Who thinks "iron chef" Bobby Flay blows high calorie chunks?

The BBQ Pit
1

ten reasons why I’m pitting Bobby Flay.

  1. He can never cook anything that is not full of fat, cream, fat, butter, and did I say fat? Then the judges compare him to someone else’s undrenched cuisine. This is like comparing a delicious fresh fruit to a mousse-smothered chocolate chip cheesecake–with bacon.

  2. Flay thinks he’s so good looking. NOT!!!

  3. Judges disgustingly suck up to Flay, especially some female judges.

  4. Flay is rude. Remember the battle with Morimoto when he threw the cutting board at the end of the cooking period and yelled, “U.S.A.!!! U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!” and offended the japanese chefs?

  5. The food channel treats Flay like he is the chef equivilent of of Mr. Universe, Pablo Picasso, and Albert Einstein combined! The more you watch iron chef (and just the food channel in general), the more the TV haunts you with Flay food on a grill and tries to hypnotize you into actually loving this Flay junk. Can I watch a single iron chef episode without seeing 10 Flay commercials?

  6. Flay now has his own line of appliances. What’s next? Flay branded tomatoes? A Flay line of motorcycles? Steak sauce flayardee?

  7. Why is the world suddenly in love with kitchen machismo? (see my next post on Gordon Ramsay).

  8. Flay’s throwdown show is a fix. Flay shows up with an army of sous chefs and enough equipment to fill kitchen stadium and challenges people who are unprepared.

  9. Flay keeps cooking the same dish over and over again. Put the secret ingredient in a food mill, turn it into a meatball (mixed with pork and duckfat), and serve it with a heavy sauce with cream, bacon, 10 different chilli powders, honey, cheese and BBQ sauce.

  10. Why does Flay act like Mr. Southwest. The guy sounds like he’s from New Jersey. Southwest Airline maybe?

Please help me to vent my hatred of Bobby Flay…

2

I’ve always thought a ratings winner would be for the Food Network to show a marathon of every Throwdown and Iron Chef where Bobby Flay loses, and advertise it as such. I could effortlessly watch that all day.

3

He is a tool, but I think he’s mellowed out a bit. The cutting board shenanigans were almost a decade ago.
ETA: However, I hate to harsh on honest irritation like the OP’s. FUCK BOBBY FLAY!! Vote Alton!

4

Ha! Ha! Amen. You know what would be better. If Bobby Flay lost an iron chef match to somebody who was even worse than him and cooked fattier foods.

5

While the sudden appearance of Bobby Flay will make me change the channel, I have to say…

…so? Okay, so the man’s an asshat. But he’s a celebrity asshat. Celebrities endorse things, and sometimes they make their own things and endorse that. You might as well pit a fish for swimming. And if Flay ever does endorse a line of motorcycles, I’ll be right up there with you going “WTF?” but there’s a reasonable expectation that Bobby Flay might at least have some familiarity with kitchen appliances, so a Bobby Flay line of appliances doesn’t strike me as odd.

But I think I’d prefer an Alton Brown line.

6

Does anyone --even the Japanese-- actually take Iron Chef seriously?

Marc

7

Making delicious, fatty foods is not pit worthy. I will give you the other 9 though. :slight_smile:

And Alton Brown is head and shoulders above Bobby Flay. Alton Brown is my geeky food network crush.

8

But he usually loses. I’ve only seen the show a few times–it gets on my nerves–but every time I’ve ever watched it, he lost.

OK, so according to Wikipedia, Bobby was 3/15 (with one tie) in the first season, 4/13 in the second, 5/13 in the third, and 4/10 in the fourth. If it’s a fix, it’s hardly an effective one.

Bobby’s a bit of a smug bastard, but I have a few of his cookbooks and I really like them. Of course, I happen to like the flavors he (over)uses.

9

:eek:

I can never, never, never let Lady Zakalwe see this thread.

Look, I love Alton. He’s a fantastically great teaching cook, but you’re comparing apples and oranges by comparing him to Flay.

I guess I just don’t get the hatred. “cooks with fat” - do you actually watch the Food Channel? So do Morimoto, Dean, and Batali. Giada (sweet, sweet Giada) tries to go light on occasion, but then the Italian in her comes out and so does the fat. Fat tastes good, so people trying to make good tasting food use it. Get the fuck over it.

On preview, I note that Doctor J has already debunked the “the fix is in on Throwdown”. If anything, I think the man deserves props for letting these people kick his famous ass on tv giving them a big honkin’ free shot of publicity.

You wanna pit somebody, pit Emeril for chrissakes.

10

**1) He can never cook anything that is not full of fat, cream, fat, butter, and did I say fat? **

Sure he can. Try some of the dishes at his restaurants sometime.

2) Flay thinks he’s so good looking. NOT!!!

Speaking as a straight male, he’s not bad.

3) Judges disgustingly suck up to Flay, especially some female judges.

You’re just upset that they don’t do the same to you.

