Here's How To Beat Bobby Flay, According To Geoffrey Zakarian
Not many chefs can beat Bobby Flay. Really, it's a statistic: As of June 2019, only 34 percent of opponents had bested the celebrity chef on Beat Bobby Flay, according to CheatSheet. Flay's Iron Chef track record is even more impressive; he has competed on the show 61 times (more than any other chef) and won 72 percent of those battles, The Recipe reports. Despite Flay's resume, fellow Food Network chef Geoffrey Zakarian said that out-cooking Flay is easier than you might think.
"I could beat Bobby Flay with one hand tied behind my back and an eye patch," Zakarian boasted to Food Network. "People go on the show thinking that they have to cook fancy. My advice is, cook a fried egg. Use just a few ingredients, because if you try to use all of the ingredients he will kill you." A fried egg? To beat a James Beard award-winning restaurateur (via James Beard Foundation)? As it turns out, other celebrity chefs agree that the best way to beat Flay is to keep it simple.
Beat Bobby Flay by "keeping it simple," chefs say
A dozen of Flay's closest Food Network colleagues chimed in on how to conquer the consistent cook — and many of their responses were similar to Zakarian's. Alex Guarnaschelli said that the best tactic for chefs in the ring with Flay is to embrace their own "sense of self," to "put aside the 700 ingredients in the pantry and just make something that's really true to who they are." Anne Burrell and Jeff Mauro also said to "cook what you know" and to season thoroughly since Flay is known for bold, Southwestern-inspired flavors.
Beat Bobby Flay allows competitors to choose which dish they will cook alongside Flay, so some chefs said it's best to take advantage of his few weaknesses. Those are pasta and desserts, according to Giada De Laurentiis. Aarón Sánchez, on the other hand, said "to beat him at his own game" by using his favorite ingredients, such as chiles, better than he does. Or you could simply take Amanda Freitag's two cents: "You pretty much have to know every cuisine, every technique in the culinary world, and be able to know how to compete like him, and he's got tons of competitive experience." No pressure.