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So someone, please, explain to me why they object to her?

It's the side-mouth talking thing for me, really (and to compare that to someone with a degenerative, ultimately fatal neurological condition is a bit much; Parkinson's isn't a "quirk").

I've never had a problem with her cooking per se, and I think she is exactly what the Food Network wants: broad audience appeal in a quirky, non-threatening package to expand their base. I used to watch her show when it was on in the evenings just as I would get home from work. I would even say I picked up a thing or two from time to time. But, recently, the marketing! The incessant, endless marketing. If she wants to be the foodie Oprah now then go right ahead. It just seems that to many she represents what is "wrong" with the Food Network: more eye candy fluff, less culinary stuff. As the channel has grown it is inevitable; you don't gain market share with real cooking insight at 5:30 on a weekday. But then again the level at which RR teaches on her show isn't what folks on dr.com are looking for.

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Yes, I'm aware that Mohammed Ali has Parkinsons. My somewhat facetious point was that neither of them are really doing it on purpose. :lol:

A note about tips... she doesn't actually pay the restaurants what's shown on $40 a Day. That's just what someone COULD pay to stay within the limits of the show's premise. In reality, her entire crew usually ends up sitting down to a full meal at each restaurant where, I would presume since they're on Food TV's expense account, they tip very well. Besides, even if she were stingy, she's giving these places tons of free publicity.

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A note about tips... she doesn't actually pay the restaurants what's shown on $40 a Day. That's just what someone COULD pay to stay within the limits of the show's premise. In reality, her entire crew usually ends up sitting down to a full meal at each restaurant where, I would presume since they're on Food TV's expense account, they tip very well. Besides, even if she were stingy, she's giving these places tons of free publicity.

That may be true, but what she's showing the greater U.S. dining public is, "and now I have $0.73 left over to leave an exact 15% tip for my danish!". Just leave a dollar already! I know the premise of the show and the financial constraints they are trying to stick to, but it's also giving guidance to all of the calculator-wielding tip misers out there. Then again, they probably think the fancy-pants teevee personality is throwing green around like it grows on trees :lol:

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A note about tips... she doesn't actually pay the restaurants what's shown on $40 a Day. That's just what someone COULD pay to stay within the limits of the show's premise.
but you could argue that she is advocating tipping poorly.

one of the things i don't like about RR is that she tucks in her shirts when it is clearly not flattering to her body type (at least imo).

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I knew you'd go this way :lol:

Come on, there must be SOMEONE else on these boards that supports her like I do!

Well, maybe not to the EXTENT I do, but...

My objections are much more on the "dude" level. It isn't like you can have a list of 500 celebrities you're allowed to sleep with and you throw her in at number 498 because your admiration of the claim she's brought home cooking to the non-food obssessed. Man, you only have 5 !!! and you are wasting one on Miss Junk in the Trunk?!

To everyone else, I apologize for the frat-boy interlude. Please return to your high-minded conversation.

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My objections are much more on the "dude" level. It isn't like you can have a list of 500 celebrities you're allowed to sleep with and you throw her in at number 498 because your admiration of the claim she's brought home cooking to the non-food obssessed. Man, you only have 5 !!! and you are wasting one on Miss Junk in the Trunk?!

To everyone else, I apologize for the frat-boy interlude. Please return to your high-minded conversation.

Hey, nothing wrong with junk in the trunk. I just shudder at the idea of hearing "yummo!" exclaimed during a passionate interlude. :lol:

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Please return to your high-minded conversation.
I'll try...

I have three reasons for disliking Rachel Ray: she has threatened me with rain when I wanted it to be fine; she has found fault with the hanging of my curricle, and I cannot pursuade her to buy my brown mare. If it will be any satisfaction to you, however, to be told, that I believe her charcter to be in other respects irreproachable, I am ready to confess it. And in return for an acknowledgement, which must give me some pain, you cannot deny me the privilege of disliking her as much ever.

[My sincerest apologies to Jane Austen :lol: ]

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but you could argue that she is advocating tipping poorly.

one of the things i don't like about RR is that she tucks in her shirts when it is clearly not flattering to her body type (at least imo).

But at least she never reduces the tip to stay within budget and she never talks about a tip as a reward for good service. Does anyone know whether Food Network gets paid by restaurants to appear on $40/day? Otherwise, some of her choices are truly indefensible.

I agree she needs a new stylist - in addition to the tucking, RR should stay away from the ruched shirts that she seems to favor.

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I hope you're list is laminated.

I caught the RR show for the first time yesterday. I was on the elliptical at the gym flipping channels and there she is making tuna burgers nicoise with an olive tapenade spread and sushi-grade tuna, using a ton of oil I might add. The recipe looked interesting, something I might make at home. Until she said, "This tuna tastes exactly like the stuff you get out of a can, but better." I think I flinched.

When she says something like that, I just figure she's trying to make her audience comfortable with something they're unfamilar with. I more or less like the 30 Minutes show. My biggest complaint is probably that they keep rerunning the same episodes, though I also find some of her expressions annoying. I feel that way about a number of the food tv personalities, though.

I don't like the $40 one, and I really dislike the broadcast talk show. I first saw a clip on youtube (I forget what the link was from), and I was horrified. It was bad. I've run into it a few times while changing channels, and I don't think it's very good, even by the standards of that kind of show.

It's great that she gets people cooking, but I scrounged all over at a Borders trying to find the Michel Richard cookbook and couldn't find the alleged copy inventory said they had. What I found instead was 3+ shelves of Rachael Ray. That made me a bit peeved. While I realize that she is a Rachael Ray industry due to forces much larger than herself, I still think she's gotten way overexposed (and probably not in the way Dan wants :lol: ).

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I knew you'd go this way :lol:

Come on, there must be SOMEONE else on these boards that supports her like I do!

Well, maybe not to the EXTENT I do, but...

While I do not support your more lascivious opinion, I do support your opinion of what she does and what she means and conveys in a culinary aspect. She is teaching some low-level basic cooking and attempts to make it interesting to a large audience. I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. She uses ingredients that never would have been found in my house growing up (fennel, chipotle peppers, fresh herbs...fish, etc.). If she introduces ingredients like these or techniques to somebody who would otherwise never have known, then I think thats great.

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My objections are much more on the "dude" level. It isn't like you can have a list of 500 celebrities you're allowed to sleep with and you throw her in at number 498 because your admiration of the claim she's brought home cooking to the non-food obssessed. Man, you only have 5 !!! and you are wasting one on Miss Junk in the Trunk?!

To everyone else, I apologize for the frat-boy interlude. Please return to your high-minded conversation.

I believe Sir Mix-A-Lot said it best...
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Come on folks, I don't particularly like RR either, but she aims at an audience that I am not really a part of. $40 a day, I spend more than that on dinner easy when I travel. But she is aiming at the folks who are 1) much younger than I, and 2) have less money to spend when traveling. I don't stay in budget hotels either.

As to her having a talk show, so what. You don't have to watch. I hate talk shows, I can't stand Oprah or Rosie either, but I don't dis them because someone else likes them. To each their own. She wouldn't have all the shows that she has, and be paid to push Triskets and Wheat Thins (both of which I love) if she didn't have some appeal with some segment of the market that someone is willing to pay her to reach.

Besides, how bad could someone be who is married to a musician, even one who isn't exactly a household name?

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They're on my list of 5 celebs I can sleep with. I guess that list thing works a little differently in the Dente household. :unsure:

Mrs Dente calls me "Dr Phil" in the heat of the moment. :lol:

I don't think I'm Rosie's type, and Oprah is way out of my league, but hot at times. B)

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Rachel Ray drives me crazy, with her evoo, and her goofy laugh, and her "eye ball it" nonsense, but I must admit that she had inspired me to cook. Everyone else in my immediate family is an amazing cook, but somehow the genes mostly skipped me. Now, with Rachel Ray, I'm convinced that all things are possible. Heck, if SHE CAN COOK, SO CAN I.

Thank you, Rachel Ray. Please buy a measuring cup or four, and learn to make dessert.

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At this point, I couldn't really care about RR either way.

An amusing ironic tidbit I heard from someone who once worked on $40 a day that shouldn't come as a surprise. Evidentally, once the cameras turn off RR is a champion shopper and also spends much more than $40 on food.

FWIW, Peanut's an Alton Brown fan.

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At this point, I couldn't really care about RR either way.

An amusing ironic tidbit I heard from someone who once worked on $40 a day that shouldn't come as a surprise. Evidentally, once the cameras turn off RR is a champion shopper and also spends much more than $40 on food.

FWIW, Peanut's an Alton Brown fan.

Along those lines - on the 'Savannah' episode of $40/day, RR eats the free breakfast that the hotel provides and says something about how taking advantage of the included breakfast is a great money-saving tip. A friend thought the hotel looked like a nice place to stay, and called them up - it turned out a standard room cost $350/night.

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Keeping in mind that opinions are like assholes, here's mine: Saw her cooking show once in a public area, sound off - couldn't keep from reading subtitles - was fascinated and disgusted in that watching a train wreck sort of way.

But - her appearance on Iron Chef America was fantastic. She and Mario Batali battling Giada and Booby Flay was one of the most entertaining things on the telly in all of '06. RR and Mario beat the crap outta Giada and Booby because they chose to have fun with it, and the showmanship was top notch. I respect RR for that even though the pseudo-word "yummo" makes my scrawl.

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An amusing ironic tidbit I heard from someone who once worked on $40 a day that shouldn't come as a surprise. Evidentally, once the cameras turn off RR is a champion shopper and also spends much more than $40 on food.

If you made as much money as she's making these days, I imagine you'd spend more than $40 a day on food too. She's probably making close to $40 a minute.

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If you made as much money as she's making these days, I imagine you'd spend more than $40 a day on food too. She's probably making close to $40 a minute.

That would be $4,819,200 a year. I doubt she makes quite that much, but I am sure she makes a lot more than I do, and I sure spend a lot more than $40 a day whenever I travel.

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That would be $4,819,200 a year. I doubt she makes quite that much, but I am sure she makes a lot more than I do, and I sure spend a lot more than $40 a day whenever I travel.

This from her Wikipedia entry:

According to Forbes magazine, Ray earns about $6 million per year from her books and television shows (excluding her new show, Rachael Ray).
.

Mind you, that was last year. In addition to the kick that will come from the new TV show that triggered this thread, she signed up to appear on Nabisco boxes since that number was generated. I'll bet she takes in another cool million or so a year from that one alone. I guess we need to bump her up to $60 a minute or so. And IIRC her husband is her lawyer/agent, so she even saves on that little expense.

In short, she's not too worried about what we little worms posting on DR think about her.

BTW, here's another line in the same Wikipedia entry that I loved:

Ray said, in coordination with the syndication announcement, "People know me for my love of food, but I have so much more I want to share."
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This from her Wikipedia entry:

Mind you, that was last year. In addition to the kick that will come from the new TV show that triggered this thread, she signed up to appear on Nabisco boxes since that number was generated. I'll bet she takes in another cool million or so a year from that one alone. I guess we need to bump her up to $60 a minute or so. And IIRC her husband is her lawyer/agent, so she even saves on that little expense.

In short, she's not too worried about what we little worms posting on DR think about her.

BTW, here's another line in the same Wikipedia entry that I loved:

I'm in the wrong business.

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I don't get why people hate her so much or are so offended by her.
I'm with you. If she bothers you that much, there's a simple solution...ready now? It's called the remote control. Turn the damn TV off, read a book, take a walk, contemplate your navel, quit the kvetching.
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So someone, please, explain to me why they object to her?

I have made every effort not to single out and insult any individual or the general community of Rachael-haters. I would appreciate replies in kind.

do you know rachel ray? maybe you do, but people on television with big, chirpy personalities tend to raise suspicions and it's easy to imagine some mean versions of the real rachel ray. i like rachel because she comes from lake george, but i started wondering what she's doing running around with that husband of hers. also, some of those 30-minute meals lead quickly to the land of glop.

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i have a "i don't mind / hate" relationship with rachel ray. i don't mind her if her show brings new people to the congregation of food lovers. in the same way that i don’t mind

kenny g being the first step on the path to real jazz

danielle steel the first step to Shakespeare

white zin the first step to real wine

macanudo the first step to good cigars

olive garden the first step to good restaurants

i hate that she is content to be included in the first fraternity. hate that she has no apparent desire to use her considerable media energies for the forces of good rather than the perpetual promotion of mediocrity as virtue.

edited to remove my snarky and incorrect math.

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