I didn't see the show, but enjoyed the
New York Times review. [Free registration required.]
A couple of extracts captured my impression of Ray:
On a set meant to look like a cozy, slightly tacky New York apartment (she said she decorated it herself), Ms. Ray casts herself as America’s big sister. In one of the show’s segments she helps a fan overcome a phobia with her trademark “can-do” spirit. It’s actually a “can’t-stop” spirit. Ms. Ray has more than four million books in print, four shows in regular rotation on the Food Network, her own food and lifestyle magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray, and Oprah Winfrey as her patron. She seems more like the hyperactive little sister who is compelled always to outshine and outdo her older siblings.
***
But it’s a perfect fit. The frantically busy new talk-show format gives Ms. Ray’s outsize personality more room to crow and plenty of guests and strangers to eclipse. For her legions of passionately devoted fans, there is even more of her to love. For the not-so-silent minority of people who find her unbearable, the cooking parts, at least, are mercifully brief.
She shaved down her famous “30-minute meals” to a 60-second snack and a seven-minute meal and recommended making a salad with packaged arugula or baby spinach: cooks who brave killer bees and jump out of planes aren’t afraid of a little E. coli bacteria scare. As a clock on screen counts down the minutes, and members of the studio audience stare at their watches as if David Blaine’s life were at stake, Ms. Ray chatters away while peeling vegetables and swirling sauces. “Look at that groovy pesto, baby,” she said in the braying tone that sounds as if she is speaking not into the microphone but to a friend outside in the yard. “Oh, baby, baby, baby.”
I might Tivo a few episodes to fast forward through -- unlikely to become a regular though.
