Bobby Flay's Throwdown!

September 20, 2010
A famous chef walks into an eatery and says, "Hey, prepare your signature dish and let's see if I can make a variation worth televising." That, in essence, is the concept behind Throwdown! the Food Network reality show that premiered in 2006, the fifth of seven Flay vehicles to appear on the network. This companion volume is one part recap and one part cookbook. For true fans of the show, Flay recounts each episode in his trademark cocky prose ("I heat things up with Jamaican jerk jockey Nigel Spence") and in doing so provides a tasty travelogue of eateries, from Asian dumplings at the Good Fork in Brooklyn, N.Y., to chile cheeseburgers at the Buckhorn Tavern in San Antonio, Tex. Whether by accident or by design, his cook-off lineup is a treasure trove of comfort food. Meatloaf, mac 'n' cheese, wings, lasagna, cupcakes, and matzo ball soup are all in the battle: 51 items in total, with Flay and a competing chef each providing their own recipe, for a total of 102 recipes. The author has never met a dish that he didn't want to sauce, and this proclivity is much in evidence, including a black pepper vinegar sauce over pulled pork and a balsamic glaze over a roasted vegetable meatloaf.

October 15, 2010

Flay (Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, and Shakes), who can also be seen on Food Network's Boy Meets Grill and Iron Chef America--here writing with his assistant and frequent coauthor, Banyas, and Food Network sous-chef Garron--covers seasons one through seven of Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. Recipes (e.g., Bobby Flay's Peach-Blackberry Pie, Terri Wahl's Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Sohui Kim's Pork and Chive Dumplings) include photos, an introduction to the episode, and both Flay's and his competitors' recipes. This part fan book, part cookbook will appeal to those who watch the show. With a ten-city tour and national publicity--expect demand.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2010
Restaurateur and television personality Flay stars in one of those now-ubiquitous competitive cooking programs, which turn a stove into a playing field and rank cooks into winners and losers. For each episode, Flay challenges some accomplished chef, stacking up Flays own version of a dish against his rivals achievement. Dishes do not lack for variety and run the gamut from paella to falafel, meatloaf to crpes, coconut cake to sushi. Both winning and losing recipes appear in the book so that readers can try for themselves and determine whose version is the better culinary exemplar. Some recipes, such as arepas, a South American corn-cake specialty, may not be easily reproducible outside locales with large ethnic markets. Other recipes are accessible to less-sophisticated home cooks. In Flays world, even quotidian grilled cheese sandwiches can be gussied up with bacon, avocado, and focaccia.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)