Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives: The Funky Finds in Flavortown: America's Classic Joints and Killer Comfort Food

by Guy Fieri, Ann Volkwein

New York Times  Bestseller In Diners, Drive-Ins and The Funky Finds in Flavortown , Guy Fieri, one of Food Network’s biggest stars, keeps his motto front and “If it’s funky, I’ll find it.”

Continuing the series of New York Times bestselling books, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives includes profiles of great American restaurants, delicious recipes, tons of photos, hilarious stories from Guy, his Krew, and the restaurant owners, and a tricked-out, full-color fold-out map of the United States featuring every restaurant in the book.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Travel, Nonfiction, Food, Tv

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2013

About the author

Guy Fieri is an American restaurateur, author, television personality, and game show host. He co-owns five restaurants in California and is widely known for his television series on the Food Network.

By mid-2010, the Food Network had made Fieri the "face of the network." In 2010, the New York Times reported that Fieri brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television," and that his "prime-time shows attract more straight male viewers than any others on the network."

Reviews

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. A couple of the recipes looked fun but many were not easily attainable, and the lengthy behind-the-scenes pages could have been much condensed. It was overly wordy.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looked like it was hastily thrown together. Also, please spend the extra money on color pictures. It goes a long way. While on the subject of pictures, it would have been nice if they had included pictures of the recipes in the book. There were a lot of images, but they were all screen captures from the different DDD episodes and terrible ones at that.

I appreciate the index in the back of all the various restaurants, but I would have like it to be arranged by state order, not alphabetical (but that's just me)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually like "my" cookbooks to show color photos of each recipe made, but this is not your standard cookbook. This is a compendium of many of the "joints" that Guy has visited on his show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and features one recipe (with occasional "sides") from each place.

The book is divided geographically, and then for each place, is the name, a box with address / website to "Track it Down", a brief description or history of the place, Krew Notes (from his crew), and a restaurant update (from the owner / manager). On the next page or two is the recipe. Some looked really interesting and some were: the only way I'm going to get this is if I travel cross country & request it specifically! LOL!

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom found this book on a book exchange rack at her library. She knows I watch a lot of Food Network at her house and thought I'd like it and she knows my receptionist likes to cook so she thought she might enjoy some of the recipes.

I have to admit that Triple D is not my favorite Food Network Show. I can handle it sometimes and other times it's just too over the top for me. But it was interesting to read about various restaurants that have been featured on it. I was pleasantly surprised to find two in my geographic area--one I've already been to.

The recipes weren't really ones I'd use. The ones I was interested in contained salt (which I have to watch for medical reasons) or used implements I don't have or used ingredients I knew I would never go find or figure out how to prepare properly.

[Weatherly Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter picked this up and handed it to me at the library. Rather than vetoing it the way I had the last 5 cookbooks she thought I would like, I said "why not?" I have actually bookmarked about 10 recipes and while I will probably cut that amount down to ones I might actually make, this is a pretty good haul for me out of one cookbook.

[Jan Witteveen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short reviews of DDD with adapted recipes. Skimmed the book and read selected DDDs that interested me.

[Crystal Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute cookbook! I don’t normally read all the stories that go with recipes but I kept catching myself reading everything here.

[Hope Vollm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the show! And this was fun. I liked reading about all of the behind the scenes stuff during filming.

[Marnie Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

This could have been a 5* book if it had been in colour and if he had shown photos of the dishes/recipes.

[KennyO · Rating 3 out of 5]

The DDD fans will say I've underrated it but I'm actually feeling generous as I compose this. I haven't read the previous volumes so there's a measure of novelty as I read this. It gives recipes but it's not a cookbook; at least it isn't a conventional cookbook. With exceptions, each featured restaurant gets two pages of photo, description by Guy and comment from members of his "krew" along with a note from the restaurant's owner(s). This is followed by two pages with the recipe for a dish that was presented in the restaurant's episode. A few do get twice or three times that much space. Many recipes are doable at home but quite a few appear to be printed for their novelty. I, for one, won't be constructing a pit where I might roast a whole hog nor will I likely find some of the more esoteric ingredients within an hour of my home. OTOH I will be trying several recipes because the places in the program are staffed by cooks of superior talent and imagination and if I can't go there I want at least to try something approaching what they're regarded for.

So, I recommend it for fans of the show but not for you who have no idea what it's about.

[Mouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately access to the Internet makes much of this book obsolete and some of these places are no longer in business! I'm a big fan of D, D & D and it kind of feels like this book wasn't put together that well and the paper it was printed on is cheap stuff. The pics don't nearly do it any justice as well! It's all a bit of a shame but I was thrilled to see one of my favorite places in it called Mama Cozza's which is where I had my wedding reception! A good book to thumb through and keep on a coffee table till you actually spill coffee on it and then toss it in the trash!

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a whole heck of a lot more out of this cookbook. First, the recipes were good, but appeared like they could be more difficult for the everyday cook to prepare. Second, the book focused more on telling the "restaurant story" than on the preparation of the food. There wasn't even any pictures of the completed products. I ended up walking away with a small handful of recipes I would prepare.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this book. It started off good, then bogged down in the middle. Just as I was getting ready to put it back on the shelf, it picked up. This book only has about two two paragraphs from Guy about each joint. Mostly made up of comments form the crew that shot the episodes. Good people, but mixed vibes. The first book was way better though. I did make the Oatmeal Shake out of this one and it was good.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great reference book from Guy - lots of recipes for trying out....

[Julie Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that gave me great ideas for when I travel and what restaurants to look for when I on the road. Great read.

[Du · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not to sure what you can say about this. It is predictable, simple and like the written version of the TV show.

[Nichole ~Bookaholic~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book, found some great restaurants to try and there are some awesome recipes

[Colleen Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't read the book, only looked for interesting recipes to try.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some decent recipes, but not his best work.

[Trenyce Tong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to Flavortown

[Sandy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was pretty good. There's a lot of amazing recipes in this one

[Angeles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good recipe ideas.