By Tanya Nieto

We might know him as an average husband and father here in the Sonoma County, but America sees him as the winner of The Next Food Network Star , Guy Fieri. Going on the TV show, Fieri was just expecting to have a great time. In the end it got him to Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives as well as Guy's Big Bite , two shows starring Guy on the Food Network channel.

Fieri is the owner and creator of two well-known local restaurants, the Johnny Garlic's franchise and Tex Wasabi's in Santa Rosa. Fieri lives in Santa Rosa with his wife Lori and their two sons, Hunter and Ryder. Fieri believes that winning The Next Food Network Star did not change his priorities; it will always be "family, fun, friends, living a full life, eating killer foods, and laughing a lot." Fieri describes his job as "Cook. Live. Laugh."

Growing up, Fieri was a big meat eater, and his sister was a vegetarian. The meals at home would consist of green foods, such as pesto pasta and salad. Fieri shares that when he was ten years old he had asked his mother when were they going to have meat, and all his mother had to tell him was, "If you want meat, then make it."    Fieri, tired of eating just greens, attempted to cook. That night his father arrived from work tasting Fieri's meal of steak and told him "that might be the greatest steak I've ever had." From that day forward Fieri began selling his own soft pretzels to his neighborhood.

Though Fieri could cook when he was only ten years old, he didn't decide that cooking was going to be his career until he was sixteen. Fieri got involved with cooking because he wants to make people happy. "He who cooks gets to decide what dinner is," Fieri explains. Always full of energy, Fieri makes everyone around him feel like they don't want to be anywhere else but there talking to him, because talking to Fieri brings an instant bond as if you've known him all your life. Fieri is a happy man, but he's gone through hardship to get to where he is.

Fieri explains that life is full of hard work and commitment. He said recently to Windsor High School students that "the greatest thing you have is education.   Everything you learn in school has some correlation in you future." Fieri describes that his unique ability is to understand people. Fieri did not fully graduate high school, but went to college after traveling because he learned that life does need education. Moving up from being the shortest kid in class, to owning his own restaurants, to being on television, Fieri is not just some lucky one; he is one that never gave up.

 "I don't like what I do, I love what I do, and I would not be doing what I'm doing today if I didn't go back to school, and learn." Fieri explains that his future plans are waking up tomorrow, and continuing to learn, grow, and create. Guy Fieri is a great cook, a great chef but does not think that labels make a person; the person makes the labels. "Find what you do well, and do it, with an open mind and never give up."