Guy Fieri is driving along a dirt road in an all-terrain vehicle, blasting hair metal. It’s what you might imagine the star doing in his downtime, except that he’s on his way to feed a few hundred goats — on a ranch in California wine country. Guy and his wife, Lori, bought the place almost 10 years ago as a family getaway, and though it’s only an hour and a half from their home in Santa Rosa, it’s really another world. There are lush forests, incredible views of the local vineyards and 320 acres of land where Guy can let loose. “I work so much and have so much crazy stuff going on, I wanted a retreat,” he says.

Photographs by Dave Lauridsen

A totem pole, carved from a pine tree that fell on the property, is one of the first things you see when you approach the main house. Each animal represents a member of the Fieri family. (Guy is the eagle.)

You have to work hard to get to this deck — it was built around existing boulders and it’s reachable only via a rocky dirt road. Once you arrive, there are incredible views of Mount St. Helena and Clear Lake.

As the inventor of Donkey Sauce (a garlic aïoli), Guy knew the ranch wouldn’t be complete without a couple of donkeys. He keeps Taquito (pictured above) and another donkey named Burrito as pets.

“When we got the place, I could have called it Camp Poison Oak,” says Guy. Instead of eradicating the plants with chemicals, he invested in natural weed killers: goats! He nicknamed the herd Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.

Guy and his caretakers dote on the garden, which has about 30 fruit trees, plus herbs and veggies, like artichokes, carrots and jalapeños. “The first time we grew an avocado, it was like we had a baby!” Guy says.

Tucked in a sunny corner of the ranch, the coop shelters 20 chickens that provide eggs almost daily.