texasmesquite

For Flay, summer is all about grilling

BY SUSAN SELASKY • FREE PRESS TEST KITCHEN DIRECTOR • May 7, 2008

Bobby Flay does it all, from churning out cookbooks to hosting Food Network shows to tending to his five restaurants and coming out with a line of cookware at Kohl's.
His latest effort is "Grill It!" (Clarkson Potter, $35), his fourth grilling book and eighth cookbook overall. It is his first full-color cookbook.
The nearly 300-page book has more than 150 recipes and 17 chapters, including ones devoted to asparagus, beef, burgers, fruit, corn, salmon, squash and eggplant, and tuna.
The book reflects how he likes to cook. "This is the book to turn to when you know what you want but you don't know how you want it," he writes in it.
Flay recently spoke to us about the book, his grilling favorites and what's next for the multitasker.
He will be in town Monday for book signings at Borders Books and Music in Ann Arbor and Birmingham.
QUESTION: What will readers like about this latest book?
ANSWER: It's the most beautiful we've done. And also the recipes are incredibly user-friendly. These are my easier grilling recipes. I find the easier the recipes, the more people want to make them.
Q: Why do a book with chapters on specific ingredients?
A: The reason is that's the way I like to cook when I am grilling. I go to the store and decide what I am eating by what it looks like. Take lobster, corn or tomatoes. You go to each chapter and there are 10 to 12 recipes for each one.
Q: What would someone take away from a chapter, say, on grilling a steak?
A: What we do in each one is have a basic recipe. I tell you what kind of meat to buy and how to season it. Then we go steps further with flavors, say, adding balsamic vinegar, rosemary, honey and butter and slather it over the steak. It's delicious. The ingredients are few but powerful. We make that ingredient the star and enhance it with different flavors.
Q: What advice do you have for cooks who grill?
A: Don't turn anything too often. Mostly, I turn everything once. The grill should be incredibly clean. Make sure you have enough propane in the tank or charcoal for your grill. I've been to so many barbecues and the propane has run out. And then someone has to run out to a hopefully open store and get some.
Q: What is your favorite grilling tool?
A: A charcoal chimney starter for charcoal grills. I think it is the single greatest invention ever created for grilling. It requires only charcoal, newspaper and a match or lighter to create clean-burning, glowing bright red coals in less than 15 minutes.
Q: What is your absolute favorite on the grill?
A: I love grilling shellfish like lobster, scallops and shrimp. I think it's so versatile and it's the thing I like to eat a lot of.
Q: What's next for you?
A: It's a new Food Network show, "Grill It with Bobby Flay," that starts in July. Each show will have a guest who is very adept at grilling.