly, you know, we don't. Thanks
for the random flex J right in the middle. Random flex. Okay,
(29:30):
But my my seventeen year old son Rider, who was
a junior in high school, and we're talking and he says,
you know, I really want to get ready for my
senior year and playing ball. And I said, then let's
get focused on what you're eating. I said, because it's
like me putting bad gas in the car. So we
need to exercise, even if it's just getting out walking,
get out of the house. We need to eat properly
(29:52):
and eat in in proper increments at proper times. We
need to have the discipline of communication. We need just
step outside of our comfort zone of just sitting in
the house watching TV. You're playing on social media, and
make sure that we have human contact and interaction. There's
all these little simple principles. Basically, it's all the stuff
that taught you in kindergarten. And take care of yourself,
(30:16):
feel good about yourself, get your hair cut, shaved, wear clean, glow.
I mean, do these things that add to yourself value.
And I just look at this all the time when
I see someone spiraling or getting and I have a
good friend of mine who well, I'll watch him starting
to dip and I'll catch him and I'm like, hold up,
what is up? Uh? And I know what that means.
(30:39):
And I'm like, okay, well, let's go right to the beginning.
Have you been going to the gym? Now? Okay, well,
let's go right now, you and me. It's three in
the afternoon and I had already worked out. Let's just go.
Let's go for a walk, Let's go for a hike,
positive endorphins going. Don't sit there and talk to him
about it. You know what do you been eating? Uh?
(30:59):
Let's go story. Okay, this is how you make far
oh far o chicken breast. You know, some green beans
eat this quit eating his sugar laden ship that sends
you on these spikes, that drops you down into these
The sugar that's in food processed foods probably the biggest headache.
We're giving air cells. But these things like energy drinks
(31:20):
and so forth. I mean in moderation when things are right,
But otherwise what we're doing is we put these chemicals
in our body, or people putting chemicals in their body
is messing with their head. And if you can think
about the hangover that you get from alcohol coming down
from that, how discombobulated feel the sugar hangover. Sugar is
the biggest drug in the world. So all right, before
I let you go here, two quick things. One, you
(31:42):
know I have having you on here a super Bowl
week as my guest because that's when you and I
met at the super Bowl. But man, you have kind
of you know, carved your own nicheer and the super Bowl.
Tellus where you got go on this week? Well, I'm
gonna be carrying Jay's bags and of course making sure
that he's doing good, spotting me at the gym. And
again yeah, following Jim, I just stand there and make
sure I keep Jay with a granola bar and you know,
(32:05):
um no. So I love the super Bowl. I love
sporting events, and I love the crescendo. I went to
Wimbledon one time, amazing. I was the Olympics one time, amazing.
I want to go to World Cup. I go to
NBA All Stars, one of the greatest sporting events in
the world. But the super Bowl nothing like it. It
(32:26):
is It's the big dance, It's everything in sports. So
for years so I was beyond thrill and I got
to go to my first Super Bowl. Go to every
super Bowl that I have since I've since I had
the opportunity. My kids love going. But this year, so
every year I've gone, and I've done a for the
last five years, I've done this great tailgate program, and
(32:46):
I've been talking to people, are like, I'm gonna take
it to the next level, and you know, I'm about
the people and trying to make fun ship happen. And
so I got with a group called Medium Rare and
we've done some amazing projects together. We did a project
project together last year called Restaurant Reboots, where we raised
a bunch of money and gave away scholarships to people
to get into the restaurant industry scholarships to help people
(33:09):
because we need industry professionals. We need people growing inside
of our industry to keep the restaurant business going. Just
to really and it was a televised thing that we did.
We had all chefs and industry professionals in talking about
rebuilding the industries right after the pandemic. So the group
is called Medium Rare and we're doing a tailgate. I said,
I want to do it tilgate and said, okay, what
kind of tilgate? So I wanted to ten people. They
(33:29):
go what I said, when you go to the Super Bowl,
you have the NFL experience, which is awesome, private parties
which most people can't go to, and then you go
to the Super Bowl. I said. The reason we tailgate
as football fans is it's the camaraderie of hanging around
the other fans. It's the warm up to the big game.
And that's what as a Raider going to the pregame,
(33:51):
going to the you know, sitting in the park line
and we would leave Northern County to get to the
Raiders State and we leave here at five in the
morning to get down to get a good spot. That
was the day it was, so it's fun. But you
can't ailgate at the at the super Bowl because most
people are from out of town. Don't have to tailgate
stuff parkings, you know, terrible. So I said, let's do this.
So they said, okay, great, So we're doing an event.
We have Diplo, Great Buddy of Mine, Low Cash, Christoph
(34:13):
Press with great Buddies Mine. They're gonna perform. We got
all kinds of food trucks, Triple D trucks and great
Arizona restaurants and chefs coming in. It's free pretends. People
people come, They to thousands of people. They buy it
for the food trucks buy from the beer. But cash
app is one of the sponsors. They're giving away my
trash can nachos. Anybody that has cash app on the phone,
(34:36):
they're giving them free trash can nachos. There's games to
be played, prizes to be one, free entertainment. It's right
across the street from the super Bowl. And we raised
a bunch of money to put it on. And people like,
why would you do this. I'm like, because it's the greatest.
It's it's American pastime. It's everybody deserves to be able
to celebrate the super Bowl, whether or not you can
buy a ticket or not, They're gonna get the feeling,
(34:57):
the energy to you know, the electricity easy goes on
the Super Bowl. Now, we do have a v I
P section over there where people tickets and do that
whole thing. But the deal was is when you got
the opportunity and you've got the power of the people,
and you got these businesses that want to be involved,
why not flex on it, get that shot, give give something.
