Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook: Explosive Flavors from the Southwestern Kitchen

You've got to hand it to Bobby Flay. He opened his first restaurant, the inventive "new southwestern" Mesa Grill, in 1991--and he's still celebrating the sweet, hot and spicy at that Manhattan outpost, not to mention on his TV shows and in other cookbooks like Boy Gets Grill and Bobby Flay's Bold American Food. Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook offers 140-plus recipes for a wide range of new "signature dishes," such as BBQ Duck Filled Blue Corn Pancakes with Habañero Sauce; Chile Rubbed Short Ribs with Creamy Polenta and Cotija Cheese; and Grilled Red Snapper with Tomato-New Mexico Red Chile Sauce. He also includes idiosyncratic takes on old favorites, like Whipped Potatoes with Cilantro Pesto, and desserts including Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crème Brûlée, and Caramel Apple Shortcakes. Even drinks get the Flay treatment.

His food (at least in moderation) is difficult not to like. Cooks will find the recipes eminently doable if they're willing to cull the necessary ingredients--there's a fine ingredients glossary--and put aside a bit of time. This is great "occasion cooking" and should appeal to dyed-in-the-grill Flay fans, as well as those whose curiosity has been tickled by his winning culinary hegemony. --Arthur Boehm