12 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2019
COVER STORY
RACHAEL RAY DISHES SPICE OF LIFE
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
Rachael Ray has cooked her way full
circle.
Between her TV shows, dog food and
furniture lines, nonprofits benefiting
animals and kids, and magazine Every
Day with Rachael Ray, the TV
personality, celebrity chef, and author
is now back in the Food Network
kitchen that catapulted her career
two decades ago with the recently
relaunched 30 Minute Meals, aimed
at a new generation of parents too
busy to cook. And between all that,
she also recently released her latest
book, Rachael Ray 50: Memories and
Meals from a Sweet and Savory Life,
a batch of recipes recalling her favorite
dishes, after recently celebrating
her 50th birthday.
Although she’s proudly an upstate
New York native, she also has Long
Island ties. The precursor of her
other popular shows, $40 A Day,
got its start on the East End. She has
family here. And she’s got a house in
Southampton, although she’s looking
to unload it for a mere $4 million.
But the bubbly TV personality is
more famous for reminding viewers
that she’s not a trained chef — and
that’s the point: Anyone with a fistful
of ingredients and willingness to
ignore measurements can recreate
her recipes.
The Press recently chatted with
Ray about her book, life, food, and
more. She comes to LI to promote
her new book at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 14
at Landmark on Main Street in Port
Washington. Tickets are $40 for the
event, hosted by Long Island
LitFest. This conversation
was edited for length
and clarity.
How did your parents influence
you? My mom worked in restaurants
for 60 years and one or all of us were
on her hip or by her side. She was the
firstborn of 10 kids and it was her responsibility
to be the right hand of my
grandpa, and his responsibility to the
family was not only the breadwinner,
but the cook. My grandmother was a
seamstress and a baker. But grandpa
was a gardener and the main cook. So
my mother was always in the kitchen
with him, which I suppose is how she
ended up making food for her life’s
work. And I guess more than anything
in the world I wanted to be my
mom. My dad is a good eater.
How did you get the inspiration
for your 26th book? I wasn’t going
to write another book because I’ve
written so many — 30 Minute
Meals, and My Year in
Meals — I felt like I
didn’t really have
anything left
to do in
books, but I do enjoy just writing. I’ve
always kept an obsessive amount of
notebooks my whole life. My friends
were just saying, “You should write
down some of your favorite memories
and how you got here.” Once
I sat down and I just tried to write
anything about my life, I actually
discovered I enjoyed it.
How does it feel to be back where it
started with the rebooted 30 Minute
Meals? I love it so much, because
technology has changed so much.
There’s a big black and red clock and
when we start the roll, they literally
start the clock. And we try to keep it
completely legit. We just keep going,
going, going. Thirty minutes is up?
Boom! I can shoot four of them before
lunch with the reset and the breakdown
and the whole thing. It’s super
exciting. It’s wonderful to be
working for decades and
still feel relatively
relevant.
What do you
want your
fans to know before your Long
Island appearance? My sister lives
on Long Island. The first 30 Minute
Meals sidekick, the forerunner of
$40 a Day, was created on Long Island.
I did a show for the local news
in addition to 30 Minute Meals. The
rules for me within 100 miles or less
than $100. And I did the wine region
of Long Island. And that was the beginning
of $40 a Day. It’s part of my
life story. As much as I’m an upstate
New York girl, I am a New York Stater
for sure.
Do you have any fond memories
from your time here? The North
Fork, of course. The wine country
there is incredible. I still think it’s
underappreciated, how great the
wines are from Long Island. And everybody
talks about the Hamptons
and the beach and all that. I prefer
going out to the vineyards and the
farm country.
Why are you selling your Southampton
home? I’ve been trying to
sell it for years because it takes too
long to get there and land came up
for sale across the street from the
little cabin I’ve been in for 25 years
or so. So I bought it and took some
fallen beams from barns and I built
a house that looks like it’s been there
forever. And I just thought now I
have enough room, I can entertain,
I have the kitchen of my dreams,
my husband built a studio over
the garage that’s the studio of his
dreams, and I’m like, “We’re never
gonna go there.” I love that
piece of land, it’s very
peaceful because
it’s always quiet,
there’s no one
behind you.
I think it’s
beautiful,
it’s just
for the
Rachael Ray is promoting her new book in Port Washington on Oct.
14, a day before it's released. (Photo by Jeff Lipsky)
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