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For me, it's not so much about her cooking, per se. Her voice and personality just get on my last nerve. And then there is the concept of actual "30 minute" meals. Most of us don't have a staff to shop for the ingredients to have the kitchen fully stocked and ready to go. We also don't have a staff to wash and prep foods so they can be grabbed and chucked into whatever in 10 seconds. IMO, it should be called "30 Minute, but More Like an Hour and 30 Minutes for all the Rest of You Guys Meals".

See, here's the thing. I don't hate her. I don't especially like her either. I despise her cutesy phrases. But I like her liveliness. She's like pop music.

Also, one of my good male friends has a crush on her, despite the fact that her forearms remind him of his grandmother's.

I'll jump in. I don't have much to complain about her cooking, except that she only uses extra virgin olive oil (EVOO doesn't even bother me too much) when cooking - even heating to high temps. I know some are bothered that her shortcuts aren't really authentic Italian cooking. Most of what she makes now is almost identical to previous shows. She has outlived her recipes. I used to like her, but she became loud and obnoxious, tough and annoying with her gestures and ridiculous expressions. Oh my gravy, yummo, delish, sammie, stoup, etc. The food balancing act got old fast, too. FN took advantage of her initial popularity and overexposed her. That $40 dollar a day show was terrible. I called it, "Watch me talk and eat and make weird faces and stiff the staff on the tip."

I say, let power hungry Oprah have her and bring some real talent to the Food Network.

One more thing, I happened to watch Sandra Lee today and she made duck breasts with an orange glaze, and interesting side dishes and even a mushroom appetizer. That whole meal was probably 90% fresh. I was in shock. It looked great! I would have enjoyed it if only I had turned off the sound (the way she pronounces her words, rolling her lllll, and rrrrr and wwww and mmmm consonants, odd cadence and constant use of the word aye instead of a, li'l, fintastic, pop this into this and pop that, so much so that I find myself yelling at the TV - just as JerzeeTomato mentioned. I yell at Rachael too. They are annoying, what can I say.

@Jerzee - Sandy actually said recently that baking was her specialty...and proceeded to open a yellow cake mix. For real. Not that I have anything against the yellow cake mix, but at least RR is honest about her baking "skills".

Now, I am quite ambivalent towards RR. She annoys the hell out of me, so much so that I can't watch her at all (and I do watch Sandy every week for pure entertainment) - from daft abbreviations to pseudo cute expressions, to addressing her audience as "kids" (which comes across incredibly condescending), to calling her parents Mummy and Daddy when on TV (to me, there is something quite odd about a 37-year old woman saying "my Daddy" about her father on TV, but that's just me). I used to occasionally watch her 4-5 years ago, now I simply cannot do it, I just change the channel if I happen to stumble upon her show. Plus, she is every-freaking-where, which is a complete overkill - even if I liked a person to begin with, I would certainly be fed up by now.

That said, I have to admit that she is in fact doing what Sandy pretends to be doing - the actual semi-homemade cooking. Yes, she doesn't teach me anything and her show is utterly useless to me, and she apparently has 58 recipes for burgers and at least 75 - for coleslaw, but I actually can imagine that there are people out there whom she helped to overcome their 'fear of cooking". I doubt her meals really take only 30 minutes 'from start to finish", since, as dbcurrie noted, she has people to help her with prep at her disposal together with the magic of television, which also doesn't hurt. But her meals don't usually look disgusting (yes, Sandy, I'm looking at you and your meatloaf made in a slow-cooker with two kinds of cream of whatever soup and at least one seasoning packet), and I do believe, that unlike SL, she might be a decent start for somebody who is just beginning to look for their way round the kitchen.

Now, THAT said - I will not watch her even if you paid me;-)

I agree with most of the others, I don't hate her cooking, I hate her vocabulary.

There seem to be many small habits about her that have added up to me not being able to stand her in general, though I admit I often have her show on while I'm cooking.

I also agree that I can't make her stuff in 30 minutes. I borrowed one of her cookbooks from the library and it made me insane that she used EVOO in almost all of her recipes and kept writing Extra Virgin Olive Oil in parenthesis beside it. What's the point of using an abbreviation to explain it every single time? Why not just stick a glossary in your cookbook, or go with the general assumption that if someone is using your cookbook, they have heard you say EVOO a million times?

