If Guy Fieri Could Only Eat 1 Snack for the Rest of His Life, It Would Be This

I easily spotted Guy Fieri in the thick of a buzzing Super Bowl day crowd of people thanks to his signature spiky blonde hair and magnetic energy. He was coaching one of the 15,000 guests at Guy’s Flavortown Tailgate on how to order and dress up one of his favorite combo meals at Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar, one of several food stands at the event. 

”Take a boat of Tailgater Trash Can Nachos,” Fieri demonstrated. "Add a drizzle of [Fieri's] signature Donkey Sauce or Bourbon Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce, and pair it with a Wild Cherry Pepsi.” As his guest dug in, a massive smile spread across Fieri’s face—and the duo shared nods and four very strong thumbs up.

Now it was Allrecipes' turn to savor some time with the celebrity chef, restaurateur, and epic party host as he hustled from from the nacho stand to the big stage for his Flavortown Tailgate at the Super Bowl. Watching Fieri weave through the masses at the tailgate, which was hosted in partnership with his pals at Pepsi and CashApp, we couldn’t resist asking him the secret to pulling off an unforgettable game day party.

“Invite 15,000 of your best friends,” he joked. “The residents of Flavortown are all looking to have a good time.”

But with such a full plate, what we really wanted to know was what kept Fieri fueled throughout the day to keep him going between hosting events, shows, and family dinners. So we inquired about his absolute favorite snack.

“One snack for the rest of my life? Salty pretzels,” Fieri told us.

Guy Fieri's Favorite Snack

After hearing that pretzels were a personal favorite of Fieri's, we dove into his recipe archives and discovered several pieces of evidence to back this up as the chef’s favorite snack. In addition to walking viewers through how to make classic soft pretzels in the past, he also has plenty of recipes using crunchy pretzels.

Soft or hard, the salty snack has a special place in Fieri’s pantry, he said, and his heart, we imagine. Salty pretzels are a nostalgic nod back to Fieri’s start in food. His first “job” was “rocking the Kool-Aid game” at his own stand, which he parlayed into his first lucrative business: The Awesome Pretzel Cart.

Fieri first fell in love with salty pretzels at age 10 during a ski trip at Lake Tahoe, California, he told host Dan Pashman on a 2017 episode of The Sporkful Podcast.

“I ate one and the doughiness and the chewiness...I’d never seen anything [like that],” Fieri said. From there on out, Fieri says he would proceed to spend all of his daily allowance on pretzels. They were 50 cents each and he got $5 per day, so Fieri savored a steady diet of 10 pretzels per day, he revealed during a 2018 interview on The Moment with Brian Koppelman.

When they arrived home in Ferndale, Fieri’s dad then helped him set up “The Awesome Pretzel Cart,“ which allowed Fieri to earn the majority of the money he needed to pay for a trip abroad to start his hospitality career in earnest. At age 15, he spent a year in Chantilly, France, and attended a local school while exploring local restaurants and bakeries.

“The click went off, and I said, ‘That’s it, I’m a food person,’” Fieri told Pashman “That’s what I want to be—I want to own my own restaurant.”

Today, Fieri helms 17 restaurant brands, many of which have multiple locations in countries around the globe.

And we love that between pretzels, he’s able to enjoy the party, too. After wrapping up his duties at the Flavortown Tailgate, Fieri flew across the Strip to watch the Super Bowl with quite the squad.

“We had the ultimate Las Vegas experience,” late-night talk show host and friend of Fieri Jimmy Kimmel recalled on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" the day after the Chiefs' victory. “We were in a box, watching the game, with a Mount Rushmore of Las Vegas stars.”

As for Fieri's Super Bowl box menu, we surely hope there were pretzels.