‘Iron Chef America’: Bobby Flay Never Looked Forward to Filming the Cooking Competition, Admitting He Got Nervous Before Every Episode
When fans think of the face of Food Network, two personalities may come to mind: Alton Brown and Bobby Flay. Brown left the network after 20 “spectacular” years to join Netflix. He plans on making more shows like Good Eats in the future.
Flay is a chef at heart and also a competitor, and has participated in two incarnations of the cooking battle show Iron Chef. The celebrity chef can owe some of his fame to the Food Network staple. Regardless of his celebrity, Flay always got nervous before filming.
How the original ‘Iron Chef’ made Bobby Flay a household name
Flay was an athlete when he was a youngster, according to Eater. He enjoyed the competition aspect of Iron Chef America. Well before the American version came on TV in 2005, the celebrity chef made a name for himself on the Japanese version of the show in the late ’90s.
Masaharu Morimoto, the only person to appear as an Iron Chef on the original and American shows, took on Bobby Flay as a challenger in 1999, notes Mashed. The American cut himself on a slicer and suffered electrocution when a wire on the floor got water on it.
As the seconds ticked down in Kitchen Stadium, Flay finished first, declared himself the winner, and stood triumphantly on his cutting board before Morimoto was done. The Japanese chef, normally stoic and reserved, snapped on air that Flay “is not a chef.” Disrespecting a chef’s tools by standing on a cutting board is greatly offensive in Japanese culinary culture.
Although Flay (what a name for a chef!) lost that first battle, he returned in a rematch to defeat Morimoto. The two have been friendly rivals ever since. The now-57-year-old took his fame from that original show to catapult him to superstardom on the American version of Iron Chef.
‘Iron Chef America’ made the regulars, including Bobby Flay, nervous
Some fans might believe that Iron Chef America looks easy to record. It wasn’t.
Food Network recorded an entire season’s worth of episodes 23+) in three weeks at two episodes per day. Even cagey veterans Flay and Morimoto told Eater they got nervous in the lead-up to recording each episode. The Japanese chef even remarked his hands would shake until he picked up a knife and focused on his culinary skills.
Flay remarked in 2010 during a TimesTalk, “It’s the month I don’t look forward to, I have to admit. but people love it. I like the competition — I was an athlete as a kid, so this is my last form of athleticism.”
He treated each show as if he was in his element. “We have the home court advantage because we know where everything is. Even knowing where the ladle is, that’s an advantage.”
Considering Flay had a 72.1% win percentage over 17 years of Iron Chef (43 wins, 16 losses, 2 draws, according to Insider), he was one of the most seen chefs on the show. He started on the network in 1994 and has been a fixture ever since.
Even before Iron Chef America, Flay had his own shows Grillin’ & Chillin’ followed by Hot Off the Grill and Emmy-winning Boy Meets Grill as well as the hit Throwdown with Bobby Flay. After his success as an Iron Chef, he expanded on his fame to star in Beat Bobby Flay and another Emmy winner with Bobby Flay’s Barbecue Addiction. His presence on TV was so pronounced he earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015.
‘Iron Chef America’ wasn’t what people saw on TV
Recording the show in three weeks started at 9 am and ran all day, according to The Village Voice. Chefs had a short list of three or four secret ingredients. When they arrive on set, chefs find out 45 minutes before The Chairman shouts “Allez cuisine!” during the big reveal.
Chefs also got to request their own pantry ingredients, and Flay almost always requested the same pantry every single time, which of course, gave him an advantage over challengers.
The toughest chefs Flay battled on Iron Chef America were José Andrés and Michelle Bernstein, both of whom defeated the Iron Chef on the shows they appeared on.
What’s next for the vaunted Food Network star? He will star in a new show alongside his daughter, Bobby and Sophie on the Coast, premiering on Aug. 22, 2022, on Food Network. It looks like Flay will have a new competitor on the horizon.
