Rachael Ray and Kim Severson Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe. I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. Each week, we talk to the coolest culinary personalities around, the folks shaping and shaking up the food scene. We have a special show for you today. It's Rachael Ray in conversation with Kim Severson of The New York Times. This is the keynote conversation from our sold out Jubilee Conference from this past April, held at Center415 in New York City. Jubilee, as some of you know, is our annual gathering of women in the food and beverage space. This year's was our biggest yet, with more than 700 people in attendance.
Rachael Ray, well, you all know who Rachel Ray is. She's a TV star who's taught countless people how to cook, and she is the author of multiple cookbooks, including her latest, This Must Be The Place. Kim Severson is a National Food Correspondent for The New York Times. Kim won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for her contributions to the team that investigated sexual harassment and abuse against women. Introducing Rachael and Kim is actor Brittany Bradford, one of the stars of Julia-the original HBO Max series inspired by the life of Julia Child. Today's episode is supported by Kerrygold, the makers of beautiful butter and cheese made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows.
You know that quality ingredients make a big difference when cooking, baking, and putting together a meal. With Kerrygold, you can truly taste the difference. I know many of you out there swear by Kerrygold butter, but did you know Kerrygold also makes delicious cheese? I am a huge fan of their cheeses for cheese boards, for salads, and for including in recipes like quiche, and my all time fave-macaroni and cheese. There's a whole world of deliciousness to discover.
From Kerrygold's nutty and complex Dubliner cheese, to their Gouda-Style Blarney Cheese, and their Cashel Blue Farmhouse cheese-a special, soft blue that I absolutely love. It's really beautiful in a salad this time of year with some greens, sliced peaches, and toasted pecans. A little lemon olive oil vinegarette and you are all set. Trust me on this one. To learn more about Kerrygold's butter and cheese, and to find a store near you, head to kerrygoldusa.com.
Now for today's show, let's welcome Brittany Bradford to the stage.
Brittany Bradford:
Hello, everyone. I am so excited to be here for my first Jubilee, to be a part of the Bombesquad. I hope you all have had an amazing day so far. My name is Brittany Bradford. I am an actor, and I play Alice Naman-a character on the new HBO Max original series, Julia. Yay. It's based on the life of the icon, Julia Child. Alice is a young producer at the Boston Public Television Station WGBH where Julia's landmark show, The French Chef was born. When Alice isn't deflecting her mother's questions about her love life, or lack thereof, she is championing Julia and her mission to teach the world how to cook via television, which was a novel concept at the time. But Julia wasn't just passing on culinary instruction. She was sharing her joie de vivre, her love of life, and her desire to nourish others-which is something that I think each of you in this room has in common with Julia Child.
Our next and final guest certainly shares this as well. Rachael Ray is a direct descendant, professionally and spiritually, of Julia Child. While Julia might have focused on French food, she also tried to include ingredients that most women, because it was mostly women cooking back when she started out, could find in supermarkets. Rachael has worked hard her entire career to make cooking approachable, cool, and fun. Like Julia, Rachael has been a constant companion on television with a TV career that spans more than two decades. She is also an author. Her latest book, This Must Be The Place, was inspired by her desire to help us connect through cooking.
Rachael is also a philanthropist and has raised millions of dollars for the Rachael Ray Foundation, which helps kids and families eat healthier. Yes. Also, pet lovers will enjoy this, helps animals in need. I know my dog Bo loves Rachael Ray, just doesn't know it yet. Rachael has a big appetite for life and a big heart. Rachael will be interviewed today by Kim Severson. Yes. Icons, left and right. Kim is a National Food Correspondent for The New York Times and, in 2018, won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for her contributions to the team that investigated sexual harassment against women. Please join me in welcoming them both to the stage. Thank you.
Rachael Ray:
Kim Severson. What? What?
Kim Severson :
Okay. All right. All right. I got control of this.
Rachael Ray:
Pulitzer Prize winning, by the way.
Kim Severson :
I got this. I got this.
Rachael Ray:
Just saying.
Kim Severson :
Just stay calm. I've got this.
Rachael Ray:
I'm a bum. I don't even belong in the room. I'm a cook. I'm not even a proper chef. Please.
