For those who can't deal with the warmth, get out of the kitchen.
Rachael Ray, 57, made a reputation for herself within the early 2000s when her cookbook, “30 Minute Meals,” led to an look on the “At the moment” present, adopted by her first of many contracts with the Meals Community.
Whereas internet hosting “30 Minute Meals” on the channel starting in 2001, she scored a deal to host her personal syndicated daytime TV speak present, “Rachael Ray,” in 2005. This system premiered in Sept. 2006 and aired for 17 seasons earlier than coming to an finish in Might 2023.
Extra not too long ago, the celeb chef has starred in reveals like “Meals in Minutes” and “Rachael Ray in Tuscany” whereas operating her multimedia empire and food-focused manufacturing firm, Free Meals Studios.
Nevertheless, the celeb chef life hasn't all the time been so candy for Ray, and he or she got here underneath hearth a number of occasions between her breakout 24 years in the past and her most up-to-date public look on Friday's episode of the “Drew Barrymore Present.”
Listed here are a few of Rachael Ray's most controversial moments over time.
She had no formal coaching earlier than becoming a member of the Meals Community
Regardless of being one in every of culinary TV's largest stars, Ray by no means acquired any formal coaching earlier than locking in a spot on the Meals Community.
Because of her lack of correct coaching, many critics argued she was a fraud, removed from the status of different celeb cooks like Julia Youngster, Bobby Flay and Gordon Ramsay.
Martha Stewart, who has managed to construct a multibillion-dollar way of life model throughout her prolonged profession, claimed that Ray was “not good enough for me” throughout a scorching interview with ABC's “Nightline” in 2009.
“She's completely different. She's extra of an entertainer – along with her bubbly character – than she is a instructor, like me,” Stewart, 84, stated on the time. “That's not what she's professing to be. She's only a completely completely different sort of prepare dinner than I'm.”
Ray, nevertheless, took Stewart's critiques with grace.
“Her talent set is way past mine. That's merely the fact of it,” the previous “Rachael Ray” host later instructed ABC Information, per Us Weekly. “That doesn't imply that what I do isn't necessary, too. I don't think about it needling. I actually simply suppose she's being trustworthy.”
“She does have a greater talent set than I do on the subject of producing a good looking, good, high-quality meal,” Ray added. “I'd fairly eat Martha's than mine, too.”
The famed cookbook writer had beforehand mentioned her lack of formal coaching throughout an interview with the New York Times in 2005.
“I've no formal something,” she instructed the outlet. “I'm fully unqualified for any job I've ever had.”
Stewart would later apologize throughout a cooking phase with Emeril Lagasse in 2009. “I really consider that Rachael has completed a terrific job bringing folks, many individuals who would of by no means have even stepped into the kitchen or made a dish to prepare dinner. I applaud Rachael for her enthusiastic method to cooking,” she stated.
She confronted backlash for a 2008 Dunkin' Donuts industrial
A number of years after launching “Rachael Ray,” the TV star signed on to seem in commercials for Dunkin' Donuts.
However the 2008 collaboration shortly backfired, and Ray confronted backlash not only for her selection of apparel within the now-scrubbed advert, but in addition for pushing the favored espresso and donut firm's arguably unhealthy merchandise.
On the time, many viewers claimed that the headband Ray wore within the Dunkin' industrial regarded concerningly just like a kaffiyeh, a Center Japanese headdress some critics reportedly related to terrorism.
“Completely no symbolism was meant,” the corporate stated in an announcement after pulling the advert, per the Los Angeles Times.
Different critics, together with Anthony Bourdain, slammed Ray for pushing Dunkin' Donuts to youngsters and chubby Individuals.
“She's received {a magazine}, a TV empire, all these best-selling books – I'm guessing she's not hurting for cash,” Bourdain, who died by suicide in June 2018, stated on the time, per Page Six. “She's massively influential, notably with youngsters. And she or he's endorsing Dunkin' Donuts. It's like endorsing crack for teenagers.”
“I'm not a really moral man. I don't have a whole lot of rules,” he continued. “However someway that appears to me over the road. Juvenile diabetes has exploded. Half of Individuals don't have necks. And she or he's up there saying, ‘Eat some f–king Dunkin' Donuts. You look nice in that swimsuit – eat one other doughnut!' That's evil.”
Ray's rep shortly fired again at Bourdain.
“Anybody who is aware of Rachael and watches her on TV is conscious she promotes steadiness and moderation, as an alternative of residing life in extremes,” they responded. “Her work addressing youngsters' and households' dietary wants speaks for itself, so we respectfully disagree with Anthony's opinion.”
She was sued for ‘deceptive' pet food advertising and marketing
Ten years after partnering with Ainsworth Pet Diet to launch a line of pet meals known as Nutrish in 2008, Ray was sued by a New York canine proprietor for allegedly deceptive prospects concerning the meals's nature.
Markeith Parks, who sued the Meals Community starlet and Nutrish for $5 million, claimed that the model's Tremendous Premium Canine Meals line had hint quantities of the unnatural herbicide glyphosate.
