Rachael Ray is a no-frills celebrity cook with an empire worth millions. She’s drawn a lot of flak but, writes Paul Harris, she’s still poised to become the next Oprah.
Rachael Ray does not come across as a natural star in the crowded field of television chefs. She has a raspy voice, a look straight from a suburban American mall, has confessed she does not know how to bake and has no formal training in cookery.
In a world dominated by big personalities, hot tempers and mastery of exotic cuisines, Ray should not have stood out. Yet she has now emerged as one of the most dominant personal brands in America. Not only is she one of the most famous TV cooks but she has branched out into other fields, creating a media business empire worth tens of millions of dollars.
It is no exaggeration to say that she could be poised to become the next Martha Stewart, dictating the mores of the American household to millions.
Or perhaps even the next Oprah Winfrey, now the doyenne of US network television has bowed out from the daytime slot she has dominated for years. Ray is only 42 and her empire is still expanding.
"She is still relatively young and surely has much career success ahead of her," says Professor Jeffrey McCall, an expert in communications at DePauw University, Indiana.
She has already established an astonishing reach over US popular culture. On her flagship TV show, 30 Minute Meals on the Food Network, she drums up a meal in less than half an hour. She has written 18 cookbooks that have sold millions of copies. She has an iPhone app. She has also followed in the footsteps of celebrities like Jamie Oliver and campaigned for better nutrition in schools.
But her reach is far beyond cooking. She has also starred in a TV travel show. She is in the fifth season of her daytime show, The Rachael Ray Show, which, though it also features cooking, is based on interviewing celebrity guests. She has her own line of bed linens and even her own pet food company. Like Oprah, she has also launched her own magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray. According to the Q Scores company - which measures popular recognition - Ray is recognised by a staggering 75 per cent of Americans.
Yet the secret of Ray's appeal is her ordinariness. She has built a vast commercial empire on her neighbourly appeal. "She's attainable, relatable, easy to understand, almost like your girlfriend next door," says Jim Joseph, a media expert and author of the Experience Effect. "There are no illusions of grandeur or Hollywood sensation." That is putting it mildly.
Not for Ray any attempt at ambitious or fine cooking. She is no "foodie". Not only can she not bake, but on her shows she largely eschews the idea of using exact measurements. Instead she instructs viewers to add a "pinch" of this or to "just eyeball" it when pouring in an ingredient.
Her energetic, constantly smiling charm - almost all articles about her use the word "perky" - frequently sees her exclaim "yummo!" or "delish!" when making food.
She extols the virtues of using canned goods and pre-chopped vegetables. It is a long way from Stewart's attempts at refined home-making. Instead it is an embrace of the suburban reality that most of Ray's viewers live every day.
"She doesn't judge and she relates to her audience in a non-threatening, 'every woman' kind of way," says New York PR expert Meg McAllister, who has worked with top celebrity chefs like Stewart, Julia Child and Mario Batali.
Ray has turned the conventional wisdom of American TV success on its head. She has dumped the aspirational tone of most top shows - which tell Americans how they might want to live - and instead simply reflects back to them the way they do live. And they have loved her for it.
"For many women Martha Stewart is who they aspire to be, but Rachael Ray is who they already are. The average woman can identify with her and feel validated by her," McAllister says.
Ray herself has admitted, "I have no formal anything. I'm completely unqualified for any job I've ever had."
That lack of pretension is a powerful tool for connecting to her many fans.
But what Ray does possess in abundance is a relentless amount of energy and drive. It has propelled her from working in a gourmet food shop in Albany, New York, to the pinnacle of fame in 10 short years. She was discovered by a local Albany TV station doing 30-minute cooking courses for customers at her store. That eventually led to a guest spot on New York's Today show in 2001, which saw her drive eight hours through a blizzard to get there on time. The single appearance was a huge success and led immediately to a Food Network contract. She has never looked back.
Yet Ray's secret ingredient - making a virtue of the ordinary - has also led to a backlash of the sort that Stewart and Oprah have rarely had to deal with. She seems to stir up the sort of hatred that can become endemic online and her goofy persona is widely lampooned. Numerous websites and chat boards have been devoted exclusively to hating the star and slamming her shows and articles. The most prominent, called Rachael Ray Sucks, even developed a huge fan base of its own and was featured widely in the US press. Nor is the bile kept to members of the public. Ray's attitude to cooking has led to her being criticised by some fellow TV chefs. Anthony Bourdain, writer of the best-selling Kitchen Confidential and host of TV show No Reservations, has called her a "bobblehead" and a "freakazoid".
Stewart, too, has lambasted Ray. Last year she attacked one of Ray's cookbooks and said Ray's approach to food was "not good enough for me".
In a TV interview Stewart went on to say: "I really want to write a book that is unique and a lasting thing. Something that will fulfil a need in someone's library. So, she's different. She's more of an entertainer ... than she is a teacher, like me." Ray responded with her trademark smile and never-look-sad attitude. She happily admitted Stewart was a better cook.
"I'd rather eat Martha's [cooking] than mine, too," she said in response. But there have been some real missteps beyond just the petty jibe or snobbishness of rivals. Ray has appeared in lads' magazine FHM in a skimpy bra licking a chocolate spoon and adopting other sexy poses. There are some who wonder whether her dog food line - called, in trademark Ray style, Nutrish - might be a step too far.
She has also been criticised for agreeing to be a celebrity endorser for Dunkin' Donuts. While the fast-food chain certainly fits in with Ray's common touch, for many Americans it was not seen as sitting easily with her efforts to improve public nutrition, especially of children. While doughnuts can be tasty, few experts would say they have done much to slim American waistlines. "The fact that she is a nutrition expert who hawks Dunkin' Donuts is kind of ridiculous," said Richard Laermer, author of 2011: Trendspotting.
Nor has Ray's rise been entirely under her own steam. Oprah Winfrey has played a strong role in making Ray a star. She has frequently praised her and featured her on her shows. Winfrey's production company Harpo produces Ray's daytime show; it seems she might inadvertently have done the groundwork for the woman who will be her successor as the Queen of American TV.
Daytime queens
Oprah Winfrey
Few people have ever dominated American cultural life as much as Oprah. The former beauty queen has used her show to become a powerful force on everything from books to movies to creating other TV stars.
Julia Child
This chef and former copywriter became a huge force in American public life after using her 1963 TV show The French Chef to change the way American women in the 1960s used the kitchen.
Sally Jessy Raphael
Raphael had a radio show that began in 1981 but her TV talk show, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, started a year later and ran until 2002. She developed her trademarked large red-framed glasses by accident after rushing to buy a pair after having trouble reading the teleprompter.
Ricki Lake
Lake's talk show ran from 1993 to 2004. It specialised in more confrontational and sensational topics than Oprah. It was a success but Lake ended the show in order to spend more time with her family. She has declined offers to renew it.
Rachael Ray screens weekdays at 11am on TV3.
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