ONE of daytime TV’s brightest stars, Rachael Ray shot to stardom with her eponymous Food Network program that first premiered 18 years ago.
As the warm, friendly, and endearing host of The Rachael Ray Show, the celebrity chef presented an hour of uplifting TV that earned legions of fans across the country.
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This despite suffering significant setbacks in her personal life over the years, including health challenges as well as back-to-back real estate misfortunes.
Since The Rachael Ray Show first premiered, the beloved TV personality has bounced back stronger each time she was faced with an obstacle – from a throat cancer scare in 2008 and the death of her pitbull Isaboo, to the terrifying fire that razed her home in 2020.
Amid concerns for Rachael’s heath, we look back at all the times TV’s most famous purveyor of 30-minute meals overcame difficult situations with grit, determination, and a big smile:
LOSING ISABOO
Just over three years ago, Rachael and her husband John Cusimano confirmed the death of their dog, Isaboo, on Instagram.
In May 2020, Isaboo’s heartbroken owners revealed that she had passed away “in our arms,” in an emotional statement.
Isaboo, who Rachael and John brought home from a shelter, often made surprise appearances on The Rachael Ray Show – much to the delight of viewers.
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Mourning her death, the couple remembered Isaboo as “a pitbull who taught us more about unconditional love, empathy, and understanding of one another than we could have ever imagined.”
They added, “We will open our home and our hearts to another animal in need, because that is what Izzy would want.
”We’ll miss her sense of humor. Her Wile E. Coyote-ness. Her energy and her game-on attitude. She was a fighter. ”
As promised, Rachael and John adopted a new puppy one month later, christening her Bella Boo Blue in a sweet nod to Isaboo.
‘I COULD HEAR DANGER’
Tragedy struck the family shortly after, when Rachael and John’s New York home was reduced to rubble after a massive fire broke out on August 9, 2020.
Their Lake Luzerne mansion erupted in flames while Rachael was preparing dinner for John, with the celebrity chef recounting the terrifying ordeal on her Food Network show.
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She documented the damage in a nine-minute clip that was aired during the season 15 premiere of The Rachael Ray show the same year.
“On August 9, my house burned,” she began. “15 years of memories. 40 years of notebooks, drawings, thoughts, my life’s work.
“Today, we’re going to share what’s left of our home.”
Rachael Ray Television Shows
Rachael Ray has been on TV since 2001, cooking up recipes and working with other celebrity chefs. Here are the TV programs that she has hosted
30 Minutes Meals – 2001 to 2012, Food Network
Rachael Ray – talk show, 2006 to 2023, USA Network
Rachael’s Vacation – 2008, Food Network, five-part mini-series
Rachael Ray’s Week in a Day – reality TV cooking show, 2010, Food Network
Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off – co-hosted with Guy Fieri, 2012, Food Network
Rachael Ray in Tuscany – 2024 to present, USA Network
Rachael walked through the house as she surveyed the damage, including the charred remains of her and John’s bedroom, their library, and their dressing room with mounds of charred clothes.
On the day of the fire, Rachael explained, she had decided to cook a hearty pasta meal for her husband, hoping to lift John’s spirits after a bad golf game.
While he was upstairs changing, the TV star started a fire in their fireplace and, moments later, a by-stander rushed into their home to give them an urgent warning.
“He’s in our backyard, screaming, and he’s like ‘Your roof is on fire! Your roof is on fire!”
She recalled trying to go upstairs and collect some of their valuables, including things like medicines, her prized notebooks, as well as her mother’s high school ring, before leaving the house.
“But when I ran to the top of the stairs I could hear the fire in the wall, I could hear the electricity, I could hear danger,” she continued.
In the end, Rachael and John managed to safely flee the inferno, together with their dog Bella, as the fire ripped through their home of 15 years.
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Volunteer firefighter Kenneth Dickinson, who rushed to Rachael’s home to help the crew battling the blaze, described the extent of the damage in an interview with CNN at the time.
“I felt sorry for her and her family, and I also felt sorry for the firefighters because I knew it was going to be a long night,” he told the channel.
The cause of the fire was later identified as creosote buildup in the chimney.
“The chimney basically spit and a fire ember fell on the roof, and the whole house came down,” Rachael said, before expressing how grateful she was that her family escaped with no injuries.
“I couldn’t be more grateful. Grateful for my life, grateful that I can survive this and rebuild a home,” Rachael affirmed. “We’re gonna get there stronger and better.”
True to their word, they renovated the house from the ground up, with Rachael giving fans a tour of the property on Instagram last December.
‘A KICKED CAN’
One year after their home burned down, Rachel and John’s New York apartment flooded amid the storms caused by Hurricane Ida.
“We had finally just finished the work on making the apartment over. And then Ida took it down. And I mean, out. Down hard,” she told People.
“Like, literally every speaker in the ceiling, the fireplace, every seam in the wall…It was like the apartment just literally melted, like in Wicked or something,” she detailed the wreckage.
After a week-long wait, a remediation team came in to assess the damage from the flooding, but ultimately made things worse, Rachael added.
“They put up their fans and their humidifiers,” she explained. “And then, they make a hole in the wall and break the main water pipe and flood the entire building down to the first floor, from our apartment on the sixth floor.
“The people that we were waiting for, the cavalry, burst this pipe and made everything worse,” she lamented. “Tell me you would not feel like a kicked can.”
THE END OF AN ERA
In 2023, rumors began swirling that Rachael’s popular Food Network show ran the risk of being canceled after a steady decline in viewership.
“It hasn’t been doing well for a while. It’s easy to forget that it’s even on,” an industry source told PageSix, ahead of the premiere of season 17 later that year.
The cut was announced three month later, when The Rachael Ray Show was officially axed by CBS after nearly two decades.
The popular daytime show, which first premiered in syndication, blended kitchen segments with celebrity interviews with delightfully entertaining results.
In a statement to Deadline, the then-54-year-old said, “I’ve made the decision that it’s time for me to move on to the next exciting chapter in my broadcast career.”
Rachael’s fans expressed their disappointment over the shock cancelation on X, with one person tweeting, “End of an era.”
Shortly after, the Daytime Emmy award winner announced the launch of her new production company, Free Food Studios, in partnership with Intentional Content.
“My passions have evolved from the talk show format production and syndication model to a platform unencumbered by the traditional rules of distribution…” Rachael said in a statement.
“That is why I am looking forward to putting all my energies into my recently announced production arm, Free Food Studios.
“Thank you to all of our Rachael daytime show partners, crew, and affiliates, and the wonderful years we all worked together,” she added.
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