Kim Severson :
Can we just first thank all of you guys for being here, because I think Cherry-
Rachael Ray:
Yeah. Cherry Bombe, and the Jubilee. My friends, and my new friends, and my editor Pam, and my friend Rita Jammet who's here, my friend Molly.
Kim Severson :
Auntie Em and Uncle, oh no. All right, listen-
Rachael Ray:
My own husband didn't come, so that's pretty good that some of my girlfriends showed up. That's cool.
Kim Severson :
That's good. Rachael, I first met and interviewed you way back when in 2005.
Rachael Ray:
Was it that?
Kim Severson :
Yeah, that was when I first did my first story about you in The Times, so definitely been some years. What I want to do is just give some quick fun facts about you, and where you came from.
Rachael Ray:
Okay.
Kim Severson :
I think people don't quite understand what it took for you to get to where you are, and how you've endured. You were the OG, right? Anyway, and then I want to get to the-
Rachael Ray:
Well, I'm definitely old. I don't know how gangster I am, but I'm definitely old.
Kim Severson :
But we'll get to that magic week that changed your life. But first, a few fun facts. Rachael Domenica Ray, born in 1968, Glen Falls, New York.
Rachael Ray:
That's true.
Kim Severson :
Your dad was not really good at being a dad or a husband, mom kicked him out-you were 13.
Rachael Ray:
My family was different-
Kim Severson :
Okay.
Rachael Ray:
And had some bumps along the way. Yes, and my parents broke up when I was pretty young. Yes.
Kim Severson :
Okay. But your Sicilian grandfather became your North Star, right?
Rachael Ray:
My grandfather was my best friend when I was a little girl. He passed before my parents ever divorced, but he was my absolute best friend when I was a little girl. He taught me, along with my mom, all of the things that I live by, and run every business by, and my entire life by, to this day.
Kim Severson :
All right.
Rachael Ray:
Everything.
Kim Severson :
First job was running the dish machine at a restaurant your mother managed?
Rachael Ray:
No. My first job was being an illegal employee of my mother's.
Kim Severson :
Okay.
Rachael Ray:
I was like 10, 11, and 12, cleaning shrimp, taking out garbage, cleaning the walk-in, being on my mother's hips. She was in restaurants. I'm not a proper chef, I'm a cook, but I grew up in restaurants all of my life. I was on my mother's hip from the time I can remember. My actual first memory was searing this thumb to the top of the flat griddle when my mother un-spun us from, phones used to have cords.
Kim Severson :
You remember this, kids?
Rachael Ray:
My mom got spun up in the kitchen phone cord, screaming at a vendor because her seafood wasn't delivered on time, and it wasn't even a seafood restaurant. It was called The Carvery, it was a meat restaurant. But my mother was really pissed she was still waiting for her shrimp. She had gotten all spun up and had to un-spin, and put me down for a sec. I put my hand up to try and grab the spatula, and I grilled my thumb to the grill. That's truly my first memory of life. Isn't that weird?
Kim Severson :
So I…
Rachael Ray:
…like Harry Potter.
Kim Severson :
That's everything you need to know, right.
Rachael Ray:
It's really weird.
Kim Severson :
Right.
Rachael Ray:
But I was marked for the business, let's say.
Kim Severson :
All right. Been a hustler early on in high school, you had a gift basket business called, Delicious-
Rachael Ray:
Delicious Liaisons. Yay.
Kim Severson :
You would run around and get orders, and fill the gift basket, in high school.
Rachael Ray:
I would work so hard to make enough money to make these baskets, and I lost money on every basket because I just wanted them to be so gorgeous. I would buy storybooks, and put food and homemade cookies, totally illegally because I didn't have any license to do this, of course. I would hand draw every image in the entire catalog, and I'd give all the catalogs to all of our friends, and neighbors, and the guy that sold eggs, and the guy that gave us oil and stuff for the house. I'd just be like, "Here, don't you want to buy a basket?" They'd guilt-buy baskets. But I think I lost money on everyone, so it was a failed first brand attempt.
Kim Severson :
Well, I also have to say this one little thing, because it cracked me up. You wrote a letter to John Peterman when you were in high school because you loved the J. Peterman Catalog.
