Bobby Flay Cooks American: Great Regional Recipes With Sizzling New Flavors

by Bobby Flay, Julia Moskin

The bestselling author of Boy Meets Grill now provides recipes inspired by great flavours. Bursting with mouthwatering, colour photos and packed with 150 original and tantalizing recipes, Flays latest cookbook reflects his passion for bold, exciting food, and his own preference for sophisticated dishes that dont take hours to prepare. Flay tempts novice and experienced cooks alike with recipes for:

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Reference

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Robert William Flay is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He is the owner and executive chef of five restaurants: Mesa Grill and Bar Americain in New York City; Mesa Grill in Las Vegas; Mesa Grill in Bahamas (Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau); and Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Flay has hosted seven Food Network television programs and appeared regularly on an eighth. He has also appeared as a guest on other Food Network shows and hosted a number of specials on the network.

Reviews

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've made many Bobby Flay recipes over the last few decades to great success. I've previously positively reviewed the Bobby Flay Throwdown cookbook (4 stars), and there are a few recipes that I still make, especially Flay's steak marinade. I was excited when I scored this one for $1 at my library book sale. One of his earliest cookbooks, Flay takes some American recipe staples and puts his twist on each one. What's not to love?
I'm ending this cookbook experiment earlier than I usually do, having made fewer recipes than I typically make. I've thrown out a lot of food. As I was tossing what was left of the sweet potato salad in the trash earlier today, I know I'm just done. I didn't make anything that was especially bad, just a lot of stuff that leaned mediocre with tons of leftovers. For instance, the majority of potato recipes starts with 5 pounds of potatoes. 5 pounds. For just my husband and I, that means we're eating those potatoes for 2 weeks. I love great tasting leftovers, but eating mediocre leftovers gets old after one rerun. Take the crawfish lasagna or the goat cheese enchiladas (best thing I made). Complicated to make with expensive ingredients with only so-so results, and each recipe made about 12 servings each. After 3 meals each (6 servings in), we just couldn't take it anymore. I thought about trying to freeze the leftovers, but honestly, it just wasn't good enough to take up space in my freezer. In an unexpected twist, I found flavor lacking in every recipe I made. We kept saying, "If I made this again, I'd add... to make it better."
I found a few errors in the instructions (ingredients in directions that weren't in the ingredient list or things added at multiple times when only 1 amount), enough to be concerning. The steps of the instructions also weren't always in the most convenient or efficient order for home cooks.
This one will be going in my donate pile - back to the library book sale it goes. Why not 1 star? Truly, all of the recipes I made were fine. Not great but fine. I won't make any of the entire recipes again, but I liked a few elements from various ones that I may poach to use in other ways. For example, the spicy tomato cream sauce in the crawfish lasagna (needs garlic but otherwise solid) is great. I'd make it again but use it in a different way. So, not a total loss.

[John Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, with a little practice . . . and a few herbs and spices, we can all now cook like Iron Chef Bobby Flay. This cookbook looks like so much fun, both inspirational and tasty. Bobby takes simple traditional dishes , like risotto, and kicks up the flavor profile with sweet yellow peppers, grilled shrimp and black olive (brine-cured) vinaigrette, all while keeping the prep time short, simple and easy. In Cook American, Booby holds to his philosophy in his restaurants: serve good ingredients, simply cooked. How about crusty Prime Rib served with a sweet custardy corn pudding, studded with roasted green chiles and roasted garlic. The edition includes lots of color photographs and 150 kicked up recipes, like Ranch-style Eggs with Chorizo, Soft-shell Crab Sakad, Wild Rice Tamales, Blue Corn Fried Chicken with Red Chile Honey, and many more. I’m looking forward to trying some of these recipes!

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trying a couple soon. He instructions could be a bit more explicit and clear. So sad, not very flavorful. While recipes do use a variety of chili peppers, the food is not spicy and lacks heat. Have renamed him Bobby Flay-vorless.

[Dray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read several of B Flay's books, I find this one curiously lack luster. One item I missed from other books were the numerous sauces and flavorings almost omnipresent in other offerings. Plus I found his book on burgers and shakes and sides to be a better compendium of Americana. Nonetheless, the book has some worthy recipes and is worth reading.

[Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great cookbook with recipes that would seem to have broad appeal. I'll be using this when wanting to pull together something new for the family or for guests.

[Shatanna]

I love Bobby and the Mesa Grill. I bought this book specifically for his corn bread recipe.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Chili-Rubbed Ribeye is out of this world and the Clementine Citrus Chicken has THE best flavor I have ever tasted.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Flay has put together a collection of his unique representing a cross section of America along with many color photographs. The recipes themselves are easy to read and follow.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just okay for me. Most of the dishes are too fancy/complicated/expensive for the average home cook to make. I also would've appreciated photos of every dish.

[bumblethunderbeast · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amazing medley of flavors make my mouth sing just thinking about these recipes. They range from lobster claw potato salad with horseradish dressing and caraway-fennel crusted lamb with melted napa cabbage to smoked chicken and caramelized vegetable pot pie with sweet potato biscuit crust and wild mushroom quinoa salad with goat cheese, fresh thyme and a shallot vinaigrette. The only problem with this cookbook is trying to decide which recipe to try first!