4) Flay is rude. Remember the battle with Morimoto when he threw the cutting board at the end of the cooking period and yelled, “U.S.A.!!! U.S.A!!! U.S.A!!!” and offended the japanese chefs?

Loved it. Fuck the Japanese. Japanese “cooking” is vile.

5) The food channel treats Flay like he is the chef equivilent of of Mr. Universe, Pablo Picasso, and Albert Einstein combined! The more you watch iron chef (and just the food channel in general), the more the TV haunts you with Flay food on a grill and tries to hypnotize you into actually loving this Flay junk. Can I watch a single iron chef episode without seeing 10 Flay commercials?

Again, this is a problem? I love it.

6) Flay now has his own line of appliances. What’s next? Flay branded tomatoes? A Flay line of motorcycles? Steak sauce flayardee?

So does Rachel. So does Emiril. So does Alton. Jealous much?
8) Flay’s throwdown show is a fix. Flay shows up with an army of sous chefs and enough equipment to fill kitchen stadium and challenges people who are unprepared.

Yet he still loses regularly.

9) Flay keeps cooking the same dish over and over again. Put the secret ingredient in a food mill, turn it into a meatball (mixed with pork and duckfat), and serve it with a heavy sauce with cream, bacon, 10 different chilli powders, honey, cheese and BBQ sauce.

If it ain’t broke…

10) Why does Flay act like Mr. Southwest. The guy sounds like he’s from New Jersey. Southwest Airline maybe?

America is all about movement, in case you haven’t noticed.
Bobby Flay is an amazing chef, a wonderful TV personality, and I would eat his cooking all day, every day if I could.

11

I haven’t watched Food Network in ages, but I’ve eaten at Mesa Grill two or three times and it’s been really good every time.

12

OK it’s time for a trip into hijack land. Shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, tempura, miso soup, yakitori, udon/soumen/soba/ramen noodle dishes: all of these are vile to you? Is it a legitimate difference in taste? Do you have an irrational hatred for Japan? Perhaps both?

13

Yeah, pretty much. I generally loathe Japanese food. I love Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese cooking. Japanese, no. I also have no use for Japanese culture. Not my thing at all.

14

Wow, I have never seen such an impassioned defense of Bobby Flay or any other celebrity, for that matter. And I’m neither trying to be humorous, nor coming down on one side of the argument or the other (I don’t know anything about the guy at all.) But that was some passion, man.

I like sushi a lot, but like you I “have no use” for Japanese culture and have always disliked anime, manga, and their sycophants. If it’s your thing, good for you, but I don’t get it and never will. Their women are pretty hot, but I’m not a fan of samurais, ninjas, female ninjas, gun-wielding ninja-esque characters, or fantasy.

Bobby Flay’s last name, Flay, is also a verb. It means “to skin alive.” Skinning people alive used to be a form of capital punishment in many ancient societies, and I cannot imagine that it was anything less than hellish to undergo. However, in the case of Flay the chef, I would suggest that he produce and star in a new hunting/cooking show:

“Flayed.”

Someone call PETA.

15

Well, different strokes for different folks I guess. Hijack over.

16

Aww… was someone rejected from the Hello Kitty fan club?

17

Native New Yorker, actually. He’s no more indigenous than the other two big authorities on Mexican* cooking that come to mind, UK native Diana Kennedy and Oklahoma native Rick Bayless.

  • Flay’s food is more Southwestern than truly Mexican, but my point still stands.
18

I remember back in the 90s when he first came to prominence, I read an interview with him in some US magazine. I had never heard of him. What he said about his cooking sounded eminently non-wanker, which at the time was unusual for a celebrity chef.

At the end of the interview he was asked to come up with the perfect entertaining menu. His answer was to learn to cook one thing really well on a BBQ - a huge piece of meat or a whole fish and accompany it with 3 or 4 fresh salads and 3 or 4 fresh salsas. And he’s right it is easier, more satisfying and always well received. But it isn’t very chef-like.

19

I think Throwdown is Flay and the Food Network making use of the fact that Flay can come off as a self absorbed prick. People like to see Flay loose (and he actually does so quite graciously) and losing to guys in little pizza parlours and bakeries is satisfying to viewers in that popping a ripe pimple sort of way.

We also make fun of Flay on Iron Chef more than anyone else - “oh, what is he going to do for his breakfast dish.” “Look, he’s using soaplantro - how unexpected!” But I think Throwdown has made him more likable.

20

Never met him (no interest) nor have I eaten his food, but I’m pretty sure it’s an act put together by his bosses and publicist. Isn’t this kind of like pitting Jesse Ventura because he was always such a jerk when he wrestled? Of course, Bourdain (another at least partly manufactured food personality) did opine that Flay “has been making squeeze bottle Mexican look good for years”. also, with a name like Flay, he really should be a butcher. If I was king, Alton Brown would be my cook and Jeremy Clarkson would be my driver.
ETA Dangerosa beat me to it.