Rachael Ray:
I wrote many letters to the Connick Family, Harry and his father, because my grandma-
Kim Severson :
She's been a stalker.
Rachael Ray:
My grandma knew his dad, and they went way back. I'm like, "What do you think about getting into a business? Should I buy this convent in Saratoga, and turn it into a jazz club? Would Harry ever come?" I was an insane, weird kid.
Kim Severson :
Okay.
Rachael Ray:
I was not a popular child from the time I was a baby because I went to school, as you know, with sardine sandwiches. That chapter in the book, 50, when I started writing about my life, it's literally called, "Sardines Don't Make You Friends."
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
I wore a dress, not cool. Everybody else was in what we called dungarees at the time, AKA jeans, and my lunch was sardines and onions, man. Can you think of anything worse?
Kim Severson :
That's grandpa.
Rachael Ray:
But, it was my favorite lunch. The teacher took my book away, and I went home hysterical. My grandfather made fun of me, over and over, to my face. He just kept laughing in my face, and tickling my stomach. He's like, "Oh, stop it. Stop it. Stop it." This was kindergarten, by the way. My grandpa was a toughie. He banged on my head, "What do you have in here?" "My brain." "What are these?" "My fingers, my toes." He made me count them. "You have 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a brain. Stop crying. When you come home, you can read. You eat what you want at lunch. If you want to wear jeans tomorrow, fine. Just stop." He put my arms back and forth a few times so I take some deep breaths. He got me a cold cloth. He said, "When you come home, we can read together. But life is going to be long. Your choice is, you can laugh or you can cry. If you have 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a brain, your choice should always be to laugh, not to cry." That's how I live.
Kim Severson :
Aw, nice. I want to get a little bit to the story about how you came to be such a media rockstar and a cook. First, you went to New York for a couple years in the 90s, and you were working at some big, specialty food shops. Right?
Rachael Ray:
Macy's. I had the flower. Oh, my God. One time I lost-
Kim Severson :
We're going to be here a while, guys.
Rachael Ray:
One time I lost Gregory Hines in the parade. Every manager at Macy's has to take one of the parade people on Thanksgiving Day and escort them, not in a gross way-but in a normal way, and just get them from here to there. But it was pouring rain, and he was doing Jelly's Last Jam, and he had to make a phone call. I didn't really lose him, I lost the rest of his company. He had to make a phone call, so I used my code, and my passes, and stuff to get inside Macy's so I could get him into the main selling floor to call his family for whatever emergency was going on then. When we got inside, I'm not kidding, Gregory Hines danced me across the dark, empty main floor of-
Kim Severson :
You said this wasn't the creepy part.
Rachael Ray:
This is not creepy at all, this is awesome. It was the most spectacular moment ever. I'm like, "This is fantastic." Just to thank me for helping him use the phone. So he uses the phone, but then we have to go back into the rainstorm, and the bus moved. I couldn't find the rest of the Jammers. The Jelly's Last Jam was totally gone. It was pouring rain all day. It was absolutely horrid.
Kim Severson:
Now that you say that, we're going to take a little side note, put a pin in what I was going to talk about, because Rachael has an incredible history of screwing up in front of famous people.
Rachael Ray:
Oh, yes.
Kim Severson :
You almost killed Tony Bennett once.
Rachael Ray:
Yes.
Kim Severson :
You also tripped in your taffeta in front of Michelle Obama.
Rachael Ray:
I ripped out the line of my dress at the last official White House State Dinner. Climbing up the stairs, stuck my shoe through the crinolines so bad that, at the check-in, the lady had to leave her post to go and find scissors to cut my foot out. It was 90, even though it was October, and I thought it was going to be 40. So I'm in a black sweater, and I am covered- boob sweat, the whole hair like a rat, just pouring sweat, and it's hours before we get seated. Then they bring me to the head table with the President, and I'm seated next to Michelle Obama. I'm like-
Kim Severson :
Sweating like Nixon.
Rachael Ray:
Sweating like Nixon, as they say. I lean into Michelle and I'm like, "Are you kidding me with this?" She's like, "This dress weighs 40 pounds, do you want to switch?" It was so funny. She was wearing an Armani, because it was an Italian dinner, and it weighed a lot because it was made of metal, or something.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
I'm like, "I might take the metal because it's strapless, and I am in a turtleneck, and it's a hundred degrees."
