Rachael Ray.

Ugh.

Kate, I think most of your readers will agree that Rachel Ray is a vapid, talentless hack.

But I think your post raises a deeper, more interesting issue that speaks to the fetishization and celebratization of cooks/chefs/etc. Your post seems to suggest that it's an apostasy to suggest that Rachel is worthy of the "Chef," with a capital C, appelation. At first when I read your post, I thought you were being a bit condescending, suggesting that a small, exclusive club of folks get to be called "Chefs." Then I thought some more and started to agree with you: you wouldn't call someone without a medical degree a "doctor," for example. Other titles get thrown around more liberally: e.g. manager, carpenter, plumber, "foodie." I can operate a tablesaw, am I carpenter? I've hired more than a few plumbers who didn't know how to do anything other than operate a snake. Etc. etc.

The rampant food and Chef worship of the last 10 years is obnoxious and I think that worrying about minutiae like who constitues a Chef and who doesn't, contributes to it. I ran a kitchen in a small pizza shop for a couple years and I've been told I'm an excellent cook. Would I call myself a chef? Eh, not really.

Maybe it's a topic you can explore some more in your blog. Maybe I need to get a life.

While I compare RR to Rocky the Flying Squirrel - http://www.stilllifecafe.com/blog/2008/07/01/wtf-rachael-ray-rocky-the-flying-squirrel-are-they-one-in-the-same/ - I think it's ironic I would come to her defense. I've read where she doesn't refer to herself as a chef, but instead uses the term "cook." And I think that is a fair assessment, love her or hate her.

When Rachel Ray was on Iron Chef, she repeatedly corrected people on the show who referred to her as a "chef"--she insisted on being called a "cook."

Sam,

Indeed, my beef here is not with Ms. Ray, but with UPI.

I see your point, Kate. UPI may have been careless with the "chef" title.

I also observe that UPI refers to RR as a "celebrity TV chef," rather than simply a chef. To me, this suggests RR is simply well known for presenting cookery advice and demonstrations on TV -- and implies she either "sold out" to the media or did not learn the craft through years as a working chef in a restaurant.

I'm not a huge proponent of RR either - but if we're going to draw hairlines on titles - Julia Child's book and TV show was referred to as "The French Chef" - she didn't work in a restaurant either....but to this day she is still regarded as one of America's foremost food authorities - I don't hold RR to the same standard as Julia by any means - but I don't think you need to work in a restaurant to be classified as a chef - RR accepts what her talents are and as it was said before - she doesn't refer to herself as a chef either

Most cooks are not chefs but all chefs are cooks.

I have to agree with Kate on this one.

No, those of us who object to Rachael Ray being called are not being nitpicky--a chef runs a restaurant kitchen. That is what we do. It takes years of training and experience to become a chef.

And the fact that bothbRachael Ray and Julia Child do not and did not call themselves chefs shows that they know/knew the difference.

"The French Chef" was named by the television station who produced her first series. They wanted something short and sweet that was easy to remember in the television listings. And the book that holds that title contained only recipes from the show.

UPI and AP should mention the proper use of the word chef in their stylebooks. Maybe I should send some emails suggesting it.

I can see how you don't think she's a real cook. But I'm a young woman and I want to cook Thanksgiving for my family for the first time and I won't lie, I was counting on some food network shows to get me through this (including Ray's). But I did find this amazing website that gave me some good pointers:

Traditional Thanksgiving: http://www.ranker.com/list/how-to-make-thanksgiving-dinner-part-1---thanksgiving-turkey/mandyg

Does anyone have any other good resources like this?