NEW YORK -- Bobby Flay, the native New Yorker who champions Southwestern cuisine and made his name by elevating chile peppers, cilantro and corn, may put his culinary career on the back burner one of these days, he says.

He's a high-school dropout with a fairy-tale trajectory that began when he was 17 and started cooking at famed Joe Allen's in Manhattan's theater district. Allen took a shine and offered to pay Flay's tuition to the French Culinary Institute.

Eventually, that formal training led to cookbooks, TV shows and a string of restaurants: Mesa Grill, Bolo and Bar American in New York; Mesa Grill in Las Vegas and Paradise Island; Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City -- and now Bobby's Burger Palace, which opened in recent months in Long Island and New Jersey.

He'll be in South Florida for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, grilling at Rachael Ray's Burger Bash Thursday, cooking at a dinner honoring Emeril Lagasse Saturday and hosting an Oscar-night screening and tasting party Sunday with his wife Stephanie March, an actress perhaps best known for playing Alexandra Cabot on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

''All of it is great, but at some point I would like to run for public office,'' says the tall, flame-haired Flay, who is getting a lot of double takes (especially from women) while kicking back in the lobby of the hip Gansevoort Hotel in Manhattan's Meatpacking District.

``It would be hard to find someone who loves this city as much as I do. I'm basically in awe of it every day. The well-being of the city is very important to me.''

So what would he tackle first if he were elected?

''Because of my success, I have mentored some classes in public high schools, and that has opened my eyes,'' says Flay, who stars in Boy Meets Grill, Grill It! with Bobby Flay, Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Iron Chef America, all on the Food Network. ``Because I'm a high-school dropout, I know how important an education is. I got lucky. But I think a traditional education is not for everybody. I have lobbied in Washington for more funding for vocational education. There are people who are more cerebral and learn best from books. And there are people, like me, who can't learn that way and need to be active with their hands.''

But wouldn't bureaucracy bring him down if he actually got elected?

``My feeling is that rather than trying from the outside to get the bureaucracy to do something, I'd rather get into the bureaucratic position myself, and once you are there you can make the decisions. The first thing I would do is make sure every kid eats better in public schools. Even if there are people who serve kids the worst frozen s - - - for 12 cents a day who will try to kill me.''

But Flay isn't dumping his kitchens anytime soon.

POLITICAL AMBITIONS

''I would run for office maybe 10 years from now. But I'm a chef first. I do television on the side, and it has become an important part of my life. But there is no question about it; what's really important to me is that people come to my restaurants and love the food. That's the bread and butter of my emotions,'' he says.

As an Iron Chef, Flay may seem like a steely competitor, but he says he's mellowing. He gives the credit to his third wife.

''We'll be married four years in February. I feel like I have great support, a real partner. And I feel like she has taken a little bit of the edge from me. I have fought for everything I have ever accomplished. And I'm a New Yorker. There was a time when I was moving so quickly I didn't have time for anybody. But she has taught me to take a breath,'' Flay says.

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