That was the idea, So of the thirty to four
(35:18):
thirty right before the super Bowl, and it's gonna be awesome.
The other thing I want to promote real crickets. My
favorite show in all season is tournam A Champions. When's
that air next? Let me tell you I built Tournament
of Champions again on the same premise of why you
do what you do to to help people. I've got
all these amazing chef friends that have all this talent.
It is my favorite show, my favorite show platform for
(35:38):
them to kick ass on. So I built Tournament of Champions.
Took me a long time to get the network to
understand it. Like not everybody's into sports. I go, yeah,
they're into cooking sports and this is what these are,
These are these are there's your culinary athletes. February nineteen.
We're going to kick ass and take names season four,
and I promise you it's gonna bloil your mind. The
(35:58):
stuff that comes. What the chefs that are competing are
just next up incredible. And then I was with you
that we we can't tell the story unfortunately, but I
brought Sean mcveigha guy's little house over there while he
was filming, tourn him into champions one night and uh,
guy into a scoop before anybody else's we Uh we
(36:20):
we got into the booze a little bit there and
uh he got he got something. He became the best
insider in America that night. But that's another story that
will never be able to tell you won't, but I'll
tell you what I have. I'm not a RAM, I'm
not a RAM. I'm a RAMS fan because of McVeigh.
But I'll tell you something. What a neat guy and
Jay you've introduced me. I gotta I gotta say this
(36:40):
about you. You are magnetic and the way you take
your time and your energy and the way you share
with other people. I hope you've explained sometime on this
podcast about your son. It's probably when I try to
explain who you are to people, because everybody thinks they
know who you are. People Magazine did a thing me
and they said, you know, I'm not the guy you
(37:01):
know or you think you know. If anybody gets to
really ever hear your story who you are and what
and what you've done as a dad, it is the
most tear jerking drop you down. You you you look
at yourself after you hear the Jay Glazier story and
you go that it's really amazing. So hopefully, and I
haven't to people don't know that I adopted my son.
(37:22):
I meant him when he was two and adopted him
years later, and yeah, he's but you're the sole person
in his life and you're not his biological father, and
you're not I mean, I don't want to give the
story at the at the at the seasonality of your
podcast we share that with people, because really, man, where
you dug that out of and appreciate that from that
(37:43):
inside of yourself is just another story. Sometimes in life
you just gotta do the right thing. So here's what
we're gonna do. I'm gonna have you on for a
second episode at some point here, because that's what we're
gonna do. Because I haven't asked you in your un
breakable moment, we haven't gotten into the other deep stuff
we want to get into anything. Somewhere along the lines,
we're gonna have episode two year good any time anywhere.
Uh we're down, and uh, I love you and I've
(38:07):
loved you, my brother. I hope to see you next weekend. Man.
I always appreciate you walking this walk with me, my friend.
Thank you, love and respect, Buddy,
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glazer, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glazer. Welcome in Everybody Too, Unbreakable a
mental health podcast with Jay Glazer And this podcast. It
allows me to kind of run the gamut on guests,
(00:23):
but it also allows me to bring my best friends on.
How cool is this? I get paid to talk to
my best friends, And when I say best friends, I
truly made it. In the case of this man, he
and I became friends a long time ago. We've kind
of had a similar journey as far as we didn't
do it the conventional way. We did it different ways.
But man, when I tell you all that I have
(00:44):
battle buddies that I kind of lean into a reach
out to when I'm having a bad day, and a
lot of times they don't know that's why I'm reaching out.
This is one of those guests. He is on every
show on the Food Network. He is everybody's favorite restaurant
tour and but he's also one of my favorite humans
on the planet because I've leaned into him on many
occasions when he just thinks I'm calling for a laugh,
(01:06):
for he thinks I'm calling just to funk around with
him over something, but it's it's really for something a
lot deeper than that. It is the one and only
got Fieri. What has happened to my brother? Now? I'm
calling you by your proper name because you fucking finally
got my name right after twenty years of friendship. Listen,
Jay Glaze. I'll tell you it's funny that you say
it that way, that you that you reference the friendship
(01:28):
that way, because we met right around this time super Bowl.
It's Super Bowl, and I knew I could tell in
five minutes whether or I'm gonna be friends with somebody
and what level of friends will be. And I don't
meet people as as crazy as me very often, and
you're crazy, you're unfortunately. But now it's been a it's
been a great friendship. And I think that that he
goes both ways in terms of needing support and and
(01:52):
that shoulder and that confidence and that you know that buddied,
it's been through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
And if you haven't been through the good to bad
and the ugly, I don't you really have the Sometimes
you don't really have the ability to understand. Sometimes the
depth of issues that people are facing. But you've You've
done it for me, You've done it for everybody that
I've known you to be. Everything that you've been around
so well, you know, it's interesting to like the two
(02:15):
of two of us met at the Dallas Super Bowl
whatever year that was, you know, years and was sent
along those lines. We're doing a show him where he
was on the pregame show with Fox. But then I
saw him out at a party. I think I was
with the cast of Sons Anarchy, and you wouldn't let
me leave the party because You're like, dude, I've got
to talk to you the way you've done your career,
and I'm like, you know, the way you're doing your career.
And you and I think we're kind of at the
(02:36):
same point, like people are kind of like almost trying
to figure us out at that time. We're too crazy
men that we're just doing it different than everybody else,
and people are almost trying to figure us both out. Right,
I think that was it. Um, I don't know who
is not letting who leave the party, But that's not
getting the semantics right now. Let's where we can talk
about you me, Sean Payton and Snoop Dogg in New Orleans.
