The Best Part Of Working In The Food Industry, According To Bobby Flay
Though Food Network cooking series "Beat Bobby Flay" does an exceptional job of highlighting Flay's unparalleled skills in the kitchen, the celebrity chef and restaurateur hardly considers himself a one-man act. As Flay shared in an episode of "Always Hungry," a podcast he co-hosts with his daughter, Sophie, the competitive nature of "Beat Bobby Flay" doesn't exactly reflect what working in the food industry is like. According to Flay, "99.9 percent of the time, everybody is so generous with their knowledge and information. We pass it back and forth to each other, because who cares? We're just cooking."
There's more to cooking than just reproducing recipes, says Flay. In fact, he says the best part about working in the food industry is that it's driven by shared inspiration. "If I go to a restaurant, and I see something I love, I'm not just going to pick it up and put it on a plate in my own restaurant, but I'm going to be inspired by something that I saw, and it's going to get my creative juices going," Flay explained of his process.
Bobby Flay says getting inspiration from others is the best way to cook
Though Flay did end up going to culinary school, Insider reports he started out in the restaurant business as a busboy, and it was only through the financial support of his boss that he eventually pursued a degree and worked his way to the top. Flay soaked up every opportunity he could to improve his craft, and it's why he believes so passionately about collaborating and learning from those around him, even to this day. "Today, when I hire, I look for people who want to be trained and molded," he told the Wall Street Journal.
Flay apparently has passed on the same approach to his daughter, Sophie. As Flay explained to "CBS Sunday Morning" (posted on YouTube), Sophie gets a great deal of her inspiration from TikTok influencers and trending recipes such as baked feta pasta. While Flay was initially taken aback by the fact that Sophie didn't just open up one of her father's cookbooks, he acknowledged that inspiration can come from anywhere, and described TikTok chefs as "the next generation of cooking heroes." As it turns out, whether you work in the restaurant business or not, the best food of all is the kind that can inspire others.