WEBVTT - Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay: Masters in Business (Audio) 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.880 This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. Hi, 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.560 this is Barry Ridholts. You're listening to Masters in Business podcast. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.480 My guest today is somebody that is a little bit 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.959 out of my comfort zone. It's chef Bobby Flay. You 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.919 probably know him from any of the sixteen cookbooks or 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:29.040 thirteen shows he's hosted on the Food Channel or the 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:32.400 the Cooking Channel. Um, I gotta tell you a quick, 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:37.040 funny story. So the whole concept of this show is 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.319 find somebody who's a master in their area, whether it's 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.639 investing in finance or or business people like um, Jim 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.400 McCann at Flowers or Mark Cuban who owns the Dallas Mavericks, 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.640 and and find out what makes made them the terrific 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:55.880 business person they were. And I've been trying to do 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:00.880 more and more non finance people, and I thought of 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.160 Bobby Flay. I don't know what made me. It pop 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:05.840 into my head. Maybe it was something I saw on television. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.319 And so I had reached out to his people and 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.679 they're like, yeah, sure, he's got a new show and 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.080 he's got a new cookbook. He's happy too, And so 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.679 we had this really fascinating conversation. Of course, on the 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:19.840 way home, I think of a thousand questions I should 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.720 have asked him as a restaurateur instead. Instead, I have 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.680 two cookbooks of his about his famous restaurant, Mesa and 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.680 this wonderful dish that my wife. I took my wife 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:34.280 there for a birthday years ago and she has not 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.320 stopped talking about this dish. And he actually walked me 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.600 through the through the recipe for that dish. But here's 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.520 the most fascinating part. The guy is just such a real, 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.800 genuine person and such a true New Yorker. After the show, 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.400 we walk him down to the um out of the building. 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.080 Where you going, Bobby, I'm taking the subway down to 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.160 my office. Bobby Flight takes the subway. Yeah, it's the 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.480 most efficient way to get around the city. So we 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:04.279 walk across Lexington Avenue. People come, Hey, it's Bobby Flay, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.280 like the crowd season. He says, Hi, shakes the hand. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.240 The three of us head down into the subway. He 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.120 gets on a train and goes off to his destination. 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.400 It was really quite fascinating that as as real a 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.960 person and as true and New Yorker as ever you 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.160 want to meet without further ado, Here is our conversation 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:31.440 with chef and respirator Bobby Flay. This is Masters in 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.880 Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.640 today is a well known chef, author of a cookbook, 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:45.240 restaurateur and star on the Food Network. Bobby Flay, Welcome 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.560 to Masters, and I'm so glad to be here. Your 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:49.639 introduction is going to take a while. Let me give 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.799 you the give people the quick version of it. Um, 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.560 you became head chef. First of all, you drop out 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.200 of high school to start working in restaurants. You're seventeen. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.560 You be come head chef at Miracle Grill, which was 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.240 a lovely little place in the village. Then you open 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.120 your first restaurant, Masa Grill. It gets named Restaurant of 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.200 the Year by Gayle Green, you win the James Beard 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:17.080 Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year, and ninety three 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.720 you now host or have hosted or specials on the 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.680 Food Network and Cooking Channel over thirteen shows. How many 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.320 cookbooks is this right? Over twelve cookbooks? Yeah? I think 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.800 it's thirteen four. And you've, of course you've won three 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.280 Emmy's and you're the first chef we've had on on 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:37.760 Masters and business. You know, I followed your career accidentally. 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:39.640 I don't even know I was following your career. When 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.160 I was in grad school. The only nice restaurant I 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.320 could afford to take my then where grad school was 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.440 here in the city was that a university. The only 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:53.480 restaurant I could afford that was nice was Miracle Grill, 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:56.960 and that was late eighties, early nineties. It had this 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:01.720 delightful outdoor garden you'd of a garden and a fantastic 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.560 brunch and one day we just asked somebody, who's the 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.160 chef here? Oh, some guy named Bobby Flay. Okay, that's nice. 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.680 So when Mesa opens, we're one of the first people there. 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:16.520 I remember taking my wife. I think it was hurt 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:18.360 I won't say what number, but it was a round 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.520 number birthday, and there was a dish that I have 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.000 a bunch of your cookbooks and we still can't find 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.919 this dish, which was clams in a curry thaie coconut 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.200 sauce not but it's not in the Mesa cookbook and 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.080 it's not in the I don't know if it's in 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.760 any of your cookbooks. That's a long time ago. That 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.599 dish has haunted me for years. Is it didn't have 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.719 like a wild rice waffle with it. No, it definitely didn't. