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* GreatFood.com

* How to Cook Everything review

* Best American Recipes 1999 review

A rediscovered cookbook helps remind us what we like about Bobby Flay.

Will Bobby Flay be best remembered as an innovative chef or as the ugly American who stood on the cutting board in a premature swagger of triumph after his appearance on “Iron Chef”? A recent rediscovery in the wake of Flay’s ignominious “Iron Chef” defeat gives some hope that the answer may still be the former.

 I’d snapped up Bobby Flay’s Boy Meets Grill (Hyperion, $32.50) after discovering him, as so many viewers have, on TV’s Food Network. But this 1999 cookbook, though attractively packaged and packed with bold, interesting-sounding recipes, proved a bit disappointing in the kitchen. The recipes in Boy Meets Grill are excessively complicated, the sort of recipes that start you off on an endless chain of sub-recipes. Nor is the selection very practical from an ingredients standpoint: If I have lamb burning a hole in my refrigerator, I know I can have a delicious meal just by lightly seasoning it and tossing it on the grill; Boy Meets Grill serves up a half-dozen variations on lamb, almost as many as for chicken, where I’m always looking for new ideas.

So I was beginning to sour on Bobby when I spotted his 1998 predecessor to Boy Meets Grill, titled Bobby Flay’s From My Kitchen to Your Table (Clarkson Potter, $32.50), which was published back before he became quite such a superstar and celebrity-chef poster boy. I decided to give him one more chance. I’m glad I did—and so is my family, which the other night wolfed down his Marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Orange Vinaigrette. Crusted with a mix of chile powders and enlivened with a sauce of reduced orange juice, this may become our favorite pork tenderloin preparation. You can bet we’ll serve it the next time we go all out for company.

Dramatically designed, From My Kitchen to Your Table is one of the best-looking cookbooks on my shelf. A fat four-color section at the beginning will start your mouth watering. The recipes are clear and easy to follow—though Flay is even more prone here to nested-recipe syndrome (to make the Spicy Orange Vinaigrette, for example, you have to flip to the back of the book).

The book also adopts an unusual organizational scheme, eschewing the usual fish, poultry, meat, etc. approach for sections headed “From the Oven,” “From the Grill” and “From the Stovetop.” Other sections cover rice, “Cool Platters,” vinaigrettes and other sauces and relishes, and desserts and drinks. This scheme skews the recipe selection, but in ways that happen to align with my prejudices: lots of risotto recipes, for example, and grilled versions of everything from snapper to pork chops to zucchini. Chicken is still in short supply, but at least there are only two lamb recipes. (We tried the Garlic and Oregano-Marinated Grilled Chicken with Grilled Pepper and Black Olive Relish, for example, and while the chicken was only OK, the relish was a knockout.)

Plantains get star treatment here, for some reason, with four recipes—but, again, I’m not complaining. We tried Grilled Plantains with Spicy Brown Sugar Glaze, and now I’m waiting impatiently for the plantains from the grocery store to ripen to almost black so we can enjoy it again. (The Spicy and Sweet Rum Plantains were delicious, too.)

Besides plantains, you’ll want to stock up on ancho chile powder, sherry vinegar, chipotles and honey. Indeed, I started to wonder if I couldn’t create my own faux-Flay recipes with these ingredients, meat and a blender (Ancho-Honey-Glazed Lamb with Plantains in Chipotle Vinaigrette, anyone?). But since I like all these ingredients, Bobby can jump up on my cutting board any time.

* Grilled Plantains with Spicy Brown Sugar Glaze, from Bobby Flay’s From My Kitchen to Your Table