Move over Martha Stewart because Rachael Ray’s souffle is rising.
In a year that saw the share price of the once-mighty Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia sag precipitously, Stewart dropped off Fortune’s list of the 50 Most Powerful Women.
Ray, meanwhile, strengthened her claim as America’s new domestic diva in 2007. She has a thriving TV talk show and she signed a new contract with Food Network, boosting her annual pay to $16 million.
Ray’s fledgling empire, started in 2001, is a meatloaf of sorts, featuring ventures in publishing, television and kitchen products, all held together by Ray’s effervescent personality. Her Cheshire-cat grin adorns Nabisco’s Ritz cracker box and soon her hand will be serving Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. She endorsed Burger King in 2003.
The first issue of her magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, sold a million copies. Her numerous books have sold a total of at least five million copies. She sells pots, pans, knives, china and olive oil.
But her most lucrative gig remains television. Food Network, shortly after bidding farewell to Emeril Live, signed Ray to a two-year contract for 30 Minute Meals and another show, Rachael’s Vacation. The new show, airing in January, will cement Ray’s primetime dominance. With two shows and reruns of $40 a Day, Inside Dish and Tasty Travels, fans will never hunger for Ray.
“She kind of explodes through the television in a way that few people do,” Food Network president Brooke Johnson told Time.com in 2006.
That year, with a helping hand from mega mogul Oprah Winfrey, Ray made her network TV debut. The hour-long morning show, like Oprah’s, is named simply Rachael Ray. It features Ray cooking, but also includes guests and giveaways.
And, like Oprah, Ray’s on-screen success has translated into big bucks: Her pay has risen from $6 million to $16 million and her signature show is now viewed in 194 markets, almost 99 percent of the country, according to Ray’s website.
Oprah has been a guest. So have Bill Clinton, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. Not even Dr. Phil has managed that.
Ray made the Forbes TV Top 20, at No. 13, eclipsing Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Ellen DeGeneres and Barbara Walters. On the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful and highly paid celebrities, she tops her food colleagues Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Paula Deen and Bobby Flay.
Not bad for a former Macy’s candy counter clerk who isn’t even a trained chef.
She grew up around the food business, however, as her family owned and operated restaurants on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Ray had a cooking spot on a local CBS affiliate in Albany, New York, where she tested her theory that she could teach people who were willing to wait 30 minutes for a Domino’s pizza how to whip up home-cooked meals in the same amount of time, according to VanityFair.com.
Her trademark concept, 30-minute meals, was born and it quickly became popular.
One wintry morning she was invited to make soup for Al Roker on the Today show. As a result, a Food Network executive saw her and came calling. She initially demurred, saying that the Food Network “was champagne, I’m beer,” but she was exactly what the network was looking for.
While critics have taken their shots at Ray for her lack of formal culinary training, Ray has embraced her role as the anti-chef.
She doesn’t show cleavage while cooking or boast Hollywood royal blood like Giada De Laurentiis, granddaughter of Dino. Nigella Lawson, with her British accent and inherent sensuality, virtually invites viewers to lick the sticky toffee pudding off the TV screen.
Ray is straightforward, fast and fluid, and she makes cooking seem like anybody can do it.
Fellow celebrity chef and wit Mario Batali is convinced that “America loves Rachael Ray because Rachael Ray is America.”
Unlike the grandly styled Martha Stewart, Ray hurriedly strides to her pantry and refrigerator to gather ingredients for her dish and sets everything on the counter willynilly. She plates up a dish and yells out “delish!”
She laughs and talks nonstop like Phyllis Diller on caffeine. She never measures ingredients, telling her audience to “eyeball it.” She coins words like “sammie” for sandwich or “stoup,” for a cross between a soup and stew. Her shortcut E-V-O-O for extra virgin olive oil has been included in the Oxford American College Dictionary. She’s even named her charity Yum-o! Fans can’t seem to get enough.
“In order to do a television show everyday,” Oprah told Time.com, “the most important quality a host needs to have is the ability to be themselves day after day after day after day — on camera. And that’s what [Ray] has.”
Naturally, she has her detractors. A well-trafficked blog is devoted to trashing her. And while most top chefs hold their tongues about Ray, Culinary Institute of America-trained TV host Anthony Bourdain recently weighed in with all the subtlety of a meat cleaver. Her corner-cutting, mass-appeal approach “genuinely offends me,” he told Time.com in October.
“She’s got a magazine, a TV empire, all these best-selling books,” he went on. “I’m guessing she’s not hurting for money. She’s hugely influential, particularly with children, and she’s endorsing Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s like endorsing crack for kids. That’s evil.”
The New York Times offers a more measured assessment that may explain Ray’s popular appeal: “Ms. Ray’s recipes may call for store-bought turkey, but she is really trafficking in the ultimate modern luxury: time.”
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
1 Comments
#1. Agnes Villanueva 01.06.2008
Very interesting and informative article! I didn’t know that she has surpassed all those celebrities in popularity. Toques off to Ray and Jones!
Leave a Comment