Rachael Ray has a secret ingredient to her success, but it is not the cayenne pepper or diced garlic she uses in her recipes. What makes Ray stands out from her peers and the likes of Martha Stewart is that Ray is human. She makes food with regular ingredients found in a normal grocery store and she does not apologize if she goofs up on air, which she does. Ray is just like the rest of her viewers, and it is that down to earth nature that has propelled her to the top.
“I don’t want anything to separate me from the viewers,” says Ray. “I open the cans, I chop the onions myself, and I wear street clothes. I don’t want people to look at what I do and think that they can’t do that too. It’s extremely important.”
The kitchens that Ray uses to film her cooking shows in are a far cry from the white, sterile kitchen sets one would find Martha Stewart cooking in. For Ray, there is no such thing as a perfect or flawless kitchen, at least not for her viewers. She knows that the people tuning in to watch her cook are people like busy, working mothers, who just want to be able to prepare something quick and healthy for their families when they get home.
Ray’s recipes steer clear of any dishes that require gourmet, hard-to-find ingredients. So too does she avoid recipes that need special equipment. Ray offers people tips for everyday cooking, so that people can make extraordinary food with ordinary means.
“That’s why I don’t wear a chef’s coat,” says Ray. “I don’t even wear an apron. At home, I wipe my hands on my coat, I burn my fingers, and it doesn’t look perfect. But it is my food. It’s the real deal….I’m happy that way.”
On Ray’s first day of filming for the Food Network, she found herself chopping some vegetables for a recipe. At the same time, she was telling a story and – as she normally does – she got excited and started waving her hands back and forth. Much to the shock of the filming crew, Ray cut herself. It was an unprofessional move, and one that would probably be cut out of most other cooking shows, but Ray wanted it left in. She washed herself off, made sure the cut was clean, and kept on cooking. So too, if she makes a mistake with a recipe, she might just add more olive oil to cover it up. And, she will only ever measure spices by the palm instead of a measuring cup. That is real and that is her. That is the Rachael Ray she wants her viewers to see.
“Whatever it is that you’re successful at, that has to be the No. 1 goal,” says Ray. “In my case, it’s accessibility. So all of my products have to be usable, accessible, affordable.” To that end, when Ray began developing a line of olive oils, she insisted they be competitive with other affordable oils. “We chose to be in grocery stores, not fancy food stores, because that’s where most of my audience shops. Our pots and pans have to be heavy-bottomed and sturdy but also affordable.”
It is not just the food Ray cooks that has made her so successful. It is the very way in which she presents herself and makes that food. “Decide what it is that you are and then stay true to that thing,” says Ray. “My brand is based very much on how I live my day-to-day life.”
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