If you’re looking for a defense of Guy Fieri, look no further than Esquire. Writer Jason Diamond has penned an article called “The Unrecognizable Genius Of Guy Fieri,” and it’s kind of convincing. For one thing, Diamond points out Fieri is doing a lot of economic good by highlighting local restaurants on his Food Network Show Diners, Drive-Ins And Dives. One restaurant owner saw profits go up 500 percent after a visit from the spiky haired host.
After interviewing the man himself, Diamond also gains a newfound respect for Fieri’s unpretentious approach to food and shrewd approach to marketing. Inspired by one of Fieri’s catchphrases, Diamond writes:
“Real food for real people,” I think to myself as I listen to him talk. It’s so damn simple, yet totally brilliant. It’s the food version of bipartisanship in politics: You can’t make fun of it because then you’re a classist snob, but you also have to take it with a grain of salt because it’s really perfectly pandering. And that’s what Fieri intrinsically understands. He knows he’s not Oprah or Ellen. He’s not a good-looking late night talk show host like Jimmy Fallon. He’ll never be America’s sweetheart. His first job is to get viewers, and he does that by making everything super simple. He knows more viewers are going to tune in to see him talk about good pulled pork (for what it’s worth, Fieri knows a good deal about BBQ—enough to get him inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame) rather than some young hot shot chef in Los Angeles talk about his experimental cooking with compost.
In other words: It’s Fieri’s Flavortown and we’re just living in it.