The Untold Truth Of Food Network Star Carl Ruiz

Food Network personality, restaurateur, and chef Carl Ruiz just had one of those faces. You never knew when or where it was going to pop up, but whenever it did — and it did often — you just knew that this was a guy who would be fun to hang out with. He was a chef that even the toughest food critics loved. In fact, when he passed away in 2019, critic Tony Johnson had this to say about him: "He made people laugh who'd forgotten how to laugh. He set rooms on fire. He was the match and the kerosene." 

There's not too many people who can have their entire life's philosophy summed up in a single hashtag, but Ruiz's fans coined one in his honor long ago. #Ruizing is something all can — and should — aspire to, as it simply means that you're living the best life you can. And at the end of that day, that's all that counts. And that's what he did.

So, who was Carl Ruiz? Let's take a look at the life of this chef with the infectious sense of fun, laughter, and adventure.

Of all the Food Network stars, it was Guy Fieri who most closely associated with him. Carl Ruiz appeared on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," "Guy's Ranch Kitchen," and 25 episodes of "Guy's Grocery Games," says PopCulture (along with making appearances on "Dinner: Impossible"). It was Fieri who introduced him Opie Radio, too, who in turn introduced him to so many other people through his podcast and, later, helped push Ruiz's own podcast.

After the news of his death was announced, Fieri took to Twitter with this to say about his friend: "I'm heartbroken that my friend chef Carl Ruiz is gone. I have no words to describe what a great friend he was to me and my family. His ability to make me laugh and smile under any circumstances was only outshined by his talent as a chef.... Over the years, I've met a lot of great people but a friend like Carl is one in a hundred million. Carl 'The Cuban' Ruiz will forever live on in my heart and in those of all who loved him."

It's important to remember where you came from, and Carl Ruiz always did that. According to The New York Times, he credited his mother and grandmother for his love of food and cooking; after Ruiz's death was announced, it was his brother, George, who told them that his brother had gotten his start experimenting with food and ingredients at home, long before he ever thought about going into business. 

When it came to his work ethic, George Ruiz says that came from their father, a Colombian mechanic who ran the New Jersey shop where the young Ruiz brothers also worked. He was the one who taught them it wasn't just about the service, it was about the sense of community. 

When Ruiz opened La Cubana, he talked to Diced — the magazine of the Institute of Culinary Education — about it. On the menu were old favorites he first had when they were made by his mother and grandmother, and "stuff that I picked up in Miami and Orlando, some old-school dishes that were disappearing. The traditional stuff is really satisfying to make." 

It's easy to imagine professional chefs and Food Network personalities might have a tough time going to your favorite fast food joint and swinging through for a meal on the run, but that absolutely wasn't the case for Carl Ruiz. When Matt Farah shared some stories about him after the announcement of his passing (via The New York Times), he shared one about Ruiz's appearance at Farah's wedding in April of the same year. He described the chef as "dancing with everybody, 20 people, none of whom really knew him," then added something equally neat. 

It wasn't until the after-party that Ruiz decided he was going to feed everyone — with pizza from Domino's. 

Domino's might seem like the last place a celebrity chef would choose for a late-night pizza fix, but Ruiz spent $300 to feed everyone on pizza that, he insisted, was just as important to the cultural landscape of America as pizzas of the fancier, trendier variety. From the finest mussels to the pizza you order when you can't be bothered to cook dinner, Ruiz was brilliant in his acknowledgment of it all as important. 

Carl Ruiz was perhaps the last person you would expect to cause a scandal, but he did kick off a minor one when, NJ.com says, he shocked a whole state by declaring it wasn't a Floridian restaurant that made the best Cuban sandwich, but rather La Pola in West New York. 

He lauded La Pola for its perfectly proportioned and flavored sandwich, and he acknowledged that he's had plenty to compare it to. Out of the 500-odd Cuban sandwiches he'd had, he gave credit where he thought it was due — to Belarmino Rico, the one man behind the counter making the sandwiches, the same man who opened the restaurant in 1978. 

When the sentiment popped up on social media, it wasn't just residents of Florida who took issue with it. Protests went all the way up into the governments of cities like Tampa and St. Petersburg, who weren't swayed by Ruiz's insistence that La Pola's hand-sliced ham and pork, coupled with bread from Union City's Cuba Bakery, made for the perfect sandwich.

It's expected that a chef might guard their recipes pretty closely. It's their livelihood, after all, and there's a lot of work that goes into perfecting each and every one. Take KFC. Its dedication to keeping its top-secret recipe for fried chicken, well, top-secret is legendary, but Carl Ruiz was the opposite. 

He once tweeted, "I'll give anybody my recipes. The difference between me and them is that I can make new ones." 

