A few years ago I was sick and didn’t sleep well at night. Most nights, I didn’t sleep much at all, falling asleep very late and waking up late.

For at least part of that time, we had access to streaming services at home and I watched all of “Deadwood” and discovered, not to my surprise, that everyone was right about the show. That’s the period when I checked out “Bosch,” at least a couple of seasons in, and loved the show. “American Pickers” was another series that I found a lot of comfort in.

But it’s possible there’s no series that was so comforting to me as “Beat Bobby Flay,” the Food Network show featuring the titular chef who earlier, apparently, had a grilling show on the channel.

I don’t watch much in the way of cooking shows and I don’t really watch any cooking competition shows. My better half has introduced me to “The Great British Bakeoff” and it’s fun. But I’m not doing a lot of watching right now, outside of Marvel series on Disney+ and a few random network shows like “Big Sky.”

But I still stop on “Beat Bobby Flay” whenever I come across it while channel surfing and I’ll stop and watch. It reminds me of some of my few comforts when I was sick.

If you’re not familiar with it, the show pits Flay, the restaurant owner and TV host, against chefs from very cool-sounding restaurants. Two chefs take on each other in the first round, and then the winner takes on Flay for the second. A couple of well-known people, ranging from Tina Fey to Wolfgang Puck to Brooke Shields, moderate and cheer on Flay’s competition.

And the latter is the part I like about “Beat Bobby Flay.” While the gimmick of the show is that “everybody is out to beat” him, the show is not afraid to make Flay a figure of scorn on the show that bears his name.

Flay might be the nicest guy in the world, and he’s certainly a good sport, but his show builds him up as a world-class proficient chef and, really, an arrogant ass.

Maybe it’s just because we’re seeing the Flay the show wants us to see, but Flay comes across as someone you root against. We know we’re being manipulated, but by god this is an incredible premise and the show makes the most of it.

I can’t imagine any other show so willing to make every effort to turn everyone against its host. Imagine if CNN put Anderson Cooper in a dunk tank every few nights. Or if the point of Jimmy Fallon was to make people want to throw ripe tomatoes at the host. (Wait, that’s exactly what that show does – or would, I’m sure, if I watched it.)

Again, Flay is pretty good natured to have a whole show built around people rooting for him to get beat. I mean, these people take delight – even if it is corny, put-on delight – in the possibility.

And Flay is not afraid to come off as the bad guy, ending each episode he wins – and that’s most of them – with a smug pronouncement.

Of course, it’s easy to debase yourself when you’re handsomely paid and there’s approximately 10,000 episodes of a show with your name in the title.

But “Beat Bobby Flay” is comfort food, and ingenious at that.