There is no such thing as too much grilling. While the flavor of grilled foods is great, there are two more big reasons why people choose grilling over other cooking methods. First, grilling doesn't heat up the house when it's hot outside. Second, grilling is often lower in fat than many other preparations. This doesn't mean that it's diet food, just that it can almost always be easily incorporated into a healthy diet.

In Bobby Flay's Grilling For Life: 75 Healthier Ideas for Big Flavor from the Fire, Flay provides recipes with bold flavors and leaves out overly process ingredients (like bottled sauces), creating foods that are not only delicious, but healthy. A complete nutritional analysis accompanies each dish, so you know exactly what you're getting, and there is an emphasis on healthy foods (not diet foods), like whole grains, salmon and olive oil. Main dishes include Grilled Beef Filet With Arugula and Parmesan, Grilled Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Goat Cheese With Green Chile-Cilantro Sauce, and there are even a few grilled dessert recipes, like Grilled Apricots With Bittersweet Chocolate and Almonds, to round out a meal. The recipes are clearly written in the no-nonsense style that is in most of Flay's books, so they're easy for home grillers to follow.

Most chefs are very proud of what they do. They are used to working under a lot of pressure and the best chefs are the ones who thrive under it. Pressure and pride make a fiercely competitive person, whether they're competing to prove to themselves that they can do better or they're trying to prove it to others. We've seen aspects of this on Top Chef, but these elements are what make the Food Network's new show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, work.

The premise is this: Bobby Flay goes around and finds someone who is the best (or one of the best) at what they do. He challenges them to "throw down" and compete in a one-on-one culinary competition to see who can make the best product. The competitions are judged by different "experts" in each show.

In all honesty, I didn't expect the show to be any good. But it was.