And he wasn't just saying that, either. He also took to Twitter to give out the recipe for his burger sauce, much to the delight of fans who quickly made it and then just as quickly sang his praises. It's a super simple recipe you can make, too, probably with what you have in your kitchen right now. The secrets? Just 4 ounces of ketchup, 3 ounces of Luger's steak sauce, 2.5 ounces of horseradish, 3 ounces of mayo, 1.5 ounces of cherry pepper vinegar, then the following to taste: salt, pepper, Tabasco, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, and a bit of Accent. 

Backyard BBQs? Changed. Thanks, Chef Ruiz. 

Carl Ruiz's death caused waves for a surprising reason: He regularly dished out some serious hate toward vegetarians and vegans, to the point of celebrating the idea of their deaths.

Plant Based News notes he was pictured wearing a shirt that boasted "0% Vegetarian" and holding a tray of meat. He regularly tweeted on the subject, volunteering thoughts like, "The fact the the [sic] fake meat movement is a multi million dollar industry proves the fact that vegans are not satisfied with just eating vegetables." He wasn't above clapping back in the comments, either, regularly arguing with anyone who commented along the lines of, "Hey, fake meat isn't too bad."

Not three weeks before his death, he posted a link to a CNN study that found vegetarians and vegans had a 20 percent higher chance of having a stroke when compared to omnivores, along with the commentary, "I'm gonna eat cheeseburgers at their funerals."

Tributes may have poured in for him after his death, but the eerie timing and content of his posts didn't go unnoticed — many hailed his death as a cautionary tale, and the necessity of being more conscious of the impact what we eat has on our health — whether we can see it or not.

Carl Ruiz was a jokester through and through. Always up for a silly prank or belly laugh, his antics were one of the highlights during his time as a judge on Guy's Grocery Games. So it's no wonder for April Fool's Day in 2020, the show decided to celebrate his spirit the one way they knew how: a holiday special. As Guilty Eats writes, all the challenges were inspired by the shenanigans he took part in on the show. Contestants had to cook his favorite dishes, careen down the aisles on a shoplifting escapade, and gobble down spicy foods to torturous ends. They even mimicked his signature style by donning chunky eyewear and baseball caps during the show. 

Per IMDb, it wasn't the series' first rodeo with an April Fool's episode — season 17's "April Fool's Games" contained the kind of goofy chaos Carl Ruiz loved. But paying respects to a beloved cast member struck a different note, particularly with such a fitting theme. Now it's an annual tradition. Since airing in 2020, every April Fool's themed special on GGG has been dedicated to The Cuban. A promotional clip shows his good friend Guy Fieri comparing the cast to a family who "love to laugh together," and we can't think of a better way to remember him than that. 

Marie's Italian Specialties got a much-deserved boost after appearing on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in 2013. Believe it or not, Guy Fieri actually visited the place long before its television debut. He swung by the Chatham eatery two years prior to the episode, and if you assumed the only point of the visit was to plow through some arancini and bounce, you'd be mistaken. Instead, he began whipping up orders for customers. The anecdote, which NJ.com referenced in a restaurant review, turned out to be great publicity for the establishment. The Mayor of Flavortown slinging platters of chicken parm from behind the counter? That would do more for business than any commercial or radio spot. 

It's normal for spectacles like these to be planned in advance — celebrity chefs don't normally just stop at the Hickory Square Shopping Mall for any reason. But this wasn't the typical meet-and-greet. In reality, the restaurant was super swamped that day, and Guy, Carl Ruiz remembered, jumped in to lend a hand amid the chaos. As Ruiz told Patch.com's New Jersey website at the time, "All these kids were like, 'I can't believe Guy Fieri's making my lunch!' he recalled. "It was surreal."

Marie's Italian Specialties put Carl Ruiz on the map. Its success allowed the couple to pursue other culinary projects under the Marie's moniker, and one of them remains in business today. In addition to opening a second location of Marie's in neighboring Madison, the couple launched a completely new concept devoid of pasta or vodka sauce. Marie's Chicken Joint, which opened in 2014, serves chicken in a variety of ways — on salads, sandwiches, quesadillas — as well as hot dogs and hamburgers. This is the kind of no-frills grub Ruiz was all about. 

Of course, the restaurant business can be cruel, and the achievements of a place like Marie's don't always guarantee success long-term. The Madison outpost shuttered after only a mere 6 months in business, which NJ.com credited to conflicts with area officials. Meanwhile, the original location's Yelp page shows it's been closed for good. This leaves Marie's Chicken Joint as the only establishment still standing. The location of Marie's Chicken Joint, Hickory Square Mall in Chatham, is the same shopping center where Marie's Italian Specialties once stood.