Bobby Flay taught me! Cook book reviews

To become a master, you must watch the masters. You gotta study, you gotta understand, you gotta observe. And that's why I've been binge-watching the Food Network. Keep reading to find out what books and TV shows I'm talking about today. 

Hey, it's Kyla Denanyoh, and today we're talking about Bobby Flay. Well, specifically, The Food Network, his show, Beat Bobby Flay, and his cookbooks. 

So I have been watching the show, Beat Bobby Flay. I knew who he was, casually, but I have been watching his show from the most recent season to the oldest. I started with Season 31, and I'm currently in Season 4. Fascinating. And I learned these five things. 

For one, watching the show made me pick up his cookbooks, and it has given me a greater appreciation for everything he does on the show and in his actual life. So, that's number one. 

Number two, you have to appreciate the expertise of Bobby Flay. All right, these contestants come on Beat Bobby Flay, and if you never watch the show, it's where contestants show up, they have to compete with another person, the person who wins gets to tell Bobby their specialty, and then Bobby tries to make the recipe, and they try to make the recipe.

Watching the show made me realize a lot more about him, such as that he has had his daughter, Sophie, on the show, which is why I picked Cookbook Sundays with Sophie. This is where he discusses some of the family recipes that he prepares, and it really makes you appreciate him because he always includes these little sections at the top of the recipes, where he shares details like where he got the recipe from or who used to make it. And so the shows led to the cookbooks, which led to my learning, which in turn led to the video: cause and effect. 

The third thing that I absolutely love and learned about Bobby Flay is that he values himself. That feels simple. You put your name on stuff that you value. I sent my daughter to school. I got her name on her spoons. I got it in her book bag. I got it on her fork. I need you all to know that this is hers, and please put it back in the bag. Beat Bobby Flay, Bobby's Burger 

Place: Bobby Flay's Americana Grill. Yes, I have my name on everything. This one doesn't even have to be written by Bobby Flay; it's Bobby Flay Fit, his book. 

He has used his name, and it is his calling card, and it precedes him as your name should. And Bobby Flay names everything after himself because he respects his name. I mean, this, he's been cooking for years. This is not an SEO (search engine optimization) trick to have Bobby Flay on everything. He's always seen the value in his name and the value of his brand. And he puts his name on everything. And that is absolutely brilliant. 

Number four, Bobby Flay writes some damn good cookbooks. I shared a brief snippet about how he explains why he created this recipe and its origins. Still, as in Bobby Flay Fit, he writes about this being my favorite kind of overnight oatmeal because I used to always eat that oatmeal that had absolutely nothing to do with apple cinnamon. I still loved it as a kid, and the memory of this recipe reminds me of… And I'm just like, the food we eat does make us think of old memories. And wow, that you remember all that, and now you've taken it up a notch. And I'm like, that's so true.

Like, yeah, you're a chef, and not to say that chefs aren't intelligent, but the book is really, really profound. But if they remove the recipes and just had all his little snippets, I would read a book with those because it's fascinating. And I feel like those are the ones he really wrote. And then the contributing editors and writers are the ones who, like, figured out this many calories are in this amount of nuts and blah, blah, blah for the actual recipes. But it's brilliant. Cookbooks are phenomenal, the show is phenomenal. 

But the last thing I've been learning from the Food Network and these books is that Bobby Flay is a nice guy. We like all kinds of people; we don't really care where they came from, what they're doing, but I care about what is happening right now. What can you do for me lately? Bobby Flay, if you saw him on the street, would actually talk to you and be nice. And that adds to his likability because he lets these people come on the show and roast him.

He lets his friends come on, Beat Bobby Flay, who are like trying to choose the contestant who goes to the next round. They're harassing him. They're roasting him. It's all in fun, but he's actually a nice person, and that really does add to the appeal. If I'm ever in New York, I will stop by Mesa Grill. I will go to Shark Out in Vegas. I am a walking advertisement for Bobby Flay, because his show is fantastic, and his cookbooks, which are also awesome, have spun off from it. 

Until the next book review, Kyla