Parks additional argued that Nutrish made “false, deceptive, and misleading” claims whereas selling the product as a result of “no cheap shopper would count on this controversial and probably dangerous artificial chemical to be current in ‘Pure' pet food.”
Ray's rep later issued an announcement defending Nutrish towards Parks' allegations.
“Rachael herself has all the time championed the good lengths Ainsworth Pet Diet and now The J.M. Smucker Firm take to create and supply the best high quality and most secure pet meals merchandise in the marketplace,” they stated on the time.
“Because of this she does, and can proceed to, feed Nutrish to her personal canine Isaboo and her prolonged pet household,” Ray's rep added.
Whereas Parks' case was in the end dismissed in 2021, a brand new plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit in March 2025.
Publish Client Manufacturers, which acquired Ray's Nutrish pet food model in Feb. 2023, was accused of “falsely promoting the Rachael Ray pet meals merchandise as containing no synthetic preservatives after they really include artificially produced citric acid.”
That case is reportedly ongoing.
Her purple pozole recipe was known as a ‘hate crime'
Though Ray turned fashionable for her partaking cooking fashion, her recipes haven't all the time left followers salivating.
Again in 2020, the Free Meals Studios founder induced controversy when she shared her purple pozole recipe – which included some uncommon components like chili beans, honey and beer – throughout an episode of her daytime speak present.
The clip shortly went viral, and a few viewers went on to post a YouTube video to criticize Ray earlier than displaying her make the normal Mexican dish the right means.
“We're already off to a nasty begin,” they scoffed. “That's not pozole!”
“It seems just like the soup I make for my canines with kibble,” the ladies, who titled their video “Mexican Mothers React to Rachael Ray's Pozole,” added. “I wouldn't eat that.”
After the critics shared their clip on Instagram, different viewers started to criticize Ray as properly.
“She simply threw every thing in there she thinks is Mexican and known as it pozole,” one individual commented.
“Each time Rachel Ray makes Mexican meals it's horrendous!” added one other. “There's a video of her making Mexican rice that's simply ridiculous.”
“I'd prefer to make a citizen's arrest, please,” shared a 3rd. “It is a hate crime!”
Her crew was left fuming after present went distant throughout COVID shutdown
Ray's daytime present turned the middle of behind-the-scenes controversy through the COVID-19 pandemic, as unionized crew members accused producers of reducing off pay after this system left its Manhattan studio.
When “Rachael Ray” shifted to distant manufacturing in 2020, filming from Ray's upstate New York residence, roughly 20 studio crew members reportedly misplaced their jobs in a single day, in accordance with Variety.
These employees claimed they have been initially instructed they might proceed to be paid via the top of the season, however these funds allegedly stopped as soon as in-person manufacturing was canceled.
The crew's union pushed again towards the present's producers, arguing that the employees have been owed compensation for the in-studio days that had already been scheduled earlier than the shutdown.
However the manufacturing's refusal to pay, per stories, left some employees quick on the union hours required to keep up their well being advantages.
In the meantime, the backlash grew louder as Ray made headlines for donating millions to pandemic relief efforts, a transfer that critics stated clashed with the therapy of her personal workers.
Producers for “Rachael Ray” denied the allegations, calling stories “inaccurate” and sustaining that they continued to pay workers and contribute to healthcare plans via the autumn of 2020.
Ray herself addressed the accusations in a prolonged Instagram Story on the time.
“There's some information within the media right this moment that's disturbing to me, and I don't suppose it's correct,” she wrote, per Us Weekly. “My companions at CBS Tv Distribution are presently in lively dialog about present for workers affected by our present's format change after November 1st.”
“It has been my utmost precedence that we preserve the total contribution to their healthcare plan throughout this pandemic,” she continued. “I care about my colleagues as household, and as we method the vacations, we wish to preserve everybody protected. Whereas everybody is continuous to be paid via October, we'll proceed to work this out.”
The dispute was reportedly despatched to arbitration, though it's unclear the way it was in the end resolved.
“Rachael Ray,” in the meantime, was canceled in 2023 after 17 seasons.
Followers voiced issues over her slurred speech in movies
Ray raised eyebrows after she appeared to slur her phrases in a number of movies shared on-line in 2024.
Viewers first seen the change throughout clips posted to Instagram, together with a Mom's Day cooking phase and a tribute to Tony Bennett, prompting hypothesis about her well being.
Some followers commented that one facet of her mouth appeared decrease than the opposite, whereas others frightened she may need suffered a medical episode.
“Rachael frightened about you!” one fan wrote within the feedback of a clip.
“Rachael, are you okay?” requested one other. “You don't look properly.”
A unique individual stated Ray regarded “sick” within the regarding video.
The TV host later addressed the rumors on her “I'll Sleep After I'm Lifeless” podcast in Oct. 2024, revealing that she had suffered “a few dangerous falls” in latest months that restricted her bodily exercise.
Ray didn't specify whether or not the accidents have been linked to her speech modifications, however she stated she had been specializing in her restoration.
