This Thanksgiving, Guy Fieri is undergoing a remarkable recovery from an on-set mishap that left him in a wheelchair and on crutches. The Food Network star's latest adventure, filming his show Flavor Town Food Fight, took a sudden turn when he fell down the stairs, tearing his quad muscle in half.
As Fieri recounted to Fox News' website, "I slipped down a set of steps and one foot went forward while the other got caught on the threshold. It was like a split-second decision, but when my right leg compressed, the doctor said he'd never seen anything like it - a tear in the thickest part of your quad muscle, right in the center."
The chef was rushed to surgery amidst filming with chefs and 125 people on set, ensuring his muscles wouldn't "recede." The medical emergency necessitated creative filming techniques as Fieri and his team "figured out how to pivot through it."
Now recuperating at his ranch, Fieri is sidelined from this year's Thanksgiving feast. "I'm on crutches and in a wheelchair. I have to stay off it for eight weeks," he explained. "My sons, Hunter and Ryder, and nephew Jules will take on the cooking duties this year."
Fieri's sons, especially Ryder, are excited about the opportunity to shine in the kitchen. "I guess all the training you've given me and all the cooking I've been doing while I was at school, it was going to be my time to shine," Ryder texted his dad from school.
Fieri, who will be "quarterbacking" from his wheelchair and directing the culinary efforts, joked that it will be an "adventure" cooking for about 40 people at his ranch.
After eight weeks on crutches and in a wheelchair, Fieri's recovery won't be complete as he'll have to go through rehab. Despite his celebrity status, Fieri once told The Hollywood Reporter that he's "not for everybody." "You can easily be misinterpreted when you have platinum blond hair and tattoos," he said. "But I don't know if anybody is."
However, his son Hunter has a simple explanation for his dad's success: "That dude just has more energy than anybody I've ever met. It is amazing and scary at the same time."
