texasmesquite

Flay's cooking flair

4:48 PM, October 11, 2009 ι By Christina Amoroso
Source: NYpost.com

Who says Sunday morning is too early to cook a huge dinner? At this morning's cooking demonstration at Comix, Food Network star and New York City chef Bobby Flay cooked up a mouth-watering menu of roasted mushrooms with goat cheese and shallots, pomegranate glazed roast chicken, brussels sprouts with vanilla and pecan butter, and German chocolate cake. During the whirlwind one-hour cookfest, we gleaned a few handy tips from the "Throwdown!" host, which we're kindly passing on to you:
* Some of Flay's favorite New York spots include Pino's Prime Meats on Sullivan Street and Durso's Pasta & Ravioli Company in Flushing (which was featured in a season six episode of "Throwdown!").
* Textural contrast is one of the most important aspects of food for Flay. He likes his food to be crunchy and crispy on the outside (hence his burgers topped with potato chips, on the menu at Bobby's Burger Palace and presented at Friday night's Burger Bash) and silky on the inside.
* He uses canola or vegetable oil to cook with and prefers to drizzle extra virgin olive oil on at the last minute. Because EVOO is so thick and flavorful, the heat from cooking causes the oil to become bitter.
* Flay pan-sears his roasted chicken on the stove first to get it nice and crispy on the outside, and then he'll put it in the oven for about an hour -- and the glaze goes on later, since it'll become bitter if used too early in the cooking process.
The real treat, though, was the funny banter between Flay and Melissa d'Arabian, who won "The Next Food Network Star" in August and stopped by to help out Flay. The two poked fun at each other throughout the demo, like this exchange here:
Flay: "Who was the nicest judge?"
d'Arabian: "I love you, but..."
Flay: "That means it's not me."
The "Ten Dollar Dinners" host said she preferred Bob Tuschman, but she did concede, "You've been on my List."
Flay looked a little confused. "The List?" he asked.
d'Arabian turned to the audience. "Do celebrities not have Lists?"
Flay finally got it: "Ohhh, that list."