Kim Severson :
Oh, my God.
Rachael Ray:
But I had no idea we were going there. Then there was the other one with Meg Ryan. That's my other favorite. My other great red carpet moment, just since we're bringing them up.
Kim Severson :
Right. We'll get to the inspirational part in a minute. I'm sorry.
Rachael Ray:
I finally got to tell this to Meg Ryan herself. I couldn't for years, because I was behind her. She was giving an award before me at a Tribeca Film Festival event. I was giving the next award. I am a sweater. I am such a sweaty, olive oil laden girl, that nothing sticks to me. I'm wearing a dress. I hate wearing dresses. I'm wearing a dress that's rather low cut, so they put those booby things on you-the little pasty buds, or nipples, or covers, whatever they are. So I'm walking behind her, and I'm so sweaty the left one pops off and drops onto the floor.
I don't know what to do. I'm standing behind her and I'm like, and I drop the card. I cough and drop the card. Then I put my palm on the nip, and I bring the nip up on my palm, and I grab the card at the same time. I just walked out like chick Napoleon, and I was like. But I did the whole thing like the Pledge of Allegiance with my hand over my boob.
Kim Severson :
All right.
Rachael Ray:
Class. My mother's real proud.
Kim Severson :
A hundred percent. So you're in New York for a while doing that. You had some rough times, which we don't need to go into, bad breakup.
Rachael Ray:
I was mugged twice.
Kim Severson :
She was mugged twice. I wasn't going to say it.
Rachael Ray:
We can skip ahead.
Kim Severson :
Okay. Now skipping ahead. You go back upstate and you start working, you need a job, more specialty food shop. You develop this way to help people get food on the table in 30 minutes, right? It becomes a thing.
Rachael Ray:
Well, that's putting it very graciously. My boss was pissed because we weren't selling enough food at the market I was working at. My boss is my dear friend to this day, Donna Carnevale. I've known her 30, or so, years. Our problem was, we couldn't get anybody to buy the food in the market I was working at. When I left New York, after being at both Macy's and Agata & Valentina, and these are all my dear friends to this day-still talk to everybody I ever worked with my whole life. But Donna was special because Donna said, "I love your food." There was a little bit of a blowout in the kitchen, and she asked me to become both the prepared foods person, and the buyer for the store in this marketplace area. Our mutual goal was to teach people how to cook enough, just that they would buy our food stuff.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
Just the basics. I started 30 Minute Meals. It was a three hour course where you were given six versions of five different recipes. Over the course of three hours, we would go through the basics of how to make all this stuff. Then in theory, you could go home and make a month's worth of food without repeating yourself. That got picked up on the local news, and then the local news got me onto a local public radio station. My friend called me one day, all of his guests had canceled and he said, "Can you bring over a hot plate and make food in the Radio Control Room?" I said, "Well, I think that's completely illegal, but sure." So I made 30 minute jambalaya in his little Vox Pop Studio at the Albany Public Radio Station.
There was a man named Lou Ekes who knew the Vice President of Food Network, Bob Tuschman, who teaches at NYU right around the corner. We do classes together to this day. We hang out together with his peeps. But that guy got a call from Lou. This guy said, "I don't know who this girl is, but she makes 30 minute meals, and she's doing it on the radio. I can't even see her, but it sounds fun." I was-
Kim Severson :
The old days when you could get away with that.
Rachael Ray:
Then Bob called me, and I came to New York, and I sat with all of the executives.
Kim Severson :
Wait a minute, what about the snowstorm?
Rachael Ray:
Yeah, well, that's coming.
Kim Severson :
Okay.
Rachael Ray:
So because I was teaching these shows upstate, I also got invited by the local grocery store chain, Price Chopper, to come in and teach 30 minute meals to their shoppers, so we could get their shoppers to buy more food too. "Sure." I said, "All right, I'm down with that. Anything that gets people cooking, sure. As long as it's okay with my partners, and my bosses, I'm down with it." This is how I got onto the local thing. But the way I got onto the national beat is, Al Roker is also an upstate New Yorker. He's not just a New York City person, he's an upstate New York person.
