Guy Fieri Comes to SSU!

Last night Guy Fieri came and spoke at SSU, it was really interesting! He is local to the area (he lives in Santa Rosa about 7 miles away from SSU). Normally a 'tv personality' of his fame wouldn't make an appearance without being paid a couple grand minimum, but Guy is all about community and having your community's back, so he came to SSU for free!

While he was here he told some stories about how it all started, why he chose this area to begin his two original restaurants - Tex Wasabi and Johnny Garlic's, and of course how he balances fame and family.

He told a story about how he was recently at a fundraiser in Kentucky trying to raise money for a children's hospital, and he was at 9K and was trying to get to 10K but all of the items had been auctioned off, and he was even auctioning off random things he just found like a mini fridge from the hotel. And finally he yelled to the crowd "We need to get to 10K, what's it gonna take??" and a guy yelled from the back "your sunglasses!"

Well, apparently he had just received the sunglasses as a gift from the manufacturer, they were a one of a kind pair, created with his custom logo and copy of his tattoo as the design. He was in love with the glasses and had only had them about a week. But after standing on stage hyping everyone up about raising money, he knew he had no choice. So he walked to the back of the room and gave the guy his sunglasses, and brought the fundraiser up to 10K.

He said that the #1 thing people say to him is "Wow, your not that fat in real life"

He also talked about how the airport staff at SFO always asks him if he brought food every time he checks in, so he has started bringing huge platters of pasta every time he flys.

Here is a quick video clip of Guy reenacting his casting tape for The Next Food Network Star, which he didn't even want to apply for. His family and friends staged an intervention of sorts and forced him to mail in the tape, they even walked him to the PakMail store to make sure he sent it out.

Sadly I wasn't able to get a picture with him, he had to leave right after his talk to go to his son's school's open house. But it was great to get to hear him speak, and hear some behind the scenes stories!

Thanks SSU for another night of free entertainment :)

-Katie