Bobby Flay | Celebrity Chef, Food Network TV Personality

Your fever is high and the pressure to log in at work is too. But when you finally decide to take care of you, there's Instacart. Just because that one perfect coworker of yours is attending all meetings, camera on while she's sneezing, coughing and aching, doesn't mean you have to do the same. Take it from us, trying to stay on top of things will only get you further behind.

Instead, get everything from tissues and teas to cough suppressants and comforting soups delivered through Instacart in as fast as 30 minutes. If anyone needs anything, they can just redirect their questions to that one perfect coworker of yours. And food is enjoyed. Sullo Stove, the perfect flame for the big game. We give you one more celebrity from Radio Row that, yes, rivals the Thunderbirds. Bobby Flay, celebrity chef on the Food Network since the 90s. He's an Emmy winner. He's got dozens of restaurants. He's got dozens of cookbooks.

He's got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And he sat down with a wide ranging conversation with me on Radio Row because, let's face it, we're foodies. And I said that to him. We love food. As much as we cover football and sports, we might talk about food more than anything else.

True story, Bobby. How much do you love football? I love football. I mean, I've been a fan my entire life, since I can remember, of course. And yeah, I mean, listen, I'm a Giants fan, so. Are you? So is my producer.

He feels like he's long suffering. Well, yeah, I mean, we've had to listen. We've won some Super Bowls. I mean, not every team can say that, right? But yeah, I don't think they're playing Sunday. No, they're definitely not.

Nor is my team, the Denver Broncos. So we're in the same boat. How do you like the marriage of Super Bowl in Vegas? My first time here, so I'm asking you. Your first time in Vegas? My first time in Vegas.

It's insane. This is quite a week for you to be coming for your first time. Listen, I've been in Vegas doing business here for 20 years. I have restaurants in Caesar's Palace and it's a great city and it just gets better. And honestly, like, I don't think there's a better place to have the Super Bowl because Super Bowl, the game is like almost the afterthought when you get to Sunday.

It's all the things that lead up to it and all the logistics. I mean, I've been to plenty of Super Bowl like cities during the Super Bowl week. And a lot of times it's hard to get rooms.

They're far away. Everything is spread out. This place, there's rooms up and down the strip, you know, at every level. There's great food in every building. There's great entertainment. I mean, you go see Adele and then come to one of my restaurants like on a Thursday, like before the game. I mean, there's tons of things to do here.

I just think it makes perfect sense. You opened a new restaurant in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I know you've got restaurants all over the place, right? But what's special about Vegas when you marry it with food? Well, I mean, look, the bottom line is for a chef, this is a place that you can really kind of unwind all your culinary fantasies because people are here to spend money, right? When people come, when people land at the airport in Las Vegas, they're not trying to figure out how not to spend money. They're here to spend money. They know they're going to gamble it or they're going to buy a cool bag in one of the cool shops or they're going to go to entertainment or they're going to go to like a fancy restaurant and they're going to try things that they probably maybe wouldn't try in their hometown.

And so for somebody like me, it just it just it gives me like license to kind of to to be really creative and live out the things that I want to be able to do. Yeah, well, bucket list item Cirque du Soleil, which I'll be seeing on Friday. I'm really excited about. Which one are you going to?

I'm going to see Mystere. OK. Yeah, because I've heard it's iconic. Well, they're all iconic. When you see the talent of these people, you're like this is the talent in this town across the board.

Forget about the food. I mean, yes, we think we have great chefs here. But the bottom line is like the entertainment here is it's world world. It's like it's like it's it's so amazing. You're going to be you're going to be blown away. I can't wait. Yeah. Can't wait. Bobby Flay here on Radio Row.

It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. I got to ask this question because I don't actually know you're a TV host. You've released so many cookbooks.

I heard that maybe there's another one coming out soon. You travel, you've got restaurants all over the place. How much do you actually cook? I cook more than you can. I cook more than most people in the world. I can promise you that I cook all the time. When you say I'm a TV host, like most of the things I do on TV, I'm cooking. So I just finished 32 episodes of Be Bobby Flay. I mean, I'm cooking every single day and I cook in my restaurants and I cook at home all the time. Yes. That was my follow up. How much do you enjoy cooking in your free time?

I love it. It's one of the things that I get asked a lot about. Well, you know, the media asked me all the time, like, OK, we know you can cook for a living, but what do you do for fun? And basically it's the same answer.

