Latest news with #Flay
Axios
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Axios
Salt Lake City chef beats Bobby Flay with chile relleno win
Urban Hill chef Nick Zocco brought his southwestern flair to Food Network's "Beat Bobby Flay" — and walked away with a win. Why it matters: It's a notable victory that could put Salt Lake City's fast-growing culinary scene on the map. Driving the news: The "Beat Bobby Flay" episode — "Is It Getting Chile in Here?" — aired last Thursday. Catch up quick: Zocco, a two-time James Beard Award nominee, told Axios the toughest part was inventing standout dishes under the clock — and ignoring noisy judges. Zocco said a show recruiter contacted him in January. He filmed in New York soon after, giving him less than a week to prep. The morning of the show's taping, Zocco said he confidently turned to his wife and said: "I'm winning this competition." Spoiler alert: Zocco won the competition's first round against Austin-based cook Stefanie Torres with his pork albondigas. In the end, Zocco blew away judges with his signature dish — lump crab chile relleno with black bean and New Mexico red chile sauce — defeating Flay's chorizo version. Flashback: It wasn't Zocco's first interaction with Flay. Zocco formerly worked as a sous chef for Flay's Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, which gave him an advantage. "I came up with something that wasn't necessarily traditional, but I know the flavor profiles were there and I didn't follow suit to what Bobby's style was," he noted on what tipped the scales to his victory. Zocco noted the show's competitive nature reflected the constant demands he faces in the kitchen.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'BBQ Brawl''s Season 6 Has a New Twist — Why Bobby Flay Likes the Change (Exclusive)
The sixth season of BBQ Brawl premiered on Food Network on Sunday, June 1 Flay tells PEOPLE new captains Maneet Chauhan and Antonia Lofaso give the show "renewed energy" Season 6 also features a new rule in which the winner of the first challenge gets to pick their captainBBQ Brawl's sixth season premiered earlier this week with a new twist: The winner of the first challenge gets to pick their captain. Bobby Flay, who faces off with fellow captains Maneet Chauhan and Antonia Lofaso, says the shakeup from previous seasons, in which captains picked their entire teams, changes the dynamic — in a good way. 'We always want to be that person because everybody has an ego,' Flay tells PEOPLE. 'And so it kind of got turned around on us for a second, which I actually liked.' The first episode, which aired Sunday, June 1, saw chef Aarthi Sampath choose to be on Lofaso's team. Flay says the new season has 'serious renewed energy,' thanks to the addition of Lofaso and Chauhan. 'When I asked them to do this, they prepared themselves so incredibly well for so long prior to shooting this,' he recalls. 'I mean, they did tons of research. They were practicing, cooking, all this sort of live-fire cooking, and they really brought their own sort of energy and attitude and obviously flavors to it. And I will say that they kept me on my toes the entire time.' The culinary star adds that Lofaso is 'all about impactful flavors.' 'She's so intense in her mentoring in the best way,' he explains. 'She's very dedicated to her team. She wants them to do really well. She's almost kind of like a proud mom to them.' Chauhan, he observes, is 'a master with Indian flavors and ingredients.' 'It was really interesting watching those ingredients come to life in this sort of very classic American function of barbecue,' he notes. The new season, set at Star Hill Ranch in Austin, Texas, sees 12 new brawlers face off in teams led by Flay, Chauhan and Lofaso, aiming to win over returning judges Carson Kressley, Brooke Williamson (whom Flay began dating earlier this year) and Rodney Scott. Flay says the series' contestants tend to be 'students of the show.' 'They pay very close attention,' he says. 'Obviously, I've been on every season, so they kind of know what I like and what I don't like, what my style's going to be, how I'm going to mentor them, and those kinds of things.' 'They don't know who the other two mentors are going to be until they get there, but I think that every season, they seem to be better,' he continues. 'And I think it's not that everybody's better than the prior seasons, but they're just more schooled. So they know, they kind of drill down on what they need to do to win.' When it comes to fan reactions to the long-running series, which premiered in 2019, Flay says 'everybody has an opinion' on barbecue. 'And so we get a lot of feedback of, 'I wouldn't have done it that way and my grandfather would've never thought that was good.' And then people are like, 'I can't believe I have all these new ideas about barbecue. I never thought about it that way.' So it kind of goes both ways. But the one thing about it is people are watching it and they're interested in it and I love when people have opinions about stuff. I think if it was all just good or all just not good, there's no reason to watch. But when there's a conversation about it, which there is tons of conversation about BBQ Brawl, it works.' Read the original article on People
