Fieri tells EW he’s “got a million” catchphrases — none of which he expected to stick. But there’s one he hears everywhere he goes.

Guy Fieri reveals what fans shout out at him that ‘catches everyone’s attention’

Fieri tells EW he's "got a million" catchphrases — none of which he expected to stick. But there's one he hears everywhere he goes.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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February 16, 2026 10:00 p.m. ET

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Guy Fieri for the Food Network. Credit:

- Guy Fieri says there's one catchphrase among "a million" he's inspired that he hears everywhere he goes.

- "Through the 20 years of doing this, there's been a bunch. But the big thing that comes up now is 'The Mayor of Flavortown,'" Fieri tells EW. "That pretty much catches everybody's attention."

- Fieri previously recalled the first time he uttered the phrase, when encountering a delicious pizza that prompted him to exclaim, "'Look at this thing! It's like the steering wheel on the bus going to Flavortown.'"

You know what Guy Fieri looks like, but how does he sound?

Fans have a pretty solid idea. The celebrity chef, restauranteur, and Food Network staple tells * *that of the hundreds upon hundreds of fan interactions he has every month, there's one catchphrase that follows him wherever he goes.**

"Oh, I've got a million," Fieri says in a conversation to promote his recent collaboration with Bosch for the 2026 Super Bowl, which saw the *Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives *host trade in his iconic frosty tips and goatee for a clean shave and a combover.

"I've never said words or things to make them catchphrases. I just kind of talk nonsensical, you know?" Fieri offers up examples that he hears parroted back to him by his legion of fans: "'That's off the hook!' or 'That's money!' or 'I'd eat that off a flip flop.'" There's one phrase, more a moniker than anything, that Fieri says has come to dominate his public mentions.

Guy Fieri for 'Flavortown Food Fight'.

"Through the 20 years of doing this, there's been a bunch. But the big thing that comes up now is 'The Mayor of Flavortown.' Yeah. 'This is in Flavortown.' 'Let's go to Flavortown.' That pretty much catches everybody's attention," he says.

Fieri started out as a restaurant manager before opening his first restaurant chain, Johnny Garlic's, throughout California as the '90s turned to the aughts. He became well known in culinary circles for his New York City venture Guy's American Kitchen and Bar, which landed him on the second season of *The Next Food Network Star*, which he won.

He's been a Food Network mainstay ever since, hosting series like *Diners*, *Guy's Grocery Games*, and *Tournament of Champions*. The "Mayor of Flavortown" moniker that's now synonymous with Fieri has become so prevalent that the network even channeled it for Fieri's next big project, the forthcoming reality competition series *Flavortown Food Fight*.

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Fieri reflected on the origins of the phrase in a 2025 appearance on *The Late Show with Stephen Colbert*.

"'Flavortown' was this mythical place," Fieri said that he would go to "every time I'd try something really great." It first came about when he encountered a perfect pizza that prompted him to exclaim, "'Look at this thing! It's like the steering wheel on the bus going to Flavortown.'"

Fieri recalled that shortly after using the phrase on *Diners*, "People started walking up in airports, going, 'Hey! Flavortown!' And then, someone yelled at me, 'It's the Mayor of Flavortown!'"**

Guy Fieri in Bosch's 2026 Super Bowl commercial.

Guy tells EW that he relishes his harmonious relationship with his fans — so he's not about to stop all the talk about Flavortown. He's embraced the fact that he's become a kind of cultural icon. More than that: he's channeled it for good.

"There's FieriCon that happens in New York. There's Flavortown Basin that happens at a big ski resort. A big group does a whole day of Guy where there's 800 people dressed in the flame shirts and the flare hair and the goatee and all that," he explains. "They actually raise money and donate their fundraising at their event to my foundation, the Guy Fieri Foundation."

Since 2011, The Guy Fieri Foundation has organized programs to train aspiring chefs lacking the means to pursue formal education, supported first responders through disaster relief, and launched literacy campaigns in Fieri's native Sonoma County, Calif.

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