But all right, I want to hit your career. And
(02:57):
you know, people see what you are now, they have
no have no idea how you started. And so I
want to go back to the beginning, like how did
you get even break into where you were? Where you
Kim Chef, Like, bring us back to the beginning. It's incredible.
I love I like how you just dropped in break
in Ja. That's really nice because I know you can
end up telling people and that's I'm not gonna I'm
(03:18):
not gonna talk about that. I'm not gonna talk about
you breaking into my house at four o'clock in the morning.
I'm not gonna do it. I just won't. You won't.
I'm not the one that lost the key. You cannot
your assistant. That's your fault. You almost got me killed.
I didn't almost get you killed. You decided to be
batman and scale my house twenty feet and break into
my house, and I didn't forget my key, otherwise, forgot
(03:39):
the code outside otherwise outside, and I forgot my We're
gonna do that anyway. I knew I was getting druging this.
Let's talk about something possible. So any how I grew
up in northern California. You ever saw the movie Outbreak
with Dustin Hoffman. That's a little town that I was
raised in, a little town called Ferndale. Amazing place. Do
you ever get a chance to go see it? Amazing place.
I just shot a show about it, a one hour
(03:59):
show on Network. Guy's hometown, Flavor Town to Ferndale, that's
the name of town. But so I go up to
this town. My parents both worked, they had a small business,
uh Western clothing store, and both really hard working people,
both good cooks, and in nineteen seventy six, I was
eating sushi and spinach pasta, and I mean it's really
(04:20):
advanced and food at that at that age or my age.
So long story short, the deal and my family was,
whoever cooked got to make a decision what we were eating.
And I I mean I was eating my friend's house
and they're having things like meatloaf and meatballs and so forth,
and we weren't having that. We're having steam, salmon and
vulgar and and you know, broccoli and a spirit. I mean,
it was just a very different world of food in
my house. So they're so they were really your first
(04:41):
teachers then yeah. But the thing was is I knew
I had this craving. It's so funny because my craving
then was meat and all that kind of stuff. And
now I'm back to where my parents started me as
a kid. I'm a huge vegetable grains fan and raw
food fan and so anyway, so I started cooking, and
I remember the day I cooked my first dish. The
about nine and I cooked a steak nine years old.
(05:03):
Years old. My parents worked, so I knew that if
I could do something to help the family, that it
would be a really cool thing to do. So I
cooked a steak and all I knew was butter and
soy sauce. I mean, those are just two things I loved.
And I cooked the steak and I put it there
and my parents sit down and they were so amazed
that I had made dinner. They walked in. My dad goes,
what are you doing, and I go, Mom said I could,
and my mom looks as he goes, well, he was
(05:24):
complaining that we didn't need any meat, and I said,
if you know, if you want some, if you want
a steak, then you cook it. So I went to
the store, got the steak, came home and I cooked it.
My dad takes a bite of the steak and I'm like,
he's gonna kill him, and he looks at me goes,
it might be the best steak I've ever had. Wow,
done zo. That was it. Wait a second. If I cook,
I don't have to do the dishes. If I cook,
(05:46):
we get to eat meat. And if I cook, I
make people happy. I'm like, man, this is my this
is my damn. And so that became the that was
the genesis of it. And then as time went on,
and I mean I cooked jay, I would stay home.
I would fake six. From school, we got the Julia
Child's or I don't know, it was one of the
cookbooks and I was just reading and I'm like, wait
(06:09):
a second, they give you the answers to make this stuff.
HiT's right here, just foll overto I mean, I'm like,
this is this is awesome. And so I started cooking
anything I could get my hands on. When I was
about fourteen, we had exchanged students from Norway and we
had exchanged students the next year from Sweden. I want
to be a change student. But my high school didn't
(06:29):
teach language until you were a junior, and senior in
the only top Spanish. So we had a friend of
a friend came to Thanksgiving and he was a wine
cork salesman from France and his name was Pierre la Choux.
And I sat next to Pierre Thanksgiving and I said, Pierre,
I want to go to France. Can you get me there?
And he's looking at this, and maybe I was thirteen.
He's like, yeah, maybe I could have you speak French.
(06:52):
I go no, and he goes speak French and then
talk to me. So I went to my parents and
said I want to speak French and Dad's okay. He
says why and I said, I want to go to France.
It would be in a shame suite. He says, I'll
make you a deal. If you could pass at one
one year of conversational French at the junior college, then
I'll let you go. So I wrote Pierre. I said, Pierre,
I'm gonna take French at the junior college and if
(07:15):
I passed, my dad will let me go to France.
Pierre says, if you pass, I'll get you into a
high school in the town called Shanty. We would say Shantilly.
That's with a Shantilly race. Tracks Antilly cream. That's things
here there. So yeah, I'm working this deal. I'm fourteen,
so I'm working the deal. So I get I get
to my sophomore year in high school. I registered for
the class at the junior college. And my mom has
(07:37):
to drive me at lunch from high school to the
junior college because I can't drive. I don't have driver.
I go to the class. I take the French class.
It's unbelievable. I passed with a beer. All I had
to do was passed with a beer better. And then
I got to drive the second sepentsiter I got drive,
I passed. I can't speak a word of French when
I got When I passed, I just gotta take the test.
(07:59):
And but I understood the concept of the language and
maybe haud of vocabulary about five or six words. But
I could pass the clops And so my parents said, yes, Pierre.
Pierre knows an old guy that fought with the Americans
in the war. He's a principal of the high school.
He says, yes, you can come to my high school.
I live in a boarding house. I go to the
high school and and that was it. Man, and I
(08:21):
got on that plane. You know we talked about unbreakable.
