Bobby Flay - Bobby Flays Bar Americain Cookbook: Celebrate Americas Great Flavors

Copyright 2011 by Boy Meets Grill, Inc.
Photographs copyright 2011 by Ben Fink

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.clarksonpotter.com

CLARKSON POTTER is a trademark and POTTER with colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flay, Bobby.
Bobby Flays Bar Americain cookbook / Bobby Flay, with Stephanie Banyas, and Sally Jackson.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Cookery, American. 2. Bar Americain (New York, N.Y.) I. Banyas, Stephanie. II. Jackson, Sally, 1978 III. Title. IV. Title: Bar Americain cookbook.
TX715.F61148 2010
641.5973dc22 2009047832

eISBN: 978-0-307-88590-6

Design by Wayne Wolf/Blue Cup Creative

v3.1

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This book is dedicated to my business partner of twenty-plus years, Laurence Kretchmer. Loyal and supportive of my every whim (even the ridiculous ones), he makes the most sincere effort to help me accomplish each one. His dedication to our businesses together is only eclipsed by his unwavering friendship, which I cherish every day.

Peter Hansen

Renee Forsberg

Leia Gaccione

Christopher Foster

Laura Mendez

Alex Roman

Josephine Pacquing

Mark Shay

Liz Jacobson

Angelo Pietrunti

Chrisopher Catanesi

Tyler Pitman

Heidi Vanderwal

Neil Manacle

Vicki Wells

Rick Pitcher

Christine Sanchez

Tara Keeler

Manny Gatdula

Jennifer Lee

Bullfrog & Baum

Jennifer Rudolph Walsh

Jon Rosen

Rockwell Group

Ben Fink

Barb Fritz

Kate Tyler

Jill Browning

Ashley Phillips

Chris Tanigawa

Joan Denman

Doris Cooper

Lauren Shakely

Marysarah Quinn

Dahlia Warner

My assistants and coauthors, Stephanie Banyas and Sally Jackson

My business partners, Laurence Kretchmer, Jerry Kretchmer, and Jeff Bliss

Food Network

The staffs of Mesa Grill New York, Mesa Grill Las Vegas, Mesa Grill Bahamas, Bobby Flay Steak, and Bobbys Burger Palace

And

Rica Allannic, the best editor any author could hope for. Thank you for your steadfast support and your incredible attention to detail.

Bar Americain is a product of my lifes discoveries. I didnt finish high school in a conventional way (I took a test to garner a high school equivalency diploma so that I could apply to culinary school), and as it turns out, Ive found I learn best throughwell, just living! I am constantly observing, tasting, trying all the world has to offer. Every student, whether a traditional one or not, has a favorite subject, and mine is the foods and culinary traditions of the United States of America. Its been an intense education, one that I hope never ends. And Bar Americain is my translation of that education.

I opened my first restaurant, Mesa Grill, in New York City in 1991 at the age of twenty-five. After running some kitchens for other people earlier on, I had arrived on the scene in a soaring space on lower Fifth Avenue with a bag of chile peppers and a high-profile business partner, Jerry Kretchmer, the owner of Gotham Bar and Grill alongside Chef Alfred Portale. It was exactly what a twenty-five-year-old with seven years of cooking experience and a pocketful of street sense should havea big, brash, colorful space with big, bold flavors on the plate accompanied by handcrafted margaritas. The place had its own beatbut the rhythm wasnt coming from the speakers, it was coming from the kitchen. Looking back, I wouldnt change a thing. Some twenty years later, Mesa Grill is a New York classic and still running at full speed.

After all the traveling and cooking and eating Ive done across the country, the restaurant I was now inspired to open was something different. Both as a native New Yorker and as a student of the citys restaurant business, I know every important restaurant space in town and there was always one in particular that I thought of as my dream space. In fact, my very first meeting with Jerry Kretchmer to discuss the possibility of the two of us teaming up was in that space, a restaurant once called Sams Cafe. After a brief run, Sams became JUdson Grill, which Jerry then owned.

JUdson Grill had a good run on West 52nd Street, but it eventually became apparent that something needed to change. Although it was a well-regarded restaurant around town, it was no longer reaching its potential. Thats when I called Jerry. I knew this was my chance to grab the space that I had always wanted and I knew just want I wanted to do with it. Bar Americain was born.

The concept and point of view of Bar Americain is simple: its an American brasserie. As soon as you walk in, youll sense the echoes of a soaring European brasserie, with distressed mirrors over the Parisian zinc bar and gorgeous tiles covering the floor. With curved banquettes snaking down the middle of the dining room and a peek into the semi-open kitchen, which is surrounded by a forty-foot-long raw bar, its a handsome space that radiates brasserie spirit.

I like to tell people that Bar Americain looks brasserie but tastes distinctly American. That raw bar is stocked with the freshest American fish and shellfish, for example. So why the French name? Naming a restaurant can be challenging, and my partners and I had a difficult time coming up with a name that made sense for the space and our vision.

I was in New Mexico doing some chile research for Mesa Grill while the new restaurant was being built. The food media was hassling us for information about the new place, which was soon to open but as of yet nameless and therefore, in the eyes of the press, without a story or a concept. I knew exactly what we were going to serve, but we needed a name to convey that, and fast.

At the time I was reading a book about another chef, a chef who loved spending time in Paris and had one of the most important American restaurants in the country. Jeremiah Tower was at the forefront of New American cuisine when it was born in the early 1980s, when he, Wolfgang Puck, and Alice Waters were leading the way. Jeremiahs San Francisco restaurant, Stars, was a favorite of mine because of how he combined European style with American ingredients and ideas. Yes, we all get inspired somewhere and Stars was the backbone of the inspiration for Bar Americain.