Bobby Flay Throws Down Against Spicy Wings | Hot Ones

And then you throw in the bomb and nothing else matters. It's just violent. It's just like. Hey, what's going on, everybody? For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and you're watching Hot Ones. It's the show with hot questions and even hotter winks. And today we're joined by Bobby Flay. He's an Emmy award winning food TV pioneer and acclaimed restaurateur. Catch him Tuesdays on the Food Network with Bobby's Triple Threat. And then again on Thursdays with Beat Bobby Flay. He also has a cat food line called Made by Nacho. And of course, Bobby's Burgers with locations across the country. Bobby Flay, welcome to the show. So glad to be here. I feel like I'm in an iconic seat right now. Whoa. Well, coming from you, that is such a compliment. What's going through your head as you prepare to take on the gauntlet? I'm definitely nervous for sure, because, you know, some people, I think, oh, this is going to be easy for him. Chili peppers is his game. He cooks for a living, et cetera. But this is going to be tough. I know it is. I've seen some of the best take it right on the chin. Here, OK. Buffalo hot sauce. Mm hmm. OK, that's good flavor. It's hot. I mean, I have to say for the first one, it's hotter than I thought it was going to be. I know. I get that. I get it. Because I've seen a lot of your guests and it's like, you know, the first couple, they're like, all right, you know, like warming up. Like this was the this is the honey and maple syrup, you know, part of the show. But that one a little. Yeah. See, I see you guys are after me. I know it. I know my goal. My goal is to not curse during the show. All right. Well, we'll see how that goes. All right. I don't know if I'm going to actually be able to get through it because everybody seems to swear on the show at some point. Yeah, I don't think they know they're doing it. No, no. But I'm going to try not to. So it's rather remarkable to me how prolific you've been as a figure in food TV around for almost 30 years, close to two dozen shows by my account as someone who's had a front row seat to the meteoric rise in food television. Is there an era that you would describe as food TV's golden age? I think the golden age is now. But Iron Chef, Iron Chef changed the game. It it brought Food Network into pop culture. We went from being just like the chef or the cook behind the stove, doing how to chop an onion to this insanity of competition shows. And I really believe that Iron Chef and then Iron Chef America really changed the game. Blistered shishito and garlic. Now, you know what they say about shishitos, one in every ten is really spicy and the rest aren't. So it's a little roulette game. Who knows what's going on here? Very savory. I like that flavor. Very nice. That one's less hot than the buffalo hot sauce. All kinds of mind games going on over here, Bobby Flay. You thought you knew what you're getting yourself into. You think you're going down one road, but then you look at the sign and it's like, that's not the road I thought it was going down. Yeah, no, it's a wild ride. Welcome aboard the crazy train, Bobby. All right, 20 percent done. What, in your opinion, is the best restaurant movie of all time? I like Big Night, one of my faves. The last, the very last scene of Big Night. Watch it carefully the next time you watch it. There's no cut. And Stanley Tucci makes an omelet from scratch, from basically from cracking the eggs to scrambling them in a bowl to putting them in the pan to making the omelet and serving his brother in the movie. There's no cut in the final scene. It's a beautiful food scene. And then there's another movie that I really love. It's actually a German film called Mostly Martha. And I think that the food in that movie is spectacular. And there's something very romantic about the entire thing. I can taste the passion fruit right away. You know, it has that sort of nice aromatic, perfumey kind of flavor. It's definitely got heat. That's got some warmth on it. How, if at all, do you think that your first Iron Chef New York battle against Morimoto, how do you think that changed? I knew you were going to bring this up. How do you think that changed food television? Well, I really think that that was the moment where it brought us into pop culture. It was a crazy event. You know, I was so overly hyped in my head to kind of do a good job. I almost cut my thumb off. I got electrically shocked. I mean, there was lots of, my mother was like crying in the audience. I mean, it was a brutal hour of cooking. But the president of the Food Network at the time, a woman named Judy Girard, who I'm still friendly with, said to me, you took it on the chin for us, but I'll never forget it. And she didn't. And we then created Iron Chef America. I mean, it was a very, very big moment for us. Am I allowed to touch the bottle? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the rules are. There's no rules. I don't want to get shot in the chair, the hot wood chair. All of a sudden they just shoot you. We're fully in the abstract. Los Calientes, barbacoa. Okay, so I like this idea. So this is probably going to have more of a, like a red chili kind of barbecue-ish hot sauce flavor. One, two, three, four. Smoky. Probably some chipotle in there. One of my faves. Ooh, I like that. Nice and smoky and fiery. And we actually would call it like a grillin' and chillin' sauce. Oh, really? Yeah, like a sauce of summer. Yeah, yeah. It's really, really good. Definitely got some heat. And on the topic, is it true that you shot 42 episodes of grillin' and chillin' in just six days? Six days. It was either six days or seven days. I can't remember if we did six a day or seven a day, but it was in that range. And this is before Food Network had money for editing. I'm not kidding. There was no editing. Yeah, talk me through this. I'm fascinated by this. Well, we had to learn how to do TV live to tape, as they call it. So like, today I'm making, I'm making Los Calientes chicken wings. And when we come back, I'm going to grill a red snapper with coconut and red curry. We'll be right back. You're watching Grillin' and Chillin'. And then they'd go to commercial and then we'd come back and, hey, welcome back to Grillin' and Chillin'. Today we're making this and that and the other thing. And you'd have to hit the brakes. They would put up a cue card that would say like, two minutes, a minute, 30 seconds. And then they'd count you down in 10, nine, and then go to commercial. So it taught me how to do television very quickly. And it really actually helped me in how I shoot TV today. You know, we shoot Beat Bobby Flay. We shoot two primetime episodes, basically by five o'clock in the afternoon, we're done. And so I can do 50 episodes in 25 days. It's great. Okay, this is a very different looking hot sauce. I'm obsessed with it. I took a really big bite there. I don't know why. You're confident, halfway mark. You're lowering me, whoa. Hi. This is a, I will say this though. This is a very delicious hot sauce. It is. I mean, it is so, it's like filling my mouth with flavor. It grows a little bit, you know, it grows. Definitely, definitely heat, but very herbaceous. It's savory as well. I feel like there's like onions, garlic, maybe some shallots in there or something. I don't really know, but it's got a lot of flavor. This is delicious. This is a really good sauce. It is, it smacks. And it's beautiful. And it's gorgeous to look at. It is. Just put it on a shelf and be mesmerized by it. Everybody still here? So I know no matter the heights of your culinary fame, it'll always be important to you to be a part of the everyday conversation of where to eat in New York. If aliens came down from space and landed in Times Square, all right, and demanded to be fed a quintessential dish from New York, what immediately comes to mind in your opinion? I always think of steakhouses. I think of like the classic steakhouses, Peter Luger's, Wolfgang's, things like that. You know, a big giant porterhouse steak, those crispy potatoes, cream spinach, a big bottle of red wine. I mean, to me, that's the quintessential New York meal. I also think like, you know, Southern Italian food is also a very New York thing. So like when you, like you see people like, you know, begging to get into carbone, you know, because they want to eat like that, you know, the rigatoni with the spicy vodka sauce, and they want to eat the shrimp scampi. And again, not inexpensive, but it's an experience and it's a very satisfying New York experience. This looks like a wine bottle. I always smell it first. Yeah. See, ghost peppers, they're murderers. I mean, they really are. They're so, like, I remember taking three, three, wait, this is that moment where I can't speak. I remember taking three, corn on the cobs and taking the corn off and putting it in a saute pan with a little butter. And I'm not kidding, Sean. I like a, like a whisper full of, whisper full? I'm following, I'm following. A tiny, tiny bit, but a goat pepper on its own. It's like, it's a weapon. It's crazy. Who have you found to be more brutal in your experience? Restaurant reviewers or TV critics? I always feel like my apron in my restaurant or at home even is my shield from the world. And it's the place I'm the most comfortable. It's what I want to be doing. I'm a cook at heart. I love to cook for my friends and my family. It's how I show my adoration to them. And so when a food critic takes a shot at me in my restaurants, I take it really personally. And I should, because it's my food and it's my restaurant, it's my creation. Sometimes I feel like I can somehow justify like a shot from a, from a TV critic because I'm like, oh, it's, it's the production. Or, you know, it's, or they didn't like the lighting or they didn't like my outfit that night or whatever it is. But the restaurant, the restaurant critique hits harder. I'm always fascinated by these throwback stories of like a New York Times restaurant critic going in in like disguise or with a decoy so that they can have an anonymous dining experience. When you think about the critic hijinks that you've seen up close and personal, is there a story that comes out? Knowing every move of the current New York Times restaurant critic was part of our job. I mean, there's pictures of them in the kitchen so that everybody in the restaurant knows what they look like when they come in. We have as many of their aliases as possible, as many of their phone numbers as possible. But the bottom line is knowing the New York Times restaurant critic is make or break for your business. You know, and then there's this whole song and dance that goes on when the critic comes in and you make believe you don't see him and he