worst sounding sushi roll at guy fieri's southern bbq & california style sushi restaurant tex wasabi's

someone gave us a rachel ray cookbook, kind of an "easy meals for busy moms" type thing, and we really like it, good stuff and lets you make a lot of meals cheap and fast

that said, her craft, as it were, is in getting something serviceable to the table. usually nothing that's going to be elevating your cooking skills or breaking out of the standard american table fare. she's not throwing together restaurants or trying to pass herself off as a chef.

have you actually watched her show?

Eff no. The only daytime access I have to cable TV is flipping around the channels at my parents' house during holiday visits. It's the kinda show where you arrive at it, immediately think "yeah this isn't for me and her short haircut ain't helping her", then flip on to see if the parents' cable subscription includes Turner Classic or not

rachel ray is just the newest incarnation of betty crocker cookbooks, the recipe section from redbook/good housekeeping/etc etc

I haven't watched it in forever and don't even know if it's still on, but I made a lot of recipes from her 30 Minute Meals show. Her whole schtick annoys the heck out of me, but I agree that she excels at the "easy meals for busy" people kind of cooking.

I have watched her talk show with my grandmother on more than one occasion and that is a miserable way to spend an hour, however. Gah. The things I do for you, Mom Mom.

I've got nothing against perky, some of my favorite people are so perky they make Rachel Ray look like Ian Curtis, but the "EVOO" and "yummers" shit is awful.

Rachael Ray is on broadcast television

but what the hell was this shit: her short haircut ain't helping her

are you sure you aren't thinking of someone completely different?

m@tt totally otm about her niche, though

she's pretty cute

Ray opens a dozen cans, pours the contents into pots, sprinkles oregano, done.

best rachael ray game is to watch an old episode and a brand new one and then try to pretend she doesn't chain smoke when off-camera

if one day aliens come to earth and ask to speak with our representative, I hope to God that we send Guy Fieri

I always had a suspicion you hated the human race, frog.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Id4whitehouse.jpg

She's on broadcast TV now too? I only thought she still did the food TV show and Oprah/morning-chat appearances

She has a syndicated Marthastewartish show now too.

Ray opens a dozen cans, pours the contents into pots, sprinkles oregano, done.

― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 19, 2012 12:54 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this isn't really true at least the cookbook we have

this thread is making me hungry

what we're really missing here is shakey mo's take

this isn't really true at least the cookbook we have

Yeah I've noticed she's refined herself the last three or four years.

i wonder if these 'everyman' cooking show personalities like Ray or Fieri get rich and start going to fancy restaurants and hiring personal chefs and are like "ohhh i see fine dining, this stuff ain't bad!"

rachael ray and guy fieri are not comparable

What about Sandra Lee and Guy Fieri

yup I was gonna suggest her instead

What about Sandra Dee and Guy Fieri

rachel ray and rick steves?

paula deen

I like the one Rachael Ray cookbook I have just fine. The most egregious thing in it is abbreviating Extra Virgin Olive Oil as EVOO and insisting everything be "eyeballed," but plenty of the recipes are fine, and largely from scratch. Her magazine seems more guilty of including ingredients like "one rotisserie chicken" in them.

Guy Fieri crosses the unctuousness of Paula Deen with the smug hamminess of Sammy Hagar.

http://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/sammy_hagar.jpg

Rachel Ray annoys ppl but yeah she's not doing bizarre drunk cornercutting like Sandra Lee.

Guy's more like: what if someone on acid made burgers and barbecue.

Her magazine seems more guilty of including ingredients like "one rotisserie chicken" in them.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, November 19, 2012 1:27 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly in a family of two working parents i find stuff like this useful on occaission, we made some way better than canned chicken noodle soup after work with a rotisserie chicken

it gets a bit tiresome to always be hear "foodies" that basically subsist on yelp approved "authentic" thai takeout look down on just normal day to day family cooking

Rachel Ray annoys ppl but yeah she's not doing bizarre drunk cornercutting like Sandra Lee.

Bizarre drunk cornercutting is what makes Sandra Lee endearing to me.

does fieri have a trademark yelp like emeril's BAM and ray's YUMMO?

otm Nicole

sandra lee and guy fieri both come from poor backgrounds, rachael ray is pretty middle class, prob goes to fancy restaurants once in awhile, I remember reading that she was at SXSW

xpost Yeah, I get to stay home, but if we were both working it'd be hard. I just rip on the pre-fab stuff because "one rotisserie chicken" is dinner. Why would I go out of my way to buy a cooked chicken just to cook it into something else?

The sort of food Guy celebrates, though, proves that you can have comfort food that is still well made and delicious. I can think of two DDD-branded spots within a mile or two of here, and they are both great. The sin of his restaurant seems to be making food that lacks the love the spots he celebrates cooks into its food, from scratch, every day.

Paula Deen is unctuous and oily like all that butter she adores but what passes for affection between her and her son Bobby moves my grandma to bits.

xpst
well in the case of soup it was just a fast recipe and the chicken being cooked already meant it could be done quickly but still lets you use actual non canned carrots and celery and better noodles

I guess I'm just not a fan of taking second shortcuts when shortcuts have already been taken. But yeah, we're both defending Ray for the same reason in the end. She does take shortcuts, and she is not always sophisticated or complex, but she does recognize the importance of fresh ingredients as much as possible while also conceding that life is not always conducive to cooking from scratch every day. There's a great feature in her mag that takes a main ingredient and basically stretches it out into three or four tasty meals. That stuff is helpful when you are pressed for time and can't go shopping every day.

There's a great feature in her mag that takes a main ingredient and basically stretches it out into three or four tasty meals.

^yeah we get back issues from my mom and that meal planner thing is good because it really saves money, that way you don't buy like, cilantro, use it once and then it goes bad in the fridge over the next few weeks

two shortcuts, twice as good, right? it would be weird to not let yourself take a second shortcut if the point of the first one was to make your trip shorter!

Her cooking on 30-Minute Meals was legit from-scratch stuff, if not adventurous in terms of flavor palettes. My only issues with her are the giggly chirpy personality and the fact that "30 minute meals" often hide the prep time that would make them "60 minute meals."

I think I read once that she had some benign polyps removed from her vocal cords a few years ago, which explains the increased rasp in her voice over the years. (I haven't seen any of her shows in a long time so I don't know what she sounds like now.)

lots of xposts and phone calls since I started writing that

Food-wise, I like shortcuts in my shortcuts. If it weren't for shit like "chicken burritos out of a rotisserie chicken" and vegetables that were already washed and chopped, we'd eat frozen pizza 5 nights of the week.

and the fact that "30 minute meals" often hide the prep time

Yes, and elides that somebody else does the dishes.

Holy shit, I didn't know Sandra Dee was in a Lovecraft horror flick with Dean Stockwell! I'm guessing its terrible.

and the fact that "30 minute meals" often hide the prep time that would make them "60 minute meals."

^^def the biggest problem w/the book we have

don't get me wrong, I think Sandra Lee is hilarious

(xxxppost)

Sandra Lee is a true American hero.

somebody -- bourdain maybe! -- mentioned that as a point of respect to ray. you can do those things in 30 mins only if you are a drilled and disciplined kitchen operator.