I got on that plane. I was sixteen. I just
turned sixteen. I just got my driver's license. I was
so excited to drive and in France, get drive to
your eighteen. And I got on that plane and I cried,
what am I doing? I'm sixteen, I'm leaving my mom,
dad and my little sister for a year for your
passion though, But I I mean, I mean, like take
(08:44):
off a big bite and then have to do it.
And I but I got there, and you got thrown
right in the deep end. What you're saying, yeah, huge
deep end. Didn't speak the language, learn how to speak
the language when I was there. I mean I just
I had there was you know, a line of how
do you say that? Kept a note of patent pay
for someone would saying it work to me. I'd write
the word down. I'd get home at night to the
to my room because I didn't live with the family,
(09:05):
didn't reporting him, and I would conjugate the verb and
conjugated past future tents and and and then I put
it on the wall. And if it was a now
and I'd make the translation put on the wall. And
then that's how I learned the language, and by the
time I left, I could speak at about it a
fifth grade level. I could read it about a second
grade level, right at about a first grade level of
(09:25):
second grade level. But I could get through it. I mean,
I could go anywhere I want. It's when I ate
food in France. I was sixteen eight France and that
was it. Man, I knew. I wrote my parents and said,
I know what I'm gonna be. I know what I'm
gonna do. Came back, never finished high school, went straight
into college, graduated college or how did you not finish
high school and goes through to the college, because I
should know again, Jay, It's just it's just like you, brother,
(09:47):
it's a little bit of the hustle. I had taken
the junior college classes with the permission of the school
and my parents, so I was already in the system.
So I just went back to JUNI you just send
up more buses. So the high school calls my senior year.
Everybody's driving to school for the senior year, you know,
(10:09):
kind of the parade of cars going in, and I
just peeled off and drive and go to and go
to Eureka, which is the big town where I'm from
or Buy my town, and that the councilor in the
principal called my dad and said, hey, guy didn't show
up for the first day of school. And my dad's, yeah,
I don't think guys coming back, not coming back. What
do you mean he's not coming back? Yeah, I think
he's I think he's gonna go to college. He can't
(10:31):
go to college, he doesn't have And he's like, well,
I don't know. You have to talked the guy about that.
And by then I was enrolled in school. I had
a job working as a as a Flambay captain as
you know, as a cable side cook at a at
a fine dining restaurant. Went on to college and Sacramento College,
and then I went to un l V, graduated un
(10:51):
l V, came out of there again. It got into
running restaurants. That opened my first restaurant when I was
twenty six. Did the restaurants opened up? What was our
first What was our first restaurant? Johnny Garlics, You're in California,
so we got a wine country I wanted to be.
I didn't want to be quite back in Ferndale, up
in northern California. Well, I didn't want to be in
(11:12):
San Francisco. Do you want to be in a big city.
I want to raise my family in a cultural environment
where we had good connection to the farms and the community,
and there were cultural you know, community events and street
fairs and farmers markets and and that kind of stuff.
I want to be very in touch with my kids schools.
You know, I wanted to be in a big little town.
But how did you get the money coping your first restaurant? Well,
(11:34):
that's another deal, Jay, um So. I went to college
in Vegas and I bet it all on red. Now
I'm just um So. I wouldn't put it past. I
went to Actually, I was not a gambler, but I
was the great. I was the great palm shop because
I always had money. I you know, worked my butt
off all through I paid me a way through college.
I was a deal. I didn't want my parents paying
me paying for college. As soon as I became as
(11:56):
soon as I was independent, I'm like, you did your job,
Thank you very much. I have the best parents in
the world. I love my mom and dad, and I
couldn't say thank you enough. But I'm like, I can
do this. I can do it on my own and
so I paid my way through college, and so I
was very frutable with my money. But I always had money.
My dad was always the thing about have money in
your pocket. So people would come to me in the
dorm or in the and say, hey, man, I got
(12:17):
this football back coming up, and you want to buy
a TV, Like, well, yeah, you know, I got twenty bucks.
I'll give you. No, it's just two and at all TV.
I said, I'll hold the TV. You win the money,
you just give me back. You double my money back
and good. Otherwise I keep They got J d J. Anyhow,
the point was when I opened Johnny Garlics with my buddy.
Here this this guy who was another manager in the
(12:38):
in a restaurant chain that I worked with. We found
a great deal on a restaurant. We tried to get
alone with the loan process was gonna take too long.
This was a got to get the deal done. Today.
Apparently have five thousand bucks to my name. Laurie was
pregnant with Hunter. We had a car with four in
a thousand miles on it, a pickup truck and two rottweilers.
I called my mom and dad, I said, I found
(12:59):
the ice. I got I got the deal. I can't
get this loan to go through, and I need to
make this happen. My dad does he hang out a
second penny, guys on the phone. He found the restaurant deal.
You're good, Yeah, he goes, all right, we're gonna mortgage
the house. How much you need? Wow. So my parents
are one year from retiring from their business, our home
(13:20):
that I was raised in, and my dad mortgages fifty
thousand bucks off it and gives me and lends me
fifty tho. I paid him back in six months. Wow.
But that was started, okay, and then well, so that's
what's is great. I want people to understand this too.
Every time we have a guest come on and they
talk about success, it is about hustle. It's about out
work in the world. That's how your dreams come true. Right,
(13:42):
you're the luckiest guy in the world when you outwork
everybody in the damn room, is right. I walked in that,
I'll walk it. Well, I'm saying your luck comes because
you're the fucking guy out work in the world. That's
what I'm saying. It happens for you, Like I walked
in that giant locker room. I'm like, all right, I'm
gonna do a different everybody, and I'll be the last
motherfucker standing here. I'll work them, not by a little bit,
(14:03):
by a lot. And that's how that overnight success comes.
