SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

A LITTLE SPUNK

So, my position on Rachael Ray (Sad that I have one, I know. It's a professional hazard.) is one that has been one nurtured over time. At first I thought she was cute. Then she annoyed the beans out of me. Then I abruptly switched gears when I saw her FHM photo spread. Someone who has that little sense of who they are and what they could become has to be admired. Or at least pitied.

But the more digging I did, the less I found. Chefs I spoke to hated her with a level of bile you usually only find at political rallies. She has no cooking chops, she's as loud as a donkey braying into a bullhorn at the bottom of a mineshaft, and, you know, she's wayyyyyy too jumpy. So jumpy that on the first day of her new talk show (produced by Oprah Winfrey's company), she cut herself during the cooking segment.

But then I saw the October issue of Esquire. There's an article under the header "The Indefensible Position: Rachael Ray Doesn't Suck."

The author? Rachael Ray herself.

Interesting. What's she say?

Well, you can read the entire thing but here's an excerpt:

Yeah, some people find me annoying. I'm perky. I smile a lot. Hell, it's better than bawling. I speak in abbreviations. But if you had to stand there and talk to yourself for five years, you'd shorten some words, too. Yum-O? It just came out of my mouth one day, "yum" and "Oh my God" smushed together, because it was so good.

Whatever. We sold a lot of T-shirts with that one.

Moxie. The girl's got it in spades.

With that level of humility and perspective, it's time for a recount, I'd say.

Posted by Jeff at October 9, 2006 07:41 AM | TrackBack