All of my meals were popular in the Albany and way upstate New York region. Because Al is a part-timer in each place, somehow he got one of these little cookbooks that we only put out in the grocery stores. They weren't in any book stores anywhere. They were only sold in Price Chopper. It was just what I was doing on the local news. Al got one, and all their guests canceled, and I got invited to The Today Show because no one else would come, basically. Al asked me to make four stages of one thing, and three other dishes they wanted-like of.
My mom and I drove there through, what was supposed to be, the snowstorm of the century-which was four feet by us but two inches in New York City. We carried everything in apple and pear crates. When people tried to help us, I knew but I was not remembering how strict the rules are about people handling your stuff when you're in a studio environment. My mother was literally hitting people that were trying to take the crates away from us. We set up all the food. They were trying to get me to get makeup and powder and I'm like, "Get away from me. The chicken's not done. The chicken's not done." I'm like, "I can't kill Al Roker. during a snow storm."
Kim Severson :
No, that would not be good.
Rachael Ray:
Apparently I said, "Groovy," a lot.
Kim Severson :
Okay.
Rachael Ray:
Because everybody that saw me in a grocery store for like two months said, "Hey, I know you. Groovy."
Kim Severson :
Everybody needs a catch phrase, Rachael. Then you became the queen of the catch phrase for a while.
Rachael Ray:
Yeah. Well-
Kim Severson :
All right.
Rachael Ray:
Only because they told me to stop saying, "Oh, my God." That's where "Yum-O" comes from.
Kim Severson :
Really?
Rachael Ray:
I was saying "Yum. Oh, my God." They said I offended people because I said, "God." I said, "What do you think, God hates me?" But they didn't want to hear that, so they just said, "Please stop saying, 'God.'" So I'd say, "Yum-O," and then just stop.
Kim Severson :
The rest is history, really. I talk to you about this because you've had so many phases of your career, right? Your travel show, you're a music producer-South By Southwest. This is your day talk show, 16th season now?
Rachael Ray:
We just got picked up for 17th, yeah.
Kim Severson :
All right, 17.
Rachael Ray:
I'm working on some really wonderful and exciting new projects with other partners too, including A&E. Thank you, A&E. As well, our friends at CBS Viacom have been with us for many, many years. Our partners, Oprah's partnership in our lives has been immeasurable. Scripps, of course, which is now Discovery. We've all been this huge family. I'm a very loyal person. All through my life, I have wanted to grow relationships, and never burn a bridge, and connect them. I think we may be the first example of a person that had cable and daytime at the same time, and that those were connective tissue, and that those people got along.
I just don't like to say goodbye to anybody, and I like to be loyal to everyone. I listen to so many brilliant speakers talk about the differences in their lives, being a woman in the workplace versus a man. I have to say, over the years, there's been small incidents over the years where I felt like, "Well, that's not a fair thing to say," or, "That's not the fairest way to be treated." But I have to say, over the years I have been allowed, as a businesswoman, to make my own decisions. When I chose to earn less money than a man, it was so I could give more money to my staff, or to get my demands. To get the space I wanted, or to get the quality of ingredients I wanted, or the deal that I wanted.
I think that life is very much a balance of what you want versus what you need. What you need is what you should think about first, and everything extra should be thought of to your future first, and then to philanthropy next, and then to the extras last. That's how I order my life. What do I need? What do my folks need, so that I can stay employed for them? I have to keep myself well enough to at least function and produce the work that helps our community grow. Then I have to take care of that community properly. Then I have to give back to my community at large. Then I can play around however I want after that.
But those are the ways I try and organize those things, and sometimes it's very difficult. They criss-cross once in a while, one puddle jumps over the other. But generally, that's how I look at it. That's the only way I think you can truly grow and keep your humanity. To me, that's the most important part because, if I die tomorrow, or 20 years from now, or 50 years from now, I want to die with integrity.
Kim Severson :
Amen, sister. You told me once that, "Every day you have to wake up and be Rachael Ray or 3000 people will be out of a job."
Rachael Ray:
That's right.
