Guy Fieri on Making Family His 'First Priority' and His Calling to Give Back: 'I Hope People Say I Helped'

"I think that I've definitely mellowed," Guy Fieri says to the small entourage gathered around a table on a sun-drenched rooftop restaurant in Los Angeles.

He's swathed in head-to-toe black, wearing his favorite chain necklace, embossed with a skull and chef's hat, chunky silver rings, his trademark goatee and thick thistle of spiky, bleached-blond hair—along with a mischievous smile that's daring someone to contradict him. "Oh, really? I needed a nap after having breakfast with you," says his publicist, taking the bait.

Still, Fieri, 54, does seem remarkably relaxed for the man who shot to fame 16 years ago as the loud, larger-than-life "Mayor of Flavortown" and host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

"I still like to have fun, still stay busy," he says in this week's PEOPLE cover story. "There are so many experiences to be had, so why not take advantage of it?"

Today Fieri is one of the most powerful food celebrities in the world—anchoring six shows (including his newest, Guy's Ultimate Game Night) while running 85 restaurants, a production company, his Santo Tequila business with pal Sammy Hagar and his new Knuckle Sandwich by Espinosa cigar line.

Matthew Salacuse

In May 2021 he signed a three-year contract with Food Network worth an estimated $80 million, making him the highest-paid chef in network history.

"Most of my friends will [say] I haven't changed. I think it's because when I got into television, I'd already done what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a great dad," says Fieri, whose family includes sons Hunter, 26, and Ryder, 16, with wife Lori, 52, and nephew Jules, 22, whom he and Lori have raised since his sister Morgan's death from melanoma in 2011. "Family is always the first priority."

For more on PEOPLE's cover story with Guy Fieri, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

Fortunately, Fieri has managed to blend the work he loves with the family he adores. A recent family reunion in North Carolina turned into the subject of an upcoming Food Network special. A five-day trip to his ranch in Ferndale, Calif., became both a TV opportunity and a philanthropic one.

"We did a first-responder event, fed 650 people, shot a show about it," he says. "The area up there is poor, so we try to do things to preserve the town."

The family split their time between the ranch in Ferndale, a new home in southern Florida that Fieri purchased after signing his new contract and their main property in Santa Rosa, Calif., 10 miles away from the new house Fieri built for his parents and the old house where he raised his kids, which now serves as Hunter's bachelor pad.

Fieri knows that jet-setting lifestyle sounds like a recipe for raising spoiled children, but he insists his kids learn the value of work and money.

"You know what Ryder drove to school [when] he got his license? He got my parents' old, used 259,000-mile Chrysler minivan," he says. "I want the boys to be self-sufficient."

RELATED: Guy Fieri and Son Hunter Have Been Following Rage Against the Machine on Tour

It helps that Hunter and Ryder watch their dad work overtime not only to feed his own vintage car habit but quite literally to feed others.

"He's always leading by example," says Hunter, who recently signed his own talent contract with Food Network. "Seeing how much he cares and how, even though he is so busy all the time, he focuses a lot of effort on doing fundraisers . . . it's eye-opening to me."

As restaurants closed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fieri launched the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund and raised $25 million to help struggling hospitality workers.

"If you're the guy that owns the shovel, why wouldn't you help dig the hole?" says Fieri. "I want to make a positive impact. When it's all over, I just hope people say, 'Guy was good for mankind. Guy helped.' "

Courtesy Guy Fieri Guy Fieri with wife Lori and sons Ryder and Hunter

To balance the demands of work, family and philanthropy, Fieri has made meaningful adjustments to his own care.

"I've changed my lifestyle in the last couple years—what I eat, when I eat, how I eat. I don't want to be one of those guys that burns up through the tunnel," says Fieri, who starts every day with a 6 a.m. workout and recently stopped drinking alcohol on weekdays. "I'm in better shape now than I was when I was 30. I don't want to die young. I want to be around for my kids. I want to be around for Hunter and Ryder's kids."

Working with a nutritionist, Fieri adopted a diet free of most carbs and meat and practices intermittent fasting. "I don't eat until noon. At first I was worried it would make me sluggish, but my body learned the routine, and my energy increased," he says.

Shoot days for Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives are the exception, but they are not the gluttonous feasts viewers see—or think they see—onscreen. "Everybody thinks I chug down the whole cheeseburger," he says. "I'll try two items in a restaurant, three restaurants in a day. By the time I've had two bites of each food, I'm full."

Matthew Salacuse

For a chef known for indulgent recipes like his famous trash-can nachos (layers of chips, toppings and three types of cheese assembled in, yes, a mini trash can), it's a radical change.

Raised Guy Ferry (before changing his last name back to the original Italian when he married Lori) by "hippie parents," he grew up on salad and sprouts but taught himself to cook differently. "I'd go to people's houses, and I'm like, 'Did you know they have a drawer in their fridge with sliced salami in it?' '' he recalls.

With a love for food that grew after a high school exchange program in France, Fieri attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas's hospitality program. In 1992 he met Lori after she stopped by a restaurant he managed.

He credits their lasting love to good communication and being ready to address problems as they arise: "The only thing that will ever prepare you for keeping a relationship going while in the TV business is the restaurant business. Multifaceted, never turn it off, you've got to be willing to do what it takes when it's time to do it."

Watch the full episode of People Cover Story: Guy Fieri below or on the PeopleTV app.

Though his meme-able style is easy comedy fodder, Fieri has been celebrated for his efforts to help those in need.

"Even before any of the stuff he did for restaurants, he did everything he possibly could to give back," says Antonia Lofaso, his cohost on Guy's Ultimate Game Night. "For instance, there was never a show of his that didn't have a Make-a-Wish family in the audience."

RELATED: Get a Sneak Peek of Guy Fieri's Celebrity Food Game Show Guy's Ultimate Game Night

He has fans outside the culinary world too. In 2021 Kristen Stewart made a public call to Fieri to officiate her wedding to fiancée Dylan Meyer.

"I'm so down to do it. I think it's awesome. I did a wedding for 101 gay couples in South Beach a few years ago," says Fieri. "I've always looked at it like if people want to have that marriage, whose choice is that but theirs? I'm not marching for equal rights. I'm not getting that deep with it. I'm just saying, two people in love, they can do what they want to do."

Matthew Salacuse

For more on Guy Fieri, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

Even after being dubbed the "elder statesman" of the food world by The New York Times—10 years after the newspaper famously gave his Times Square restaurant a scathing 1-star review—Fieri remains humble.

"I've never been an 'I told you so' kind of person. It's easy to look at somebody and say, 'Ah, bleached hair and tattoos, he's loud and drives a hot rod.' I'm happy that people see the other side of me. It's easy to miss the bigger picture."

There's no missing the current picture on-set of Fieri's PEOPLE cover shoot. He's squeezing bottles of ketchup and mustard wildly over a hot dog as Metallica blares through the speakers.

"Oh yeah, that's a guy who's mellowed," shouts Fieri, poking fun at his own statement from hours earlier. "Well," says his longtime manager, "at least it's just condiments. A few years ago it woulda been flamethrowers."

Guy's Ultimate Game Night airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Food Network.