Bobby Flay Praises His Daughter’s ‘Work Ethic’ After She Joins ABC News as a Correspondent: ‘It’s a Parent’s Dream’

Bobby Flay continues to proudly celebrate his daughter, Sophie.

On Wednesday, Oct. 29, Sophie, 29, announced on Instagram that she accepted a new job in New York as an ABC News correspondent and an overnight anchor for World News Now and GMA First Look.

“Thank you, Los Angeles, for an amazing 11 years!” she wrote of her previous job as a general assignment reporter at ABC7 in Los Angeles since March 2019. 

“Proud as can be,” Bobby, 60, wrote in the post’s comment section. “Your work ethic and your desire to learn from your mentors has put you in this wonderful place of opportunity and importance. It’s a parent’s dream.”

Bobby shares Sophie with his ex-wife, Kate Connelly.

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This isn’t the first time the proud father has celebrated Sophie and her work ethic. He applauded her reporting during the January 2025 Los Angeles fires.

“When the fires happened, I got so many comments from literally hundreds of people about how well she was just freestyling it out there on the front lines of the fire,” he told PEOPLE in February. “She was spectacular.”

Bobby said he downloaded the news station’s app to watch her updates.

“I was watching it 24 hours a day. She did not go to sleep. I mean, it was crazy,” he said, adding, “I was so proud of her because, most importantly, she was giving out really important information to people that needed it… And she was just so good. I was just like, ‘Who is this girl?’ ”

In January 2021, Bobby told PEOPLE that along with her “great work ethic,” he’s proud of Sophie “just because she’s such a nice person.”

“You ask anybody that knows Sophie, they will go on and on about her. She’s a really sweet woman and she’s incredibly inclusive,” he added. 

He noted that “she’s got some coolness to her, she’s very savvy, but she’s a very inclusive person,” adding, “She never wants anybody to feel left out and she thinks about that kind of stuff all the time.”

At the time of the interview, Sophie was working for ABC7, and Bobby marveled at his daughter’s success and said how he’s such a “lucky dad.”

“I have an ongoing flow of pride watching Sophie do so well in her career,” Bobby said.

“I’m watching her just rise to the challenges of being in her own career, and she’s doing it through basically what I did, which was hard work,” he added. “So when she puts out a story, my chest is big because I’m like, ‘That’s amazing. This is my kid.’ “