Kim Severson :
If you think about the furniture company, and the people who make your…
Rachael Ray:
That's right, everything.
Kim Severson :
That is huge. Do you ever just wake up and say, "I don't want to do this." What do you do on those days when you're like, "That's too much, you 3000 people, go deal with your own life?"
Rachael Ray:
Turn on the news, look at anything going on in the world and say, "How freaking lucky am I? Shut the F up and get out of bed. Get your ass out of bed, take a shower, take an Aleve, get over yourself and go to work." Nothing makes you-
Kim Severson :
Take a shower, take an Aleve, get over yourself and go to work. That's it. That's my…
Rachael Ray:
I try and keep a lot of creams and potions on my head, but everything else on my body is scarred and gnarled, and I look like a freaking troll. I have callouses everywhere, and burns, and scars literally everywhere on my body, because I like work. Work feels good. When you can go to bed and know that you did a great job that day, and you tried. Whether you can give time, or money, or of yourself, or just learn something, go a different direction on the way home, be kind to a stranger, do something for your neighbor, make your life better with your own job, or your family, or your friends. That's all that matters to me, is the beauty of that function in life. Trying to do something to better yourself and your neighbor, is what makes me feel good. So yes, of course I have shit days, and I don't feel good, and I had six migraines in nine days- the last 10, but I don't care. You get over it. You get out of bed and get your ass to work.
Kim Severson :
Let's talk for a minute about what kind of businesswoman you are. But, I also want to talk about the charities. I don't think people understand how much money you actually give away through your companies, and through yourself. I think the total donations from deals like Nutrish, or pots and pans-
Rachael Ray:
Pots, pans, everything we've ever sold.
Kim Severson :
I think you'll probably argue with this number, but your people gave it to me. Your people, Charlie.
Rachael Ray:
What we've given away versus what we collected?
Kim Severson :
Yeah. Yeah. 66.2 million is what you give?
Rachael Ray:
Is the giveaway.
Kim Severson :
That's how much money she's given away.
Rachael Ray:
But there's more in the… I think we're about 80 million in the…
Kim Severson :
All right. That's a huge amount of money, right? A lot of it goes to Yum-O, right? For Clinton Global Initiative, Feeding America.
Rachael Ray:
Yes. Our largest partners when it comes to human gives is WCK-World Central Kitchen, Feeding America. Of course. Yes, my buddy. Of course, Feeding America, our longtime partners. We've worked with several administrations. Of course the Obama's, every minute they were in Office. Secretary Vilsack is back again, so we're doing everything we can with the current administration as well. Our pet food just generates a huge amount of cash because we make every diet for every animal. We give to everything from chimps, to llamas, to three-legged goats, to dogs, cats.
Kim Severson :
Goats of anarchy.
Rachael Ray:
Yes. The goats of anarchy. The goats of anarchy.
Kim Severson :
But also, you personally give a lot. You built a no-kill shelter for cats in your community because your mom made you.
Rachael Ray:
Yes, because my mommy didn't like that there was no no-kill cat shelter in upstate New York. So now we have one in Saratoga, and they have little condos.
Kim Severson :
It all comes down to having to do shit for your mom really, in life. But talk about how that deal came down for the pet food.
Rachael Ray:
I started writing animal food for the Human Magazine and a little company called DAD's, not a little company-but it sounded little because they were called DAD's, that was the original name. Then it was Ainsworth, and so on and so forth. Now our partners are Smuckers, and we love them.
Kim Severson :
But, how did you make that deal? You were at dinner, right? It was a handshake deal for this process.
Rachael Ray:
Oh, yeah. But it was because they read the food in the magazine, and sent me some samples of the things I'd been writing for dog recipes in the magazine, "Hey, here's our try at this. You want to see if your dog likes it?" That was Isaboo, God rest her soul, my previous dog. Now we have Bella Boo Blue. My first dog was Boo. My second dog was Isaboo, because my favorite name for a human is Isabella. So I combined Isabella and Boo, so it became Isaboo. Then I took the last part of Isabella, and this one is Bella Boo Blue. So every time I call her name, I think of all three of my girls at the same time.
Kim Severson :
Aw. I know your people, when you said you wanted to do this dog food thing, and all the money from the licensing goes to charity.
