Wine & Food | Professor Bainbridge

The Case Against Rachael Ray

Over on my punditry blog, I made an anti-Rachael Ray crack in passing, which prompted a bunch of commenters to ask why I think Ray is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the way pop culture, television, and the Food Network present cooking, wining, and dining these days. In no particular order:

1. What’s with the extraneous a in Rachael? Not her fault, I suppose, as their is often rough work done at the christening font, but even so ...

2. She’s perky. I hate perky people. The incessant, almost frenetic, inane chatter drives me nuts. Why inane? Consider her catchphrase: “EVOO, Extra Virgin Olive Oil.” Why does she abbreviate it? And, having abbreviated it, why does she then repeat it in full? Every single damn time?

3. She’s ubiquitous. Mutliple Food Network TV shows, the dismal talk show, morning news shows, and countless product endorsements. You can’t be a foodie and avoid her.

4. She’s not serious about food. To the contrary, she’s at the core of the dumbing down of the Food Network. As an investor, I have no objection to profit maximization. As a foodie, however, I don’t want to be entertained. Cooking as a hobby consists of the skilful preparation of high quality or exotic foods during free time and for pleasure. The true food hobbyist thus is always looking to get past the mall food court version to the real thing. The Food Network used to be about food hobbyists making serious food. Now it’s about making hamburgers and hot dogs. Between Ray and Sandra Lee, the network might as well be showing us recipes for using Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. She glorifies the ersatz rather than the real.

4A. I want to learn. I want somebody to teach me how to make Beef Wellington without the bottom layer of pastry getting soggy. I want somebody to explain why a particular wine goes with a specific food (David Rosengarten was great at this.) I want to learn new techniques, the way Julia Child used to teach. All I’ve ever learned watching her show is that incredible list of “Rachael-isms,” like “How good is that?” It’s not surprising given that she turns everything into burgers.

5. She can’t teach because she’s untrained and unskilled. Instead, she’s just a self-promoting whiz along the lines of Oprah or Martha Stewart. Indeed, Ray is to good food as Oprah is to literary criticism.

Posted on Thursday, May 29 2008 | Permalink

Rachael Ray is to cooking as white zinfandel is to wine. It’s a place to start for novices.

Posted by Craig Camp on 05/29 at 06:45 PM

Craig Camp, Nice one!

That reminds me, I was watching Anthony Bourdain in Seattle at an underground dinner party on his Travel cable show. The Sommelier did a pairing of Boones Farm for the desert course. Tony went nuts, he thought it was brilliant. So go figure.

I agree Rachael Ray is over played, way too perky, but I just don’t see her (so I do not hate here). I do not watch the Food Network ever since they stopped playing the original Japanese Iron Chefs.

Posted by on 05/29 at 07:16 PM

Two other comments on Rachael Ray:

(1) She almost always overcooks meat, and what she does to fish is a complete waste.

(2) When she cooks any kind of ethnic recipe that has a distinctive spice flavor or heat, she dials it back so much that it’s impossible to enjoy anything. It’s like walking into a truly authentic Hunan restaurant, run by first-generation immigrants… as the only round-eye in the building, and missing out on all of those wonderful peppers and peppercorns.

Posted by C.E. Petit on 05/30 at 12:22 AM

I think your point that she has nothing to teach is, at least for me, the most important comment. If I were interested in her cooking, and I’m not, I could simply buy her cook books. She instructs us in the pedestrian, not the new and interesting.

Posted by iamnotachef on 05/30 at 09:16 AM

She’s got nothing to teach me, or you, but we’re not her audience. You can safely ignore her if you prefer that.

Posted by on 05/30 at 12:06 PM

Rachael Ray, meh, I can take her or leave her. but you know what really grates?

People who use the worthless and unnecessary neologism “foodie.”

Gourmet or gourmand either one would work. Why would you consciously pass over perfectly good adult-sounding words to use one that makes you sound like a pre-teen girl?

FOODIE, my foot. You should be embarrassed.

Posted by on 05/30 at 04:08 PM

Yes, exactly… I loathe perkiness. If I want that I’ll go listen to a bunch of high school cheerleaders. And as you rightly pointed out, saying EVOO, then explaining that EVOO is extra virgin olive oil… it ranks up there with drowning in the shower because you looked up with your mouth open. It’s like socks on a chicken.

Yes, Rachaelisms are wretched. I cringe and turn the channel rather than let my children be exposed to a a culinary version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

A large part of Ray’s problem is this: NOT EVERY MEAL CAN OR SHOULD BE MADE IN 30 MINUTES. Actually, damn few should be, in my honest opinion. Sorry, but I had to put that in caps.

I’m bothered to a high degree by the fact that Food Network is bringing in person after person who is not a highly qualified food expert. Some shows can flaunt this rule - I don’t think Alton Brown is a Master Chef, but he does try hard to tell you WHY this or that won’t work and I respect that a great deal (when he reins in some of the stranger skits).

Posted by Lemur King on 05/31 at 02:24 AM

Being a foodie myself I watch the food network for the same reasons you do...to learn and to be directed. But honestly, if you hate the gal so much just freaking don’t watch her. I used to watch her show when I was in college for easy meals that I could make, but now I don’t cause I’ve moved on.

There are plenty of shows out there that do teach you and that do push the culinary limits that you don’t have to waste time putting down someone for doing what they want to do.

gaw

and don’t even get me started on Sandra...if the point of her show was to make everything from scratch like Paula Dean then she would...but the show is called SEMI HOMEMADE

Posted by Kara on 06/03 at 04:52 PM

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