While you (and me and everyone else) might think of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives or The Barefoot Contessa every time Guy Fieri and Ina Garten come up in conversation, believe it or not, they had lives—and, more specifically, careers—before The Food Network.
Each celeb chef’s path to television looks a little bit different. Here’s how all your fave stars got their start.
Guy Fieri
If we really want to go wayyyy back here, technically, Guy Fieri got his start in the food industry at the age of 10 selling soft pretzels on a three-wheeled bicycle cart he built with his dad and dubbed “The Awesome Pretzel Cart.” However, it wasn’t until Fieri won the Food Network’s competition show, Next Food Network Star in 2006 that he really got his big break. His prize was his own series, the Emmy-nominated Guy’s Big Bite, and it catapulted him into celeb chef status.
He went on to host a slew of additional shows—including arguably his most iconic, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives—open dozens of restaurants, partner with Sammy Hagar to start Santo Tequila, and drop his own product lines. Seems his career was always written in the stars, or, erm, pretzel salt?
Ina Garten
In 1978, Ina Garten was working in the White House Office of Management and Budget (yes, that White House) and decided to venture off into something more creative. She discovered a New York Times ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons and (after “love at first site“) she decided to buy it—with no prior experience in the food business.
She ran the store—and perfected her “baguettes and chicken salad” in the process—for 18 years before deciding to try a new challenge. She sold the business to her store manager and began writing her first cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa, was released in 1999. That first cookbook was a bestseller and not only brought opportunities for more publishing projects, but a Food Network series of the same name.
Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay started out as a bus boy at Joe Allen’s in NYC and impressed Joe Allen himself so much that he offered to fund his education at The French Culinary Institute (!). He bopped around in the restaurant industry after graduation before a retired politician offered to help him open the first of his own, Mesa Grill, which saw massive success and landed him a spot on Iron Chef America, Food Republic reports.
Flay went on to become a regular guest on Food Network shows and hosted his first, Grillin’ and Chillin’ thereafter, followed by Hot Off the Grill and Boy Meets Grill. In 2006, we were introduced to, dare I say his most iconic, Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Giada De Laurentiis
Though now a Food Network alum, De Laurentiis spent over 20 years on the channel. Before appearing in her own series, she studied at the famous Cordon Bleu in France and worked in hugely successful kitchens, including the Ritz Carlton and Spago in Los Angeles. She even started her own catering company, but a network exec ultimately scouted Giada.
According to Food Republic, while working as a food stylist, she was asked to write an article about her family’s food traditions for Food & Wine. It inspired De Laurentiis’ debut show, Everyday Italian.
Rachael Ray
Much like Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray’s culinary aspirations came early. “My first vivid memory is watching my mom in a restaurant kitchen,” she said, per The Food Network. “She was flipping something with a spatula. I tried to copy her and ended up grilling my right thumb! I was 3 or 4.”
From there, the future bestselling cookbook author and on-air personality’s path to television looked a little different than Fieri’s. After moving to New York City, she worked at (and later became the manager of) the candy counter at Macy’s before helping to open the gourmet marketplace Agata & Valentina, where she served as store manager and buyer.
However, it wasn’t until she moved back to upstate New York that her career really took off. She began managing pubs and restaurants at the Sagamore Resort on Lake George and was ultimately recruited by Cowan and Lobel to work as a food buyer—and later, as a chef! In an effort to increase grocery sales, Ray created a series of cooking classes, including “30-minute Mediterranean Meals,” which quickly shot to fame. She started doing “30-Minute Meals” segments on the nightly news, won a few regional Emmys, and her career snowballed from there.
Alton Brown
Alton Brown’s career actually started behind the camera. The now-beloved on-screen chef initially worked as a cameraman and went on to spend eight years directing TV commercials. However, in the early ’90s, he got the itch for culinary school in the hopes of eventually creating his own food shows—which, spoiler, he did!
Ree Drummond
You might be aware of Ree Drummond’s role as a ranch wife or her wildly successful blog, “The Pioneer Woman.” But did you know that’s pretty much the reason she’s famous—and how she ended up on The Food Network?
Drummond’s OG site, “Confessions of a Pioneer Woman,” picked up speed quickly. “Someone read it, told their mom and that mom told her friends,” she told Forbes. “And it grew incredibly organically.”
In 2009, Time Magazine named the blog one of the top 25 in the world. Drummond’s first on-site recipe, “How to Cook Steak,” evolved into a book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. It became a massive hit, and by 2011, The Pioneer Woman had 23.3 million page views a month. That’s when The Food Network came calling.
