‘Forgive Me For This!’ Chris Wallace Asks Guy Fieri About Infamously Brutal New York Times Restaurant Review

CNN anchor Chris Wallace had to apologize in advance when he confronted Food Network mainstay Guy Fieri with a legendarily brutal New York Times restaurant review, but an unfazed Fieri was ready for it.

The latest interviews from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace — released on HBO Max in full on Friday morning — feature Fieri, broadcasting legend Dick Ebersol, and Hollywood star George Clooney.

Things could have gotten awkward when Wallace brought up a 2012 review of Fieri’s since-closed Times Square restaurant Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar by NYT critic Pete Wells. The review was so scathing that grown men wept at the sight of it, so self-satisfied that it offered itself a cigarette when it was done.

Wallace asked for forgiveness ahead of time, but Fieri took it in stride, and essentially responded sorry, not sorry:

Chris Wallace – There’s also the blowback that you’ve gotten over the years from the food establishment. A number of years ago, you had a restaurant in New York City. And it was a scathing — sort of an infamous review.

Then I’m going to — forgive me for this! I’m going to put up one little bit of it. You had a restaurant in Times Square that has since closed. The New York Times reviewer wrote  “when you hung,” he wrote this, like an open letter to you, “when you hung that sign by the entrance that says Welcome to flavortown where you’re just messing with our heads.”

Why do you think that you tick off foodies?

Guy Fieri – Well, I think that everybody has an opinion about what they want to have opinion about. And if you’re gonna spend a lot of your time worrying about what other people think of you and what’s going on, then you are really going to lose track of where you’re planning on going and what you’re trying to achieve.

Can’t sit there make everybody happy, not going around, trying to piss people off. But I have an agenda of what I want to do and where I want to go. And I think that — that’s maybe what more people should do. Just try to focus on is — be the best that you can be. Make sure that you’re not trying to hurt people make sure that you’re, you know, living by what you said you were going to do.

And can’t get too hung up on the other side of it. It — did I do anything intentionally? No. Was it a brand new restaurant that got reviewed? Yes. Did we learn a ton from it? Absolutely. Do we appreciate the opportunity? Without question. Would I ever change it from what’s happened in the past? Never.

Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops three full episodes each Friday morning, and CNN airs a version recapping highlights of the episodes every Sunday at 7 pm.

Watch above via HBO Max and CNN.