Feb 13, 2007

Take Rachael Ray. Please.

I've been itching to write something about the unwatchable Rachael Ray for a while, except I don't want to watch her enough to write it. But she's on the tube whenever I'm at the gym, so I've been able to catch just a few snippets in the locker room. However, very little seems to be about food, it's boyfriends and banter and heartwarming stories but where's the food? It must be later in the show after I leave. When I read in a Karen Heller article in the Inquirer the other week that Ms. Ray has a recipe for Barbecued Succotash, something deep inside of me snapped. And that's even before I learned about Hot Dog Salad or Sangria on a Stick. Anyway, that was it. I'm on the warpath against R.R. and her slummy recipes. I want her off my Triscuit boxes and off the TV. And have I seen huge ads for her show on SEPTA buses? Or only in my nightmares?

Now you simply must read what Anthony Bourdain says about her as a guest writer on Michael Ruhlman's blog. (You need to scroll down, or you could read all his merciless comments on the Food Network's "bobbleheads," if you have the stomach for it.) Sometimes you have to love this kind of writing. Bourdain really bites.

6 comments:

BOSSY said...

Hi. I am a teamster dressed up as a chick chef. I name my recipes things like The Thighs Have It Cacciatore and I like to list my ingredients by saying, “You got your chicken, you got your spices, you got your loaf pan – awesome!” My Food Network set features plastic kitchenware in primary colors and I got married last year which means I’m gaining thirty pounds an episode. Who am I?

Read more Chef autobiographies here:
http://iambossy.typepad.com/i_am_bossy/2006/05/new_play_a_parl.html

Lilian said...

Interesting spam you got there.

I'll read the article you link to. I don't have cable and have never seen her on TV, but I've noticed her more than ubiquitous presence on magazines, etc...

Do you know what totally made me despise her and decide I never want to even look at a book of hers? I read one or two articles about her, one might have been in Time magazine, but I don't remember clearly, and the other was (for sure) at the BJ's (wholesale club) magazine. One of these described her crazy, almost maniac, work schedule, that she can't stop for one second, that she's hyper efficient and that she only hires people like her. I don't appreciate that, but until then, it was OK. What clinched it for me was the statement that she doesn't want to have kids because she doesn't have time for them, because she has her own life and success to look after.

Then I despised her from the bottom of my heart and "turned off." Forever. Now I'm curious to know what that guy says. Oh, yeah, her recipes sound terrible.

Lilian said...

I enjoyed his comments on those few that I happen to know, I guess his words about Mario and Emeril were right on. I don't like Emeril's show either. And Rachael... good thing to know she can't cook. It's a good thing she doesn't want children ;)

Lauren D. McKinney said...

Lilian,

That first comment isn't spam; it's my new friend Georgia of the blog I AM BOSSY (see blogroll). She's quoting her archive but doesn't say so. Bossy is working on her social skills.

Lauren

susan said...

I saw RR's show for the first time last week when I was visiting my father-in-law,and I had the same reaction: "this is a cooking show?!?" very weird.

I have liked a few of her recipes, but the persona doesn't grab me.

Unknown said...

I tried watching her show once over the holidays. After 20 minutes I got the worst headache, and have turned her off for good. I'm sure her recipes are great, but she's a bit too hyper for me taste.