This Is The First Dish Guy Fieri Ever Made

Guy Fieri is not a chef who does anything half-throttle. The Food Network host is known for his bold personality and his bold flavors. And apparently Fieri has been going big or going home since the very beginning. The Daily Meal recently had the opportunity to sit down with Fieri, and he revealed the very first dish he ever made. Of course, it was an indulgent one: steak.

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"I started cooking when I was 9. My mom was making eggplant Parmesan, and you know that smell of breadcrumbs frying? And I smelled the Parmesan cooking, and I was like, 'Hey, mom! We're having chicken Parmesan for dinner tonight!' And I was excited because we didn't eat meat that much," he told us. "And she said, 'No, it's eggplant.' And I said, 'Can't we just have chicken Parmesan like the normal families?' So my mom said, 'You know, Guy? If you don't like the way we cook, you cook.'"

So, cook he did.

"That day after school, I went to the grocery store and I went to the butcher. I said, 'John, I want to make dinner tonight. I want to make steak.' He gave me two big steaks — I think they were ribeyes. I cooked the steak in a sauté pan and I hit it with a little soy sauce," Fieri revealed, admitting he loved soy sauce then (and still does).

He served the steak alongside pasta (cooked in the marinara sauce) and found instant satisfaction in the way it pleased his family. He told us the memory of his father saying that the steak was one of the best he ever had in his life still gives him goosebumps, all these years later.

Fieri has come a long way since he was 9 years old and cooking dinner for his immediate family. Today, he has more than 15 restaurants worldwide, including Guy's Chophouse in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And what has he learned about cooking the perfect steak?

"I think a lot of people have had a lot more bad steaks than good steaks, and not just because of quality of meat but preparation method," he said. "The difference is how you treat it, how you cook it, and how you serve it. A really good steak is seasoned properly, cooked really fast, allowed to rest, and seasoned properly. We just don't season enough, or we hide it. There's only two ways to cook in my world: low and slow, or hot and fast. I think once we go into the middle, you go into the mediocre."

So, like making the perfect chicken, knowing how to cook a gorgeous steak isn't a big secret. And yet there are still some secrets about steakhouses only the pros know.