Hunter Fieri has a quieter presence than his famous chef dad Guy Fieri. The father-son duo is fresh off a cage-free shark dive in the Bahamas — part of a special they filmed for Shark Week's 30th anniversary. But if not for the telltale similarity in their Instagram posts — a shot of a shark swimming just under foot — you'd have thought they were on different trips.
Guy's on a boat, yell-talking into the camera, bleached blond goatee whipping in the wind. It's a little theatrical, a little frenzied — totally Guy. Hunter's floating in the water, decked out in scuba gear, his eyes calm behind his goggles. The Fieri flair is there — in a hang loose hand sign — but it's toned down.
That's the thing about Hunter and Guy: They're cut from the same cloth, just sewn together a little differently.
"My dad definitely has a ..." Hunter trails off during our phone call, pausing to find the right words. Guy's on the line, too. "A certain style," he finishes, laughing. Guy chuckles softly, too, apparently approving of his son's phrasing. "There's no way I could follow his act — no way," Hunter continues. "I could try, but it wouldn’t work."
Still, when I ask Guy and Hunter to describe each other in one word, this is what happens: "Authentic," Guy blurts out. There's a sigh, then Hunter says, "You can't do that dad! I just picked that word for you."
Like father, like son.
Guy's been in the public eye since Hunter was 10-years-old, after he won season two of The Next Food Network Star. But the chef's first restaurant — the Santa Rosa, CA, outpost of Johnny Garlic's — opened the same year Hunter was born, in 1996.
When Hunter was 13 and his cousin Jules was 12, they cooked Guy a birthday dinner — pasta and steak. "Watching them, they were really engaged and eager to do it," Guy remembers. "It was just awesome, a really neat feeling."
But growing up, Hunter thought he'd be a Supercross racer, not a chef. "At that point, I was young and crazy," the 21-year-old says.
In middle school and high school, Hunter spent his free time playing sports, too — a little basketball, a little soccer — and eventually found himself cooking for his dad not just as his son, but as his employee.
Hunter worked at Johnny Garlic's and Tex Wasabi's, the two California restaurant chains Guy started but has since sold his shares in. Hunter started in the back of the house, like Guy, washing dishes — like Guy. Nepotism isn't part of either Fieri's vocabulary; he worked his way up honestly. "He did it all," Guy says of Hunter, proudly. "He ran sauté on a Saturday night. He knew how to run the show."
Suddenly Guy begins a monologue about how kids need to get off their computers and learn how things work and find out how they can make an impact. Hunter doesn't pipe in until his dad has finished. I imagine he's heard this one before.
"I didn't really like anything else," Hunter finally says. "I liked to be outside, and I liked construction and what not, but cooking is what it is. It's what I do. It's what we all do."
Hunter had a side hustle in high school, too: a mobile pizza trailer called Kulinary Gangstas from which he and a friend served Neapolitan pies. It lasted for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. "It was pretty successful and fun," he says.
After graduating in 2015, Hunter and Guy spent a month in Europe. "We'd been talking about it for years, since he was in elementary school," Guy says. All 13 of their stops — Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France — were filmed for a five-episode Food Network special called Guy and Hunter's European Vacation.
"I learned a lot more about food there than I ever had anywhere else," Hunter says. "That was one of the best experiences we've ever had." When he graduates college, he and Guy are going to tackle Asia.
Their adventure was, in a way, a long, drawn-out goodbye. Just after they returned, Hunter left Northern California for The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) — and if you're thinking this sounds familiar, he's going to stop you right there.
"I chose to go to school at UNLV because it's one of the best places for hospitality; that’s why I wanted to go there," Hunter says, defending the fact that it was also Guy's alma mater. (That's true, by the way: It tops all sorts of Best Hospitality Programs in the U.S. lists.)
Hunter's been at the university for three years now. That's three years that he's been in a city that's chock-full of Strip restaurants and hotel eateries run by some of the world's most famous chefs — including his dad. For the past two years, he's been interning under Caesar's group, where Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and Gordon Ramsay all have restaurants.
He was supposed to spend the fall semester in London training under Gordon, but UNLV wouldn't provide the credits he needed while abroad. And, Guy will have you know, he had no hand in the offer. Remember: The Fieris don't do nepotism. "The Gordon opportunity — that was Hunter talking to Gordon," Guy says. "I don't call any buddies for favors. Hunter doesn't play it. That's one of the things I'm most proud of."
The Gordon offer's still on the table, if Hunter wants to go after he graduates, but his experience at Caesar's hasn't been all for naught. "I really wanted to get into fine dining and see what it was like versus fast casual," Hunter explains. The latter is how most of Guy's restaurants — where Hunter earned his chops — have been modeled.
"I wanted him to get a couple years of his own feeling and flavor and message," Guy agrees. "When that gets done, we'll all know when it's time for him to come back to the family program. It's gonna happen, I don’t have any question. Matter of fact, I look forward to it. I’m almost wanting to cheat the system and bring him back early, but I know what's going to be best for him."
Hunter's eager to rejoin Team Fieri, too. He and Guy clearly work well as a pair: Together, they've hosted events at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Hunter's been on Guy's Grocery Games twice — once as a co-host and once as a judge. They've filmed a number of TV specials, too.
But he won't just be content as Guy Fieri 2.0.
"I want to follow in the same path because I feel like I can kill it with that. I want it all," Hunter says so nonchalantly, it seems like he's already got his 20-year plan for success mapped out. He speaks so confidently, he actually might: "I want to open my own restaurants — to have things that I created and things my dad created and run this empire."
Now he's on a roll. "I want the restaurants and the shows and the cookbooks — and more. I have to one-up dad, of course," Hunter jokes.
And that's how I know: Someday — soon, probably — we won't just know Hunter as the son of a famous chef — but as the famous chef himself. Just you wait and see.
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