That's how that quote that luck comes. It's not luck,
You're right, it's because we take manager into our own
hands and how work people are doing different. So now
then you want to talk about a different route, tell
people a second. I want to say something about that
because I want to I want to add to what
you're saying. So under this arm back in the day,
(14:25):
was just this tattoo of this horse shoe and I
put that horseshoe on my arm because everybody said I
was lucky. It's like guy always wins guy, oh you know.
And I used to go around talking about how lucky
I was. And an old guy who I have his
tattoo on my arms cat named Jack LaVar. Jack Lebar
was probably one of the biggest thing besides my dad.
(14:45):
Jack Lebar was probably the biggest influences. And we lost Jack,
but not too soon because he taught me a lot.
And one of the things he said to me goes,
stop stop saying You're lucky because it's not luck. He said.
You have spent your life working your ass off, educating yourself,
and most importantly, you surround yourself with great people. He says.
(15:06):
You have an army of friends, an army of colleagues,
and you make things happen. Things don't happen to you.
You make things happen, and that's very and that's what
you are. Ja. This isn't luck. This is determination and
drive and will and focus and never say die, attitude
(15:28):
and being unbreakable. And that's one of the reasons that
I think you and I are so close is that
nothing was ever given to us my parents, my parents made,
I think, but the most of my dad, my mom
and dad have made in their life was in one
year open doors. We checked doors down. That's the whole point.
So it's not it has nothing to do with luck.
What has to do with is setting a plan? What
(15:48):
has to do with this determination? What has so all
of those words all equal, getting the goal or having
the success, and and luck has nothing. Luck has nothing
to do with it. So I don't want people. Here's
the thing, Jay, I don't want someone to look back
at and say I'm unlucky. I lost my little sister
twelve years ago, my dad got pancreatic cancer five years ago,
(16:09):
and then just beat liver cancer two months ago. Do
you want to talk about luck? If we're gonna go
into a luck category, I got bad luck. I don't
play that. That's bullshit. I love that, dude, I love it.
So you open Johnny Garlics, but then you kicked another
door down. Tell us how you got onto the Food Network?
Because I love this story and most people don't know
(16:30):
this well. I read that story is not told enough.
I read that book called You Too Can Be on
Television by Jay Glazer. It's one page long and scratching,
stiff book, drawing by number. Yes, really well done. Forward
(16:51):
by Michael Strahan. Um, So here's the gosh. You want
to talk about this? So I'm always the one that's
encouraging people. I try to push people all the time.
You not talk about it, but to do it. And
you know, there's a great story of a guy that
wants to win the lottery and and wants to donate
all the money to goodwill and to people and helping
(17:13):
and he's finally so distraught after five years, ten years
of trying to win the lottery that he's gonna you know,
that he's gonna end at all. And he says, uh,
they can't believe that. You know, he's prayed for so
long and it's not happening. Sky's part in the booming
voice comes down and says, could you just at least
buy a lottery ticket, you know, don't don't talk about
(17:36):
it happening, don't think about it happening, don't wish it
was going to happen. Put it into action. And I've
always been that guy telling my friends, and I pushed
more my friends into business. Say one of my really
one of my best friends, r L has the salon
and I told him from day one, whenever this building
comes to show, you buy this building. They came for sale,
(17:57):
and he's like, how do I do this? I said,
we're gonna do it. However, we gotta do it, and
he persevered to it. He bought his first big building.
So I've always been that guy. Well, a show comes
on the Food Network and it's called the Next Food
Network Star. I don't watch TV quite frankly, I had
never even watched the Food Network, not one time. I
saw one five minute clip of Rachel Ray and I'm like, wow,
look at that girl. Go But I've never seen the
(18:18):
food because I'm a chef. I owned restaurants, and I
don't watch TV really a lot anyways, except for Fox Football.
I said it before you did, um, but I don't
watch off TV. So the second season is coming, and
everybody they told me the first season, and you guy
should go in the show. You should be on the show.
I'm like, God, even don't get it. They said, it's
like it's like, uh, Food Network, American Idol. I'm like, okay, whatever.
(18:41):
So I get pushed enough and finally I sent in
a demo tape. And the demo tape is ridiculous. It's
such a I'm mocking it so bad because I don't
want to do it. I mean, really, why do I
want to go on TV compete with a bunch of people.
I've seen some reality TV stuff and then all the
all the bullshit and then get kicked off. And I said,
I'm successful. At that time, I had four restaurants. I
(19:01):
was doing great, and I one day I said, okay,
I push everybody else. I'm trying to set the example
for my son's um writer hadn't been born yet, and
I said, all right, I'll send the tape, and so
I sent that. I started DVD and so I said that,
and I get picked. So I go out of the
show and I go onto it with this attitude and
kind of like, hey, you know what, I'll just take
this positive opportunity. Never been to New York, never met Emerald.
(19:25):
Let me just see what this is like. I show
up in a leather jacket, shorts and flip flops, middle
of November and New York snow on the ground. And
I walked into a room and everybody's buttoned up in
white chef coats. I'm like, oh boy, you ain't Northern
California anymore. And I didn't squeeze it too tight. I
just did what I did. I just who I am
(19:45):
wasn't going to change. And he said, jump up on
that rock and look at the camera and say and
the next Foe network start And I go, f you,
I'm not saying that, because I know what you guys
will do with that. You'll take that and put it
out there and I'm gonna look like the biggest, you know,
jerk in the world. I said, I'm not saying any
of that stuff. I said, I'm just here. You want
me here, here's what you get. And I ended up winning.
(20:05):
So I end up winning the show. And I had
a show called Guys Big Bite, which they did great.
