RBCal

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

Renee

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.

Renee

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

FainaAgain

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.

SeaUrchin

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.

Zeus

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.

sandi_travelnut

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".

bookchick

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

SeaUrchin

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?

RBCal

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.

NYCFoodSnob

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.

Anton

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?

Madison

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.

beachbum

<<..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.

wolfgangflay

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.

JenniferPM

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.

crefloors

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.

FainaAgain

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?

islandgirltime

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?

Madison

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.