Several things I did not know about Bobby Flay before our brief, but amusing phone chat last week:1. He has a trademark* on the term "crunchify" -- which means to add potato or tortilla chips to a sandwich or burger for the express purpose of introducing a textural element.
2. He's Churchill Downs' official Kentucky Derby Party Host. Though actually that puts to rest the nagging questions I'd had as to why a born and bred New Yorker would put a Hot Brown sandwich (it's a Bluegrass State thing) on his menu at Bar Americain.
3. Chips, dips and burgers for the Superbowl celebration chez Flay? Nope -- he's a paella man for big parties.
4. Holy heck, is he an entertaining radio host.
Bobby Flay Radio is a limited run series wherein the titular host waxes authoritative on subjects ranging from football, personal style, dating, and oh yeah -- food. While an audio-only cooking show might seems a tad spare, Flay manages to demo a Sandwich of the Week, conduct on-air taste tests (consisting largely of potato chip bags being opened loudly in front of open microphones) and dispense hardcore cooking advice to callers in a manner appealing enough to make one want to ratchet up the caliber of one's lunch plans once the show wraps at noon.
Bonus -- occasionally his wife, actress Stephanie March, shares mike duties and misses not a single chance to rebut his claims or bust his chops. A Burns & Allen in the making? Dunno -- how 'bout giving 'em more than five weeks to find out, Sirius?
Bobby Flay Radio airs on Sirius / XM Channel 108 from 10-12 on Thursdays (replaying Saturday and Sunday from 3-5) through February 5th. Don't subscribe? Sign up for a free online trial.
Bobby Flay Radio on Sirius
*Thank you to eagle-eyed poster Matt who pointed out that it's a trademark rather than a copyright, as I'd previously written.
1-14-2009 @3:07PM Matt said... This being the internets and all, someone has to point out that you can't "copyright" a word, unless you somehow convince the Registrar of Copyrights that a single word is an expression of art and not an idea.
Ideas have to be protected by patents; words used to uniquely identify brands or business processes must be protected by trademarks. He could trademark the word "crunchify," but I doubt he could copyright it.
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1-14-2009 @3:45PM Kat Kinsman said... Matt - thank you. I edited (and credited) the entry.
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1-15-2009 @4:10PM Barry said... Sorry, but the opinion post below sums up how I feel about Flay. Its a few years old and he's obviously gone through some media training but it still him underneath.
http://www.flakmag.com/tv/flay.html
Every time I hear a promo with his voice I can picture the elocution coaching session he had to go through. He's not a natural on-camera speaker at all (just like Giada and Sandra Lee aren't).
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