A biography for Bobby Flayhasn’t been written yet.
“I was hired as a sous-chef at a restaurant on the Upper East Side. The chef liked to drink - some mornings we would find him sleeping. Two weeks after its opening, I became the chef. I was 20 years old, and way over my head. I had to hire the cooks and do the menus.”
“The process and the great smells it produces make everyone hungry and get everyone's mouth watering. And it gives men a chance to cook.”
“Obviously, the easiest recipes are the most successful when it comes to the home cook, because they're not intimidated by them. If I'm doing 'Boy Meets Grill,' and I do something very simple like grilled hamburgers or steaks or chicken, those are the most sought-after recipes.”
“One of the things that happens in my house on the holidays is after dessert, we sit down to a very ambitious men-versus-women game of Trivial Pursuit. It's brutal. And there's a trophy.”
“I prefer lump charcoal over briquettes but I do use both for different reasons and different recipes and sometimes I combine them both when I really want the woodsy aroma from the lump charcoal and long, even heat from the briquettes.”
“I love working with big flavors like chiles and smoke. Honey is perfect for softening the edges, mellowing them out a bit. I put it in everything - vinaigrettes, soups, stocks, salsas, so I'm always on the hunt for great honey.”
“I think cookies are sort of the unsung sweet, you know? They're incredibly popular. But everybody thinks of cakes and pies and fancier desserts before they think cookies. A plate of cookies is a great way to end dinner and really nice to share at the holidays.”
“If my daughter wants to get into this business, I would support that decision. She's going to have a hard time not being in it. She loves food and she's around it all the time.”
“A grill is just a source of heat. Just like a stove, it is very user-friendly.”
“When people pile seven things onto one burger, it drives me nuts!”
“I dropped out of high school. I really had no interest in doing any school work whatsoever.”
“I love using gas grills because they are easier to heat and it's much easier to control the flames with a gas grill than with a charcoal fire. Grilling is not just about lighting a fire.”
“I wasn't passionate about food until I'd been cooking for a while. I started long before food became part of the mainstream media. I just wanted to cook, period.”
“It is very important that when you put something on the grill, you leave it in place to cook. If you move it around too quickly, chances are it is going to stick.”
“My partner and I are looking at several locations on Park Avenue South and Midtown for a new restaurant space.”
“When I'm on television, I think that I appeal to the everyday guy, 'cause that's who I am. The guys who go to the football games on the weekends are my viewers, for sure.”
“It's important to have balance in your life between work and play.”
“Even if the chef has a good business head, his focus should be behind kitchen doors. A business partner should take care of everything in front of the kitchen doors.”
“Nobody believed the 'Food Network' could last. Even I was short sighted and thought to myself, 24 hours of food on TV? They'll run out of things to talk about in four days! But that wasn't true. 'Food Network' continues to get better and evolve.”
“Everybody says, 'I have problems overcooking steak on the grill,' but just take it off earlier! Grilling is really common sense. It's very simple. You should think of a grill as a burner - it just happens to have grates. You shouldn't be intimidated by it.”