Guy Fieri and his wife Lori are raising three boys: sons Hunter and Ryder and nephew Jules. Jules’ mother was Guy’s sister who passed away in 2011. The last time I wrote about Guy, I talked about his kids in that article but I didn’t cover much of that because there was so much else to talk about. There was a cute part about when they got their licenses, they were given the family minivan to drive for a year. It’s an old Chrysler with over 250K miles on it that once belonged to Guy’s parents. The conditions were, if the kid went a year without any tickets or accidents, they would get a new car. Cut to last New Year’s Eve, which is also son Ryder’s birthday. After a year of no tom-foolery in grandma’s minivan, Ryder was gifted a ‘new’ truck, which meant his brother’s truck after being overhauled. And Ryder had to pay half.
Guy Fieri’s son Ryder had a milestone birthday — and not just because he turned 17.
The Food Network superstar’s youngest son celebrated his birthday on New Year’s Eve and the big day came with a gift he’s been earning for a full year. In PEOPLE’s September cover story, Guy, 55, who also has a son Hunter, 26, revealed that he has a rule when it comes to the boys’ first vehicle.
“You know what Ryder drove to school [when] he got his license? He got my parents’ old, used 259,000-mile Chrysler minivan. I’m not buying Ryder a car, and I refuse to let him buy a car until he spends one year with no tickets, no accidents, driving the minivan,” he said at the time.
Well, one year has passed and Ryder has since graduated out of the minivan. Guy — who is hosting “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Live” at Food Network’s South Beach Wine and Food Festival on Feb. 24 — tells PEOPLE that to reveal the big gift, he set up a scavenger hunt for Ryder and his friends at his ranch in Northern California.
More specifically, it was for his brother’s crew cab pick-up truck: “Hunter wanted my truck, so Hunter bought my truck and we made Ryder buy Hunter’s truck.”
Guy and his wife, Lori, pitched in half the cost, and Ryder used the money he’s earned working on his dad’s shows to pay for the rest.
“We had taken the truck from Hunter, taken it to the detail shop, had it all gone through and made it Ryder’s truck and a couple of my buddies come driving up the driveway and honked the horn. He lost it. I’ve never seen him happier about a gift he was getting,” says the chef.
“I mean, what is the gift? The gift is, ‘Hey, you have to pay half the money we’ll pay the other half.’ But he was really excited,” he adds.
A few months later, the excitement still hasn’t worn off. Guy says Ryder takes the time to back the truck into their driveway every night.
“I saw him the other night. I was getting home about the same time he was. I say, ‘You back in?’ He goes, ‘Oh, yeah. Truck looks way cooler when you look at it from the front,'” recalls Guy.
Many people buy their kids cars. It’s an incredible privilege, of course, but it’s not an uncommon practice for those who can swing it. And lord knows Guy loves his cars. I think making a teenager earn their share of a car is healthy. They’ll likely value the car as a result. Parents come up with different deals, like they buy the car and the kids pay for gas and maintenance. Or the kid can only use the car if they maintain certain grades. The terms are family specific, like Guy’s boys having to be ticket and accident free for a year to get a nicer car. Guy’s making a joke of making Ryder pay half the price of the truck not being so much of a gift but again, he’ll be invested in it. Plus, Ryder works for Guy’s lucrative shows, so the job is also a gift.
The part I most relate to is Ryder wanting his brother’s truck. I remember the cars I wanted when I was a teen and they were always someone else’s. I never wanted whatever was new and hot, mainly because I never knew what was new and hot. So I could almost feel Ryder’s excitement when he saw Hunter’s truck all souped up just for him driving up. When I was teen, my father hung on to his old Mustang and I was allowed to drive that. It wasn’t mine, but I could use it until I left for college. My brother has the car and when I sit in it today, I still get that thrill. Hand me downs are fun.
Photo Credit: Instagram and Getty Images
Seems refreshingly reasonable to me.
I will say, as someone who grew up in the boonies and lives in a rural place now, most people don’t need trucks and most young drivers shouldn’t have something so big.
As someone who lives in the suburbs pretty much no one here needs the giant trucks that they drive around either. I have a few neighbors that just rev the engine, wash it all the time because they are never dirty, and then park it in their driveway on a diagonal like a display at a car dealership just to show off that they have a giant gas guzzling ‘merican truck. It’s so obnoxious.
