Las Vegas Weekly

May 14, 2009 · 9:21 AM

Photo Gallery: For Bobby Flay, it doesn’t get much better than ‘a great burger’

By Robin Leach

Some 450 coconuts were cut in half for Bobby Flay's culinary creation at Vegas Uncork'd.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

Celebrity star chef Bobby Flay knows well the subtleties of different caviars from the Caspian Sea and even the textures and tastes of a turbot from Tasmania. In fact, Bobby, who has nine cookbooks to his credit and five restaurants on the East Coast and one here at Caesars Palace, knows everything there is to know about great cuisines. But ask him what he would eat above all else after a hard day’s night behind the grill, and like many a superchef, he’ll simple say, “a great burger.”

Iron Chef Bobby’s ideal is “a crusty on the outside, juicy on the inside with a fistful of golden, crisp, salty fries served with a thick, icy milkshake!” He even opened his own Burger Palace in Long Island, and now wants to open another one here on the Strip as his next restaurant endeavor.

“I opened high-end, full-service restaurants but always dreamed of opening my own burger place. I’m just like most other chefs: We all like to eat simple things as late-night cuisine, and the hamburger fits prominently into that category. It’s the meal I care most about -- just the best burgers, fries and shakes, an ode to the idiom,” he said.

Bobby’s written his ninth cookbook, Burgers, Fries & Shakes, and he traveled to the Strip for Vegas Uncork’d to launch it in time for summer. He wound up, amazingly, autographing more than 800 sold copies on the first day!

In his kitchen at Mesa Grill in Caesars Palace, he even got me behind the grill! “I opened Bobby’s Burger Palace to fulfill a longtime dream, and the new book captures that dream and all the work that went into making it happen. It’s a burger fantasy second to none! Melt the cheese completely and done right, it doesn’t get much better than that.”

His book is packed with recipes, and for non-red meat eaters like me, there are recipes for salmon burgers, turkey burgers and tuna burgers -- all slathered with toppings of homemade barbecue sauces and mile-high shoestring onions!

Photo: TVT

Bobby Flay and Robin Leach in the kitchen.

Bobby, who joined me in the first days when we started the Food Network in the early 1990s, explains in his cookbook why the classic is a beloved American original -- and the timing of its publication is perfect for the season’s outdoor dining.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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