makes believe that you don't know he's there and everybody knows that you're there. And it's a whole thing, but that's just the way it's always been. I mean, I've had more dreams and nightmares about New York Times restaurant critics than anything else in my life, for sure. Oh, mango, lemongrass, star anise, interesting. That's a meat, well, why am I taking such big bites? Because we're here, Bobby, we're here. These chicken wings are good, you guys have a good chef here. This is good. Oh, hey, Tom, here, that's for you. That's good. So I was fascinated to read somewhere that restaurants that operate within airports have to keep their chef knives tethered to a table per TSA guidelines, and you've expanded your empire into so many unique places. I just want to bounce a few off of them, and I'm curious to know what you think about that. I'm curious what comes to mind when you think about the unique or bizarre challenges of running a business in each, okay? Casinos. I have a bunch of restaurants and casinos. I actually love having restaurants and casinos because, especially like in Las Vegas, there's an amazing culture for the hospitality industry. A lot of people move to Las Vegas to be in it, so I have a lot of really great professionals who work for me there. Yankee Stadium. Yankee Stadium, so we have a Bobby's Burgers there. I've been a lifelong Yankee fan, so for me to have a place there is a huge thrill for me. That said, it's all about in between the innings. I mean, it's a different kind of rush than what we're used to, but it's challenging. A Caribbean resort. The staff in the Bahamas is very, very relaxed, and it's not what I'm used to, so I'm in New York time, but the one thing that it teaches you is that not everything has to be in a rush. It's like, but you definitely have to sort of change your stopwatch, so to speak, and if dinner takes a little bit longer to get to the customer, actually no one cares, and it's the one thing that I had to learn. It was like, everybody's relaxed, even the customers, so it's nice. So this is the one you just basically kill everybody with. Yeah, it's like a setup. The photographer is shooting me eat this one. This is like the moment, right? It's almost like you know too much. I can see you lurking in the shadows. Even when you smell this one, it hurts. Oh, ----. Yeah, and this is crazy. No, I know, I gotta join you, actually. What is the... That one takes your breath away. I can't see, because I'm crying, but what is the chili here? Smoky chipotle peppers. Oh, it's a pepper extract. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you know. That chili pepper extract, it's like so concentrated, man. Yeah, just pure... It's like... Multiplied, exaggerated. Who would be able to... This is a lot of hot sauce. That's this... This is literally two lifetime supply of hot sauce. Like, who buys two of those, right, over the course of their lives? I guess I'll take a six-pack of this. It's like, what do you get, like... Have it with every meal. So naturally, this show invites a lot of conversations. How do you still talk? I know. So it's 10,000 hours, you know? Half of my tongue does not have any feeling anymore. That's actually a rather poetic segue, because you know, this show, it invites a lot of conversations about spice antidotes, notably ice cream, which I know holds a very special place in your heart. For frozen treat dummies like myself, like, what even is the difference between ice cream versus gelato versus sorbet? Sorbet is... Has no dairy in it. So basically, it's just like a very, very smooth... Most of the time, it's like a fruity concoction. Sugar, water, doesn't have, you know, cream, so to speak, or an anglaise. Actually, gelato has less butterfat in it than regular ice cream. And when you look at it and taste it, you would never think that, because of the denseness and the creaminess of it all. But that's really the case. When I'm in Italy, I have a really hard time passing any gelato shop. I hit, like... I feel like I hit every single one of them. This is a very hot sauce shop. This thing right here is hot. See, this is like... Everything else right here, you're like, Oh yeah, this one's nice and yellow. This one is orange. This is green. This is herbaceous. And then you throw in the bomb, and nothing else matters. It's just violent. I'm in pain. It's hard to taste this one after that one, but I'm tasting some smokiness there. We're 90% done. I wanna tell you something. Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna let you in on a secret. Sure. If you notice, I haven't had any water. Right. I don't think water's a good idea. No. I mean, it looks amazing, especially when you taste something like the bomb. But it kind of swigs everything around. It just moves around. And to me, the dairy is the key. And you were like big, and you're like, is this whole milk? Is this whole milk? Before, you know, we don't often have people double-check that, but that's the milk to go for in a situation like this. Because when I'm in Los Angeles, I can't even get whole milk. Oh my God. As our guests become more and more famous, the milks become weirder and more exotic every time. It's crazy. Like, you go to a coffee shop in LA, they're like, I'm like, whole milk. Oat milk? No, whole milk. And they look at me like, are you sure? Let me check in the back to see if we have it. Because nobody drinks