USA Today
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Bobby Flay's horse Crudo undercooked at Belmont Stakes
Bobby Flay's horse Crudo undercooked at Belmont Stakes Celebrity chef Bobby Flay's horse Crudo was a long shot to win Saturday's 2025 Belmont Stakes, but Crudo finishing in last place left the Flay and his horse pretty, well, burnt by the whole ordeal. Indeed, Sovereignty galloped away with the final leg of the Triple Crown in New York, and Flay's Crudo finished in last place among the horses in the field. It's not a huge shock considering Crudo wasn't one of the favorites heading into Saturday's prestigious race, but even getting to the Belmont Stakes is pretty solid work for a horse who once couldn't be sold. Flay spoke about the road Crudo, a horse he co-owns with Jimmy Ventura, took to get to Saturday's big stage. "Jimmy and I were going to buy him as a pinhook proposition — we bought him as a weanling and we were going to sell him as a yearling. We brought him to the Saratoga [Fasig-Tipton] sale, and he didn't sell, so we kept him,' Flay told the New York Post. 'I don't usually race colts. I usually race fillies only. But I have him, so he's racing, and he's turned out to have talent." Crudo earned his name for his raw talent, so perhaps the racing horse will fare better at future events. Some horses take time to find their potential on the tracks, of course, so Crudo's time may well come one day. For now, the horse's Belmont performance came out a bit undercooked, leaving Flay with a meal he'd probably like to send back to the kitchen. Pump that sweet horse full of carrots and sugar cubes, let him run around the pasture for a while and shake this race off and try again next time. If anybody knows about a bad night at the stove, it's probably Flay.
New York Post
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
The horse Bobby Flay couldn't sell has long-shot Belmont Stakes dream
SARATOGA SPRINGS — At 15-1 odds, Crudo is a long shot to outrun Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty and Preakness champion Journalism to the wire in Saturday's Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. One could argue, however, that this outcome would be no more of a surprise than the circumstances that led Crudo into the Triple Crown race in the first place for owners Bobby Flay and Jimmy Ventura and Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. 'Jimmy and I were going to buy him as a pinhook proposition — we bought him as a weanling and we were going to sell him as a yearling. We brought him to the Saratoga [Fasig-Tipton] sale, and he didn't sell, so we kept him,' Flay, the chef, restaurant magnate and Food Network star told The Post early Friday morning before visiting Crudo. 'I don't usually race colts. I usually race fillies only. But I have him, so he's racing, and he's turned out to have talent,' Flay continued. 'The Belmont Stakes is New York's most important race and as a New Yorker, it's clearly important to me.' 3 Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is pictured next to Crudo on June 6. Jason Szenes for the NY Post Flay, 60, says he's been watching horse racing since his teenage years when he and his friends from the Yorkville neighborhood in upper Manhattan would cut school and take the A train to Aqueduct. The Belmont Stakes has long been a staple of Flay's social calendar. 'I go to the Belmont every year. I usually take 20-30 people to Belmont Park and make a day out of it,' Flay said. 'It's become a tradition where I have people over to my house for brunch, everyone comes dressed in their racing gear — suits, summer dresses, hats. I feed them in the morning and then put everyone in cars and we go to Belmont and we have a day.' He said those nights usually end with a group dinner at Wolfgang's Steakhouse on 33rd Street. But Saturday, the stakes will be much higher. On Preakness Day at Pimlico, in his third career start, Crudo won the Sir Barton Stakes by 7¹/₂ lengths. Pletcher, a four-time winner in the Belmont, gave the son of 2018 Triple Crown champion Justify a few weeks to breeze, considered other options and decided to give it a go in the $2 million race. 'The horse is here, he's doing well, I don't see a whole lot of pace in the race, we've got [jockey] John Velazquez available,' Pletcher said. 'I couldn't come up with a reason not to give it a try.' Crudo's name, not surprisingly, has ties to the culinary world. 3 Bobby Flay is pictured June 6. Jason Szenes for the NY Post 'I came up with the name,' Flay said, explaining he acknowledged raw talent, though on menus everywhere the word means raw fish. 