Bobby Flay (USA)
Born
in 1964, Bobby Flay opened his first restaurant, Mesa Grill, in 1991,
winning immediate acclaim. He made his first appearance on the Food
Network in 1994 and soon became a television fixture in the vein of
fellow celebrity chefs Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, and Rachael Ray.
Flay has hosted several Food Network shows, such as Grill It!
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| Bobby Flay is one of "The World's Most Influential, creative and important Chefs" |
Chef
and restaurant owner. Born Robert William Flay on December 10, 1964 in
New York City, and raised on Manhattan's Upper East Side by divorced
parents Bill and Dorothy Flay, Irish-Americans who bestowed red hair and
freckles upon their son. From a young age, Flay showed a talent for
cooking. He arranged his mother's grocery lists; whipped up complex
after-school snacks; and even requested an Easy-Bake Oven as a Christmas
gift. He was, however, markedly less interested in school. Flay bounced
around several parochial schools before dropping out of high school at
the age of 17.
His
first professional restaurant job came in 1982, shortly after he left
school. His father Bill, a manager for the famed Joe Allen's restaurant
in New York's Theater District, called one day and ordered Bobby Flay to
fill in for a sick busboy. "He told me—he didn't ask," Flay later
recalled. This soon turned into a full-time job at Joe Allen's, where
Flay moved from busboy to kitchen helper. His boss paid to send him to
the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, which Flay attended after
earning his high school equivalency diploma. He received the institute's
Outstanding Graduate Award in 1993.
After
a brief, and unfulfilling, stint as a stockbroker's assistant on Wall
Street, Flay went to work for a series of New York restaurants, most
notably those of restaurateur Jonathan Waxman. Flay was fascinated by
Waxman's use of spices and flavors from the American Southwest—a region
Flay had never visited—and Southwestern cooking soon became Flay's
signature food.
Celebrity Chef
Bobby
Flay opened his first restaurant, Mesa Grill, in 1991, winning
immediate acclaim. Mesa Grill was awarded the coveted title of Best
Restaurant 1992 by New York Magazine's revered food critic, Gael Greene.
In 1993, Flay was named the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef
of the Year, a prize for talented chefs under 30. That same year, he
opened Bolo Bar and Restaurant in New York City's Flatiron district,
which also proved wildly popular with critics and diners alike. Flay
followed that success with a second Mesa Grill in Las Vegas's Caesar's
Palace in 2004; the bistro Bar Americain in 2005; Bobby Flay Steak in
Atlantic City in 2006; Mesa Grill Bahamas in 2007; and a second Bar
Americain at Connecticut's Mohegan Sun casino in 2009. Flay's chain of
casual burger joints, Bobby's Burger Palace, opened in 2008 and has
spread across the East Coast.
Flay
became a household name, and not only because of his restaurants. He
made his first appearance on the Food Network in 1994, and soon became a
television fixture in the vein of fellow celebrity chefs Mario Batali,
Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray
