Guy Fieri Fans Are Obsessed With His Signature Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Fieri has had a love for food since he was a kid. His first-ever solo dish was steak, which he cooked for his parents after telling his mother he didn’t want the eggplant parm she was making. He earned a bachelor’s degree in hospitality from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and while he doesn’t have a formal culinary degree, he’s gained experience through working in the restaurant industry.

After winning The Next Food Network Star, Fieri was granted six episodes of his own cooking show — and it ended up running for 10 years. Though not as popular as Triple D, the show, known as Guy’s Big Bite, allowed Fieri to highlight some of his own recipes rather than the recipes of chefs all around the country. The show was filmed in Fieri’s outdoor kitchen in California, and while it doesn’t appear that new episodes are still filmed, fans can occasionally catch reruns of the show.

Guy Fieri is best known for his upbeat attitude and spiky hair as the host of Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. But Fieri actually has some serious kitchen skills, too. Fieri won The Next Food Network Star, a reality television show in search of Food Network’s next big chef. These days, Fieri is mostly known for Triple D, but he has a number of classic recipes — including his Mac Daddy macaroni and cheese.

↘ Ingredients

Shallots, peeled
Cloves garlic
Teaspoon olive oil
Pieces bacon, diced, cooked, reserving 1 tablespoon bacon fat
Tablespoons flour
Cups heavy cream
Teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Cup shredded pepper jack cheese
Cups shredded cheddar cheese Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Pound penne pasta, cooked
Cup panko breadcrumbs
Tablespoons melted butter
Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place shallots and garlic in a small aluminum foil pouch and drizzle with olive oil. Roast 20 to 30 minutes or until tender. Remove from foil and chop.
In a large sauté pan, reheat reserved bacon fat over medium heat. Add roasted shallot and garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add flour and stir for 1 minute. Whisk in heavy cream and thyme. Reduce by a third.
Stir in cheeses until melted, creamy, and thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and gently stir in pasta. Place in a 9" by 13" casserole dish.
In a small bowl, mix together diced bacon, breadcrumbs, butter, and parsley. Top mac n' cheese with panko mixture and bake uncovered at same heat until bubbling and lightly browned on top, 20 to 25 minutes.

Sausage filled with Mac & Cheese

Luc Martin hails from Brighton in the UK. Twelve years ago he moved to the Netherlands for love. Four years ago he opened Tilburg Sourdough, which has been so successful that his alarm clock has been going off earlier and earlier as time goes on. On August 28 Luc is hosting another get together at the sausage factory Brandt en Levie in Amsterdam, which features different chefs who prepare specialty dinners. One of the dishes served during Luc's lunchtime party will be a sausage with a surprise on the inside: mac and cheese. I was particularly interested in the origin of this sausage, which has come into being through a persistent mac and cheese obsession. Hey Luc. How did you get the idea for a mac and cheese-filled hotdog? Luc Martin: I read about a mac and cheese-hotdog in an American restaurant review a long time ago. I don't know where and I haven't been able to find it again, but I never forgot about it. When the guys at Brandt en Levie and I were planning this dinner, I thought: now is the time. I'm going to use as many of their products as I can, like the blood sausage and their bacon on the burger, and the macdog will be one of the side dishes. You keep a journal of all the mac and cheese varieties you have experimented with so far. How many kinds are there? The macdog is number 143, and I hope to perfect it within three tries.

That's a lot. How many different ways can you prepare something that seems so simple? It's definitely a project without an end date. While making the first 50 varieties I focused on the perfect balance between salt and turmeric, and the perfect amounts of flour and dried spices. Turmeric is important for the color and earthy taste, but salt intensifies that flavor. So the more salt I use, the less turmeric goes in. Once this worked, I started experimenting with different kinds of mustard. The mustard has a sharp taste and I wanted to smooth that out by adding some cream and butter. I found out that putting those in at the end is best, as it also cools down the sauce. After that, I started adding egg yolks. Very good for creaminess and color, but after this addition the recipe needed something tangy, so I played around with lemon juice and vinegar. One day I had a bit of leftover mascarpone in the fridge and I incorporated that, which was a huge change, and from that day on the mascarpone was a part of the dish. It's also a big hassle to cook the pasta in a way that it doesn't soak up all of the sauce, which makes it soggy. From version 115 on the basic recipe has been pretty much perfect, so I've only been making slight changes. Recently, I've really been into making lots of sauce and I've also been enjoying making more specific dishes, like burger buns of fried mac and cheese and the hotdog. Where does your mac and cheese obsession come from? I just really love it. Actually, no, this is what it comes down to: I love watching people as they are eating a really good mac and cheese. The look on their faces—the dreamy, oh my god-expression—that's my favorite thing. Personally, I hardly ever eat mac and cheese. That's odd. I don't know, I'm 35 now, and perhaps there is such a thing as eating too much mac and cheese. I don't eat my own bread that often, either.

Suck my Mac and Cheese

Eaten Only Mac & Cheese for the Past 17 Years

Toxic Waste Mac and Cheese

First you can cook the pasta al dente according to the instructions on the packet.
Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion. Then heat the butter in a saucepan together with the onions, add the flour and stir with a whisk. When everything is well mixed, you can add the milk while stirring constantly and season everything with salt, pepper, nutmeg and chilli flakes.
Now grate the two types of cheese on a coarse grater. Squeeze out the spinach and hex in a universal food processor. Stir the cheese and spinach into the hot sauce and color it with the food coloring to the desired green shade.
When the noodles are done, you can mix them with the cheese sauce and serve.