Bobby Flay on the Surprising Meal He ‘Takes Seriously,’ His Favorite Way to Spice Up Dinner and the Importance of His 18th Cookbook (Exclusive)

In the book, there’s quite a bit of talk about Iron Chef, Beat Bobby Flay, etc., which made me realize you’ve always put yourself into competitive situations. What do you love about that dynamic?

I’ve always been a competitive person at heart. I was an athlete when I was younger—the one thing I was good at in school was sports. And cooking has become, in some ways, my sport of choice.

When you think about it, on Beat Bobby Flay or Iron Chef, there’s a competitor, there’s a challenge, there’s a clock, there’s a finish line and there’s judging. And it’s all the things that we get in athletic competition.

And you’re running back and forth.

Right, it’s also very physical. It’s emotional and physical, for sure. And there’s a winner and there’s a loser. And I don’t mind being either one of them. I love being able to give a stage to some chefs who maybe wouldn’t get the chance to be on a national stage and show what they got.

And it seems like you can take some good-natured razzing. 

Oh, yeah. For sure. Absolutely.

One prime example is Sunny Anderson.

There’s no one like Sunny. She keeps me humble and she keeps me laughing.

Following her on social media and watching the two of you is very entertaining. You can see it’s all with love. But she’s quite adept. 

She’s amazing.

In the book you mention that most chefs complain about brunch, but I know that you’re pro-brunch. What is it about brunch that you like?

I actually like the meal, as a chef and a customer. I love creative egg dishes. I love the idea that it’s during the day and usually on the weekends, so it’s nice and relaxing and it usually comes with a cocktail. To me, that sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon.

There’s a lot of chefs … I was watching Matty Matheson and he was going on and on about why brunch is such a bad concept. He was doing a whole thing about it. I’m sure part of it is his shtick, but I just completely disagree. And I think it also creates a great opportunity because a lot of chefs don’t take brunch seriously, so that means you can own the meal period.

What do you like to make for brunch if you’re cooking?

I love poached egg dishes or fried egg dishes or some version of an eggs Benedict. It could be a classic one or using some kind of seafood, like lobster or crab.

I also love waffles. I make a lot of waffles in my house with toasted cornmeal and brown butter as the base. And depending on what food is hanging around my house, I can make some kind of sweet chutney to go with it. And then I always make a flavored maple syrup or some other kind of syrup to go with it as well.

If I have a big brunch, that’s kind of my meal for the day and I’m good.

Changing gears, in the stacked tomato salad recipe, you said that Garrotxa [a semi-firm Spanish goat cheese] was one of your top three personal favorite cheeses. What are the other two?

Oh, my favorite cheeses. OK. I like Garrotxa. I like Cabrales blue cheese, which is another Spanish cheese. I keep thinking of Spain, but you know, I like a great 30-month Parmigiano-Reggiano. I mean, it’s the king of cheeses for a reason. You can never stop eating Parmigiano. I always have it in my house and I just break off pieces of it and just snack on it all the time. It’s so good.

Speaking of your favorite things, you’re known for your love of crispy rice and get teased about it sometimes. My question is—crispy rice: crutch or clutch?

Definitely clutch. I mean, I’m a contrast/texture person when it comes to cooking. Obviously flavor is important, but texture is just as important.

And the great thing about crispy rice is I kind of overcook the rice a tiny bit, so it’s nice and fluffy, then I let it chill. When I cook, the edges on the outside get crispy, but the inside is fluffy. To me, that contrast is the key. I think for any kind of long-grain rice, the crispy rice is always going to be better than the not-crispy.

Related: Bobby Flay’s Most Basic (and Delicious) Burger Recipe

OK. You’ve convinced me. Last question: The final recipe in the book is a crostata, the only dessert in the book. You say the recipe hints at what chapter two might be. Are you going to reveal any of that, or do we have to wait and see?

I’m not going to really reveal it. I’ll just give you some good hints—it’s going to be about another country that’s important to me. And if you read the last little bit, it becomes pretty obvious.

Let’s put it this way. I didn’t put anything in this book about Italy, because Italy is an incredibly important place to me. I go there as much as I can in my time off, but I have a lot more work to do. And, you know, there have been plenty of Americans who love Italy and write books about it. I’m just not ready to do that quite yet. But I think that there’s a good chance that would be the second chapter.

Related: Bobby Flay’s Crispy Coconut-Scallion Rice Recipe (With Leftover Rice Hack)