Lord knows I’ve tried to like the gal, but Rachel Ray gets on my last nerve. But as Carnac has an open mind and knows that millions of Americans think she’s the cat’s meow, maybe I need a reality check.
My objections? I’m talking about her contrived Valley Girl inflection, the unremitting nasality, the pseudo hipster banter, the barrage of superlatives (“Oh, wow–this is incredible!” “Oh, wow, this is SENsational!” “This is the most incredible food I’ve EVER eaten!”), the forced merriment at unfunny situations, the flyweight punching of words for (un)dramatic effect, and the general full-court press to make us simply adore her. She reminds me of the pom-pom girl in high school who ran on 220 volts when 110 would do just fine. She takes Katie Couric’s forced perkiness and raises it to the 12th power.
Every show has her declaring that another restaurant “has the best food I’ve ever tasted!”
Frankly, I can think of a dozen other TV celebrity chefs whose skill dwarves yours but, somehow, you’re today’s It Girl. At least you don’t shout “Bam! Bam!”
Now, go ahead. Tell me how much you LOVE Rachel Ray.
I LOVE Rachael Ray. And while her perkiness even gets to me, I find her adorably cute and hot, and full of delicious, easy, and useful recipes on her 30-Minute Meals show. That said, I’m not impressed by $40 a Day, because I’d be living like a king if I could travel around and spend $40 a day just on restaurant meals.
Miss Ray is one of those personalities that you like in small quantities. I agree with Mr. Voodoo Lou about the $40 a day - my wife and I would not be able to do that for a three day vacation. I actually like her on $40, she’s ok I guess on her 30 minute meals, but I wouldn’t turn off the X Files rereun for it. The latest show realllly sucks - except for Morgan Freeman, I don’t think anyone knows anything about cooking at all. Maybe we should simply have 30 Minutes a Day with Rachael Ray.
Is it me, or are most of the women on the Food Network on the overdue list of Hannibal Lector? Sarah Moulton I like, but the rest of them - except maybe the blond on How to Boil Water - could use about a half hour of pulsing in the old Cuisinart.
I think Giada de Laurentiis is very pretty (she looks like Natalie Portman’s older sister), but that girl looks unhealthily skinny. She really needs to start eating her own cooking.
Now if only Food Network could show Nigella Lawson! (sigh…)
I too LOVE Rachael Ray. She’s unbelievably hot. She knows what she’s talking about enough to show you and tell you how to do it, but never claims to be the absolute final expert on anything. So she’s practical, she’s charismatic, and she’s charming as hell.
I suppose there might’ve been a time when I was cynical enough that I would’ve been annoyed at someone who just comes across as happy and good-natured enough that she can just giggle spontaneously without feeling self-conscious or worrying that she doesn’t look cool. Thankfully, I outgrew that, because it lets me enjoy a lot of stuff more.
Hrm, that came out snarkier than I intended. ::giggle::
She just creeps my shit out. For some reason she reminds me of some alien woman from Dune, even though I’ve never read the book nor seen the movie and don’t even know if it has alien women.
Plus I’ve complained about it in another thread, but it really bugs me how she does that thing where she pronounces Italian words in italics. Like in the middle of a sentence she’ll be going along about “asparagus wrapped in proscuitto.” Yeah, we get it. You’re Italian; the name was a clue. See, now that seems to me like being a poseur more than any amount of Rachael Ray’s giggling.
You needn’t worry about her wasting away. The few minutes of the show I watched last night consisted of her shoveling huge forkfuls of something down her throat. Kinda sad, like someone had told her she should eat because people thought she had a problem. Then I clicked it off; watching someone eat isn’t fun even when they don’t seem slightly pained, gulping sloppily.
Both Giada de L. and Rachel Ray seem like lovely, nice women, but I’d sooner poke my eye out with a fork than watch either of their shows. Which ticks me off, because it looks like they cook good food!
Exactly. When I went on vacation for a week in Disney World, we were spending less than $40 a day on EVERYTHING - parking and transportation, souvenirs, and tickets to the “extra” stuff, like Pleasure Island - in addition to two meals a day and a snack. On property, in Disney World. $40 a day just for food in some random location? Just for ME? Damn.
If they could get some sexy punk rocker chick to do a show called “$10 a Day,” where she travels to exotic destinations and shows us where to get generously-portioned, delicious restaurant meals for a total of $10 per day, I’ll be very impressed.
Ray annoys me. Small doses I can take her, but sometimes I want to smack her she’s so annoying. And I’d wish that she didn’t scrimp and save all day on her $40 a day show ONLY so she could splurge and get some expensive alcoholic drink. She also uses plenty of alcohol in her 30 minutes meals… I think she likes the drunk stuff a bit too much ;).
Her FHM pictures do nothing for me. I know it’s the trump card that her fans pull (but she’s so hot in this that her personality can be forgiven!!) but, really, they’re not all that great and I say that as someone who LOVES the cute type that she would seemingly epitomize but somehow doesn’t.