Rachael Ray:
Oh, everybody thought I was crazy. They said, "But you cook human food, you're going to put your head on dog food? People are going to rip you up." I said, "I don't care. What do I care? People already rip me up. I'm not a chef, I'm a cook. I'm already getting ripped apart by everybody, who cares?" There was an entire website for years, Kim. You know this.
Kim Severson :
Yeah, I know.
Rachael Ray:
I Hate Rachael Ray was the name of it.
Kim Severson :
Right, right. It was. It was. It was amazing.
Rachael Ray:
These people were the biggest fans I had, they watched every second.
Kim Severson :
Right. They had drinking games for every time you'd say, "Yum-O." Then you became a cultural joke for a while, all the Foodie McFoodies, and Anthony Bourdain's, and all the…
Rachael Ray:
Tony Bourdain and I made peace.
Kim Severson :
I know you did. God rest his soul.
Rachael Ray:
Yes, we certainly did. I sent him a gift basket and-
Kim Severson :
A delicious liaison.
Rachael Ray:
I sent him a huge gift basket. When I started my South by Southwest parties, I had the New York Dolls there. He said, "This is the most underappreciated band in history, and it's my favorite band. Rachael Ray, I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to send her a basket or kick a puppy."
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
So I sent him a gift basket and I said, "Please don't hurt any puppies, Tony." I had gone up to him many times and said how much I really admired him, and read everything he ever wrote-even this little series of mystery books he had that was really cool. Not everybody's going to like you on the playground. Whether or not I love and respect Tony Bourdain, and his work, is my choice. Whether or not that was reciprocated, is his choice. But we did make up, thank God, before his death. I miss him. I think the world does. He's terrific.
Yeah, there were a lot of people that would take me into interviews and they'd actually play me people complaining about me being in food. I'm like, "Wow, that's just so rotten of you." I didn't say that out loud, but that was the thought bubble. Why would you do that? What's the point? What's my comment supposed to be? Other than, "Well, they don't like me. You're correct."
Kim Severson :
Well done. You figured that out.
Rachael Ray:
Yep. They're not learning anything from me. Gotcha.
Kim Severson :
All right. Next?
Rachael Ray:
Can I go home to my husband now? Are we cool?
Kim Severson :
We don't have a ton left, but I do want to talk about the book, and about 2020-which was a hell of a year for you.
Rachael Ray:
It certainly was.
Kim Severson :
You wrote the book, This Must Be The Place, from it. I truly think it's the best book of yours. It's really you.
Rachael Ray:
Thank you, my friend.
Kim Severson :
You're open in it and you're vulnerable in it, real true, bare metal vulnerable. 2020, just so you know, pandemic hits, Rachael has to go upstate, figures out it's going to last for a while, has to turn your house into your studio, and your husband into your camera person.
Rachael Ray:
The entire crew, it's just us.
Kim Severson :
Rachael's very private, getting up into her house, it's hard to meet people. It's your place, right? Your upstate-
Rachael Ray:
I never allowed anyone in to film in my house.
Kim Severson :
It's a house you designed.
Rachael Ray:
I drew it on a piece of paper. That's why some of the bedrooms upstairs get a little sketchy, and they don't have full closets in them. Yeah, our home was a really private place.
Kim Severson :
Then you had all your viewers coming in. That was a hard…
Rachael Ray:
It was weird, man.
Kim Severson :
You're pulling your own clothes, doing your own makeup.
Rachael Ray:
There's no wardrobe, no makeup, no lights, no everybody. It's just two people trying to make a television show for two and a half years, it's been now.
Kim Severson :
Yeah. It's been great. Then the other sad thing, Isaboo dies.
Rachael Ray:
My dog died. But she died in my arms, in my backyard.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
I think that we had more grace than so many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people around the world.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
We were given so much more grace because we were with her at the end of her life and could hold her, and I was speaking to her in her ear when she passed. There are so many people that did not have that grace with their parents, their cousins, their children. I can't tell you how conflicted we both were. That was the most existential, weird thing I've ever been through in my life. We felt such grace being with our dear girl of almost 16 years, to have her die in our arms was great. John couldn't even stand to look at it. He had to go inside. But he played her banjo all morning. He plays like 15 instruments, but her favorite was the banjo. He played her music all morning. It was a beautiful sunny day, and she was in my arms, and I was talking to her as she passed the whole time.
