Guy Fieri Highlights Impact of COVID-19 on Restaurant Industry in New Food Network Special

Food Network Restaurant Hustle

Guy Fieri's new documentary will shine a light on the devastating impact the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had on the restaurant industry.

Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line, premiering on the Food Network on Sunday, December 27, follows four celebrity chefs and restaurant owners — Maneet Chauhan, Antonia Lofaso, Marcus Samuelsson and Christian Petroni — who share the personal hardships they've experienced working in the food industry over the past 10 months.

"I hope we get out of this stronger. I keep convincing myself that we will, but it's frightening," Lofaso, 44, says in Today's screener of the trailer.

Fieri, 52, told NBC News' Joe Fryer that creating and producing the special was like being on a "sinking ship."

"It was a very trying time to listen to your friends that you love and respect and see them go through this, up and down, that you couldn't do anything about," he said.

The Press Democrat/YouTube Guy Fieri

RELATED: Petition to Rename Columbus, Ohio to 'Flavortown' in Honor of Guy Fieri Gets Thousands of Signatures

Samuelsson, the head chef of Red Rooster in Harlem, New York, said that the documentary tells "a raw, authentic story" of the restaurant industry's ongoing struggles.

When asked why he chose to participate in the documentary, the Ethiopian-Swedish restaurateur said, "I'm part of a community and we needed to share this."

Samuelsson also said that even with the COVID-19 vaccine, the restaurant industry still has a long fight ahead of them. "It's going to be, 'How do we rebuild?' " he said. "We don't know what a restaurant in 2021, 2022, is going to look like. Many habits from our customers has already changed, so the model of restaurant also has to change."

Food Network Restaurant Hustle

RELATED: The Pandemic Has Made Americans More Adventurous When It Comes to Food: Study

Fieri has supported local workers since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, he launched the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund in which raises money to give one-time $500 grants to impacted workers. Two months later, Fieri handed out meals to 1,200 first responders and healthcare workers at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California.

While the restaurant industry has been crippled like never before this past year, Fieri believes that a better future is on the horizon.

"We will beat these situations and we will prevail through them, unified," he told NBC News. "Divided, we don't. We don't. The efficiency goes down, not by 50%, but exponentially. Unification, supporting one another, tackling issues head-on, resolving them. That's what we need to be doing."

Restaurant Hustle 2020: All on the Line airs Sunday (9 p.m. ET) on the Food Network.