Grill It! with Bobby Flay (Food Network) 4 Stars

Television and music have some common elements. Fans of a musician or band may often cry out for some different kind of music. And then it turns out they don’t like it when the singer or group departs from their tried-and-true style. Meanwhile another singer or group might just keep cranking out the same-old same-old and the fans are very content with that. Same with television, fans might say “not that again”, while still other fans will say “never change, do what you do best. It’s what we love about you”.

And that brings us to the new cooking program on Food Network Grill It! with Bobby Flay. Depending on your point of view, this is going to either be “hurrah!” or “not this again!” It has a lot to do with what you think of chef Flay and how much you are or are not into grilling. For me, I’m a Flay fan. And I love grilling and BBQ as the 150 pound monstrosity of iron on my front patio will attest. Needless to say then, seeing the talented master of the grill once again behind the smokey flames, well, to me it’s like seeing Tom Selleck wearing a Hawaiian shirt and driving a red Ferrari again: fun and somehow comforting.

Bobby Flay has to be one of the most likeable television cooking hosts around. Add to that he’s without a doubt a top-notch, ay, indeed an Iron chef. Plus he’s developed the ability to not only come across the screen well himself, but has the rare knack of helping others come across very well. And when you combine Flay and grilling, you have a combination as natural and as delicious as milk and cookies.

Back to the main question though: will you be happy with this show or see it as repetition? Yes it’s familiar. It’s even shot on the same back deck of Flay’s Brooklyn apartment as Boy Meets Grill was done, though dressed up a bit different with the new shelves and all, but otherwise very familiar. And that is the heart of the matter, familar is either very warm and comforting to some while to others that may induce boredom. (Though how can delicious food made with spicy bold flavors ever get boring, I dunno.)

The concept of the show this time is having on the talented amateur or semi-pro grill masters. Flay solicited from his site and the Food Network site for people to send in video recipes of what they do best. The person (sometimes a two-person team) comes on the show and Bobby figures out something to cook using the same ingredient as the one the guest is using. For instance the first show was about grilling short ribs. Fascinating in and of itself as short ribs is something we’re used to seeing cooked for a long time as a slow braise, not a quick grill. The guest did a Korean style recipe and Bobby countered with two or three of his own ways to grill the short ribs. At the end of the show there was a wonderful assortment of dishes that made the mouth water.

So Grill It! is new, yet it’s familiar. How familiar? It took me a while at first to catch on then it dawned on me. Bobby has very purposely taken the most successful elements of his three previous shows and rolled them into one. There is the Iron Chef America concept of seeing what two chefs can do with the same ingredient. There’s the Throwdown concept of showcasing the talents of amateur or semipro cooks — in this case, grill masters — who would never otherwise have television exposure. And then there’s obviously the grilling aspect on the same set at Boy Meets Grill.

Is each seperate element novel? Of course not. As said, purposely familiar. But there’s definitely something intriguing in each. For instance the idea of making different dishes from the same ingredient, sure Iron Chef has that down. But I’ve also enjoyed it when Emeril would have a guest chef on and each would prepare two dishes on the same theme. Or when Ming Tsai has a master sauce or combination, does two or three dishes using it and then a guest chef would come on and prepare his or her version. Sure it’s been done before, but then it’s a winning concept in my book.

When you add in that talented fans can end up on his show cooking side-by-side with their fav chef. Plus the social interaction use of YouTube-like uploaded videos as mini-audition tapes, there’s even more to like about the concept of the show. I know some cooking fans and foodies think, eh, grilling, such a limited venue. But I think that’s limited thinking on their part. Just about anything you can do in a kitchen you can do on a grill, even cooking soup or a stew on a pot if you wanted to do it. So I don’t think grill cooking is anymore restrictive in the variety of recipes that you can do on a stove or in an oven.

And there you go. We’re still in a way back to the beginning. Still visiting that question: Will you like this show? Like any other show, you may or you may not. So let’s quickly go down the checklist. Enjoy seeing a very talented master chef with a great diversity of recipes in his natural setting? Like or love grilling and barbecue at all? Appreciate amateur cooks getting their shot showing their recipe creations too? Enjoy shows that show multiple variations of one specific ingredient and what other dishes go well along side it? If so, then like me, you’ll find Grill It! a winner. For all of the above reasons — plus the excellent utilizing of the Internet’s social and video abilities to pluck out these amateur master grillers and bring them to the forefront and on to the television screen — I give it four out of five stars.

The TCB Ratings System 5 Stars