The First Dish Bobby Flay Ever Made Was In A Toy Oven

Every celebrity chef's origin story starts differently, and for Bobby Flay, it all began with a toy that still has a following today. Before Flay — the man who has two different coffee grinders for coffee and herbs — earned his stripes in the cooking world, he was just like any other kid. The Iron Chef revealed to Today that his foray into cooking commenced with Hasbro's Easy-Bake Oven. To be real, whose story didn't? Those Easy-Bake ovens still bring all the nostalgia feels for adults who grew up without screens and technology, and Flay is among them. In fact, the toy led to the first dish he ever made: an Easy-Bake Oven cake.

The "Throwdown" host told Today that his interest in cooking piqued around the time he was 5 or 6. He explained, "I was watching the commercials during cartoons and after school specials and stuff like that. And I could not believe that you could actually bake a cake from a light bulb. I needed to see it for myself." His parents acquiesced to his pleas, and a celebrity chef was born.

Was that first Easy-Bake Oven cake chocolate, vanilla, or spice (what kid thought that flavor was a good idea?), and did he wait the full 15 minutes for it to bake? Flay didn't elaborate.  

Easy-Bake Oven cakes may be a far cry from a death by chocolate cake or a classic Swedish princess cake (Prinsesstårta), but they are still delicious. The mix was initially made by Betty Crocker, and you could make five of these delightful treats, but times have changed. Today, there are lots of options. There are red velvet and strawberry cake mixes, whoopie pie mixes, and even pizza mixes. There's even a National Easy-Bake Oven Day: November 4.

And, of course, Bobby Flay is still a fan of this toy and wants other young boys to feel the joy he did when he first used his Easy-Bake Oven. In 2012, Flay threw his support to a teen's petition asking Hasbro to make the Easy-Bake Oven in a gender neutral color so boys who want to bake would feel included. Flay was not the only chef who came out in support of this request. Other chefs advocated for it as well, and it must have worked because in December 2012, Hasbro announced they were making the toy in both silver and black.