Anthony Bourdain was right about Guy Fieri

[betsuni]

12. I loved the restaurants featured in "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," family owned and run.

Made things from scratch: dry rubs and marinades and sauces, smoked meats, breads and pizza doughs, their own recipes. Serious food people who rarely seemed comfortable around Fieri and his dumb jokes and incessant "Flavortown" "Hold the phone" "Shut the door."

Fieri made it hard to watch, the epitome of the worst of Food Network, hosts with exaggerated personalities and cartoonish appearance (their "brand" ). On the show "The Next Food Network Star" you see by the way some of them work in the kitchen that they're good chefs, but have to have a brand audiences will remember and be entertained by. A guy might happen to be from Texas so they'll brand him The Texas Cowboy Gourmet or something; he'll exaggerate the accent and wear a cowboy outfit with a big hat and yell "Yeeee Haaaaw!" every time he sees meat. It's sad. He's probably a vegetarian who's never been on a ranch in his life. And on other reality shows with cooks competing for something, all of them need a sob story no matter how weak: My Italian grandmother died when I was twelve and I've never gotten over it, my cat ran away five years ago, I missed the bus once.

I did hear about Fieri doing fundraising for causes and other good things, and obviously he's helped many restaurants by promoting them on his shows.