Bobby Flay Talks About the Challenges of Filming Grillin’ & Chillin’: ‘It Taught Me How to Do Television’

Bobby Flay has come a long way in his career.

In an episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones, Flay reflected on some of the major milestones throughout his life as a celebrity chef, including his early days on Food Network and a very special cooking gig after an encounter with Drake.

While Flay enjoys his fourth hot wing on Hot Ones, host Sean Evans tells him that the sauce they’re enjoying is referred to as a “grilling and chilling sauce,” adding that “it’s a sauce of summer.” 

Using the condiment as a segue, Evans asks Flay about his first cooking show, Grillin’ & Chillin’. 

“Is it true that you shot 42 episodes of Grillin’ and Chillin’ in just six days?” Evans asks Flay.

Flay confirms it was either six or seven days, telling Evans he “can’t remember if we did six a day or seven a day, but it was in that range.”

Flay explains that the tight schedule was necessary because “this [was] before Food Network had money for editing,” so the talent had to “learn how to do TV live to tape.”

Flay then breaks out into a monologue about what the transitions between segments might look like. 

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“Today I’m making Los Calientes chicken wings and when we come back I’m going to grill a red snapper with coconut and red curry. We’ll be right back, you're watching Grillin’ & Chillin,’” Flay says to the camera explaining that “you’d have to hit the brakes” when it came down to the wire.

“They’d put up a cue card that would say two minutes. A minute. 30-seconds. And then they’d count you down in ‘ten, nine…’ and go to commercial,” Flay says. 

“It taught me how to do television very quickly,” he tells Evans before adding that it “helped me in how I shoot TV today,” revealing that his filming schedule for Beat Bobby Flay, while rigorous, is far less intense. 

“We shoot Beat Bobby Flay, we shoot two primetime episodes basically by five o’clock in the afternoon. We’re done, so I can do 50 episodes in 25 days. It’s great,” he adds.

In a later segment, Evans asks Flay if he can “tell me about the time Drake brought you to cook for the cast of Saturday Night Live.” 

Flay happily shares the story from 2016, which he says was “definitely a big moment in my life.” 

Flay tells Evans that he was cooking at a friend’s restaurant in Toronto, and the Canadian musician was an investor in the establishment, holding an after party in a private club in its basement. 

The celebrity chef says he got to chatting with the rapper at the end of the night when the two exchanged numbers. 

“About three days later, he texted me and he’s like ‘do you have a second I want to ask you a question,’” Flay says, revealing that Drake told him, “It’s kind of quiet, but I’m gonna be the host and the musical guest for SNL this week, and I want to do something really great for them.” 

At first, the chef was confused about how he could be of assistance until Drake asked, “Will you cook for them?” Flay agreed and asked when his appearance would take place, and the rapper informed him the gig would be the next day. 

Flay jumped into action, calling the head of publicity at Food Network telling her, “I need the kitchen. I need staff, and I need trucks because we’re going to make a bunch of paellas and all kinds of other foods.”

The Food Network star says he and the team were able to get all the food prepared, saying, “It was a surprise for the cast.” 

Flay recalls a few of the cast members he was already acquainted with were confused when Flay was “just walking around” behind the scenes at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, asking him “are you in one of the bits.”