Lol right, I do not get it. So obnoxious.
We rented a Jeep truck through Turo while on a trip for a day off roading in the mountains. The listing said off roading was fine. The guy knew where we were going. Off roading cars get scratches. They get dirty. Dude was mad that there was sand in a cup holder and his fender flares and bumpers (which are plastic) had surface scratches. Turo did not cover the damage bc it wasn’t bad enough. Cars get wear and tear especially if you’re renting them out to pay for them. Another example of a guy who wanted the truck for the aesthetic NOT the function. I get if we had returned that thing dented and nasty but we didn’t, we actually cleaned it up before bringing it back. As someone who owned a newer four door wrangler, I know how fast those stupid plastic bumpers and flares scratch up. You can’t avoid it especially if you’re renting it out every day to someone new and have it listed as off road.
@sass- sorry I didn’t see this early but you are trueing, most people don’t have trucks for the function of a truck they just have a masculinity problem. I hope the guy didn’t give you too much of a hard time and you still had fun on your trip.
Guy seems like a very down to earth person, despite what his hair may lead us to believe.
Yeah, I’ve only ever heard people say genuinely nice things about him.
I have got to say I was surprised at how much I liked him after watching some of his shows. He’s the butt of so many jokes etc.. but I started watching him during the pandemic and man…. He started a fund for out of work servers from restaurants and raised millions, he donated $$ from his shows to help struggling restaurants, and on and on. He seems like a solid guy…in spite of the odd hair lol
He’s also super supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community. He’s officiated a ton of weddings in memory of his sister.
YES! Exactly what you said. His “styling” kind of painted him as a bit of a clown. (I HATE saying that but it was the truth in how I initially perceived him) But I watched a lot of his shows, and that guy works extremely hard and uses his position to help a LOT of people. He is as genuine as they come. He has a gazillion shows, and I mean, sure, running a fun show is not the same kind of work as like, some manual labor type job. But he stays very busy and while he makes loads of $$$, so much of it goes to helping others.
Even when he only had the one show, his reviews of little local places would bring them so much new business. The restaurant business is tough, and after their episodes air, the places get so busy that they often are able to expand. They buy a bigger place, or a 2nd restaurant.
And he seems to be raising his kids right.
I love that although his kids could have almost anything he’s keeping them grounded. He has a ‘loud’ personality but gives back in so many quiet ways, and to me, that makes him a solid person.
My parents were the same. I had to save my money for the boardwalk and arcades every year. My parents gave us 0. I had to pay for half of Girl Scout Camp. My sister and I wanted a swing set. We paid for half.
Making children responsible for what they want is smart. I was invested in all of the things I wanted. I saved my money. Because of the early training I never overspent or used credit cards for things I could not afford.
Modeling good money management is important for kids and does them a service for life.
Aww, this is good. I realize it only works for some families, but I really like this idea. I’m a little torn on it, because things are becoming so expensive, but I have made my kids pay a portion if they want something big. I’m thinking as the ‘things’ get bigger and more expensive of keeping a tally of the stuff they’ve helped pay for and giving it back to them when they want to buy a house or something. We’ll see if I can afford that though. I’m not going to tell them they’ll get the return just yet!
I enjoy Guy and his shows. When GGG or DDD is on, I just go down the marathon hole and watch them all. Even if I saw them before.
I love Guy Fieri. You’ll never find a nicer food celebrity. Honestly, I think what he did for his son is perfect. He made him earn the privilege and I think that’s good.
Hand me downs are fun! 😎
That seems like the most responsible smart thing to do.
I remember the show, sweet 16 or my sweet 16 or something like that and almost 90% of those kids totaled their cars within weeks of getting them.
As both our vehicles are company cars and quite large, plus our community has no public transit, we bought a used small car for our teens. The deal is each of them have to have saved enough to pay for and complete driver training and have a job to pay for their own gas. It has worked out so far. It is absolutely a privilege so we wanted to be sure that the vehicle was something reasonable for our budget and theirs (I don’t love seeing teens given high end vehicles, but every family makes their own choices).
