"RachaelRay" news and stories

We couldn't launch the Hottest Men in the Food Industry without taking a look at the ladies. Whether they've made their mark in restaurants, on blogs or TV, or as cookbook authors, these women not only sizzle in the kitchen, they're leaders in their field.

With more than 50% of the vote, there was no competing with your number-one pick this year...

• Readers helped track down recipes for lunch tongue and Sarah Bernhardt cake in 2009, but outstanding fugitive recipes include velvet crab soup, lobster Roberto, wet spaghetti, mint roses and sweet potato pone.
• The Krewe of Argus has selected Rachael Ray as grand marshal of its Mardi Gras parade.
• The city's Mirliton Man, who set up to save heritage varieties of Louisiana's beloved alligator pear, reports he has identified eight traditional varieties and distributed seeds across the Southeast.
• Chicken is the starring player in three Creole dishes perfectly suited for cold weather.

Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are the farmers and innovators behind Beekman 1802, a 200-year-old estate and farm in upstate New York. We'll be running recipes, photos and tales from the farm as their crops come into season. Catch them on the Farm to Table episode of 'Rachael's Vacation' on the Food Network.


We had a bounty crop of carrots this year. We sliced them and diced them every which way we knew how and still they kept coming. It seems like you can open almost any refrigerator in America and find a neglected bag of carrots. You use one or two in a salad and then get stumped as to what to do with the rest.

We turned to our friend Sandy Gluck who always helps us out with our overstock. The result is a sweet and spicy carrot dish that will definitely clear up crisper space in refrigerators across the nation.

Find the recipe for Sicilian Glazed Carrots after the jump...

Photo: Sarah LeTrent

There was nothing Yum-O about the cockroach that dropped in on Rachael Ray's lunch earlier this week.

The Food Network star was serving up some "sizzling soft tacos" to a group of sixth graders at New York City's Public School 89 when the uninvited guest crashed the party. A reporter for the New York Daily News noticed the six-legged bug scrambling across the table, and then watched as Charlie Dougiello, Ray's publicist, swatted the vermin away.

Ray, who was at the school to introduce her new healthy lunch menu, told the Daily News that she missed the whole thing. "I did not see that. It's unfortunate if there was [a bug]. I think that these schools strive to be the best across the board; I'm sure that includes cleanliness."

Photo: Sarah LeTrent

Professional chefs prepare and enjoy a huge variety of different foods, some familiar to the rest of us, some beyond our usual pantry options, unless you're prone to stocking huitalacoche ( aka corn fungus), beef cheeks and tomato foam.

But even though they possess adventurous palates and have the opportunity to try ingredients and dishes from far and wide, that doesn't mean they like everything they eat. They all have one or two foods that just don't do it for them, their own personal food Kryptonite.

Slashfood asked some of the country's top chefs which edibles top their "thanks, but no thanks" list.

Rachael Ray
The ubiquitous Rachael Ray is famous for transforming all kinds of foods into 30-minute meals, but she has a serious aversion to mayonnaise. "Mayo is a four-letter word to me and I avoid using it when I can. It's all about that texture. I even make a no-mayonnaise potato salad is perfect for picnics since you don't have to worry about spoiling."