But it's a very different pace. You know, I show my adoration and my love for my friends and family by cooking for them. I mean, that's that's what I do. It's my love language.

I dropped out of high school when I was 16 and I went to work in a restaurant and I like literally saved my life. So it's like I love cooking so much I can do it every single day. What are some of your favorite dishes to cook if you're home, not in a restaurant, but on your free time? Well, I'll tell you one of one of the things that I love to cook. This is a really funny story. It's a great question because I like to cook lots of different things.

It depends on the season, depends where I am, whatever. But there's a dish. So I'm a native New Yorker. I was walking down the streets of New York one day and this construction worker like this big sort of big, brawny guy, you know, like you would never think would be like into food, like said to me, hey, Bobby, like saw me walking down the street. If you had to cook one dish to feed the world, what would it be? And I was like, paella. And paella is a wonderful dish because it can feed lots of people. It's made the base of it is with rice and you can put anything on it. And rice is one of those ingredients that every place in the world has a rice dish. And so I love making paella for my friends because it makes me think about kind of feeding as many people as I possibly can. But obviously in a delicious way.

Cool. Yeah, I was reading some of your posts on social about your daughter. Does she inherit your love of food? And is she as into it as you are? Well, I mean, she doesn't make a living doing it.

But a lot of a lot of people actually ask her, you know, are you going to do you want to be a chef? She's you know, she's 27. She's actually a journalist in L.A. Is she here? She's coming tonight. Good. But she's not working. So that just means I have to feed her and her friends.

It's totally fine. Yeah. But does she enjoy it? Oh, yeah.

Oh, no, no, no. She is like a lot like her thing is like anything shellfish from the raw bar, lobsters, crabs. This is a dish that I named after a scallop dish that I named after her on the grocery B menu. And she's like, just make sure that like her name is Sophie. So she's like, just make sure that the dish you pick for me has alliteration. So with scallops and Sophie. So it's base scallop Sophie. So she's happy.

Well, as a journalist who's worked in the business 25 years, mostly radio. I love alliteration. It's my favorite literary tool. So you tell her that's fun. It stands out.

Yes, it does alliteration. Absolutely awesome. What's your comfort food? You mentioned the paella to cook for people. But what do you like to eat when you just eat a break? I'm a burger guy. And I mean, I have I have burger restaurants called Bobby's Burgers, actually in Caesars and Harrah's in Paris here.

So you can't get away from me in Las Vegas. If you're going to eat, I'm going to feed you whether you like it or not. But burgers, I'm a burger guy like and I will tell you that most chefs like we're not looking for caviar and foie gras at the end of a meal.

We want like comfort food things. But I've always run up being a cheeseburger guy. So I have a lot of opinions about burgers. What's the ultimate compliment when someone eats at your restaurant? Just that they like the food. Like, honestly, you know, because I'm on TV, people want to take pictures and this and that.

I don't care about any of that. I want to know if you like the food. If you like the food, I'm like, I'm thrilled.

Because to me, being in my chef whites in my kitchens, that to me is the place I want to be more than any place else. Way more than television. Bobby Flay with us here on Radio Row. I read you've got French background, an Italian restaurant, right?

Yeah. Here in Las Vegas, American food. You talk about the burgers.

So what would you say is your signature style? Well, it's evolved over time. I mean, I've been cooking professionally for close to 40 years now.

If you believe that, it's crazy. And so for a long time, I had a restaurant called Mesa Grill, which was an American southwestern food, you know, lots of chili peppers, etc. And those ingredients still are part of my cuisine, but in different places. I've become obsessed with Italy.

It's the place that I want to spend my free time as much as I can. Nice. So my first Italian restaurant we opened here two and a half years ago at Caesar's called Amalfi. But you'll see bits and pieces of like chilies from Calabria and things like that. So when you go there, it might it might look and feel Italian, but you know, it's a Bobby Flay restaurant.

Yeah. So I love to bake. People ask me all the time, what's something you either can't bake or you've screwed up? Have you ever?

I'm sure you have. What's a dish that either you don't enjoy making or you're maybe not as good at? I'm not a good baker.

So anything you want, any cookies? No, when people come on Beat Bobby Flay, like they're like, I'm going to challenge him to something that he has to bake, because I'm like, I literally I don't know what it is. It's like, you know, and I explain this to some people all the time. Being a chef and being a pastry chef is like two different professions. It's like being a plumber and an electrician. No, seriously, it's like we wear the same uniforms and we can kind of get by doing one or the other.

