Career
In 1982, he was offered a job of making salads at Joe Allen Restaurant in New York. His father, a partner at the restaurant had ordered the boy to work there. Joe Allen was thoroughly impressed by the young man’s work and arranged for him to attend the French Culinary Institute.
He graduated from the institute in 1984 with a degree in culinary arts. He started working at the Brighton Grill where he was made the executive chef when the executive chef was fired. But he could not manage and quit.
He found work as a chef at Bud and Jams under the renowned restaurateur Jonathan Waxman who introduced Flay to southwestern and Cajun cuisine. He credits Waxman for having greatly influenced his career.
For a short while he tried working as a stockbroker but found the experience to be highly unfulfilling. He started working as the executive chef at the Miracle Grill in 1988 and held the position till 1990.
The restaurateur Jerome Kretchmer who was on the lookout for a southwestern style chef was highly impressed by Flay’s cooking and appointed him as the executive chef at Mesa Grill.
He became a partner in Mesa Grill in 1991. After a couple of years, in 1993 he opened Bolo Bar & Restaurant along with a partner.
He established the Bobby Flay Scholarship in 2003 which is awarded to a student in the Long Island City Culinary Arts Program for a course in the French Culinary Institute.
Over the years he continued adding more restaurants to his chain which included a second Mesa Grill in Las Vegas in 2004, Bar American in 2005, and a third Mesa Grill in the Bahamas in 2007.
The first Bobby’s Burger Place was opened in New York in July 2008 followed by another one in New Jersey in December the same year. Over the next several years, branches of the restaurant were opened at seven more locations. The largest Bobby’s Burger Place was opened in Maryland in June 2012.
A prolific television personality, he has hosted 13 cookery shows and specials on Food Network which include ‘Boy Meets Grill’, ‘BBQ with Bobby Flay’, ‘The Best Thing I Ever Ate’, and ‘Bobby’s Dinner Battle’. He has also appeared with Emeril Lagasse on his show ‘Emeril Live’ and with Paula Deen on her program ‘Paula's Party’.
He is also the author of several cookbooks like ‘Bobby Flay's Bold American Food’ (1994), ‘Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill’ (1999), ‘Bobby Flay's Grilling For Life’ (2005), and ‘Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries and Shakes’ (2009).