Now it's called Guy's Ranch Kitchen. It's been running for
a long time. There's been sixteen years now. But the
next show they gave me, they gave me a pilot show.
And I did the pilot and it was called Gotta
Get It. And there was a show about kitchen equipment
and gadgets, like you pour cream and sugar in a
ball that's frozen and you're kicking around the yard and
(20:28):
makes ice cream. Or you have an oven that's you know, Bluetooth,
and think fifteen years hego sixteen years ago. Bluetooth talks
to your phone. You can turn your oven on from
you know, your office. So I did the thing and
the pilot they did this pilot. I don't know what
the pilot is. And they did it and they said, uh,
the pilot got picked up for ten episodes. And I'm like,
oh man, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be able
(20:49):
to do that. Like what I'm like, now, I I
can't I can't do that. You did the pilot. I said, well,
I don't know what doing a pilot means. I thought
you got I think the show suck. I said, I'm
not a gadget chef. I'm just a regular guy. You know,
I don't I don't have a avocado slicer when you
peel it kind of thing. I just do the way
(21:10):
we're supposed to do it. So then the president of
that production company calls me, rips me. I'm sorry, I'm
not doing it. Then the finally, the president of Food
Network calls me. Brook Johnson calls me. She says, you're
turning down a primetime show. Why did you apply for
our show? I said, because because I had to do
it to prove that I could do it. She so,
you don't want to be sorry, I said, I would
love to do a show, but if the show has
got to resonate with me, you're not gonna fake this.
(21:33):
I'm not an actor. She says, you know you could
be losing your whole future with Food. I said, I apologize.
I'm not trying to be somebody I'm not. I'm not,
which authenticity is huge to me. And so that was it. Man.
Everyone was pissed and I didn't have an agent at
the time, and but everybody around me was like, whoa
you crazy? And then they came back six months later
(21:54):
and said, Okay, we're gonna give you one more try.
We have a show called Diners, Drive Ins, and Die.
That's that sounds like me dives, I'm down, and that's
what started. Wow. Could you ever imagined like when when
at one point did you realize like, oh my god,
my life has changed. When I was in Dallas for
(22:16):
Rich Crackers, standing on the Fox stage with this bulldog
that's working me over faster, quicker, funnier, wittier than me,
I went, wow, and I'm actually going somewhere with this stuff.
I don't know, Jay, it's it's been when I look
at the things that you know. I did an event
the other day or a couple of months ago with
(22:37):
Tim McGraw. I loved him, a great guy, and we
did a fundraiser raising money for veterans, active military, and
first responders. I did a food and wine side of
things in an auction. Tim did a concert. We only
did it for five people, and then we had a
celebrity softball tournament the next day, just a small group
of people. We raised over a million dollars, but more importantly,
(22:58):
we raised a ton of awareness. And as you know,
because you work with veterans a ton and and you
know what is needed inside of this. It's just it's
if the world could really comprehend what veterans go through,
they would be they would stop in their tracks and say,
wait a second, I want you to go back to
Donner's driving Dodge. At what point when you're doing that
show you realize, oh my god, I'm not just the
(23:22):
guy from Johnny Garlics anymore, like oh my god, ship
has changed. None of it really hit me right between
the eyes, like really got me. Doing Make a Wish Foundation,
which was probably my favorite thing that I've ever done
with my career, working with kids that are terminally ill,
having my sister lost my sister to cancer. That was
(23:43):
something like when these kids could go do anything, they
could go anywhere, they could meet anybody they want, I
would you would assume I'm surprised how many celebrities won't
participate in Make a Wish. That still blows my mind.
But for me, it was like they want to be
with me, They want to you know, so these kids
would come to Triple D and I was so that
was probably one of the big like wow moments, like
(24:04):
that's you know, but I'll be honest with you, and
this not to sound hollywoody, but when I got my
star in Hollywood, I had restaurants right around the corner
from Hollywood Boulevard and from where all the stars are,
and I remember walking by them going to the band.
When that happened, my dad would just be pancreatic cancer.
(24:26):
Matthew McConaughey came and spoke on my behalf Hunter spoke
on my bath. A bunch of my friends and fans
are there. That was the moment I kind of went,
unless they rip up the sidewalks in Hollywood, my grandkids,
grandkids will see that name. And it was that people like,
is this the dream come true? I said, I'm a
I'm a hippie kid from Firdale. Okay, I never even
(24:49):
a million years anticipated that that would happen. That morning, folks,
we talked about you know, I've talked to a lot
on this show about loyalty. I knew how important to
supposed the guy guy knows this now. I had a
back surgery that morning and I scheduled it for six am,
So here's a procedure so I can get to the
(25:10):
star to be there for my brother, right, And I
was all sorts of propofoled out, probably had more fun
than anybody, but I was there for you on your
big day. And that's what you want people to understand.
That loyalty is a dying art and it's beautiful and
that's what we need to do. And Man, to see
(25:32):
you up there that day with again, I was a
little hazy from the anesthesia, but I'm sitting up there
to him going, oh my god, Matthew McConney is introducing
him and like, look what he's become. But but the
difference is from the day I met you and now
you've never changed. The authenticity has stayed the same, and
that's where people you Again, I think they looked at
us a certain way of these fucking crazy guys who
were these guys, But we've never changed. So the authenticity
(25:53):
is what our equity really is. Just touched on something,
Jake that I think we have to flex on more often.
And I don't know why that my word these days
lean into flex on. We always assume that people know
how much we love them and how much we respect
them and how much we honor them, and how much
we would do for them. And unfortunately we have this
(26:15):
perception in our mind that we don't often explain or
share or lean into as we need to. And you
did that day. I mean you do all the time.
