Flay was fascinated by Waxman's use of spices and flavors from the American Southwest-a region Flay had never visited-and Southwestern cooking soon became Flay's signature food. He received the institute's Outstanding Graduate Award in 1993.Īfter a brief, and unfulfilling, stint as a stockbroker's assistant on Wall Street, Flay went to work for a series of New York restaurants, most notably those of restaurateur Jonathan Waxman. His boss paid to send him to the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, which Flay attended after earning his high school equivalency diploma. This soon turned into a full-time job at Joe Allen's, where Flay moved from busboy to kitchen helper. 'He told me-he didn't ask,' Flay later recalled. His father Bill, a manager for the famed Joe Allen's restaurant in New York's Theater District, called one day and ordered Bobby Flay to fill in for a sick busboy.

His first professional restaurant job came in 1982, shortly after he left school. Flay bounced around several parochial schools before dropping out of high school at the age of 17. He was, however, markedly less interested in school. He arranged his mother's grocery lists, whipped up complex after-school snacks and even requested an Easy-Bake Oven as a Christmas gift. From a young age, Flay showed a talent for cooking. Early Lifeīobby Flay was born Robert William Flay on December 10, 1964, in New York City, and raised on Manhattan's Upper East Side by divorced parents Bill and Dorothy Flay, Irish-Americans who bestowed red hair and freckles upon their son. Flay has hosted several Food Network shows, including Grill It! with Bobby Flay, Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Beat Bobby Flay. He made his first appearance on the Food Network in 1994 and soon became a television fixture in the vein of fellow celebrity chefs Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray. Chef Bobby Flay opened his first restaurant, Mesa Grill, in 1991, winning immediate acclaim.

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