Hatred of Rachael Ray can be a powerful uniting force

bostonglobe ^ | November 26, 2006 | rob walker

[stainlessbanner]

Consumer culture and indeed popular culture revolve in large part around shared admiration, shared likes: Fandom, in a word, is a thing that can bring us together.

But what about shared dislikes? Can a community form around that? What is the opposite of a fan club? The answer is the Rachael Ray Sucks Community.

[irishtenor]

I like Rachel Ray.

[JennysCool]

Don't care a lot about Rachael Ray, but people creating "communities" to celebrate how anything "sucks" are for-sure idiots. And best ignored.

[HitmanLV]

She isn't bad, but the problem is that this is the Fall-Winter of Rachel Ray and that she has been pushed to the moon by the people who make those decisions. In 30 minute clips on Food Network, she is fine. When she has 4 or 5 shows on Food Network, that's too much. When she is on a couple of networks, several times a day, as well as on magazine racks and on boxes of crackers, her presence is ubiquitous and annoying.

Emeril is cool until they tried a similar, but less ambitious promotion of him as a personality. That failed, too. A little Emeril is good. A lot of Emeril and well, BAM! :-)

I think the best personality on Food Network is Alton Brown, personally. My fave chefs are Giada, Mario Batali, Alton Brown, Michael Chiarello. Truth is, I like almost all their shows and personalities - it's one of the best channels on tv.

[GSlob]

"...for-sure idiots. And best ignored."
"Clear them out of your life as the scandalous and evil-living lot they are"
Michelangelo Buonarroti
And clear the rachael rays out, too.

[irishtenor]

My niece, who is only 12, looks just like her.

I have always like RR because of her bubbly personality. And her smile.

Paula Dean talks the way I grew up down in Florida. I like her, also, but ALL of them use way too much oil in their cooking, and Paula is the worst of them.

[stainlessbanner]

I like Paula Dean, too. She has that old FL/GA accent I can listen to for hours.

[HitmanLV]

Paula's wonderful, and I would love to visit her restaurant someday!

Like i said, there isn't a Food Network personality I have any kind of dislike for. Ray is a low talent who was pushed to far, too fast. I don't think there is a chef on Food Network who isn't much better than her. Thats not to say she is bad - the gang in marketing decided she would be a great personality and ran with it.

They overplayed their hand with Rachel Ray. Still, it's difficult to hate her. I am just finding her increasingly ubiquitous presence annoying, and I'm not alone.

[HitmanLV]

Double R was never really thin vbut she had a nice build, but I saw one of her cracker commercials on tv and I initially didn't recognize her. She looks to have gained about 20lbs - which at her stature and frame is way, way too much.

[pandoraou812]

I like Mario Batali,Bobby Flay and Michael Chiarello most. Though I do like Food finds,Good Eats and Road Tasted. I also will watch the Iron Chefs at times. I really don't care too much for Rachel Ray. But I will watch her if I can't find anything else to watch. I like food network and I like HGTV more then most channels.

[irishtenor]

She puts is way too much "aauull" in her foods, including butter. But I bet it is good :>)

[irishtenor]

Right around the middle, I noticed it too.

[irishtenor]

I heard she was having husband trouble, also. That will put on the pounds if you don't watch it.

[endthematrix]

Yeah, in small doses, she's OK. I did get tired of the over use of "sammies" for sandwich, but she resonates far better to middle America IMO than most Bon Appetite culinary snobs.

[HitmanLV]

Honestly, there isn't anybody on that channel I am very negative about. I like Giada a lot, and her recipes are not only fantastic but tend to live up to the 'Easy' in her show's name. Mario Batali is awesome but they seemed to have rolled back his presence on the network, which is disappointing to me. Michael Chiarello is a super guy and I like him a lot, too.

Flay is a fantastic chef, but as you can tell I have a strong bias towards the Italian chefs and cuisine.

Iron Chef America is good but they under-use my babe, Cat Cora (I know, I know, Cat has no interest in being any man's 'babe'). Alton Brown is the funniest guy on the network and my favorite 'personality,' because I find him and his show hysterically funny. I like how he goes into the science of cooking, also - something the others don't really do.

If Food Network wanted to push someone to mainstream status, give Alton a sitcom. Then again, 'Good Eats' is kind-of a sitcom.

Food Network is a great channel bumper to bumper. I like it much more than most channels, also, and have it on in the background a lot especially when I am home on a weekend afternoon.

[HitmanLV]

I heard she was having husband trouble

I'm sorry to hear that. She has had so many projects in such a short amount of time, that would put a lot of stress on any relationship. Hope it works out.

[kittycatonline.com]

I used to like seeing her on Food network, but after seeing a few episodes of $40/day, I realized she just goes to a load of obvoiusly "in exchange for promotional considerations" dives, and fawns over what looks like typical lousy ripoff tourist food. Fake!

[america-rules]

Your right about Emeril.

I used to watch him several times per week but now can't stand to look at him.

He's on too much plus he's on QVC, Home Shopping and has a hundred products in all the stores now.

It was the same with Paula Dean but now I'm getting tired of seeing her as well !

[HitmanLV]

Double R doesn't have the talent to have as many shows on FN as she does, let alone all her other stuff. She isn't bad at all, but like you say, 'small doses.' She should have 30-Minute Meals and that's it.

A talk show and magazine is way over her head.

I suspect the gang in marketing ran all sorts of studies and decided to give her the ball.

[endthematrix]

IIRC she the big O's (Oprah) blessing.