Then we just talked for days about how so many people did not have that choice. It was just overwhelming. It made this huge conflict of guilt and grace, just climbing on top of each other. It was just so weird. Then we got the new puppy, and I don't think John was ready for her yet. John is the most loving doggy daddy in the world. He adores Bella. But when we first got Bella, of course, immediately I wanted to get another pit bull into our lives. The first couple nights with Bella, John was like, "You're not making us happier, you know." The poop and the pee, and stuff, he hadn't done it in 17 years. Give him a break.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
He's adorable with her now, but it was a weird process. Then right after we got Bella, just a couple months later, the entire house burned down and into the ground-a hundred percent loss, and into the ground.
Kim Severson :
Chimney fire, right? Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
A chimney fire. The chimney puked onto the roof, basically. It burped with this… stuff. We have our chimney cleaned twice a year, like you're supposed to. It didn't work. The fire burped onto the roof. I was making dinner. The puppy was there. John just came in. It was the first time he had seen other humans in over a year. He went to play golf at a great distance with a couple of friends. It was August 9th. The house burned completely away, until 3:00 that morning. It started at 7:00, and then it caught up again the next day. Then we moved into this little one bedroom space that we had only bought about a year and a half before, maybe closer to two, right across the street. I tried to make it look like a baby one of the big house, but it's only one bedroom, one bathroom-for my husband that's a big problem, he likes his own bathroom-and a living area, which is terrific.
Kim Severson :
You're shooting the show in there.
Rachael Ray:
We are shooting. The first show I had to do was six days after my house burned down. We had a 10,000 person global event for children, with all their families.
Kim Severson :
When you think you've had a hard day, think about that.
Rachael Ray:
We made impossible spaghetti and meatballs.
Kim Severson :
Yeah.
Rachael Ray:
We made meatless, alternative spaghetti and meatballs. I was looking out the window while we're shooting, and I'm watching them carry our house away. We watched that for almost three weeks, them taking everything away, truck after truck. But we were back in by the following Christmas. We have an apartment in New York because of the necessity of working in the studio, until we couldn't work in the studio as of two years ago of course, and that apartment has had four floods, including five days ago, in the last one year.
Kim Severson :
We have to wrap. I could talk to you all day, of course, but we have to. But this is a room full of a lot of younger people who are in food media, and the food business chefs. This is the future right here, which I love about Cherry Bombe. Right?
Rachael Ray:
I agree.
Kim Severson :
I know. I always tell people, "Your turn. We tried. We're sorry." Can you send people off with, how do you keep your hope up? Or, how should we frame the future from your lens? You've been through hell and back.
Rachael Ray:
No, not by comparison. Again, keep yourself in the right head space. Look around you, and what's going on in the world around you, and be grateful for the opportunities you get. When you get an opportunity, work harder than anybody else, and take joy in it. Really embrace it, and love it, and love that moment. Look for every moment in your day to support the other women, men, children, your community. Look in every way, how to embrace your lives with every second that you're gifted, and opportunity will come to you. But don't make everything about your popularity. It has to be about the quality of what you're doing, and what you can give back to your neighbor, your friend, and how you can make yourself feel about you, first and foremost. You can't give to others if you don't make yourself someone you like first.
Kim Severson :
Ladies and gentlemen, Rachael Ray.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Kim Severson and Rachael Ray for taking part in this year's Jubilee. You can read Kim's excellent work over at The New York Times at nytimes.com, and Rachael Ray's latest cookbook is, This Must Be The Place. Pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore. Thank you to Brittany Bradford for joining us. You can catch Brittany on the HBO Max original series, Julia. Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting today's show. To learn more about Kerrygold, and to find a store near you, head to kerrygoldusa.com. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe Magazine. Our theme song is by the band, Tralala. Thank you to Joseph Hazan, Studio Engineer at News Stand Studios. Thank you to our Assistant Producer, Jenna Sadhu. Thanks to you for listening, you're the bombe.