Beloved Food Network personality and chef Guy Fieri has reportedly signed an $80 million contract with the Food Network, making him the highest paid chef on television. The new deal is set to be paid to Fieri over the next three years and is a $50 million raise from his previous contract for his shows “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” and “Guys Grocery Games.”
Drive Ins and Dives, which has been on the air since 2006, generated more than $230 million in 2020 ad revenue for the Food Network, according to data analytics firm Kantar.
Fieri became a household name after winning the second season of Food Network Star in 2006. His first show, Guy’s Big Bite, only aired 6 episodes and he was reportedly paid less than $1,000 for each. But, it was just the beginning for Fieri who used the win as a stepping stone to build an empire that consists of 14 Food Network hosting gigs, a prime time hosting stint for the game show Minute to Win It, a celebrity-branded ghost kitchen, a vineyard and private wine label, an Emmy award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
So, what is Guy Fieri doing with his impressive paycheck? According to PEOPLE, Fieri and his wife purchased a home in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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“We’ve been trying for a long time to get a place in Florida,” he tells PEOPLE. “It’s been an ongoing joke that whenever I would go to the South Beach Food and Wine Festival, someone would say to me, ‘So when are you going to move to Florida?’ I would always say, ‘We’re looking. We’re looking for a house.’ Because I love Florida. I love the people. I love the culture.”
Fieri, who has been married to his wife Lori for 26 years, are based in Northern California but have talked about owning property in Florida for awhile.
“We’ve been talking about it, talking about it, and talking about it, and we just happened to be back there shooting Triple D and doing some projects, and we contacted a real estate agent who took us around and showed us some stuff,” Fieri said.
The star didn’t share many details about his new digs, but did say that the property is on the water. Although Fieri and his family don’t plan to be able to make the most of their new purchase for a few years. Fieri is the father of two sons, Hunter (24) and Ryder (15).
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“We won’t be there for quite a while because Ryder (15) is still a freshman in high school,” he says. “But it will be neat for my mom and dad to be able to bounce over there.”
Watch Guy Fieri’s audition tape for Food Network Star below.