'It's so hard to name these horses. I liked the fact that it meant raw because he was such a young horse when we bought him and he had talent. 'I told Jimmy what I named him and he was like, 'Really?' He wasn't impressed,' Flay added about his partner, who is in commercial real estate and has been involved in horse racing for more than 30 years. 'Naming horses and naming restaurants. If they turn out to be good, the name makes perfect sense. It couldn't be anything else.' Flay spent much of his spring rooting on his beloved Knicks from the first few rows at Madison Square Garden. Like most fans, he reveled in the team's longest playoff run in 25 years and still is feeling the disappointment. 3 Bobby Flay and co-owner James Ventura are pictured with their horse, Crudo, on June 6. Jason Szenes for the NY Post 'I remember all the playoff seasons when we ran into Michael Jordan,' said Flay, who lists the Knicks and Yankees as his biggest sports passions. 'We were good then, but we kind of couldn't get past it. It was fun to watch those guys play this year. They're a really good team and, unfortunately, they lost to Indiana.' Flay said he was surprised at the firing of coach Tom Thibodeau. 'I am. I thought he did a good job. I mean, we beat the world champions. We beat the Celtics soundly,' he said. 'A couple things go different ways and you're in the Finals. I don't always think that new is a good idea, but it's not my team.' His team on Saturday is Crudo-Flay-Ventura-Pletcher. 'Both Bobby and Jimmy love horse racing. Bobby's been terrific to train for, for a number of years,' Pletcher said. 'He's knowledgeable and also always says, 'You can make the decision.' We've had some success together and these guys are fun to train for.'
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
The Italian Sandwich Bobby Flay Always Orders When In Rome
When Bobby Flay is in Rome, he could probably go to any restaurant or eatery in the city and get a table pretty quickly. While in the Eternal City in 2024, Flay didn't spotlight a Michelin-starred ristorante or a sit-down trattoria of any kind on his Instagram page, but rather, a tiny sandwich spot he called, "One of my favorite stops every time I'm in Rome." La Vita è un Mozzico is a 10-minute walk from the famed Spanish Steps and always worth a stop, according to Flay. His go-to order is a porchetta sandwich. Flay explained that patrons have lots of choices as far as which kinds of cured meats they can select for their sandwich, but he opts for sliced roasted pork with crispy skin, pesto sauce, and stracciatella cheese that's placed inside a square of pizza bianca. In this case, pizza bianca refers to a type of flatbread, not a slice of pizza with cheese on it. The salty bread -- which is made from a pizza crust-like dough -- is sliced in half to make a space for the ingredients, and the assembled sandwich is placed in a panini press to warm everything up. Flay warned his fans to be prepared to wait, as the shop is popular and usually busy. Even though he clearly knows the proprietor, Flay himself doesn't get special treatment when he drops by, and he takes a number like everyone else to patiently wait his turn to order. There are no tables or chairs at La Vita è un Mozzico, so this sandwich is best enjoyed standing up on the cobblestone streets of Rome. Read more: Regional Sandwich Chains We Want To See Everywhere Bobby Flay calls this porchetta number from La Vita è un Mozzico "the perfect Italian sandwich," which is quite a statement from a classically trained chef who has eaten all around the world. So what is it that makes this three-ingredient sandwich worthy of his highest praise? It's undoubtedly the quality of the Italian ingredients. The porchetta is a Roman-created dish that consists of a slab of pork that has been stuffed with aromatics, rolled, and roasted until the skin is crisp, though sometimes, porchetta refers to an entire roasted pig. This roasted meat is as delicious thinly sliced and stuffed between a halved slice of homemade pizza bianca as it is as a show-stopping centerpiece, like with this Thanksgiving porchetta. Flay selects stracciatella cheese for his favored sandwich. In Italy, stracciatella can refer to a few different ingredients or dishes. It is a soup made with broth, eggs, and parmesan cheese; it's also a flavor of gelato that is similar to chocolate chip ice cream. But stracciatella as a cheese is a creamy, bright white cheese that is made by mixing torn pieces of fresh mozzarella with cream. The gooey, oozy, creamy center of burrata cheese is stracciatella. Finally, Flay's sandwich order comes with a smear of pesto, which is a sauce that originated in the city of Genoa in northern Italy. It consists of basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and real-deal Parmigiano Reggiano, and it adds a wonderfully fresh yet savory flavor to the sandwich. For more food and drink goodness, join The Takeout's newsletter. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more! Read the original article on The Takeout.
