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If you haven't yet been touched by the magic of chef Bobby Flay, become spellbound at one of his two (and by September '96, three), New York restaurants.
Grill was first in his fast growing dynasty. There Bobby Flay transforms Southwestern cuisine. He is a wizard of the highest order, roasting and grilling fish and meats accompanied by cool marinades with hot salsas. Re-concocting vegetables into cilantro risotto cakes, zucchini tacos , and cornmeal-coated chilies rellenos.
spins off from traditional Spanish cuisine. Flay, using basic ingredients, boldly plays with them until they are electrifying, unbelievably savory, layered with multiple flavors - food that does a Flamenco taste dance in your mouth. The salmon tartar spiked with capers, scallions, and mint is outrageous; as is the Bolo salad, made with chorizo sausage, goat cheese, tomatoes and baby greens, and the Black risotto with grilled prawns; an unbelievable mixture of tastes. The rice is creamy, its black color from black beans. Tender rings of squid are buried within it, topped by red, crunchy, grilled prawns and surrounded by a sumptuous green sauce resplendent with lumps of crab meat! Even something as simple as grilled chicken arrives boned, tender, spiced with oregano and lemon, accompanied by a feisty wild rice. Flay's food becomes the culinary equivalent of Dali. The food is ebullient, fun, show-offy, and playfully serious. Which is in keeping with Bobby Flay's own coined phrase for his art: serious fun!
"My personality and my food are about high energy. I would never want a 4-star restaurant. That's boring to me," says Mr. Flay.
He must be referring to a stuffy 4-star restaurant. If I were giving out the stars, his restaurants would certainly merit 4 of them! Not because of stuffiness, but because of excellence. This fall, a new restaurant opens: Mesa City at 62nd Street & Third Avenue in New York. This is a Mesa Grill redux.
Says Bobby, "We want to have more of them. We want them to multiply." Except this time no reservations, no tablecloths, and lower prices -- "a neighborhood restaurant." Bobby expects it to be "controlled chaos."
How does the chef split his time between two, and soon three restaurants? Between Mesa Grill and Bolo, he at first thought he had it all figured out: mornings at Mesa Grill, get lunch going, then shoot to Bolo, to do lunch and start dinner going, then back to Mesa Grill to work on dinner -- he found he spent more time on Fifth Avenue going between the restaurants than being in them! After a few new schedule shifts he finally hit on the successful design of his time: spend three to five days at one restaurant, then switch to the other. This way he has time to start new projects and see them through. And at each restaurant he has two trustworthy sous chefs -- although he confesses, if he's working at Mesa Grill, he still manages to stop in daily to Bolo and vice versa.
Another way to sample Mr. Flay's cuisine is with his cookbook Bold Americas Flavors. It is chockful1 of recipes from Mesa Grill. The ones I've tried so far have bowled me over, especially: White Bean & Roasted Tomato Soup with Sage Pesto, Southwestern Potato Salad, Yucatan-style Chicken Skewers with Papaya-Tomatillo Salsa.
A new book is due out in '97, tentatively entitled Latin Flavors. This book is influenced by Spanish (and will include recipes from Bolo), Mexican, and Cuban flavors. "Spanish food," the chef says, "is Latin in the Mediterranean sense; Mexican has its own focused cuisine; Cuban has a little of both using garlic, black beans, and fruits. I steal the flavors and the ingredients and put them together in the way I think New Yorkers want to eat them."
Therein lies Flay's success. He makes it all fun, delicious, new, accessible to everyone. And with that in mind, look out for his new retail product line due out any week now. First to debut will be "Bobby Flay's Mesa Barbecue Sauce," followed by a hot sauce and a steak sauce.
Flay, Bolo, Mesa Grill, magico!
© 1996 Urban Desires