Bobby and Sophie Flay share meals and memories on ‘The Flay List’
Bobby and Sophie Flay have always bonded over food, he as the chef and she as the diner and tastetester, and now their relationship is front and center of a recently premiered series on Food Network. In “The Flay List,” airing Thursdays, the chef, restaurateur and network personality and his 23-year-old daughter bring viewers along on a foodie tour of New York City, each taking the other to a place that they think is particularly noteworthy. But these picks aren’t limited to finedining establishments. Far from it in fact, as burger, taco and pizza joints are usually in the mix, with the senior Flay’s tastes tending toward Big Apple classics that the two frequented in her childhood and Sophie’s running to places she’s discovered that are getting a lot of buzz. As the two sample a single dish, they walk down memory lane and discuss why the meal and the eatery is important to them. “He brought me to some of his favorites, classics, New York staples,” Sophie Flay explains, “but then I got to bring him to different restaurants that are doing the same variation, whether it be a burger or a taco but a little bit newer and fresher . ... Every place that we went to was amazing. Taste-wise, flavor-wise everything was great but it was a very cool opportunity to kind of see what he was used to and what he thinks is some of the best food in New York, and for me to kind of have had that experience growing up and to show him places that I found along the way obviously based off of what he likes and what he thinks is some of the best in New York City.” In this Thursday’s episode, fried chicken is on the menu, as the pair visit two establishments with totally different takes on the dish. “Sweet Chick I think is such a fun restaurant and of course the food is great,” Sophie Flay says of the Lower East Side eatery. “One of my favorite dishes is the orange chicken with the broccoli waffle, which you might be seeing in the episode. And they’re always playing hip-hop. John Seymour is a great guy and has really made a chicken-and-waffles place super-authentic. He’s a New York City kid and it definitely feels like a nice little chicken-andwaffles (place) and it’s got a great New York City vibe to it.” As for Dad’s pick, that would be Blue Ribbon, which touts their bird as being “World Famous.” “I grew up eating that fried chicken,” she says, “and he has so many stories from when he was younger about eating that chicken, too, kind of just coming up in the New York City food scene.”