Grilling Bobby Flay

Today show contributor and Knicks broadcaster Jill Martin gets the juice from the Food Network star about his favorite room at his Amagansett home.

Bobby Flay shows Jill Martin his ultimate outdoor kitchen.

The centerpiece of Bobby Flay’s stunning Hamptons retreat is, not surprisingly, his kitchen. He calls it his favorite room, but really it’s three rooms. The Food Network star’s indoor kitchen is connected to a living room area with a full-wallsize sliding door that leads to the outdoor kitchen. After being greeted by the ultimate welcome mat (which reads: “You Better Have Tacos”) and a cat named Nacho, make your way outside to find three grills, a pizza oven, a cabana, a pool, a bocce court and a vine-covered pergola. Flay is as generous as he is talented: he recently helped me surprise a 16-year-old aspiring chef from the Garden of Dreams Foundation with a cooking lesson. Here, he shares how he built his dream room.

JILL MARTIN: This kitchen is really something!

BOBBY FLAY: I mean, obviously my kitchen is going to be my favorite room. It’s the place where I get the chance to be creative, and the place I spend most of my time in. I cook lunches here all summer long, and that is my big thing… long lunches. They start at 1:30PM and go to about 7PM. There is swimming and some bocce ball playing. It is a very long afternoon with a lot of food and drink.

The grill master sharpens his knife.

I feel this house is a result of working in the kitchen for 18 hours for the last 30-something years. It makes me feel like I have something to show for all the minutes and hours and days and months and years that I’ve put into building my career. When I am able to put out an abundance of food for 12 to 14 people at that table under the pergola, and open a bunch of bottles of rosé and make everyone happy, that to me is the measure of success. I’m driven for a couple of reasons. Most importantly, for my daughter, Sophie.

JM: Speaking of kids, I was told that when you were 8, your dad was going to get you a G.I. Joe as a gift and you asked for an Easy-Bake Oven instead?

BF: I actually got the G.I. Joe but I also wanted an Easy- Bake Oven. I thought it was kinda cool. The most intriguing thing was that you could bake a cake with a light bulb, and I wanted to see if for myself!”

Flay’s prized pizza oven, at right.

JM: From an Easy-Bake Oven to this incredible pizza oven!

BF: The pizza oven—that’s like my Cadillac. It’s bigger than the pizza oven in my restaurant Gato. I can also cook other things in there. I can roast chicken, I can make steaks in it, roast vegetables. And then I have a giant island to work off of and for people to sit around. Very important. I probably make around 12 to 15 pizzas—all different ones—for an average pizza party.

JM: Your first job was at a pizza joint, right?

BF: I was in 6th grade. I got paid a dollar an hour to deliver pizzas…but I got tips.