---

Staff post about: Rachael Ray Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

“My first vivid memory is watching mom in a restaurant kitchen,” recalls Ray. “She was flipping something with a spatula. I tried to copy her and ended up grilling my right thumb. I was three or four.”

Oprah Winfrey calls her a “super chef,” but Ray has had, in reality, no formal training as such. Instead, she insists that since the moment she was born, cooking has simply been a way of life for her. “Everyone on both sides of my family cooks,” she says. As such, Ray gained much of her knowledge and technique by just watching and doing in her family’s restaurants.

“I learned everything about cooking basically at home and in restaurants,” says Ray. But it was never a formal learning process there, either. “A lot of people ask me where I learned how to cook,” she says. “My mother never showed me how to peel a potato. There was never, ‘Try this, you’ll like it.’ There was just dinner: ‘Here’s what you’re eating.’ You didn’t have to ask how to make it if you were in the kitchen, and everybody lived in the kitchen.”

Ray’s strongest critics are from those in the industry who see her lack of formal training as a disqualifying marker for a true chef. But Ray – and her millions of loyal fans – disagree. And, indeed, Ray’s success has proven that it did not matter where she got her education. Whether it was from a top ranked culinary institute or her grandfather’s kitchen, Ray knew her way around a kitchen.

Ray’s grandfather on her mother’s side was the family’s main cook. He not only cooked all of their meals, but he personally grew all the ingredients in his backyard. That way, Ray came to understand the value and nutrition of using fresh ingredients.

“My cooking comes from my grandfather and my mom,” says Ray. “They were both amazing cooks. My mother so blows me away.” With a reference to her top-rated television show, Ray says, “I don’t know if she could do everything in 30 minutes or not, but she is definitely great, and she knows every dish. There is nothing she can’t make.”

Ray also credits her other family members with helping her get to where she is today. “My dad is a great Southern cook, but it takes him, like, six hours to grocery shop,” she says. “He is fussy to the point that it’s ridiculous.” Likewise, Ray credits her brother, a martial arts teacher with teaching her patience, and her sister with teaching her baking, although she admits it still is not her forte. “It’s like the only thing that has ever made me cry besides pain or hardship,” says Ray.

Aside from her family experiences, Ray also spent much time working in the restaurants managed by her family. They were never five-star restaurants, but the business of running them was the same nevertheless. And it was that experience that Ray took with her to prove her critics wrong.

Related Articles

  The Gravity of Failure
  Who Is Your Proud Family?
  Manage Fear of Failure
  Three Marketing Lessons from Realtors
  Entrepreneur – How Not To Have A Bad Employee?
  The Right To Be Rich
  What Does Your Gut Say?
  Focused Action Has The Power To Move You
  Selling swimming pools is the same as selling what you sell
  Resiliency Lessons From The Chilean Mine Triumph
  The Highest Leverage Investment in a Business is...
  Getting Rich Is An Exact Science
  Losing The Deal - Yeah, It Does Happen To All Sales Professionals too!
  The Give and Take of Business: 3 Lessons on the Reciprocity of Referrals
  Workout Wisdom For The Workplace
  Increasing Profits By Decreasing Clients
  How A Game Of Rugby League Can Teach You To Make Your Online Business A Success.
  Leadership Lessons Heard
  Frustrated Network Marketer - Needs vs. Wants
  Start A Consulting Business And Build A Client Base With Autoresponders

Related Forum Posts

Dan Kennedy Marketing Methods
My entry
Re: My 3 best business books
Re: Be confident!
Re: My 3 best business books

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Share this post and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet