No doubt you know this (maybe in the back of your mind)... but the pedant in me prompts me to make the spelling correction (it IS pronounced as you have spelled it)..

She is Rachael Ray...

Best wishes,

Rex

I love her shows!! I actually have gone to a few pleaces in various cities that she has recommended.

Happy Easter!!!!!!

Thanks Nutella--I *love* her $40/day show and she manages to get you excited about all the places she goes. Even a somewhat strange juice bar on Melrose in West Hollywood!! Her enthusiasm is infectuous. I will copy the names of these rstrnts for our next trip to Rome.

To anne..--which places and what did you think of them??

I enjoy that show too, but I'd like to see her get by on $40/day at the current exchange. Back then she was getting 45 euros for $40; now $40 equals about 30 euros. Poor Rachael would have to give up the wine w/dinner and eat candy bars as snacks.

That would cost her $54 today.

I think it's possible that you can eat in Rome on $40/day (if your hotel provides breakfast, you go on a picnic, etc.). But I find it really hard to believe that you can eat 3 RESTAURANT meals for under $40.

Where's Rachael's coffee? Gelato? How about the cover charge? Tip? (Smaller than in the US, but still...) Random bottle of water mid-day?

I, too, appreciate the enthusiasm. But I think $40 is a little unrealistic nowadays...

I agree hunnym. This also doesn't include the copierto charge (I have read that you can ask for the bread to be removed, but still you might actually want to eat some.)

She is very bubbly and cute and I do enjoy her shows. I often wonder if she would get excited over a fried dog turd though.....

LOL mjs!
Hunnym, she did have gelato, I forgot to list it. She had one scoop of pistacchio at San Crispino $1.25. She went there with some local guy and was seriously flirting with him, but it didn't work, she still had to pay for her own ice cream LOL

Socialworker - I seem to remember she did a $40 a day Rome show but I don't remember the names of the restaurants. Anyone else remember this?

Here's the Rome list on the Food Network channel. If you click on the restaurant names at the bottom it gives you the address.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ad/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9947_20844,00.html

mjz- I agree. I enjoy the show,but somehow everything she just tries is absulately orgasmic!

I'm sorry but I'm just curious.
Orgasmic? For her or for you?

for her,sadly not for me! (excuse my spelling of the word absolutely)

In that case, and since you want to feel as orgasmic as Rachel Ray, then you should make it a point to eat at Al Pompiere. Very traditional Roman dishes (the fried artichoke and zucchini blossoms are next to excellent), pasta and fish dishes are based on what's fresh in the market for the day and it is so traditonal that the restaurants appealing decor and the waiters appeared to have stayed on since the 40's.

I enjoy her show and I think it's funny that you call her orgasmic. It's so true, she rolls her eyes and moans over every bite of food she ever tries. I wonder how often she fakes it, as it's hard to believe that she never gets a bad meal. Another thing that cracks me up is how she calls everyone she meets on the street her "new friend." And of course, she NEVER goes over her budget.

She was on David Letterman recently and he asked her what she does when she has a bad meal. She said that instead of saying "this food is awful," she talks about the "huge portions" or "interesting decor."

I really like her shows. She's fun and perky without being annoying.

I have gotten a few really good recipes from watching her 30 minute meal shows.
I imagine she would not be such a hit if she ever gagged after tasting something that she did not like, in a restaurant LOL

I rarely if ever watch "$40 a Day," but regularly watch "30 Minute Meals," and I have to say that her perkiness has begun to annoy me a bit. The Food Network now has back-to-back "30 Minute Meals" in the evening, so they have one recent episode and then an old one from two or three years ago. You can see how her personality has changed over the years, but even though I'm somewhat annoyed, I still really like her and watch regularly.

I ate at two of her recommended places, both were awful.

I LOVE her! I just bought her 30 minute meals cookbooks....versions 1 & 2 from amazon...and yum! She is enthusiastic about her work...which is a lost art in itself. I like her Inside Dish program where she cooks/interviews famous guests too.

Ok....so she doesn't actually COOK her guests....she cooks WITH them!

I wonder if she gets paid by the restaurants for promoting them, like the owners would pay her here in USA or won't be mentioned.

I can't take a whole episode of her, she is just too perky. There is a man here in the office who can mimic her perfectly and he does it often to annoy us, he takes a bite of food and grins and goo goos until we throw something at him.

Yesterday when I first read this thread there were almost twenty responses. For maybe the first time in my 5 years of visiting Fodors it looked like this was going to be a completely positive thread, but of course upon further review..For the life of me I can not understand how anyone can dislike this woman. But leave it to my fellow Fodorites to feel compelled to say something negative. I guess some people have a need to be noticed thus they have this compulsion to be contrary. A person can't even ask a question about buying an Ipod without people dumping on them.

Sad really.

I'm with you SeaUrchin - You can always guess her response when she puts that fork in her mouth...good grief it's almost embarrassing...she and the food need to "get a room".

Well, when she does autographings for us, she always draws a big crowd and is very patient and obliging, if anyone wants to have their picture taken with her, etc. Also, I heard she's getting married this summer in Italy, but I don't know to whom or where she'll wed.

BC

Oh, zeus, I don't dislike her as a person, of course I don't even know her. She is most likely a very nice woman, like bookchick says and she has met her. She just annoys me, so I can't watch her shows, I've tried. Don't some people annoy you? Maybe I do?

Quote
"For the life of me I can not understand how anyone can dislike this woman."

Because she recommends restaurants with bad food. The two times I ate at her recommended restaurants they were both awful. Also, she tips terribly in order to make her stupid $40 a day limit.

A contrary opinion means going negative? Since when?

Marketing 101: When it comes to any product, people have choices. They either love it, like it, don't care either way, don't like it, hate it, or never heard of it. Rachael Ray is a product, therefore, everyone's entitled to an opinion on her "performance" and the self-righteous should preach their hypocrisy on some other board.

Rachael Ray is hugely popular with young folk and I wondered why. My first exposure to her was the Rome episode. I wanted to like her but I couldn't. She reminded me of Katie Couric on steroids and I adore Katie but I dislike steroids.

I also think the concept of $40-a-day is tired and not particularly honest. But, then again, I'm not the sort of customer who's interested in eating in a place Rachael Ray made famous or nickle-and-diming my dining experience to death while traveling. To each his own, I guess.

To give her a second look, I watched her cooking show. Again, I found the concept dishonest. Maybe if you have all the ingredients out, measured, cut, and ready to go, an accomplished cook can run these 30 minute marathons. I don't have a husband or three kids to feed every night so I'm clearly not the target audience for this, either. For me, cooking can be therapeutic. I'm not interested in being an Iron Chef contestant every time I enter the kitchen.

Most disappointing, though, is her lack of passion and comfort in the kitchen. To me, she looks out of place. Maybe she needs a few more years but, from what I saw, I won't be holding my breath.

To get someone like me to watch, television cooks need more than just a perky face and attitude. They have to have passion and make me want to write the recipe down or go out and get their book. Watching Racheal Ray, after ten minutes, makes me want to grab the remote.

I hope I wasn't too negative.

She is way annoying, far too perky. Her little tips on saving money are so obvious. I had to reply to this to balance out the thread. Doesn't she seem stupid?

She has recently published a book based on the $40 a day adventures...called, what else, Dining on $40 a day. It lists all the restaurants, cafes, etc. she has gone to.

<<..she manages to get you excited about all the places she goes.>>

Anyone see the $40/day show in Salem, Oregon a couple weeks ago? As an Oregonian, I was almost embarrassed.

It's no surprise to me that people here wouldn't like the places in which she chooses to eat. We do a lot more research. The way she presents it, at least, most of hers is from materials she picks up in the hotel lobby, or a casual conversation on the street. What would you expect?

That said though, I do like the $40/day show, but more for the travel aspect of it than the food. It's actually a much better travel show than most of what the Travel Channel is offering up these days.

Unbelievable.

It's hard to believe the magnitude of Rachel Ray haters here.

After all, every regular posters here, especially the self-confessed Rachel Ray-annoyed posters, are as similarly perky, but with over-the-top "Stepford Wives" attitude.

I'll admit that I am a Rachael Ray fan. However, I'm truly grateful that she has finally stopped the annoying practice of throwing salt over her shoulder "for luck" every single time she salts something! That drives me nuts.

It's the little giggle that she does that makes me crazy. I can take her in small doses and like to see the cities she visits but back to back Rachael is just too much "perk" for one day for me.

I am not sure who is Rachael Ray. I saw 1 or 2 Rick Steves shows. From this thread I got the impression they both promote cheap travel in Europe. So how can the majority here be in love with one and hate the other?

makemyday... where is Al Pompiere located. My daughter loves artichokes and I am looking forward to trying the zucchini blossoms. Do you have the address?

She's still young. Give her a few years and she won't have the energy to be quite so perky.

You have to hand it to her though, she has done quite well for herself and is laughing all the way to the bank.

Faina,

Rachael Ray is a popular Food Network personality and hosts several cooking shows. Her $40 a Day show combines food with travel, hence the relevance of the thread to fodors. She has several cookbooks out, centered around the "30 Minute Meals" concept (also the title of one of her shows). Just as the Travel Channel can seem like "The Vegas Channel," the Food Network can at times seem like "The Rachael Ray Channel," which is why I think some may be annoyed with her.

Faina, Rachael Ray is a personality on the Food Network with three different TV shows. 30 Minute Meals, which IMO has some decent recpies. $40 a day, on which she visits different cities and attempts to dine on a $40 budget. On the third show she hangs out with a celebrity and visits one of their favorite restaurants or cooks with them in their kitchen.

I do tend to think she gets a bit goofy with her mannerisms and comments.

YUM-OH!!!

Just for the record, I don't hate Rachael Ray at all,I enjoy the $40 a Day show,I just think the responses to the food are a little over the top.

LOL I should have known that a thread about RACHAEL (note my spelling Rex!) would evoke all these comments!

So, anyone else want to weigh in on whether Enoteca Corsi does actually serve the "best roasted chicken you've ever tasted in your life", Al Pompiere is the best place to go for the YUMMIEST fried artichokes ever, or it Spirito di Vino serves a pork dish TO DIE FOR?...

We ate at Al Pompiere and were not that impressed with the food or the service. One of the waiters made an obscene touch on one of the three of us!

Jennifer PM... what about her saying "EVOO " every time for extra virgin olive oil? I guess she thinks it's cool but I would rather her just say extra virgin olive oil!

I don't hate her but she can be annoying ... the giggle, the talking with her hands so emphatically...

I'll be the first to admit it, I am jealous of Rachael's job. Life would be a dream if I could get paid to travel around the country and the world and do nothing but eat and sightsee. I could even learn to act overly enthusiastic as she does over a blue yogurt drink, or something equally displeasing.

Anyone ever notice that sometimes when she eats she holds her utensils in the European fashion? I wonder where she picked that up from. Did she spend her younger years abroad?

IMO - I love her shows. She is perky and perpetually positive, but so what. It's just television!

omg seaurchin! totally unacceptable!
guess i will be finding my fried artichokes elsewhere...

As long as she does not yell POW every time she throws some spices in her food

...or BAM.

Hey Scarlett,

Are you trying to "Kick it up a notch?"

Now...that does grate on my nerves! roflol!

JNN, What do you mean "the European fashion" of holding ones silverware? Do you mean fork in left hand and knife in right hand and not "switching"? If so, those are called proper table manners.

Coincidentally, we ate at both Al Pompiere and Spirito di Vino last year. We had a great total experience at Spirito di Vino and I have posted on it before.
The ambience at Al Pompiere was fine -- nothing I would rave about but no problems either. The service was OK too -- the waiters visited the table regularly and delivered the right orders on time.
The food, though, was a mixed bag. We went specifically for the fried zucchini blossoms and the artichokes. My memory is that they were a little cold and a bit soggy. I don't know what they're supposed to be like, though.
The main courses were much better -- my fish was perfectly done and the sauce complemented it well -- but I was disappointed since the fried vegetables were supposed to be a specialty and we had made an effort to go there.

Proper? HA! They eat like savages!

Interesting comparison to Rick Steves: Both are awkward or goofy hosts, doing a job many of us would like to have, but offering advice many of us think we could top?!. That said, the comments here are really negative, at least compared to those aimed at RS!

Now I have to ask Sea Urchin: What is an obscene touch?

Who eats like savages, JNN?

"What do you mean "the European fashion" of holding ones silverware? Do you mean fork in left hand and knife in right hand and not "switching"? If so, those are called proper table manners."

That's ludicrous. Its merely a cultural difference.

Michelle - Europeans! Have you ever seen a table of them hunched over, attacking their food with sharp utensils in both hands? It looks like a psychotic feeding frenzy!

(Please don't take me too seriously. I think I need a vacation)

Fodors is a touch audience.

That's tough. And I mean tough.

It's just the last post that made me go Freudian with the touch.

I'd be afraid to touch many of these Fodorites. Tough and always forever being annoyed.

oh my god! I'm sorry I have to somewhat laugh, it is NOT funny, but it DOES bring back these memories of me in Roma in the 80's-and Signore Sabatini of Sabatini's Restaurant in Trastevere, (now quite expensive and touristy, but then not so much) telling me he would love to give me the molto carino hand-painted wine carafe for a little kiss...with my friend watching, I thought, oh why not (mind you, I already had a couple of these earthenware carafes, but this one was in blue and white, and I wanted to add to my collection!)

So the long and short of it was, I had already had a bit too much of his house vino rosso, and I reached up to give him just a little peck thank you for the carafe, and HE STUCK HIS TONGUE DOWN MY THROAT.

Needless to say, that was not at all pleasant....mostly my fault, though

Whenever I watch her show I shake my head at how cheap she is with the tips.

mm

I am laughing so hard at this thread now. My post was deleted and it makes it even more disconnected. ROFLOL

LOL, thank you Jocelyn! BAM

SeaUrchin, did I miss the story behind the "touch"?
Tell it again!!

OK, I will be more discreet this time, before this thread gets pulled...when the waiter at "the certain restaurant" handed one of us her menu - he let his hand wander in a quick but distinct swoop behind the menu.

We think he had chosen this particular one of us earlier in the day when we made reservations, because as we came up the stairs to the dining area the other waiters alerted him and he ran over to perform his deed. The only other times we saw him (he was not even our waiter) was when he was peeking at her from a doorway. He was no one you would want to have that happen with either.

LOL, Ewwww!
Thanks, I was picturing something like that..we had something similar in a NYC restaurant years ago. The busboy stood behind my husband and made eyes at me. Then when he came to take away the dish, he brushed against me. I was so shocked, I acted before thinking, hitting his arm, knocking it away- with the dish. He did not get away unnoticed

I had the same thing happen in Naples! (should be renamed something else)I was at a pizzeria and I was served my pizza in the MOST convoluted way!

Oh, god, that cramping laughter is coming over me. FORGET Naples. That's not happening unless you're en masse (safety in numbers) or with a man. Napoli no. Pizzarias/trattorie-deadly.

I have to say,though,the pizza was pretty darned good!

Who is Francophobe Mario? inquiring minds want to know.

I'm guessing Mario Batali, Madison.

Can't see your name now, Scarlett, without thinking of narrow cobbled streets, tall twinkling towers, indescribable food..... I wanna go back!

Oh beachbum, don't make me cry...I wanna go back too

I'd love to return to Rome also. I remember when $1 = 1 euro and it was only 4 years ago too.

I'd love to return to Rome especially to the time when the $1 = 1 euro. Awww....bella Roma...

Hi all

Brought this back up to say that Rachael Ray's $40 dollars a day is doing Paris tonight!!
10:30 PM (EDT) Food Network.

It's probably a re-run but I'll take a peek just incase it isn't. I watched her ..I think Florence..episode not too long ago and at the time she was there the euro was about .98. So, even if she could do the 40.00 today, she would have to eat different things or different places.

ttt

While I haven't tried any of the restaurants Rachael has recommended, I really do like her. And as a real foodie, I often get pretty happy and excited over a great meal. And add travel to that and close to orgasmic just might happen!

Thanks for the tip about the Paris show tonight. I'll be watching.

shes a dollita!!!!!!