If you send your parents a detailed grocery list before heading home for the holidays, you have something in common with Ryder Fieri. Despite having the “best time” at college his first semester, Guy Fieri says his youngest son “sets a menu” for his dad to whip up.

“He’ll write down his list of what he’d like to have: ‘So do you think on Friday night we could have this?'” the Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives star told People. “He has a good meal program there at San Diego State, but he says it just doesn’t taste the same as it does at home.”

“I’m like, man, that brings tears to my eyes,” Fieri continued. “I think if you’re staying in a dorm, it never compares to home.”

So what is on the menu? Ryder’s favorite dish of his dad’s is chicken piccata with a lemon-caper sauce. And while it will be in the rotation during his holiday break, he has more than just the one meal coming his way.

“I can’t wait until he has an apartment,” Fieri said, before clarifying that they “make them” live in the dorms for their freshman year. “But when he has an apartment, I’m going to be like the old Italian nonna that’s going to be packaging him up the cooler to take back. ‘Here’s four blocks of chili. Here’s your marinara, here’s your chicken marsala.”

Fieri and his wife Lori dropped off Ryder in August for his first semester at San Diego State and even said that it hadn’t “fully hit” them at the time. “It was a wild weekend moving @_ryderfieri into the dorms at @sandiegostateuniversity!!” he wrote, before admitting that “not seeing him everyday is gonna be hard.”

“So proud of you Ryder,” Fieri added. “Good luck.”

In May, the celeb chef revealed that his son was admitted into his top choice for college. “He had to do it on his own merit. He had to go down, he had to do the walk-throughs at the school,” he said. “[He’s] super excited.”

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Megan Schaltegger is an NYC-based writer. She loves strong coffee, eating her way through the Manhattan food scene, and her dog, Murray. She promises not to talk about herself in third person IRL.


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