Indian food is Bobby Flay’s statistical worst category. He has lost to it eleven times in this ledger, and the show has never run an Indian-cuisine round where Bobby was favored.
The reason is tadka — the technique of blooming whole spices in hot oil at the end of a dish and pouring the flavored oil over the finished food. It is the move that gives Indian food its perfumed top notes. Bobby builds his spices in at the bottom of the dish and reduces them away.
Indian food in the United States is undersold. There are eleven Indian chefs who beat Bobby Flay on television and most of them you have not heard of.