With thousands displaced by devastating wildfires, celebrity chef Guy Fieri headed to Redding, California, to serve up meals for hundreds of victims and rescue workers over the weekend.
Fieri and his son, along with friends and volunteers, loaded up cars with food and headed four hours north from California’s wine country to Shasta County, where two fast-moving fires have killed four people and forced nearly 20,000 others to evacuate their homes.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Fieri said he was working “arm in arm” with The Salvation Army and a food-based nonprofit called Operation BBQ Relief to provide evacuees and first responders with food in the wake of the disaster.
He and his team prepared meals in a makeshift kitchen in a parking lot, and Fieri added that he was trying to “keep the menu interesting” despite the circumstances.
Fieri previously cooked meals for victims and responders during the October 2017 fires that ripped through Northern California’s Santa Rosa, where the chef lives with his wife. Equipped with a trailer, a wood-fired oven, a barbecue smoker and a handful of volunteers, the chef provided thousands of meals to those affected by the blazes.
“This isn’t a PR stunt,” he told KQED at the time. “You don’t see my banners up. I’m not promoting anything. I’m just here cooking. This is feeding people. People need help, and I’m here to help. That’s it.”