THE FOODIE TALKS ABOUT CELEBRITY CHEFS SETTING HER KITCHEN ON FIRE, HER APPLE-ONION THANKSGIVING STUFFING AND MICHAEL J. FOX

By Angela Barbuti

Rachael Ray is an inspiration to home cooks everywhere, but the fact that she lives downtown gives New Yorkers a definite advantage. Neighbors go so far as to ask her what she’s cooking for dinner when they run into her. The 44-year-old has created a food empire encompassing a talk show, magazine, nonprofit organization and 21 cookbooks. Her newest book, My Year in Meals, hit shelves Nov. 13. When she is not writing recipes for her famous 30-Minute Meals, she is stirring up carbonara sauce for her husband, John.

What is a typical day like for you?
[Laughs] There are no typical days. But if we are taping the daytime show, I will get up around 5 a.m. and head to the gym, then start getting ready for the show. We typically tape between two to three shows during the day. At lunch, I will write some recipes for Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine or for an upcoming book. Then, after taping, I’ll head home and make dinner for John.

Walk us through the process of writing a cookbook.
I keep a notebook with me at all times, and when I have an idea or am inspired, I start jotting down recipes. Then I have to code them—“EDWRR” means it might work for the magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray, while “MYIM” means it would go in the new book My Year in Meals. I code them as the ideas come to me. For the books, I’m always working one or two concepts out so if a recipe doesn’t fit for this cookbook, it could roll over to someplace else. There’s always a home for it.

Your daytime television show, Rachael Ray, launched in 2006. Who has been your most memorable guest?
I can’t pick the most memorable. We’ve had so many seasons of amazing guests. I would have to say it’s a three-way tie between Michelle Obama, President Clinton and Michael J. Fox, who is my personal hero. Oh wait … Hugh Jackman and Ringo Starr were pretty amazing!

Any funny set stories that stand out?
One day the turntable that our audience sits on, allowing them to rotate to different parts of the set, broke down, so all of them had to get up and help us spin it around. There was another time when Emeril and Bobby Flay both set the kitchen set on fire.

What is your favorite dish to cook at home with your husband?
Carbonara—hands down—it’s his favorite.

What area of the city do you live in? What are your favorite places there?
I live below 14th Street and love being downtown. I’m always at the Union Square market and stores like John Derian.

Do people stop you in the city to discuss food?
Yes, all the time. My fans come up to me in the grocery store and say, “Hey Rach, do you know where the canned tomatoes are?” or “What are you making for dinner?”

What are your favorite restaurants and food stores in Manhattan?
My husband and I like eating pizza at Motorino. I love shopping in Chelsea Market where the Food Network is, especially Buon Italia, where I get a lot of groceries.

Where were you during hurricane Sandy?
The daytime show was dark that week, so I was already home with my family upstate.

What was it like to help the victims by working the ABC telethon?
It was great to be a part of it. The folks we were talking to on the phone were so happy to help. It was really empowering to see how people come together in times like these.

You also run a nonprofit, Yum-o! Please describe this organization and let readers know how they can help.
Yum-o! is a nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking by teaching families to cook, feeding hungry kids and funding cooking education and scholarships. Through our three core work areas of Cook, Feed and Fund, Yum-o! educates kids and their families about food and cooking by offering an interactive website that enables young cooks to get started in the kitchen and try out family-friendly recipes. We team up with partner organizations to feed hungry children, and fund innovative cooking programs in schools and give educational opportunities for kids who are interested in pursuing careers in the restaurant and food service industry. People can help by visiting www.yum-o.org.

You are known for your 30-Minute Meals. Which is your favorite?
That’s like picking your favorite kid!

What will be on the menu for your Thanksgiving dinner this year?
We usually make two smaller birds since they take less time to cook and we can sleep in. We make an apple and onion stuffing and mashed potatoes with parsnips.

You won the Outstanding Talk Show Emmy twice. Where are your awards?
Sitting in my office at the daytime show.

Who are your favorite celebrity chefs?
I can’t choose favorites. I love Mario and Bobby. Emeril is the greatest.

What are your future plans?
I haven’t planned anything to this point, so why start now?

Why do you think you have become so successful?
When you love what you do and work hard, it’s hard not to find success on some level.
To learn more about Rachael, visit www.rachaelray.com

Photo Courtesy of Alissa Fleck

Famously perky chef and TV personality Rachael Ray made an appearance at a Barnes & Noble in Union Square last night to speak and sign copies of her 20th cookbook, The Book of Burger, named for the musical Book of Mormon (coupled with a love of burgers), which reportedly “made [her] fall off [her] seat laughing.” Ray fans from as far as Arizona, but probably farther, started filling bookstore seats hours in advance.

“Rachael Ray is so inspirational, it’s like listening to a StairMaster. I don’t think she’s ever had a down day…in public,” said one fan, Patrick, who showed up two hours early to the signing for a front row seat. He had flown in from Ohio for the day to see Ray. “I don’t actually cook, I’m not a practitioner. I just watch for pleasure,” he said. “I’m going to have her sign ‘I love you’ in my book.’” A woman nearby added: “I’m going to have her address mine ‘to my best friend.’”

Others in the audience affirmed their fondness for Ray’s bubbly demeanor as well. When she finally hit the stage to speak after a half-hour publicity delay, wide smiles and glazed eyes pervaded the room. The flicker from cameras never dimmed.

Another Ray fan in attendance was the 150-pound Chewy, a “famous” NYC therapy dog, whose owner claims he has 2,000 Facebook friends, though I failed to find anything about him on the internet. “Rachael has done a lot of work in the dog community,” said Chewy’s owner, patting the massive, slobbering animal. Other nearby audience members appeared distressed at how many second row seats the dog required.

“If I could ask her anything, it would be: how does she keep going?” said Patrick. “What is her center? How does she stay on all the time?” When pressed further, he said: “I’d ask if she dreams about food. And what are her nightmares like? Does she burn something?” Patrick had done his research. He surmised a low point in Ray’s life was having to move back in with her mother after a string of break-ins at her New York City apartment. He was proud of how she bounced back.

There was a consensus among crowd members that, with everything she does, Ray is an immutable multitasker.

And Ray brought the charm. Calling out to one fan during the Q&A, she shouted: “You’re like the Noxzema girl! You’re just so pretty!”

She also brought the burgers. Every customer who purchased Ray’s The Book of Burger, which the event manager continually touted as “Rachael’s best cookbook yet,” received a free Brooklyn Beer Chili Slider from a truck outside. Several people reported they were delicious. Patrick showed me a number of before-and-after burger pictures on his camera as evidence. The “after” pictures were of a styrofoam plate.

In Ray’s address to the crowd she said The Book of Burger is her first cookbook on a single “topic,” though the book boasts recipes for far more than just burgers, and some of those burgers are pretty out there. There is, for instance, a Bloody Mary Cheeseburger (pretty much what it sounds like), but often the burgers don’t involve beef at all. There are also options for vegans and vegetarians. Ray said she went all out to make a book with something for everyone.

“I love what burgers say,” said Ray. “They say everyone’s welcome. They say laughter.” She said if she ever opened a restaurant it would without a doubt be a slider bar, but with two “R”s, like her name.

Ray admitted it was hard to whittle her favorite recipes down, despite the book’s monolithic size. “Everything is fantastic between a bun,” she said.

“The book is also smart, it’s smarter than me,” she said, between giggles, explaining the book is literally a Smart Book, meaning it has codes you can scan to get more recipes online.

“No one’s smarter than you!” shouted an audience member in reply, with an edge of anger.

Ray said her next book would be a co-authored project with her husband. “It will be my year in meals and my husband’s year in cocktails,” she said. “He’s probably finishing up his second Scotch right now.”