This seems like a really healthy option for people who have means to buy their kid whatever they want. I remember I was hand down my parents’ Jeep Cherokee Laredo, which was already 10 years old so not as fancy as it sounds. I had to pay $100 a month towards the insurance plus all of the gas. And that really made me appreciate the hard work that went into earning that from my $5.50/hour part-time job at a grocery store. I still think that was the best thing my parents ever did to teach me how to handle money. Meanwhile, a kid in my school was gifted to BMW, right on his 16th birthday, wrecked it, and his parents immediately bought him a Camaro to replace it.
I live in NoCal and I know someone who had been a server at one of Guys restaurants and she said that he was, unequivocally, the best boss she had ever had. And I love how he made his sons and nephew EARN their trucks. WAY too many kids nowadays are given things like cars without having to earn them at all, and no wonder the rate of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is disproportionately high among millennials.
I myself had to pay for half ($750) of the 1983 Toyota Supra Celica that was my first car.
And I have to admit that Guy’s look definitely isn’t my thing (I just find it kind of try hard) but at least he doesn’t look as stupid as machine gun Kelly.
The Celica’s with the headlights that flipped up were the coolest thing in the world to me. Height of cool.
I wish I had an anecdote about cars as a teenager but unfortunately my family was wildly dysfunctional and my parents divorced the year I was supposed to get my permit and start practicing. So I didn’t get my license until I was 21 – just years of being able to walk to work or catch a ride, or my boyfriend would drive me. Then I lived in the boonies with my grandparents and needed my own car so they taught me to drive and got me a busted ass Ford Escort which was promptly totaled after someone t boned me going 50 mph at a four way stop. So they let me drive my grandpa’s old Chevy pickup which I loved until they got another car and then I got my grandma’s old Chevy Malibu which I drove into my new life living on my own, getting married, and right before my husband and I had our first baby when we bought a newer SUV.
My husband is a mechanic so we are particular in a different way (everyone is particular; my husband just has the professional knowledge and skills about which cars last longest and are easiest to fix) about which cars we buy and what we will give our kids when the time comes. He’s already taking the kids to the high school parking lot on weekends to learn to drive. The agreement is they’ll shop together for a car and help fix it up as needed and they’ll be responsible for gas, and will learn to fix their car alongside their dad as needed. Right now, we live in the suburbs but in a mountainous community that sees a lot of snow and ice and the general consensus is they’ll likely each get something like an older jeep Cherokee or wrangler or Toyota 4Runner.
@sass: I had a similar situation: Parents divorced when I was 25, when my mum had I moved from SoCal to suburban MI. My mum loved to drive–and money was VERY tight– so she (or friends) would drive me, and I didn’t get my license until I was married. I did eventually buy her a car to replace the one she’d carted my ass around in for years.
My oldest child just turned 15, and we’re not quite sure what we’ll do if/when he gets his license. My husband works from home & I work (part-time) only 2 miles away, so we barely use our 2 cars as it is. So, maybe we’ll let him work on buying our 2016 Ford hybrid from us? If any parents have suggestions for me I’m all ears. 🙂
My son is 15 and we’re lucky enough to be able to buy him a car (used, probably a Civic or Corolla) but he’s going to have to pay for the insurance. Kids are more invested if they have “skin in the game” vs. just being handed a huge gift like that. I also think that it disincentivizes hard work; if you’re 16 and you’ve been handed a brand-new BMW, what motivation do you have to work hard to earn nice stuff?
I adore Guy and I’m glad he’s passing those lessons on to his kids. By all accounts he’s a hard worker, treats people kindly and with respect, and does a ton of good with the blessings in his life without seeking credit or recognition. And I get so excited when a place I know is on Triple D, lol!
I am surprised they made the youngest pay half for his brothers’ used truck. Most parents I know are concerned enough about their kid driving something safe and reliable that they make sure they purchase it or hand it down. And the majority of kids have cars by college age even today in the age of ride shares.
Parents should get a real insurance policy for the car and make sure it has very high coverage, not the minimum (which is a joke). Paying directly ensures policy does not lapse. Parents should also have a full inspection done of any car their kid will be driving before it hits the road. And turning on Do Not Disturb While Driving is an absolute YES for any teen driver.
Having a kid wash the car and pay for gas and oil changes etc out of their allowance or summer job money is pretty normal though!