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Bobby Flay's plate is full on the Food Network

Posted By JACQUELINE CUTLER

Source: Brantford Expositor - Ontario

No one is surprised when the girl fascinated by dissecting animals becomes a scientist. Nor is it a shocker when the boy who could sketch anything grows up to be an artist.
Yet, what can people expect when a kid mouths off to teachers, gets bounced out of schools and loiters incessantly? A future felon? Possibly, or one of the world's best-known chefs: Bobby Flay.
Flay, star of so many Food Network shows, was not on the path to glory while growing up in Manhattan.
"Pick a Catholic high school in the city, I went to it," he says, naming them off in his office in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. "The nuns get the most respect -- they could hit me with an eraser. They should have been pitchers for the Yankees."
His parents weren't aware of what was happening until the school would call. "Mrs. Flay, your son Robert has not been here all day," Flay recounts.
He would sort of intend to go to school, getting as far as the subway platform. But if the trains were crowded, Flay wouldn't go. New York kids take mass transit to school and generally travel during rush hour, so what were the chances of crowds? Flay grins.
A pal's dad was a building superintendent, and Flay and his friends made a clubhouse in an empty room in the basement. "I could take Spanish or go to the clubhouse and bet on pool games," he says.
Flay was, though, a good enough athlete that schools wanted him -- until he got into fights with coaches. Eventually, one coach steered him toward cross-country running. Flay still runs, which is how he keeps thin in a profession that plumps up many.
As he bounced around Manhattan's Catholic schools, his father, a lawyer, went into business with Joe Allen, the Broadway restaurateur. Allen gave young Flay a job in the kitchen and was so impressed with his skills, he paid Flay's tuition to the French Culinary Institute. At 17, he was on his way.
Flay graduated in 1984, and worked with restaurateur Jonathan Waxman, whom he credits for introducing him to Southwestern ingredients. These became his signature, and he imbues dishes in his five restaurants and eight cookbooks with Southwestern sweet and spicy flavors.
Flay, 43, gives off an easy vibe, which is the opposite of how many celebrity chefs behave.
"My kitchen is completely civilized," he says. "No one is allowed to raise their voices because I don't."
Also keeping Flay's ego in check is the fact he does not consider himself a TV star. Yet there are actors who would probably sell their souls to get the sort of airtime he has.
On "Grill It With Bobby Flay," top-notch grillers bring their best recipe, and Flay isn't told what it is, but he must invent a dish on the spot from the same ingredients. He's also a judge on "The Next Food Network Star." He and two station executives have been winnowing the dozen finalists to one winner, who will be chosen during the finale on July 27.
There's also Wednesday's "Throwdown With Bobby Flay," where Flay makes the same dish as someone who's an expert on that recipe. Finally, there's the granddaddy of Food Network cooking contests, "Iron Chef America," on which Flay has the honor of Iron Chef.
When the American version, a spinoff from the campier Japanese version, began, Flay competed against a chef who whipped up veal sorbet. Flay doesn't recall this but grins and says, "So I must have won that one, huh?"
He wins a lot of them, but he also loses. What always comes across is that he takes food seriously but himself less so. He is fun, and that's something that can't be taught.
"Bobby is so down to earth and accessible and doesn't have a false bone in his body," says Bob Tuschman, Food senior vice president, programming and production. "And he is so happy and excited about food."
That enthusiasm is felt among other chefs. Michael Symon, assuming host duties on "Dinner: Impossible" this summer, became pals with Flay 10 years ago. They recently returned from the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo. They celebrated Flay's business partner's birthday, where they ate breakfast, lunch and two dinners daily, Symon says.
"He is as warmhearted and as a good of a guy as you are ever going to meet," Symon says. "And his willingness to share his knowledge of the business with others is pretty unparalleled -- in business, recipes, operational things -- things that he has done right and wrong in the business, both as a chef, restaurateur and a TV host. He is very open with all of those things, which you don't find a lot of. He is really a true friend. He will stop what he is doing to help you out."