Rachel Ray on Letterman: refreshing honesty - "I'm not a chef, I'm a cook"

[Stinky The Clown]

Rachel Ray was a guest on Letterman tonight. As if in answer to an earlier thread of ours about teevee cooking show hosts and who's a chef and who's not, she said, without being asked by Dave, "I'm not a chef. I'm a cook". Dave did a follow up and asked what she meant. She said she's worked all her life in restaurants (her family's), had her own restaurants, and taught cooking. But she said she learned to cook from her mother, and while she loves to cook, and has done it all her life, she has "no pedigree .... no papers. I'm a mutt!"

Say what you will about her, she was dead on honest, and for that she gets my respect.



I wonder if Ms. De Laurentis was listening .......

[eleny]

1. This is so nice to hear

She really is pretty down to earth. I'll have to work on getting past all the hand gesturing. I do like people who talk with their hands but I have my limit.

One thing that I think is kind of funny and endearing about her program about meals in a hurry is how she gathers all her ingredients at once. Do you ever find yourself holding your breath when she has her arms all stacked up with bottles and packages? I bet the out takes of her shows are a riot.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. On her pilot, she set fire to Emeril's set

She said on Letterman that when she made her pilot, they put her on Emeril's set .... with Emeril present. She started to do her thing, and in the process, started a "minor" fire.

I also recall a long, long, long ago Julia Child episode where she dropped this huge salmon on the floor. Back then, her show was shot with only two cameras and damned few, if any, cuts for errors. She gracefully bent over, hove up the salmon to her shoulder, stood, and slapped that salmon down on the counter with a big thud-kersplat. She announced that salmon can be slippery when wet (or some such (m)ad lib) and went on about her business. She was a great lady!

[madinmaryland]

7. Too bad she didn't burn the whole set down.

She is refreshing to watch, and Emeril is just getting passe.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Funny thing about Emeril ......

I agree with you that he's getting a bit passe. I've heard some poeple refer to him as "Ewok". His cooking is pretty involved and that "Bam" crap is long past being on my last nerve.

But .....

Three years ago my professional association honored him for his contribution to the industry. He showed up and had dinner with us. When he's with others in the industry he's quite a regular guy. Not the least bit pretentious (and we've had our share of "those" obnoxious assholes). He's foodie and a bit of a nerd about it. When youn talk with him, you get the feeling you know him

To use the Bushbot test of "good guyness", I'd have a beer with him.

[Neecy]

3. it was a good interview...

She can actually be palatable when she doesn't interject that silly, explosive giggle in every half-sentence. If she didn't do that on Letterman, why does she have to do it on her Food Network programming?

The background stories on $40 a day were pretty funny -

[calico1]

4. I agree.

I would like her more if she would tone down the perkiness and not be so giggly and cutesy. That gets on my nerves. She does have some good ideas though.

[Jessica]

5. I love her.

And her humble attitude is one of the main reasons. Although her perkiness is a bit much at times, I love her recipes & have made lots of them. Actually, I'm making one tonight for dinner - parmesan-crusted chicken & roasted potatoes. Very exciting. :)

[MindLikeAParachute]

6. That's common

The REALLY good "chefs", imo, don't refer to themselves as chefs. They refer to themselves as cooks.

I don't know anything about Rachel Ray's cooking ability - mainly just watched $40/day, and I think one cooking show (which was decent), but the general take is that being a "chef" is pretentious; if you really love to cook food... you're a cook.