J J doesn't send me messages, you guys. Uh. He
doesn't send me text on us. He sends me recordings,
which are great. I mean, because you really can get
the sense, you can get the inflection, you can get
them on it. You can get all the different modulation
(26:36):
and the dramatic pause and the whole thing. I think
they're way better than a text message. And then when
I don't hear from your while, send them to you
just to make sure because I know you're so busy
that your head's on straight. But the thing is is
I think, and that's a great thing. It's it's part
of your book, Jay, which I've shared your book with
so many people, and it's so interesting because I have
you gave me like ten books and I have them
(26:57):
in my office and I think I'm down to like too,
because it will be every once in a while when
someone will be here and we'll be talking and they'll
kind of be giving me some of this because I'm,
you know, one of the older guys in my group.
And someone'll be talking about and say, Matt Cousins going
through this thing, Go you know what I got this buddy.
You know Jay Glazier is he said, he wrote this
book and he does this program with these veterans. I said,
(27:18):
you haven't take this book, and like it's your copy.
I'm like, it's my only copy, which is also called
Unbreakable by the way, right, it's my only copy, but
go ahead and take it. And I've had more response
from doing that with people. But the point is lean
in and and share that message. So I'm sharing the
message with a great friend who's helping a cousin or
(27:39):
one of my great friends who needs help. And uh,
we have so much power. We don't exercise our power
as friends and family, I think as often as we
need to. We're so busy in their social media and
there's all all this stuff going on, and we really
do have the power to move the pendulum of energy
and spirit and mental health and so forth, more than
(28:01):
we know we do, or more than we exercise that
we do. And that's the whole thing with mental health.
Because of social media, we all kind of think our
lives stuck. We're all comparing ourselves to somebody else. We're
all looking down at our phones constantly, and we're losing
that connection. So by me talking about this and giving
it words and showing other people, man, I struggle on
the top of my game, and I struggle now just
as much as I ever have, maybe a little less
(28:23):
now I'm about because now I understand how to open
up some people more and to show my vulnerability more,
knowing that their strength. That no one I can call
a guy Fieri when I'm struggling, and that man, I
got people there for me, and I don't have to
suffer alone anymore, and suffer in silence is huge and
that's what our that's what our jobs are, and that's
the thing that I think we have to get over.
And social media is honestly, there's really positive aspects of it.
(28:47):
It's awful, but then there's really negative aspects of it.
And what I always try to remind people of is
you have to do things. If you want your car
to run great, you have to do things to your
car if you want you if you want to if
you want to continue the life of your car, you
gotta wash it so it doesn't rust, you know, washing
action that change the oil so it runs properly, change
(29:08):
the brakes, change the tires. You gotta clean it. You
gotta give it some love. You gotta take care of
it if you wanted to perform. Well, we don't think
they've got the same thing with the with the brain
and the body. We need to exercise. And I'm not
saying every it has to be is ripped as J.
We have to eat properly, you know, we don't. Thanks
for the random flex J right in the middle. Random flex. Okay,
(29:30):
But my my seventeen year old son Rider, who was
a junior in high school, and we're talking and he says,
you know, I really want to get ready for my
senior year and playing ball. And I said, then let's
get focused on what you're eating. I said, because it's
like me putting bad gas in the car. So we
need to exercise, even if it's just getting out walking,
get out of the house. We need to eat properly
(29:52):
and eat in in proper increments at proper times. We
need to have the discipline of communication. We need just
step outside of our comfort zone of just sitting in
the house watching TV. You're playing on social media, and
make sure that we have human contact and interaction. There's
all these little simple principles. Basically, it's all the stuff
that taught you in kindergarten. And take care of yourself,
(30:16):
feel good about yourself, get your hair cut, shaved, wear clean, glow.
I mean, do these things that add to yourself value.
And I just look at this all the time when
I see someone spiraling or getting and I have a
good friend of mine who well, I'll watch him starting
to dip and I'll catch him and I'm like, hold up,
what is up? Uh? And I know what that means.
(30:39):
And I'm like, okay, well, let's go right to the beginning.
Have you been going to the gym? Now? Okay, well,
let's go right now, you and me. It's three in
the afternoon and I had already worked out. Let's just go.
Let's go for a walk, Let's go for a hike,
positive endorphins going. Don't sit there and talk to him
about it. You know what do you been eating? Uh?
(30:59):
Let's go story. Okay, this is how you make far
oh far o chicken breast. You know, some green beans
eat this quit eating his sugar laden ship that sends
you on these spikes, that drops you down into these
The sugar that's in food processed foods probably the biggest headache.
We're giving air cells. But these things like energy drinks
(31:20):
and so forth. I mean in moderation when things are right,
But otherwise what we're doing is we put these chemicals
in our body, or people putting chemicals in their body
is messing with their head. And if you can think
about the hangover that you get from alcohol coming down
from that, how discombobulated feel the sugar hangover. Sugar is
the biggest drug in the world. So all right, before
I let you go here, two quick things. One, you
(31:42):
know I have having you on here a super Bowl
week as my guest because that's when you and I
met at the super Bowl. But man, you have kind
of you know, carved your own nicheer and the super Bowl.
Tellus where you got go on this week? Well, I'm
gonna be carrying Jay's bags and of course making sure
that he's doing good, spotting me at the gym. And
again yeah, following Jim, I just stand there and make
sure I keep Jay with a granola bar and you know,
(32:05):
um no. So I love the super Bowl. I love
sporting events, and I love the crescendo. I went to
Wimbledon one time, amazing. I was the Olympics one time, amazing.
