Chef Bobby Flay talks food and fame

By BECKY KRYSTAL

Chef Bobby Flay indulges his taste for competition on ‘Throwdown’ and ‘Iron Chef.’

“Bold” is the way Bobby Flay describes his cooking style. That word also sums up the man in general.

Whether it’s taming an outdoor grill or surprising an unsuspecting cook for a one-on-one battle on “Throwdown With Bobby Flay,” the celebrity chef is a mainstay on Food Network.

His television ventures include “Iron Chef America,” “Boy Meets Grill” and specials with the network’s other luminaries. Flay, who trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York, also joined “The Next Food Network Star” this season as a regular judge.

Oh, and there’s one more. Now showing: “Grill It! With Bobby Flay,” which has replaced the Daytime Emmy-winning “Boy Meets Grill” on his busy docket.

“I’m not trying to add shows right now,” Flay said with a laugh.

He pulled himself away from his studio and restaurant kitchens to chat.

Q. You’ve got five restaurants, a handful of television shows and a new book [“Bobby Flay’s Grill It!”]. Do you sleep at all?

A. Sleep is very overrated. ... I work basically every single day. Listen, I’m not going to complain about it. I love it. Everything that I do revolves around food, so it’s the one common denominator that sort of brings it all together. And TV’s obviously a part of it, but my restaurants are the most important thing to me.

Q. Is “Grill It!” the opposite of what you normally do? Are the guests teaching you?

A. Basically, the idea is, like, if you have a great dish that you cook ... you bring on ... all the ingredients for your dish, and you bring me the main ingredient. So if it’s chicken, then I take the chicken and I go to my pantry and I grab a few ingredients and I throw something together with chicken. ... The idea is that you actually get a couple of different ideas for chicken that night . ... And there’s no winner or loser.

Q. One of the themes in your shows has been the grill. What is it you find so appealing about it, and why do you think America has a love affair with the grill?

A. Well, I think that it’s the most festive way to cook. Let’s face it. Usually it’s nice out, everybody has a cocktail in their hand. And most guys think they can grill, no matter what, even if they don’t know how to turn on a stove. I always say there’s two kinds of guys in the world: guys that can grill and guys that think they can grill. That makes up every guy in America, but it makes it fun.

Q. Why do you like doing competition shows such as “Throwdown” and “Iron Chef”?

A. Just because I’ve always been a little competitive in my life. I was an athlete when I was younger, and I always think of “Iron Chef” as an athletic event with kitchen tools, ’cause it’s just 60 minutes of go. But, you know, “Throwdown,” obviously, there’s a winner and a loser and everything. But to me, that’s so not even the important part of it. “Throwdown” is a much more lighthearted show as far as competition is concerned, but we get to meet these people who are just so good and dedicated to the one thing that they do, and I think that that’s the beauty of that show.

Q. When you go home, do you stay away from the kitchen and think, “I can’t even stand to look at another oven”?

A. I absolutely love the kitchen at home. I get to cook for my wife. My wife basically places her order and I just do whatever she wants me to.

Q. Do you have a go-to takeout on that rare occasion you don’t feel like cooking?

A. Pizza and Chinese food and Cuban sandwiches from a place across the street from me [in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood].

Q. If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one food, what would it be?

A. Ice cream. Easily. Without a question.