But we're way better than one than the other. Pastry is a completely different ballgame. When I have to break out like the butter, flour, sugar and eggs, I like freak out. I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe you know what it is.

You know what it is? Because you usually have some sort of batter or some kind of cake and you put it in the oven and I lose control. It's a lot.

It's a lot. I'm like, wait, what? So if I'm cooking something on top of the stove, I can always adjust. Add some olive oil, season it this and that. Once you put it in the oven, you just have to pray.

I don't like it. You said you dropped out of school and started working when you were a teenager. Yeah. What was your first job in food? I was working in a restaurant like I started washing dishes and then I was like doing some prep and, you know, taught me how to use a knife. I was 16 and I dropped out of high school and I was just like, I need a job. I was not interested in like picking up a textbook and learning it.

Right. I didn't have it. I didn't have it in me. I needed vocational education.

And I think we need more vocational education in this country. Because once I started working with my hands, the light bulb went off and I was like, wow, I love this. It was like the first time as a teenager, I was excited about anything, you know.

So I just got lucky. But listen, I mean, I found what I love to do and I've been doing it every day since. About 30 years ago, when I decided I wanted to be a radio host and I wanted to work in sports, women weren't doing that.

People said to me, you better have a backup plan because that doesn't usually work. They were being kind. But at the time, there was no one who was doing what I wanted to do.

Right. Celebrity chefs were not a thing 40 years ago, even 30 years ago. How did your family and friends react when you decided that this is what you wanted to do for a living, the cooking part?

Oh, well, yeah. I mean, it was really thought of as a blue collar profession at the time. But my father and my mom, they were just happy that I got a job.

I mean, because my father was like, look, you're not just going to hang out with your friends in the street corner. You know, like you need to like you need to go earn a living, you know. And so I went and got a job and they were just happy that I found something that I like, even even though it wasn't a very fashionable thing at the moment. And listen, I was in the right place at the right time. Food became important in this country. The Food Network was born. I've been there since the beginning. I mean, so, yeah, I mean, I've been very blessed to have a to be in the right place at the right time.

Timing's everything. A chef has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That's incredible. I'm the first chef to have a star. Yeah, it was an amazing moment.

It really was in my daughter. Lily lives in L.A., a block and a half from my star. I'm like, do you go by and say hello to me? She's like, yeah, she's like that. I don't even think about it anymore.

I just walk over it. Super Bowl parties. I mean, they're huge all over the country, right? We're talking about a third of our nation that will be watching the game in some capacity.

If you're hosting or you're given a recommendation, what would you say? Super Bowl snack. Got to have it. OK, here's the deal.

Like and I've been answering this question like all week. I think you have to give the people what they want. The bottom line is on Super Bowl Sunday, people crave certain things. They crave nachos. They crave sliders. They crave chicken wings.

Yes. But here's the deal. Make them good, right? Because there's bad versions of all three of those things. And I'm not into chili on Super Bowl Sunday.

I just don't want it. I like I don't know. It's just I'm chili hating today. But I think like, you know, when you have nachos, it's not just a bunch of tortilla chips and melted cheese. Like make a beautiful cheese sauce, pick out some beautiful tortillas, get some, you know, great avocados, gorgeous tomatoes, make a great sauce and make everything individually.

And it's the way you layer it because you want crispiness, but also you want it to be dressed right. And then also to me, it's also about timing in terms of like, you know, when you put out food for the for the game. You need things for when people get there. OK, because people are going to be drinking, let's face it. But like put out one thing at a time and then put something out at halftime. And then maybe after halftime, you can kind of like relax and watch the rest of the game at the host. But timing and the way that you put these things together, but give the people what you want.

They want they want Super Bowl food. Awesome. Well, it's great to meet you.

My husband's coming in today. We'll try one of your restaurants so that we can say we did here in Vegas. I'll be there. Thank you for a couple of minutes. Enjoy the weekend. My pleasure.

Thanks. A peanut butter M&M's production in a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring. But the runners up get nothing. One retired cop. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Thanks to our nationwide logistics network. Yep.

Graybar does that. OK, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road with available H-Track all wheel drive and three row seating.

My whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. 2024 Santa Fe available early 2024.