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.080 It was almost like, you know, you go get molt 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.040 a Belgian place and they pretend to have a tie sauce. 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.000 It was like that, only delicious. So you you, I 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.080 don't know if you remember that specifically. We'll talk about 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.080 the development of food. So so I mentioned earlier, dropped 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.560 out of high school at seventeen, found your way to restaurants. 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.520 When did you first fall in love with cooking? It's 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.400 hard to say, really, I think, you know, I remember 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.200 cooking with my mother when I was a kid, you know, 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.240 at home. Um, the very first thing I remember cooking 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.520 was um mighty fine chocolate pudding, okay, right from the package, 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.960 from the package, and you all you would do is 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:22.840 you get a sauce pan and put some milk in there, 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:24.720 you know, you measure out the milk and you would 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.000 bring it to a skald and then you would add 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.800 the sort of package of chocolate powder or whatever was 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.800 in there. And then I remember just uh stirring it 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.320 with a wooden spoon and watching me get thick and chocolate. 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.880 And I thought Wow, that's this is what cooking is. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.880 It actually changes the texture and the look in the 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:42.760 flavor of things. And that's what led you to molecular astronomy. Yeah, 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.520 I don't do astronomy, but but um, you know it's 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.040 it's my very first cooking memory. But like I used 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.400 to like make a lot of deviled eggs at home, 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.560 and you know, things like that, I mean, really simple things. 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.560 I didn't know that I was really interested in cooking 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.880 as a profession because, frankly did no precedent for that. 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.080 I mean, cooking was only thought of as a blue 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.120 collar profession. Even when I started cooking professionally, more like 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.560 a short order chef than a real we just you know, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:11.800 there was no such thing as as a celebrity chef, 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.760 for a chef that had any sort of name or knowledge. 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:18.280 I mean, besides, I'm sure you know some some French 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.200 chefs who own the top restaurants of the day. But um, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.919 in terms of like a network dedicated to food and 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.320 things like that, that that was way far in the future. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.960 And as this an urban legend, you're eight years old 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.160 and you're folks, as you only want for Christmas, and 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.559 you said an easy bake oven. Now that's a real story. 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:36.160 The urban legend is how good I am in the 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:40.320 basketball court. Not true. Now, I used to actually I was. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:41.880 I was a good ball player. I mean, I'm a 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.240 I'm a city kid, so I grew up playing a 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:48.200 lot of sports outside in the streets and UMT just yeah, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.080 I mean, I love I played ball all the time. 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.360 We were talking before the show about what happens, and 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.520 you hit a certain age. Right before I got married, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:58.880 I was playing on the courts over a thirty third 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.680 and second by the turns to the tunnel and I 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:03.799 twist my ankle and I walk home and I'm living 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.720 and my wife said, that's what you've done with ball. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:10.880 I I quit. I quit it forty two. Um, And honestly, 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.000 I think about it every day because I love playing basketball. 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:14.679 Used to we used to play in a restaurant league, 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.800 um at Basketball City on the West Side, you know, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.240 at Chelsea Piers. And it was it was, it was. 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.120 It was great competition. And I mean I I I 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:25.720 grew up playing basketball in my whole life, so it 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.240 was it was almost like my my my renaisce my 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:32.400 basketball renaissance. And then um, like you, um, I went 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.520 up for a rebound and I came down wrong on 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.680 my ankle and I I didn't really hurt myself. I 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.240 just sprained my ankle and I was like, the next time, 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:41.920 I'm going to be in a cast and I can't 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.760 do this. And that was you know, it's it's a 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:46.720 friend of a friend. I want to get the name right. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:49.720 David Chang just to open a new restaurant, and we 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.720 had said to friends, let's go this weekend. It's in Brooklyn, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.520 will go on Sunday. Oh no, it's closed. He's in 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.160 the restaurant ball league he plays, so the restaurants closed 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.080 on Sunday. Right, So some of these guys who are 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:05.040 serious cooks also serious ball. Absolutely, So let's keep working 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.000 our way through our list. Um. So you studied with 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.120 some of the great chefs at the French Junary Institute, 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.800 and you said, when you grew up, there really wasn't 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.880 a frame of reference for chefs. What is it that 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.360 makes a great chef? Um? And you can answer your 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:23.600 question the other way, what makes a chef great? If 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.160 that's a uh, well, I think I think the original 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:28.400 question is really the real question. I think you know, 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:32.240 what makes a great chef? I mean lots of things. Uh. 