Yahoo! Finance
May 9
Food Fans Flock To Rachael Ray
Patrick Cain
Rachael Ray's idea seemed cooked.
Yet it turned into a gourmet move.
As a food buyer for a grocery in Albany, N.Y., she made a promise that couldn't possibly pan out.
It was Christmas 1998, and she gave the store's customers gift certificates for cooking classes. She thought that if they knew how to make great food fast, they would buy more groceries.
Customers loved the idea, but she couldn't get local chefs to teach the classes at the price her boss was willing to pay the cooks.
Nearing defeat, Ray heard from the boss: She was the one. She was already making pre-made meals for the store, but she wasn't a trained chef. Didn't matter. The boss said she should teach the classes.
So began "30 Minute Meals" that Ray used to launch an empire.
Today Rachael Ray and her smile are blazoned across TV shows, magazines, books, cookware and a not-for-profit outfit, Yum-O, that aims to help malnourished families. It all added up to $16 million in pay for Ray last year, says Forbes magazine.
Ray, despite teaching millions how to make good food quickly, is still not a chef. She's simply an enthusiastic food fan.
"Oprah told me a few pieces of advice when we sat down together," she told IBD, regarding one of her multiple sit-downs with TV queen Oprah Winfrey. "The first piece was literally the day I met her, and that was be true to yourself and stay true to yourself."
From the moment she came close to stardom, Ray has been forthcoming. When TV's Food Network approached her in 2001 about taking her local news segment "30 Minute Meals" national, she didn't jump. She wanted to make sure the cable station knew what she was about.
"When I first heard from Food Network, I told them I was a beer in a bottle and they are champagne in a flute," she said.
She still stands by that assessment.
"I'm the everyperson. I'm very klutzy. I'm not a trained chef. I'm not a five-star traveler," she said. "I am a decent representative of what anybody could achieve in a kitchen or in their travels.
"Anything I've been involved in has been successful because I don't stand out. Everything we produce on television, in the magazine and certainly the cookbooks have the common factor of accessibility -- anyone can do it."
Ray, 39, learned to cook from her mother and grandparents. She understands the importance of making delicious food fast, and her brand embodies that.
Ray sells more than recipes. She gives consumers more time with their families and to relax. "In the post-Rachael era, a new approach emerges," Grant McCracken, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote in his anthropology blog. "Now we want to sell what food turns into, the meals, the social occasions ... the people communing, families eating ... and talking ... and being a family."
That's what her TV shows are about, and she has a plateful of them: "30 Minute Meals," "$40 a Day," "Tasty Travels," "Inside Dish" and "Rachael's Vacation" on Food Network, plus "Rachael Ray," a syndicated talk show.
"Ray has always cast herself as a sort of anti-Martha (Stewart), offering options for those who want to save money, eat healthfully and cook at home but don't have the time or budget to entertain," Jill Hunter Pellettieri wrote on Slate.com.
Such perception is crucial to Ray's success, says Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor at the University of Miami. "What a brand is is whatever the customer actually thinks it means. ... It needs to be tied closely to the person," she told IBD.
It also helps when the person spreads out. Ray leapt from her 30-minute-meal concept into a menu full of entertainment.
Her publishing business offers a stack of books -- including her latest, "Just in Time" -- and a magazine -- Every Day With Rachael Ray -- with a circulation of 1 million.
Ray also sells cookware. She cooked up that idea after being fed up trying to get spaghetti in a circular pot. Voila, an oval-shaped pot, perfect for long, dry pasta.
By the spring of 2007, Ray was ready for the Yum-O venture.
This came from more Oprah advice.
"She said to do what you love and what you're most passionate about," Ray said.
For Ray, that was easy: people and food.
For 20 years, Ray and her mom talked about starting a class to help working mothers and underprivileged families.
The duo envision the class name: Shoestring.
That evolved into Yum-O, which strives to get healthy, delicious food in the hands of those that need it.
Brian Herr, director of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a Yum-O partner, lauds Ray's way.
She is one of the most "trusted voices for parents across America," he told IBD. "As a woman in a position of great influence, she has leveraged her strengths and unique talents and found a way to give back to the community."
Yum-O is an extension of her slogan "Take a bite out of life," which appears in each issue of Every Day With Rachael Ray.
Why that title?
"The point 19 you should do something with every single day of your life," Ray said. "Even if it's a workday or school day, (you should do something) that makes your life feel special and rich. That could be as simple as making a good dinner for yourself or taking a little adventure to the neighboring town. Turning left instead of right. Something simple that makes every day matter."
With that attitude, Ray doesn't expect handouts.
"I never felt like anything was owed to me," she said. "It never mattered what job I had; I never felt right if I wasn't pushing myself and working a lot."
That work ethic came from her mom.
"Growing up, my mother regularly worked 80- to 100-hour weeks," she said.
Results from Ray's hard work? The original "30 Minute Meals" that was on the Albany CBS affiliate won her local Emmys. Her books became best-sellers. And, she says, Yum-O is an smashing success.
