Guy Fieri Is Now TV’s Highest-Paid Chef

$80 million buys a whole lot of Donkey Sauce

Guy Fieri
Restaurateur Guy Fieri attends a bottle signing of Santo Fino Tequila Blanco at Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection store on March 10, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images

In the last year, Guy Fieri has worked on raising money for food service workers facing hard times due to the pandemic. He’s also rumored to be part of the ownership group for a soccer team in Sacramento. And he remains a restaurant owner and television personality. And as it turns out, he’s about to be a very wealthy television personality.

At Forbes, Chloe Sorvino reports that Fieri recently signed a new contract with the Food Network, home of his shows Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and Guy’s Grocery Games. He’ll be paid $80 million over the course of 3 years, a significant step up from what he’s making now. (Specifically, it’s $50 million more than he was set to make on his previous contract.) By contrast, Forbes notes that Gordon Ramsay made in the neighborhood of $20 million for his work on television last year.

With this new deal, Fieri has become the highest-paid chef on television — and one of television’s highest-paid personalities, period. As Sorvino notes, this is unusual for the Food Network and its parent company. “These days the earnings for top talent on the network’s HGTV and flagship Discovery Channel is still usually capped at seven-figures,” Sorvino writes.

It’s a big step up for Fieri — but given the size of his audience and his popularity, it’s not necessarily a shocker.

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