I was in the presence of an Iron Chef yesterday. A ginger Iron Chef in Chuck Taylors. But I didn’t challenge him to a throwdown. I just asked him to sign my book.

Of course, first I had to wait in line.

Actually, it was more like six lines. I got there at 1:30 and didn’t even make it into the store until 4. Thank goodness there were snacks.

Those are potato chips with blue cheese sauce (yum). There were also various mini cupcakes (I had a pistachio muffin with raspberry filling masquerading as a cupcake) and pumpkin soup with cranberry-maple creme fraiche. And a chopped apple salad thing I forgot to try. Everything was from Bobby Flay’s new Bar Americain Cookbook (except the cupcakes, which were interpretations of recipes for other desserts).

By the time I got near the front of the store, the people in front of me were convinced the signing was going to be cut off at any moment. There were still a ton of people behind us, but it was about the time the event was supposed to end. Then we got inside, and the woman started freaking out about how cute Bobby is.

And then, finally…

I’ll spare you the awkward photos of me talking animatedly to him while he signs my book, but we’re obviously BFFs now.

Also, he stayed around for at least an hour after the signing was supposed to end so that everyone could have their cookbook(s) signed — even though he had another event to do in DC yesterday evening. So thank you, Iron Chef Flay.

In case you are wondering, the whole thing was to promote his new cookbook. It was just released Tuesday, so you may not have seen it yet. But there are a lot of recipes that I want to try — the blackberry-bourbon julep (it’s National Bourbon Heritage Month, after all), the grilled cheese (with cheddar, goat cheese, bacon and green tomato), the pan-roasted pork tenderloin with green tomato-peach relish and green pea couscous and the green chile spoonbread, to name a few. And it has a lot of nice photos. So, if you like Bobby Flay and/or American cuisine, you may want to check it out.