King of Flavortown, Guy Fieri hosts several popular Food Network TV shows like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Guy's Grocery Games. The Food Network star began filming Guy's Grocery Games back in 2013 and it's now in its 26th season. What makes this cooking show unique is that it's half game show, half cooking competition. It's got the quirky challenge elements like in Cutthroat Kitchen, with the setting of Supermarket Sweep.
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One question always on the viewer's mind is, "Is Guy's grocery games store an actual grocery store?" Loyal fans of this Food Network show know that it takes place in Flavortown Market. What they don't know, is if it's a real grocery store or not. The answer is both yes and no. Read on to find out the reality TV magic that is the Guy's Grocery Games store.
Inside Flavortown Market
For the first season of GGG, the set was actually Field's Market in Los Angeles, California. The show was filmed in that store and relied on the products the store had in-house. For season two, a 15,000 square-foot warehouse was built in Guy's home town of Santa Rosa. It only took two weeks to construct and it is fully operational. Unlike a regular grocery store, this one has wider aisles to accommodate cameras, as well as no pet food aisle and no baby products.
Guy's Grocery Games Store Schedule
Every Monday, the production team is responsible for ensuring the shelves are stocked and refreshed for the upcoming games. The team's number one priority is making sure all the food is the highest quality. Nor-Cal Produce provides all the fresh produce for the market. When all is said and done, there are 241 produce items.
Santa Rosa Meat and Poultry provides all of the fresh and frozen proteins, like lamb, beef, duck, and turkey. On Friday and Saturday, fresh seafood arrives and thaws to be ready for use on Monday. Midweek all the cases of food are checked and smaller orders are placed to replenish anything that is running low. There's also no shortage of frozen foods, as one of the battles only allows contestants to use frozen items.
Guy makes sure that none of the food goes to waste. On Friday nights the crew goes to work rounding up the food that is close to expiring. The food is donated to local food banks. According to the The North Bay Business Journal, "...The particular charity to which the show donates is the Redwood Gospel Mission."
Any leftover food scraps from the Triple G games that isn't devoured by the crew is donated to a local farm as animal feed.
With no end in sight for the Guy's Grocery Games store, even his son Hunter has gotten in on the action to follow in his dad's footsteps.
