Dobie Unearths the History Rachael Rays 30 Minute Meals, by Dobie F (guest blogger)

I thought that Rachael Ray’s show, 30 minute meals, was developed by the Food Network. However, I just found out that I’m wrong. She actually started teaching these Rachael Ray 30 min meal classes when she worked in Albany to drum up some business where she worked.

The classes became very popular, just as the show is now. Eventually a reporter from a local station in Albany came to do a segment on the Rachael Ray 30 min meal classes. From there it soon became a regular segment on the local news. In the end it landed on the Food Network where we all know it from.

I never really knew how the Rachael Ray 30 min meal classes began, but they have a really cool bio about Rachael Ray on the Food Network site. http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/rachael_ray/article/0,1974,FOOD_9928_1702057,00.html

Below is a piece of the bio. You can see that the bio includes some little personal anecdotes.

“Rachael Ray was born into cooking. ‘My first vivid memory is watching Mom in a restaurant kitchen. She was flipping something with a spatula. I tried to copy her and ended up grilling my right thumb! I was 3 or 4,’ says Rachael. ‘Everyone on both sides of my family cooks.’”