Bobby Flay started working as a cook in the kitchen of famed NYC restaurant Joe Allen at the age of 17. Soon after, Joe Allen himself was so impressed he paid for Bobby to attend The French Culinary Institute and as the old saying goes, the rest is cooking history. Flay, who is as cool as they come and nice too, got media famous years ago from being one of the first chefs, especially male chef’s to appear on camera, and is now a master chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and TV personality with a new venture on NBC, ‘America’s Next Great Restaurant.’ Spoke to Bobby recently about the new show which has Flay, Chipotle founder Steve Ellis, renowned chef Curtis Stone, and ‘Top Chef’ and Project Runway’ producer Jane Lipsitz serving as investors and mentors who will put their time and according to Flay, “substantial amounts of money in which we’re all equal partners” into picking the next great restaurant idea through business and cooking challenges from a nationwide search of 21 top competitors. During our chat Bobby talked about how his whole life revolves around food and how he dropped out of high school and went to work in a restaurant and has been cooking ever since for about 28 years. I told Bobby that he has definitely made the business of men cooking look cool and that year’s ago a man cooking was considered not so cool or hip but now if a man cooks it’s like a fashion accessory and very hot. Flay said, “Yes. Thank you for the compliment. Interestingly enough, you know when I go to a football game or something, guys who you won’t think of as cooks or guys that wouldn’t admit they like to cook say to me all the time, Thank you for letting me be public about the idea that I like to cook. And, you know all of a sudden it’s kind of cool amongst their friends and they say that it was like their secret interest. I think that has changed a lot over the last ten years and really, cooking in America has finally caught up to the rest of the world. When I started cooking it was only a blue collar profession and I was just sort of getting a paycheck every week. And you know I got lucky in terms of being in the right place at the right time and then all of a sudden food became a fashionable thing to be involved in.” And what makes a great restaurant I ask? “There are certain ingredients to make the perfect restaurant. Obviously, you know terrific food which is more important than ever, great service of course, and an environment that people are going to enjoy. And the fourth and certainly not last is value.” Well, four Food Network TV shows and about 10 restaurants later, and what looks like a hot new TV show on the lookout for ‘America’s Next Great Restaurant’ with the “fast casual” format debuting on NBC next Sunday March 6th, at 8pm ET, Bobby Flay seems to be once again in the right place at the right time. www.bobbyflay.com
I’ll be watching. It looks like a great show.