I want to go to World Cup. I go to
NBA All Stars, one of the greatest sporting events in
the world. But the super Bowl nothing like it. It
(32:26):
is It's the big dance, It's everything in sports. So
for years so I was beyond thrill and I got
to go to my first Super Bowl. Go to every
super Bowl that I have since I've since I had
the opportunity. My kids love going. But this year, so
every year I've gone, and I've done a for the
last five years, I've done this great tailgate program, and
(32:46):
I've been talking to people, are like, I'm gonna take
it to the next level, and you know, I'm about
the people and trying to make fun ship happen. And
so I got with a group called Medium Rare and
we've done some amazing projects together. We did a project
project together last year called Restaurant Reboots, where we raised
a bunch of money and gave away scholarships to people
to get into the restaurant industry scholarships to help people
(33:09):
because we need industry professionals. We need people growing inside
of our industry to keep the restaurant business going. Just
to really and it was a televised thing that we did.
We had all chefs and industry professionals in talking about
rebuilding the industries right after the pandemic. So the group
is called Medium Rare and we're doing a tailgate. I said,
I want to do it tilgate and said, okay, what
kind of tilgate? So I wanted to ten people. They
(33:29):
go what I said, when you go to the Super Bowl,
you have the NFL experience, which is awesome, private parties
which most people can't go to, and then you go
to the Super Bowl. I said. The reason we tailgate
as football fans is it's the camaraderie of hanging around
the other fans. It's the warm up to the big game.
And that's what as a Raider going to the pregame,
(33:51):
going to the you know, sitting in the park line
and we would leave Northern County to get to the
Raiders State and we leave here at five in the
morning to get down to get a good spot. That
was the day it was, so it's fun. But you
can't ailgate at the at the super Bowl because most
people are from out of town. Don't have to tailgate
stuff parkings, you know, terrible. So I said, let's do this.
So they said, okay, great, So we're doing an event.
We have Diplo, Great Buddy of Mine, Low Cash, Christoph
(34:13):
Press with great Buddies Mine. They're gonna perform. We got
all kinds of food trucks, Triple D trucks and great
Arizona restaurants and chefs coming in. It's free pretends. People
people come, They to thousands of people. They buy it
for the food trucks buy from the beer. But cash
app is one of the sponsors. They're giving away my
trash can nachos. Anybody that has cash app on the phone,
(34:36):
they're giving them free trash can nachos. There's games to
be played, prizes to be one, free entertainment. It's right
across the street from the super Bowl. And we raised
a bunch of money to put it on. And people like,
why would you do this. I'm like, because it's the greatest.
It's it's American pastime. It's everybody deserves to be able
to celebrate the super Bowl, whether or not you can
buy a ticket or not, They're gonna get the feeling,
(34:57):
the energy to you know, the electricity easy goes on
the Super Bowl. Now, we do have a v I
P section over there where people tickets and do that
whole thing. But the deal was is when you got
the opportunity and you've got the power of the people,
and you got these businesses that want to be involved,
why not flex on it, get that shot, give give something.
That was the idea, So of the thirty to four
(35:18):
thirty right before the super Bowl, and it's gonna be awesome.
The other thing I want to promote real crickets. My
favorite show in all season is tournam A Champions. When's
that air next? Let me tell you I built Tournament
of Champions again on the same premise of why you
do what you do to to help people. I've got
all these amazing chef friends that have all this talent.
It is my favorite show, my favorite show platform for
(35:38):
them to kick ass on. So I built Tournament of Champions.
Took me a long time to get the network to
understand it. Like not everybody's into sports. I go, yeah,
they're into cooking sports and this is what these are,
These are these are there's your culinary athletes. February nineteen.
We're going to kick ass and take names season four,
and I promise you it's gonna bloil your mind. The
(35:58):
stuff that comes. What the chefs that are competing are
just next up incredible. And then I was with you
that we we can't tell the story unfortunately, but I
brought Sean mcveigha guy's little house over there while he
was filming, tourn him into champions one night and uh,
guy into a scoop before anybody else's we Uh we
(36:20):
we got into the booze a little bit there and
uh he got he got something. He became the best
insider in America that night. But that's another story that
will never be able to tell you won't, but I'll
tell you what I have. I'm not a RAM, I'm
not a RAM. I'm a RAMS fan because of McVeigh.
But I'll tell you something. What a neat guy and
Jay you've introduced me. I gotta I gotta say this
(36:40):
about you. You are magnetic and the way you take
your time and your energy and the way you share
with other people. I hope you've explained sometime on this
podcast about your son. It's probably when I try to
explain who you are to people, because everybody thinks they
know who you are. People Magazine did a thing me
and they said, you know, I'm not the guy you
(37:01):
know or you think you know. If anybody gets to
really ever hear your story who you are and what
and what you've done as a dad, it is the
most tear jerking drop you down. You you you look
at yourself after you hear the Jay Glazier story and
you go that it's really amazing. So hopefully, and I
haven't to people don't know that I adopted my son.
(37:22):
I meant him when he was two and adopted him
years later, and yeah, he's but you're the sole person
in his life and you're not his biological father, and
you're not I mean, I don't want to give the
story at the at the at the seasonality of your
podcast we share that with people, because really, man, where
you dug that out of and appreciate that from that
(37:43):
inside of yourself is just another story. Sometimes in life
you just gotta do the right thing. So here's what
we're gonna do. I'm gonna have you on for a
second episode at some point here, because that's what we're
gonna do. Because I haven't asked you in your un
breakable moment, we haven't gotten into the other deep stuff
we want to get into anything. Somewhere along the lines,
we're gonna have episode two year good any time anywhere.
Uh we're down, and uh, I love you and I've
(38:07):
loved you, my brother. I hope to see you next weekend. Man.
I always appreciate you walking this walk with me, my friend.
Thank you, love and respect, Buddy,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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