Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rachel Ray: You Stink

Dear Rachel,
I was given your cookbook, 365 days: No Repeats, as a gift about a year and a half ago. Every recipe I have tried has failed miserably. Don't even try to blame me for being a bad cook. I will fully admit that I am not a great chef, but I know how to follow instructions. In fact, I have made recipes from other cookbooks and even other Food Network personalities (i.e. Alton Brown, Guy Fieri) and they have all turned out deliciously. Additionally, my husband, who is an EXCELLENT cook, has had zero luck using your recipes. My major complaints are as follows:
1. The recipes call for WAY too many ingredients, many of which are very unusual and hard to come by.
2. The recipes take a long time to make. Case in point: I made the tex-mex macaroni and cheese. It took about 2 hours to prepare because of all of the strange ingredients and mile-long list of directions, plus cook time.
3. Everything tastes BLAH! With so many ingredients, you would think the food would have a little bit of flavor - not the case. The tex-mex macaroni? Yeah, it tasted pretty much like hamburger helper with less flavor (and it cost more money because of the strange ingredients - see complaint #1).
4. You don't have any pictures in your cookbook. I think that this is because you really can't cook either. You had a book deadline, made up a bunch of crap and then threw it into a book. That could also be the reason for the conveniently timed commercial breaks on your television show.......hmmm.
If you have any rebuttal to these complaints, please post a comment to this blog.
Thank you,
Katie Jensen

6 comments:

Morgan said...

haha! that is so funny. that's true, her recipes all do have a million ingredients which turns me off right away. i've never really tried any of them though, so don't know if they are good.

TheAlfonsos said...

100% agree. To be honest, I've never wanted to make her recipes - she always seems to want to put a "twist" on something that's already good - like tex mex mac and cheese. What's wrong with mac and cheese? Sometimes I think she does that just so she can create a name for a dish, like her when she makes a thick soup, she calls it a stoup (stew + soup). Makes me crazy. I've never missed with one of the Barefoot Contessa's recipes if you're in the mood for a new cookbook, or better yet, just go to epicurious.com and type in the ingredient you're wanting to use that night, and you'll get a ton of great recipes, all rated, reviewed, etc. Good luck!

Ashley said...

As someone who had the Tex Mex Mac and Cheese I agree that it was not good.

Fern said...

I HATE cookbooks without pictures.

Nelson Family Album said...

Could the woman stop calling Olive Oil "EVOO"? Or possibly come up with another word other than Yumm-o? (*And use it as a name for a dog food? Come on!!!)

Great concept of a thirty minute meal, but not the best personality to head that up...

Josh Long said...

I can attest to your husband being an exceptional chef. When we were roommates (missionary companions, actually), that guy could browse through bare cupboards and a half-empty fridge and put together a delicious-looking gourmet meal, while the only thing I could figure out for dinner (looking at the same ingredients, mind you) was to open a can of tuna... and eat tuna... right out of the can. And stare longingly at the scrumptious smorgasbord on Moose's plate and watch him enjoy every last bite. Brilliant cook, that Moose.

I've always suspected Rachael Ray was a scam artist. Now I know it must be true. ;o)