Asymmetrical Information

Is this a chick thing? Because Rachel Ray doesn't bother me. She's on FoodTV a lot. She talks a lot. She never pretends to be a chef. Not that I have any strong feelings on this either way, or that I even really care at all.

Giada De Laurentiis, on the other hand, gives me the screaming willies. I thought she was hot, until she smiled.

Nope, not a chick thing, because I hate that perky wench with the fire of 1,000 blazing suns.

I do not think that would be gravitationally stable. I do, however, hate Bobby Flay.

If you do a shot of vodka each time she giggles, she is bearable. At least ... until they take you to rehab.

You know what is really Yummo? Our own self-anointed perfection. Judgment comes like the easy slide of oysters on the half-shell. Yummmmmoooooo!!!

Definitely not a chick thing. I can't stand her. Food network mostly sucks, but I have a special hatred for Rachel Ray and Sandra Lee. In fact, the only FN host I particularly like is Alton Brown.

Oh, SNAP!

You go, Jane.

Giada is the pretty version of Rachael Ray (no, RR is NOT attractive), which actually underscores how annoying she/they are. Sandra Lee is a Stepford Wife.

Oh, c'mon Jane. Ms. Ray has had always had ten cookbooks out at once; I accuse you of not paying attention.

On a more ominous note I accuse her of being The Joker. Seriously, compare pictures of her with Jack Nicholson in the first Batman -- or even Ceasar Romero in the campy TV series. Separated at birth, I'm tellin' ya ...

Giada.. ohhh Giada. My girlfriend really doesn't like her and I'm not allowed to watch Giada with the gf around. Someone's a wee bit threatened by her wide aray of talents and has placed her in the Scarlett Johannson category of celebrities I'm not supposed to watch. So unfair.

Giada can cook, Giada's hot, and Giada has lips like Angelina Jolie. Giada's nothing like Rachel Ray.

Rachel can't cook, aggressively dumbs down everything, and is nowhere close to being a model. The only problem with Giada is that she's married. Oh well I'll just have to break up that marriage...

There's a major crisis with Rachel Ray - they are starting to run out of boxes to put her picture on.

Timothy,

Nice is fine, friendly is fine, outgoing is fine, too, but you're right about "perky"--it's the kiss of death! (Half-remembered visions of Meg Ryan in practically everything.... shudder!) Not that sullen is preferrable, mind you.

Maybe somebody with more psychological/anthropological insight can explain to us why this is so...

http://washingtontimes.com/familytimes/20070217-103551-8831r_page2.htm

Would that be this Rachel Ray?

http://www.sobewineandfoodfest.com/2006/images/pics06/pages/Rachel%20Ray%20%26%20Lee%20Brian%20Schrager%201.htm

Mmf, and as for the Giada De Laurentiis groupies...you're kidding, right? She has about the same amount of every-girl cute as Ray, meaning, neither is offensive at a glance, and both are keeping their appearance reasonably well considering that 40 is approaching fast. Methinks the rest of the details must be a curious mental fiction.

Rachel Ray's TV program pushed out Tony Danza's follow-on to the Today Show, on KFOR-4 in Oklahoma City. I miss Tony's show -- more performances, seemed to touch, rarely, on the appeal of the old Dean Martin variety show.

But there are and have been worse.

Before you judge, try watching Rachael with the sound off.

I had to delete my "Everyday Italian" season pass from TiVo too, because my wife wasn't convinced I was watching just, or even primarily, because I actually thought I could do what deLaurentiis was showing us how to do. Oh well.

Neither of us can stand Rachel Ray when she's presenting her shows. We happened to catch her in an unscripted behind-the-scenes kind of moment, though, and thought: wow, why can't she be like this in her shows? She's not actually insufferably annoying; she just plays that on TV, or something.

Oh, and the previous poster says that 40 is approaching fast like it's a bad thing. Hmmph.

The upside of this situation is that it gives me hope that my own cook/pop psychology book might actually be published some day.

The downside, of course, is that Rachel Ray has (at least) ten books out now.

Talk about over-exposed, Ray is everywhere. She's all over cracker boxes at the local grocery.

I used to watch her show a few years back and didn't think she was all that special. Man I NEVER saw this coming.

Yummm.

Rachel Ray doesn't especially bothe me. I don't watch her, but it doesn't annoy me to see all her various shows.

I'm just happy that FTV is no longer the All-Emeril-All-The-Time Network. Now there was an incredibly annoying, ubiquitous "personality".

Oh, and JimN: +1 on Alton Brown. Good Eats rules.

Rachel ... is nowhere close to being a model.

And this is a bad thing how? Giving a model a show about food would make about as much sense as giving a nun a show about sex - and for the same reason.

Dick,

Oh I don't know. Ever see the PBS series with "Sister Wendy". I bet she could do a show on sex.

Rachel Ray was my husband's first Food TV love. Now that he can actually cook pretty well, she's persona non grata. Basically, the more you know about cooking, the more she annoys you. Since I don't cook (but watch Food TV pretty regularly) my opinion of her hasn't wavered.

Giada is a completely different person. She's trained, unlike RR, but I have yet to sample any of her recipes, because frankly, I don't trust skinny chefs. Rachel Ray has a little junk in the trunk, so you know she likes to eat. Giada is all skin and bones, so it makes her breathless descriptions of how great her food tastes seem rather hollow.

Tolbert:

If watching old ladies talk about sex is your thing, then you need to watch Sue Johanson's show, Sex Talk, on the Oxygen network. She's extremely graphic in her descriptions and demonstrations. It's like taking sex ed from your Canadian hippie grandmother.

Christina,

Errr, No.

"I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby."

I know that RR is on the Food Network and that they obviously want to express that the food they are cooking is good, but why, oh why, does she have to have a food-gasm every time she puts something in her mouth? And $40 a day? Yeah, if you know the owner.

Also, I hate Italian cooking. It is noodles, sauce, and cheese. I don't care if the noodles happen to be a different shape, it is still the same dish. Having said that, I could watch Giada 24/7. She's a cutie.

And on the subject of the Food Network, why do my teenage sons watch this channel all day long? (Along with all their friends as fas as I can tell.) Is there some sort of rebellion code going on that I don't see?

And no, it's not for the chicks. Alton Brown, Unwrapped, and Iron Chef ("Secret ingredient--LARD!") seem to be the favorites.

My husband and I like the food network but never watched RR. Not our type of food (30 minute meals implies to me that you didn't spend enough time cooking). But her $40 a day show she was doing Telluride Colorado, a town we go to every year and whose restuarant owners we know.

Not only did RR choose the worst places in town, but she didn't even manage to go to the actual cheep lunch places. She went to this generic sandwich place in the mountain village when shw could have gotten a Brat from Diggetty Dogs or tacos from the little mexican food trailer (the chorizo one is to die for). And she kept shilling this useless coupon book.

My husband and I sat there in horror, staring at our TV set hoping that at least one of the local restuarants was, I don't know, good? And when the show was over we quickly switched the chanel.

Now when RR is on and we catch her we have to quickly switch the chanel or I am affraid my brain will fall out.

No, no, no Ina Garten - I want that house in the hamptons. And a rich husband who's out of town all week.

Oh come on, there is no need for jealousy.

You're much prettier than she is and you talk in complete sentences.

The only problem with Giada is that she's married. Oh well I'll just have to break up that marriage...

Have you seen the guy? Not exactly a stud. Giving hope to men everywhere.

By the way Rachel rocks. Don't hate. Its not attractive.

Its the Iron Law of Coolness. The hardcore always hate the faux-pretenders. It doesn't matter if you are talking about skateboarding, cooking, open source software, or bocci ball.

Jane, I'm intrigued. What do you mean by 'your marketing' ?

I'd find Rachel Ray only mildly irritating, if it weren't for the fact that she calls Extra Virgin Olive Oil: "E.V.O.O".

I'd find her use of the term "E.V.O.O." only moderately irritating, if it weren't for the fact that I recently spotted bottles of "Rachel Ray's E.V.O.O." in the olive oil section of my supermarket, a few weeks ago.

Kate: I had exactly the same experience watching her do Portland, OR. Look, first of all the name of the state is pronounced Or-Uh-Gun, not Orey-gone you mindless halfwit. Secondly, McMenamins frickin' rules, but don't go to the one farthest from town that has the worst atmosphere.

And she did a cheap food show in Portland without going to Produce Row which has AMAZING sandwiches. And if I remember she didn't even eat at any of the ubiquitous Asian noodle places downtown, it was all tourist traps and bullshit. You're in Portland and you don't go to Rimsky's, The Montage (run by assholes, still cheap) or Anna Banana's? What the hell?

Seriously, the Lodge, Edgefield, Higgins? That's not Portland that's some travel book version of the place. At least Bush Garden is reasonably tasty, but if you're looking for cheap Asian food downtown Aroy Thai is better.

Addendum: McMenamins Edgefield is nice if you want a B&B, but it's not much of a brew pub atmosphere and it's not exactly centrally located because it's OUT IN GODDAMN TROUTDALE.

Yeah Timothy, and in that same vein The Mountain Village isn't even in Telluride, so why is she eating there?

I want a Iron Chef v. Rachel Ray cage match.

1. Her name has two A's in it: R-a-c-h-a-e-l.

2. She is too chipper by 3/4, and too annoying by 7/8.

3. She is not much of a cook, as far as I can tell.

4. Nevertheless, she is inexplicably hot. I watch 30 Minute Meals simply so I can picture her bending over to take something out of that retro oven, naked.

Rachel is perfect for newer cooks, those who need to work with easier recipes presented in a friendly,lecture free format.

Yes, the girl will perk you to tears! But she is a valuable asset for the ever-growing group of people new to the kitchen arts. Not everyone has a Mom to show them the ropes. And adults often don't want to show ignorance and ask friends for technical assistance on meat loaf.

Giada!!!!!

Rachel Ray is the ultimate example of overexposure. Whoever is responsible for this whole Ray marketing campaign needs to be terminated with extreme prejudice for the good of all.

Here's what Ray is good at:

Preparing OK dinners in under 30 minutes. That's it. Period.

How that warrants an entire cooking empire, TV show, children's books (no, really, CHILDREN'S BOOKS), magazine, cracker boxes, etc., is beyond me. But then, so is giving an incompetent CEO a $200 million dollar severance package for a job badly done, paying Anna Nicole Smith (R.I.P.) to be Anna Nicole Smith, letting a very under-age Lindsay Lohan drink publicly and loudly in tony L.A. bars, and letting an obviously disturbed Britney Spears run loose. All signs of the times. Welcome to Babylon.

Now if Lindsay and Britney had a cooking show - THAT'S a party.

"Today we're going to show you how to make stuff with Vodka!"

Oh, for heaven's sake. Spoken like a bunch o' people without kids (or more than one kid) who don't do their own cleaning, or whose cleaning consists of a one-bedroom apartment. I've got 3600 square feet to keep relatively tidy and hygeinic, three kids, a job, I'm our church's and neighborhood's volunteer webmistress and am on the search committee for our new rector, among other stuff. I love to cook and I know how, my cookware cannot go into the dishwasher, I haven't had a cake mix in my pantry or used bottled salad dressing since I was in high school, but I do in fact own two Rachael Ray cookbooks and used to watch her (when I had time) for two reasons: 1. It's a TV phenom, like a one-shot music video, to see someone actually cooking against the clock. And 2. preparing a meal with some interest to it, that isn't a rerun of last night or last Thursday, in thirty minutes - that's a decent goal. When I can afford the time to cook for real, I cook for real - but Monday night? It might be out of a RR cookbook, and it doesn't make me a philistine any more than cooking from Betty Crocker would. Sheesh. Even Madeleine Kamman and my beloved Julia of the Immaculate Lavender Cloth don't demand that every meal be ideologically pure.

The perkiness gets to me, like everyone else. The overexposure is a relatively new thing and is likewise annoying. But I'll take "that little somethin'-somethin'" over "BAM!!1!" any day of the week.

I could give or take Rachael Ray-- she doesn't annoy or impress me in any way. Meh. Giada, though. She's cute, but something bugs me about her. Her show is definitely disturbing-- we've all heard talk about food porn before, and I think her show is it-- they zoom in on her hands every few seconds and her hands have their own soundtrack. That's weird. And not at all right.

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