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.719 You know, the words chef really means chief. So basically, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.559 besides you being well, first of all, you have to 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.760 be a good cook. Let's let's let's get the fundaments 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:42.559 out of the way. You need to be a good cook. 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:44.760 You need to understand the fundamentals. You need to be 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.400 a very good teacher because you need to be able 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.960 to teach your brigade, so to speak, to pull off 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.640 the things that you need pulled off in the kitchen. 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.439 You can never do it by yourself as a chef. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:57.839 You also need to be a good leader. You need 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:03.320 to be inspirational. Um. And you know, ultimately I think 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.720 that um, you need to be dedicated and passionate about food. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.360 I'm Barry rid Holts. You're listening to Masters in Business 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.640 on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest today is Bobby Flay, 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:18.400 best known for his work with Miracle Grill. Let's go 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.920 down the list, nayso all of the shows on the 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.800 Food Network. Let's talk a little bit about the business 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.600 of restaurants. Since you are essentially a restaurateur, everybody knows 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:34.160 it's a really challenging business. Most new restaurants don't survive 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.920 when they open up. What is it that makes it 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.160 such a challenging proposition for a restaurant to become successful 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.079 in New York anywhere, but New York City for sure 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.240 right now? Um, it's is a real squeeze on on 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.640 small businesses in New York City, especially the restaurant business. 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.439 As you know, the ransom New York are spectacularly insane, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.240 just in the labor costs go go up and up. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.280 Tip credit just got uh brush to the side. I mean, 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:07.240 as it is the restaurant business in general, Okay, across 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:09.760 the board, across the country, it's very difficult to make 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:13.240 a profit unless you're unless you're slammed every single night. Okay, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.200 now bring it to New York with a rents are 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.600 you know quadruple any place else? The labor costs are 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.840 the same. Um, all the regulations, I mean, it just 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.080 makes everything really really difficult. I mean, frankly, I just 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.360 opened my new restaurant, Gotto a year ago, and I 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.880 looked at my business partner, who has been my We've 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:33.640 been business partners for twenty five years, and I said, Lawrence, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:35.440 I just wanted you to know I want to open 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.920 this restaurant really badly, but we're gonna probably lose money. 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:39.720 And what does he say to this? All right, let's 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.720 do it, because because it's important to us. We you know, 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.800 we really want we really wanted to open Goto. It 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:47.839 was a restaurant that I was pining a way to open. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.679 And sometimes, you know, you do things not for the money, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.000 and and this is a perfect case of that, you 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.400 do it for the love of So that's a question 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.040 I was gonna ask you later, but let's bring it forward. 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:04.440 What gets you excited about new restaurant? Um? Well, the energy? Uh, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.400 of course, going through the food. I mean to me, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:09.320 when I when I open a restaurant, it's food first. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.200 So I come up with the menu and the concept 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.720 first in terms of what I want to cook and 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.640 what I want to serve, and then everything else sort 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.680 of gets built around it. Then the then the design 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.040 comes in. You know, I think about what the energy 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.840 of the room wants wants to be, um, and then 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.079 you know that those are the two most important things, 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.160 and then we just sort of fill everything in around it. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.839 So it starts with the food. Then the energy is 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.760 that is that the decor, the staff, the flow, what 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.079 do you mean it's all of it. But like when 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.760 you walk into a restaurant as a customer, there's a 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:43.400 certain buzz. Sometimes it's quiet and people the restaurantur wants 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.400 it to be quiet. Sometimes it's really loud and maybe 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.240 the maybe the restaurantur wants to be really loud, but 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.719 the customers are sort of not sure if they want 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.720 it that way. I mean, you have to take um, 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:57.560 you have to take attack, and you have to stick 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.600 with it. So, for instance, that Gotto, I wanted high energy. 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.600 I wanted to be bustling, but I wanted it to 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.640 be controlled chaos. I didn't want it to be just 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:07.680 I didn't want to feel like a nightclub. I wanted 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.160 to feel like a really good restaurant that's kind of 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.360 fun and has a little buzz going to it. And 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.280 then the lighting is incredibly important UM, and that is 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.200 not on my list. That's interesting. I have a list 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.280 of things to ask you about what's most important in 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.440 a restaurant, and I don't even think about. When it 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.320 comes to design, lighting is the number one thing, the 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.240 number one thing for design that lighting, and we spent 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.559 we spent a lot of money on lighting um lighting 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:37.280 design UM. And if you go to Bar American, which 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:38.920 is in midtown here, or if you go to Gatto, 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.280 they both have these sort of orange glows to the room. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.120 It makes everybody look good, and when you look good, 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.560 you feel good. You know. I was at a restaurant 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.320 not too long ago, and I won't mention their name, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.440 and it was very dim, and there's a fine line 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.400 between romantic and too dark. And the waiters literally had 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.880 these squeezy hand held flashlights. So when you couldn't read, 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.079 everybody's whipping out their phones to read the menu, and 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.680 the waiters come by with a flashlight, and I was 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.840 compelled to ask, Hey, if the waiters have to have flashlights, 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:12.000 maybe that means something's wrong with the lighting in the restaurant. Well, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.840 that's just because you can't see the menus like me. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.160 But it was everybody. It wasn't just old people who 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.920 were fifty, it was you walk in. I'm like, wow, 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.360 it's it looks like the section is closed. It could 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.600 be too people, could you know. I mean they're looking 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.480 for that sort of mood lighting. But you know, I 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.680 think that restaurants can certainly be too dark for sure. 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.840 And you're saying lighting is really very Lighting is important yes, exactly. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.760 So on a on a related note, so when you're 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.840 looking to launch a new restaurant, and let's use Mesa 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.960 as an example. So there's the Mesa that just closed 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:43.839 in New York not too long ago. I think to 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.200 make way for a condo. Is that? No, that's that boo, 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.319 to make way for a condom? Mason closed because after 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.960 twenty three years is that my rent was quadrupled? That's 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.600 a lot. So you opened up a Mesa in Vegas 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.080 and the Bahamas. And so when you're opening out a place, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.000 when you're scouting a place to open a new restaurant, 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.160 what is it that you're looking at? Is it just 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:10.440 traffic or is it uh something more complex than that. Well, first, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.319 first of all, location is important. I don't care how 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:17.960 good you are, how popular you are, Um, you want location. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.240 You know the you know the old sort of at 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.240 age location, location, location. When it's really true, when I 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.680 open a restaurant and we're gonna spend a bunch of 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:27.120 money to open a restaurant, I want every chance I can, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:30.600 So I start with location. Location is very important then 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.160 to how the space feels. Um is it? Is it 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.000 a space that we can actually design a restaurant that's 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.000 gonna actually feel good when you walk into it. I 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.760 don't like restaurants that where the ceilings are too low. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.120 For instance, Um, I don't like restaurants that that where 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.800 the rooms are broken up like one big room. When 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.800 you can and when you walk in, the bar and 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.000 the and the dining room have a have an affinity 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.080 for each other. I think that it's really important, and 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.720 their energy sort of bounces off each other. So let's 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.960 talk about restaurants that aren't yours. What sort of rooms 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:02.600 do you walk in and say, Wow, there's a really 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.320 good energy in here. Keith McNally, do you know that 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.760 I know the name? Okay, so he owns like Baltas 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.160 are he had Pastis Marandi. I eat in Keith mcnalley's 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.480 restaurants more than I eat in any other restaurant besides 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:16.240 my own. Actually, I don't really eat my own, but 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:18.000 when I when I go out, I mean I'm in 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:22.440 Keith mcdalley's restaurants. Because this guy, to me, he is 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:24.440 a fan. He is he is one of the best 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.640 restaurateurs in New York, and he creates an amazing energy 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:32.200 and great um surroundings and it makes you want to 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.000 be there. And the food is really simple. You know, 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.360 he's not reinventing the wheel by any stretch of the imagination. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.080 But but he but the food is always solid and 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:43.360 good and you know what to expect, and they deliver 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:45.440 on their promise. And I always feel good in his 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.680 in his restaurants. So in the last minute we have 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.360 left in this segment, what are the things? What is 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:57.240 the most important thing that most restaurateurs get wrong? They undercapitalize. 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.520 It takes that a lot of money to open up 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.160 a a restaurant. Well, if let's say you think it's 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.240 gonna cost two million dollars, it's really four double whatever. 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.360 You're double the time to build it and double the 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.040 money to finance it. I'm Barry Rihult. You're listening to 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.360 Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My guest today is 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:20.080 Bobby Flay, restaurateur, host on the Food Network, Cooking Channel, uh, 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:23.840 cookbook author, and let's get into the specific details. You've 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.520 hosted more than a dozen cooking shows on the Food 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:31.880 Network and Cooking Channel. You have thirteen cookbooks published currently. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.520 Your shows are Bobby Flay's Barbecue Addiction and the Worst 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.360 Cooks in America and you've won three Emmy's. And the 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.520 funny thing is you began your television career back in 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.960 How does a chef find his way into television? Well, 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:51.200 the Food network UM started in New York and as 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.360 a startup cable company, and Mason Grille was what was 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.680 one of the hot restaurants of that time, Restaurant of 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:00.760 the year, the James Beard Award that was that was 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.680 the pinnacle in New York back then. Yes, exactly, And 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.560 so they were looking for people to come on the network, 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:08.639 you know, and and frankly a lot of people were like, 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:10.320 what are they going to talk about? You know, for 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.040 twenty four hours in food you know, they'll run out 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:17.080 of things to talk about to anyway, Um, long story short, 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.080 I saw it as an opportunity to to showcase, you know, 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.720 who I was and what my restaurants were, because I 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.600 knew that people all over the country would start watching 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:30.320 this network. And so like when the family from Minneapolis 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.040 is coming to New York for three days, they'll maybe 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:33.800 they'll pick my restaurant as one of the restaurants that 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.400 they'll come to. It just puts you know, basically, um, 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.880 people in there in your seats, and so I looked 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.360 at it as a really good way to market my restaurants. 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:45.720 But this has evolved until a lot more than hey, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:47.560 let me get some more butts in the seats. This 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:50.440 has really become a second career for you. Yeah, it 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.359 really has in some way. I never think of myself 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.760 on television because I'm because the restaurants are so important 0:17:55.800 --> 0:17:58.320 to me that you know, and the Food Network knows this. 0:17:58.359 --> 0:17:59.920 I mean, I've been on the Food Network for twenty years, 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.840 but they're they're they're in second place. My restaurants, my kitchens, 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:05.439 that's the place that I always want to be more 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.359 than any place else. But the network obviously has become 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:14.400 very much my family and has given me a fantastic 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.119 platform for what I want to do and what I 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:20.600 want to to try and experiment with. And the amazing 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.680 thing is really food on television. What was Julia Child 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:27.560 like nineteen sixty three? The Food Network has exploded in 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.320 popularity the past couple of years. It's it's really part 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:32.520 of pop culture now. I mean I think that Iron 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:34.960 Chef did that, you know, when I when I when 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:39.040 I when I competed against the Japanese um Iron Chef 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.080 in America. I think it's probably twelve years ago now. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.840 I think that that really changed the way people looked 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.600 at food on television, and then that led to throw 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.880 down with Bobby Flag and that ultimately Now, originally there 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:58.280 was a little bad blood between you and um the Japanese. Yes, well, 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.199 and now you guys are supposed to be but now 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.159 we're good friends. I mean, you know, it was just 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:04.080 it was sort of in the heat of the competition, 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:06.320 but you know how that goes, for sure, and uh, 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:08.919 you had you had famously leapt up on the table 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.359 and brandished your knives and they were offended by that. 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.240 They were offended by um, a little cultural difference. Now, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.879 apparently the cutting board in Japan is sacred. I didn't 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.239 know that, did you know know until I read it 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.480 and something you had written. Yeah, I said, no idea. 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:25.560 So I had no idea obviously, And my sush chefs 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.199 kind of lifted me up on the table. We we 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.280 sort of made it. We were having a hard time 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.399 for the hour, and we sort of came back at 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:32.840 the end, got all the food done, and we were 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:34.560 just happy. They lifted me up on the table and 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.400 lo and behold, I you know, obviously I insulted him, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.040 so I apologized and now it's all it's all good, 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.600 so good too. So when you're um, how involved you 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.000 in the creation of some of these new shows, because 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.560 you've done a lot of these, it looks like you're 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.080 trying a lot of really interesting things. Well, right now, 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.520 I'm doing Beat Bobby Flay, which is my new show. 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.800 I mean, I created throw Down, I created Beat Bobby Flay, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:58.439 I create I create most of the shows that I do, 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.320 barbecue addiction. So nobody's pitching you. You know, you're not like, 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.720 I gotta take a meeting with the Food Network now 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.320 we're gonna do for chefs. No, they I'm sure you'll 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.240 see that soon. Um No, they pitched me all the time. 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.760 I have a really good relationship with them. And I 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.359 have a production company to ROCKSTRM Productions is my production company, 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.080