it anymore. No, no. We gotta keep it alive. Keep it alive today. Can you tell me about the time that Drake brought you to cook for the cast of Saturday Night Live? Sure. By all accounts, a big moment in the annals of SNL history. Well, I don't know about that. Definitely a big moment in my life. I was in Toronto cooking at a friend of mine's restaurant, a chef named Sousa Lee. And Drake was one of the investors of the restaurant. And there was a club downstairs that, sort of like his own private bar that he had downstairs in the restaurant. And it was an after party there afterwards. So I got to talk to him a little while. Incredibly nice guy. We exchanged numbers. And about three days later, he texted me and he's like, do you have a second? I wanna ask you a question. And I said, sure. So I get on the phone with him. He's like, look, it's kind of quiet, but I'm gonna be the host and the musical guest for SNL this week. And I wanna do something really great for them. I'm like, great. So how can I help you? And he's like, will you cook for them? And I was like, oh, okay, sure. When? He's like, tomorrow night. So I called Erica, she's here, who is the head of publicity for Food Network. And I was like, I need the kitchen, I need staff and I need trucks because we're gonna make a bunch of paellas and a bunch of other, all kinds of food and this and that. And we got it done and we went there and it was a surprise for the cast. A couple of cast members who I had known before saw me in the hallway, like, what are you doing here? Like, are you in one of the bits? I'm like, no, just walking around with my apron on. So this is the last stab experience. Wanna know how this came about? So basically there's this- This is spicy. Yeah, so the guy grew the Carolina Reaper, which for many years is the hottest pepper in the world. His name is Smoke and Ed. And we actually enlisted his services to put together this one. So this is a Carolina Reaper? No, so he has another pepper in his war chest called the Pepper X. So this one is like featuring the Pepper X, hence the experience, you know? So this is worse than the Carolina Reaper? You know, to each their own. I think like once you get to a certain altitude, it's just, it's all scrambled. When you put the dab on it, are you supposed to eat the dab too? You know, that's how it goes. Okay. But, right. That's hot. That like sort of earthy, fruity pepper situation. But the good news is it's over. I'm still eating. I know, I know. I know. But it's been a harrowing journey, not only through the wings, but also your career, the highs, the lows, but one blind spot we'd be remiss not to mention, burgers. You know, you're not only a massive fan, but also a purveyor. Is there a right or wrong answer to which kind of cheese is best on a burger? Yes, there is. American? All the way. And every chef will tell you the same thing. American cheese is just the right cheese. And also I always say at Bobby's Burger Palace, there was always a sign that said, Bobby says, melt the cheese completely. Because a lot of times you go to a restaurant and they don't melt the cheese completely, it doesn't taste the same. There's something about that melted cheese kind of just dripping off the burger, onto your bun, et cetera, that just makes it taste that much better. Gun to head, best fast food chain burger in your opinion? Ooh, let's see. Fast food chain burger. I guess I'm gonna have to go with In-N-Out. Well, set it in stone gospel according to Bobby Clay. And look at you taking on the wings of death, living to tell the tale. And now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you. This camera, this camera, this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life. All right. Make sure you watch Triple Threat. It's actually called Bobby's Triple Threat, but I don't like saying my own name while I'm talking about it. So I'll just call it Triple Threat, nine o'clock Thursday nights. I'm sorry, that's Tuesdays. That's all right. 30 years later, still got two time slots on lock. Nine o'clock Tuesday nights on Food Network. Make sure you check it out. And of course, beat Bobby Flay. We're in season 9,000. We've done 500 episodes, 10 years in, Thursday nights, 9 p.m. on Food Network. I'll see you there. Hot sauce in hand. Thank you. Wow. I have to say, I liked so many of the flavors of the hot sauces. I mean, they really... And I think that's one of the things I wanted to talk about a little bit, just as a cook, that it's not just hot. There's lots of balance and lots of flavors here. Some of them, they just blow your mouth away, and then some of them are just beautiful symphonies of flavor. It's great. Symphonies of flavor. You hear that, Chris? That's the bullseye. That's what he's going for. That's from Bobby Flay. This is delicious. Hey, what's going on, Hot Ones fans? This is Sean Evans with an announcement. Truth or Dab, the game, now has a brand new refresh edition. That's right. If you already had the original Truth or Dab game, you can now get even more hotter questions with the refresh edition. The game is simple, answer deeply personal and potentially awkward questions, or face the wrath of the Last Dab. That's right, both editions of the game feature a mini bottle of the Last Dab hot sauce. Check out the description below to see where you can pick up Hot Ones' Truth or Dab, the game, or visit wildertoys.com.