Food Network chef Guy Fieri recalled being rushed into emergency surgery after tearing his quad muscle in half on the set of his new show.
Fieri said he was filming “Flavor Town Food Fight” when he missed some steps and ended up in excruciating pain, according to an interview with Fox News Digital published Monday.
Fieri told the outlet that he “slipped down a set of steps and one foot went forward and the other foot got caught on the threshold.”
“So, you know, it extended me out. I looked like I was probably doing the splits, but when my right leg compressed into itself the giveaway point and the doctor said he’s never seen — you know, in 20 years — he hasn’t seen a tear in the biggest, thickest part of your quad in half,” he stated.
MIAMI BEACH, FL – FEBRUARY 27: Guy Fieri grilling at the 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented By FOOD & WINE at Surfcomber Hotel on February 27, 2016 in Miami Beach, Florida. (Photo by Dylan Rives/Getty Images for SOBEWFF®)
Fieri detailed that medical professionals rushed him into surgery to make sure his muscles didn’t “recede.”
“You normally tear that muscle at your tendon or the tendon tears off the bone, but this was right in the center of the whole quad muscle and it exploded,” he said. (RELATED: ‘I Wanna Be Better’: Cody Johnson Reveals Struggle With Painful Injury)
The famous chef is in a wheelchair and using crutches, and he has a long road to recovery. He will be off his feet for another eight weeks, which he predicts will put a damper on his Thanksgiving plans and force him to adjust the way he tackles his job.
“So, right in the middle of filming that and we’ve got everybody in town and all the chefs there and 125 people on set — and everybody’s ready to go — and I’m in surgery. So, we figured out how to pivot through it and to have some creative filming techniques,” Fieri told Fox.
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 9: Restaurateur Guy Fieri on a Mardi Gras float arriving at Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate Party at Mardi Gras World on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Skip Bolen/Getty Images)
Doctors ordered Fieri to stay off his feet entirely while he recovers. After weeks without applying weight on his leg, he will have to go into a cast before rehabilitating his quad muscle.
Recalling the medical advice from his doctor, Fieri said, “I want to get after it as fast as possible. He’s like, ‘You know as much as you want to, get back to being Guy, you’re going to really have to go through [it].’”
“I haven’t busted anything. I mean I broke it all as a kid. I broke my leg, broke my knee, broke my wrist, broke my sternum, my ribs, my tailbone. I mean, you know, name it, I broke it. But I got done doing that sh*t,” he told Fox Digital.
“You know, I got done with that type of behavior long ago,” Fieri said.