And it definitely drives me nuts that she acts so stupid about her baking inabilities. I firmly believe those who WANT to bake can, she simply doesn't want to, but (overdramatically) acts like it's some mysterious talent that she just wasn't born with.

Rachel teaches Cooking 101. I don't mind that she repeats herself a lot because that is how people learn. Once you've mastered the basics, you can move on to Alton or whoever you feel is suitable for your advanced level. But if you've never learned how to chop an onion, or which vegetables should be wiped with a damp cloth rather than washed in the sink, or that a pinch of nutmeg is great with spinach, or what ingredient you can substitute if you don't have something on hand, this is the show for you. A chicken dipping sauce made of honey mustard and barbecue sauce may not be your idea of cuisine, but it's simple to prepare, inexpensive and the kids will love it.

I would rather watch Rachel cook something tasty and relatively quick (even if it takes me longer than 30 minutes and isn't "authentic" Italian) than watch some ego-inflated chef prepare a flambe, crack eggs with one hand, chop onions at the speed of light, or demonstrate a recipe requiring numerous exotic and expensive ingredients.

Yeah, her shtick gets old. So did Emeril's. Get over yourselves.

I would agree with what frederika said. What good is FN these days? It has become filler noise when I want the boob tube on, but there isn't anything interesting on other stations to watch. Alton's shows have been replayed 50 times.

I get so tired of the "schtick", whether it is RR, SL, Emeril. BAM!!

i don't know if she still uses the same set {i haven't seen her show in about four years} but i love that chambers stove she cooks on. my mother had the exact same model with the broiler on the top of the stove and it was fantastic to cook on.

I think Rachel Ray is great for people who don't know how to cook or who want to learn how to cook reasonably easy and healthy meals for their family. She doesn't use a lot of packaged garbage. On the occasions I've seen her show, never has a can of cream of _______ soup come out. I use organic packaged salad mixes from the market, and canned stock when I'm out of real, and without canned tomatoes in their various forms and canned beans I'd be up the creek, so I can't get all high-handed about her ingredients. I pretty much use the same ingredients that she does, though I do agree with @chiff regarding the poppin' fresh biscuits. I would just buy decent rolls, etc. from the market. As far as I'm concerned, in terms of cooking, she's fine, but as noted, Cooking 101.

Thing is, I just don't like her. I am not a fan of her fakey bubbly EVOO-ey personality. I think that when she's lumped in with SLop, it's more about the whole likeablity factor than it is about the food. They do not, as far as I'm concerned belong anywhere near the same category when it comes to food.

I think RR typifies everything that is wrong with the Food Network today - she initially was hired because of her personality, not for her cooking expertise, she has been over-exposed, over-killed, and over-cutsied. The network execs see their audiance as those who are home all day, cannot avoid having the TV on, and having a lukewarm feeling toward food in general. If something works, stand back, 'cause that's what fills the airwaves for the next 10 years.

Instead of The Food Network, it should be called, "The Iron Chef Network" - will someone please shoot it and end this misery! I don't think it is possible that the current bunch of decision makers at TFN can save it from certain death - either, they need to depart en masse and be replaced, or go off the air by default of re-runs.

Bourdain was right.

I don't think "cooking101" is a good way to describe her show at ALL. Her cooking isn't a gateway into anything more complicated, it's shortcuts for people with limited time, end of story. I guess she does serve her purpose, as I'm sure there are people out there who need to think they're giving their family a good "home-cooked" meal without actually doing any work, but other than that I don't find any redeeming value in her show.

I don't consider myself a really talented cook, or a food snob (in most respects), but I agree with dbcurrie, anyone could go into their freezer and dump whatever's in it over pasta. It's sad that FN is moving away from teaching and inspiring people to cook and enjoy great food...

And her voice is like nails on a blackboard. If I hear her say "EVOO, kids" and then giggle one more time, I might actually throw something this time.

Eh, potayto, potahto, she's still annoying.

She's annoying, her voice is fingernails on the chalkboard thing but one thing I'll say she has enthusiasm which most of the FN "chefs" don't have. One that I really like is Giada DiLaurentiis. She enjoys what she does and seems to make those dishes look easy! As far as the recipes goes, I troll for those on FN's website.