Bobby Flay's Least Favorite Show To Film For Food Network

Chef, cookbook author, producer, restaurant owner — Bobby Flay is quite the multihyphenate foodie. However, if there's one title most people would instantly associate him with, it's Food Network star. Indeed, he is one of the network's most prolific personalities. Flay has hosted over 20 shows and specials that have aired on Food Network and its sister brands, the Cooking Channel and Discovery +. He has appeared on dozens of others either as a guest, contestant, and/or judge.

Needless to say, he has plenty of TV production experience under his belt, and he is clearly pretty comfortable in front of the camera. So you might be surprised to learn that his early television career got off to a rather bumpy start. According to Flay, his very first show for Food Network, "Grillin' and Chillin'," was actually his least favorite and most challenging to film.

The barbecue-loving host with the most has not been shy about sharing his thoughts on the erstwhile series, which ran on the channel in 1996 and starred Flay alongside Jack McDavid. In a recent episode of the "Dave Chang Show" podcast, for example, Flay described "Grillin' and Chillin'" as "the worst show" and said he had no idea what he was doing. In response to Chang's protests in favor of the series, he added, "You love it because it was so bad." Sure, it sounds harsh, but Flay has his reasons.

On the podcast with David Chang, Bobby Flay explained that the worst part about filming "Grillin' and Chillin'" was the budget restrictions on editing, something he also touched on during his appearance on "Hot Ones" in October 2023. When host Sean Evans asked if it was true that Flay had filmed more than 40 episodes of the series in just a week, the cooking star confirmed that he did a grueling six or seven a day. This was due to the fact that Food Network didn't have enough money to edit its shows this early in its inception. Instead, they were filmed "live to tape."

This challenging method required him to run through each episode in real time, even having to hit specific time marks to stop for commercial breaks. "They would put up a cue card that would say two minutes, a minute, 30 seconds and then count you down," he told Evans. Although the lack of editing magic was stressful, Flay acknowledged that the low-budget, live production series taught him how to breeze through filming shows very later in his career. The chef explained, "It really actually helps me in how I shoot TV today. ... And so I can do 50 episodes [of 'Beat Bobby Flay'] in 25 days." Well, at least he learned how to really take the heat in the kitchen and in front of the camera.