During the Q&A, audience members had more comments than questions for Ray:

“Your voice was the only one that could make my baby stop crying!” said one fan. “Thirty-Minute Meals saved my relationship!” said a front-row man, his hand on a woman’s knee. A third girl was too breathless with excitement to get her question out and had to be seated. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I’m just so nervous.”

Then someone in the audience said: “Rachael, you’re such an inspiration, how do you do everything?”

Ray got more serious. She urged the group to find something special to look forward to each day, even if it was just making dinner. She said food has the power to take you somewhere you want to go, as well as somewhere you might want to remember.

She had less expected advice too: “I was raised by people who did not look for balance,” she said. “Balance is a bummer to look for.”

When the Q&A ended, people rushed the stage with their children, hoping to sneak a forbidden posed photograph with the star.

By Reid Spagna

Sara Leand knows how the cookie crumbles.

Fun, quirky and unique are a few of the descriptions that have been applied to the West Side mother’s gourmet dessert business, based in Manhattan.

Sara Leand with her daughter Lily in the kitchen.

As CEO of Sara Snacker Cookie Company, her delectable delicacies have been featured on The Rachael Ray Show and can be found in gourmet grocery stores all over the city, including Zabar’s, Gourmet Garage and Amish Market.

Leand’s interest in baking first blossomed in New Jersey with an Easy-Bake Oven and the help of her mother and grandmother.

It continued at the University of Arizona, where she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Television Production and frequently hosted dinner parties that featured her homemade cookies.

“My friends always said, ‘You should try to sell the cookies,’” she said. “I thought it was a joke at first.”

Leand soon took their advice, however, and started baking cookies in her dorm room, packaging them with Saran wrap and printed stickers.

That original cookie business was sidelined to focus on academics but was finally re-started three years ago, after Leand spent over a decade in Los Angeles working for Paramount Pictures and as an agent for production companies. During the last five years of her career, Leand produced shows on E!, Lifetime and TLC.

It was after Leand left L.A. for New York that she began baking again. Pregnant with her first child and stressed by an ongoing job search, she decided to fire her cookie business back up.

“I always knew that I was going to go back to baking, but I didn’t think it was going to be right then. I thought it was going to be when I was a grandmother,” Leand said.

Retooling her dorm-room entrepreneurship into a full-fledged business, Leand wanted her company to have an original flair.

“My husband always joked that my chocolate chip cookie was so great,” Leand said. “As nice as that is, I didn’t want it to be the 100th cookie on the shelf, so I played around with a unique combination of ingredients.”

Her experimenting produced the Chipn’etzel, a sweet and salty cookie that combines potato chips with pretzels. She created the snack as an alternative for children with nut allergies.

The company sells a variety of other treats, including CandyPop Cookies, a cookie containing lollipop bits and topped with a gumball, Apple Hand Pies, miniature apple pies, and homemade Tootsie Rolls.

“The cookies are for younger kids as well as parents that remember the taste of their childhood,” she said.

Leand has trouble picking a favorite among her creations.

“Honestly, I love the T.W.ookie [The World’s Best Cookie], the Vanilla Milkshake, Lemonade Cookies, and the Chipn’etzels are close to my heart.”

Leand’s family has been her biggest supporters. Her husband is her official taste-tester, while her 14-month-old daughter always finds her way into photo shoots and work-related events.

“She knows where the cookie room is now, because the dining room has turned into the cookie room,” Leand said. “As soon as she goes in, she knows that she’s going to get a lot of treats. It’s very exciting for her.”

Even with the massive amount of work that it takes to create the sweet treats, Leand said that she places an emphasis on her family and their well-being.

“I definitely think that you can have a healthy balance,” she said. “You can have a cookie but you don’t have to eat all of the cookies. You don’t have to overindulge all of the time.”

As the old saying goes, “A well-balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.”