[Sca-cooks] Iron Chef America...redux!

[Bill Fisher]

On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 00:51:37 -0500, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:

> Well, I was joking (see Bonds, Barry, Giambi, Jason, etc.; the whole
> baseball-players-on-steroids thing). However, Bobby Flay just doesn't
> seem to have a clue as to how to act, and although a sharp
> entrepreneur and, arguably, showman, doesn't know much about food
> outside of a very tight focus acquired more from market research than
> any love of cooking. Let's just say he has built up some culinary
> capital and he intends to spend it: everyone I know who has dealt
> with him personally (myself included) has had to spend precious time
> listening to his "no, I really am a real chef -- honest" act. He
> should go into some field where false bravado is more of an asset.
> Like politics ;-).

I met Flay when he was doing the "Grillin and Chillin" show with Jack 
McDavid.  I was at Jack's Firehouse in Philly (Fairmont Ave)  and Flay
was there with Jack.  From what I saw of his cooking, his recipes are
simple enough to fit the Iron Chef format (ie doesn't require all that much
work).  I love Jack's cooking and he was out on the floor of his restaraunt 
talking to people (as usual for him) and I was complimenting Jack on 
the awesome chicken I had just had and Mr Flay cut in and tried to turn
it into an "about Bobby" moment.  

One of my favorite "bad Bobby" moments was when he was interviewing
Ingrid Croche (Jim Croche's widow) on site at her restaraunt in San Francisco.
Ingrid was telling a touching story about how Jim and her had planned open
the restaraunt and how Jim had picked out the site and they were working on 
the menu they day before he died.  Flay cut her off and rudely asked about 
her recipes and if she was going to cook.

> I was surprised to hear some nebulous complaints about Mr. Battali
> (from my niece, who worked as a waitress in one of the restaurants he
> was involved in), but I've always liked his work.
> 
> Adamantius

I'm a fan of Battali.  He gives a wonderful amount of background information
on the foods he makes on TV, and from that you know he understands the
food and its origins.

Cadoc
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