Rachael Ray was recently interviewed by Forbes magazine about her brand and where she she's her business going. It appears to be part of a feature on "Power Women."
The mag estimates that Racch made a whopping $15 million last year and notes that she was voted the number two Most Trusted Celebrity in 2006. The full article is here and I also pulled out some highlights:
On what she wanted to be when she grew up:
My favorite book when I was a little girl was a story called The Casual Observer, and the first time I can remember the teacher asking what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said I wanted to be The Casual Observer. I thought it was a job. It was about a little girl who goes around the world asking questions. She's very inquisitive. Ironically that's sort of what I am. I'm a casual chit-chatter, a casual traveler. I'm a casual observer.
On whether she feels like a powerful businesswoman:
No, I don't. I feel like a waitress. I grew up in the service business, and that's essentially what I still do. I read the feedback to our show, and I'm trying to give my customer what they order. I certainly recognize that a large part of my job is to be a businessperson--knowing what sells and what doesn't--but I don't go to work with a very serious hat on.
On her brand:
I stand behind my brand completely. I literally drew my spaghetti pot--which is oval because spaghetti is long and I hate standing next to a round pot and waiting for the spaghetti to fall down into it--on a cocktail napkin eight years ago. That was the very first product, and it remains my favorite.
On her recipes:
We don't want to slap my name on someone else's work. I'm a big believer in that. I refuse to put my name on a recipe I haven't written. I don't have a whole test kitchen or staff of people coming up with 30-minute meals. They're mine. I can talk about them and teach them because it came out of my guts, out of me.
On her schedule:
I get up early every morning. I picked up running in the last year, so [my husband and I] go to the gym six days a week and run. Days off from [the Rachael Ray show] I write for the magazine and write the following week's recipes. Dark weeks and during the summers I rotate over to the Food Network. I've done so many 30-Minute Meals that I can shoot four in a day. I go home from taping between 6:30 and 8. I cook dinner every night, and my husband and I eat between 8 and 10 o'clock. John, God bless him, does the dishes.
Maybe Rach can give me some tips on how to get my husband to do the dishes? Go check out the rest of the
article!
It's back. You know, I plan my menu every week, but for some reason, I keep forgetting to share it. I absolutely adore the process of choosing recipes each week (almost as much as I like going to the store and crossing things off my list). Lately, I've been really into couponing, so this week's menu was highly influenced by a bag of potatoes, lots of leftover rosemary, and a tub of blue cheese.
