January 7, 2025 • 43 mins
This week, Tommy is joined by the one and only Rachael Ray. Rachael is a brilliant cook, television personality, businesswoman, best-selling author, philanthropist and a brand new podcast host…just to name a few of the many hats she wears. She rose to fame through her iconic series on the Food Network, 30 Minute Meals, before landing her own daily daytime talk show, The Rachael Ray Show, which went on for an impressive 17 seasons. When the show premiered, Rachael was immediately embraced by critics across the country. Time Magazine wrote, "You can't attract her kind of following by just being accessible. Ray, like Regis Philbin, is gifted at being on television." Newsweek praised Rachael as being "the most down-to-earth TV star on the planet,” and Forbes voted her #2 Most Trusted Celebrity. Today, Rachael opens up about why she has never looked back but instead only forward in her career, how she felt after choosing to wrap up her daytime talk show after almost two decades, why nothing makes her happier than putting in a hard day of work, the people along the way of her career who made a really big impact, how she has never paid attention to gossip or negative chatter, why she never has let fear dictate her life, the importance of continuing to learn something new no matter how much success you have, what made her want to jump into the podcast world, what’s next for the woman who has done it all, and so much more.
Subscribe, rate, and review this episode if you enjoyed this conversation!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, guys, welcome to I've never said this before with me,
Tommy Di Dario. I hope you had an absolutely beautiful
New Year celebration. It's twenty twenty five. Let's go twenty
twenty five. We are ready for you, and I am
so excited to kick off the year with probably one
of my all time favorite people in the world, my
dear friend, the iconic Rachel Ray. Rachel is, of course
(00:24):
a brilliant cook, a television personality who has done more
shows than I can even list. She's a badass businesswoman,
a best selling author, she's a brand new podcast host.
I mean, I can go on and on, because what
hasn't she done? So I met Rachel through her syndicated
daily daytime talk show, The Rachel Ray Show, which was
on for an incredible seventeen seasons. That's an accomplishment achieved
(00:48):
by very few people in the business. I'm telling you,
it's so rare, and I'm so proud of her for it,
and her magnetism is why that show continued to go
on and on. I joined her show for the last
seven or so years of its run, and I was
one of her main lifestyle contributors, which was amazing, and
I quickly fell in love with this amazing human. Rachel's
not only a dear friend, but also an incredible mentor.
(01:08):
And to have the opportunity to sit in front of
her and turn the tables on a woman who meets
so much to me personally and professionally, ah man, it
was a full circle moment. It truly was a treat.
I'm still smiling like a dork thinking about it. And
the nuggets of wisdom that she throws down, they're going
to inspire you to make the most of your entire
next year. So let's see if today we can get
(01:29):
Rachel to say something that she has never said before.
Rachel Ray, my friend, it is so good to see you.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm great. I'm in Tuscany. How bad could it be? Right?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I don't think that at all.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Getting ready for the next run of The Living Kitchen Tuscany.
We did all of the holiday shows in the Living
Kitchen upstate. I just also finished shows for so many
of our talents that we produce with Free Food Studios.
I work on my own podcast as well, which you
should do because you're definitely someone who exemplifies I'll sleep
(02:11):
when I'm dead, so.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm living the life.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Man.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I'm having a good time.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We've had four Christmases so far oo NN's family, my family,
and two kind of friends family. Christmas is here, and
we have another one on January first, and I think
one more after that, so we're going to have five
different Christmas holiday celebrations in all.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So we're busy.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We're busy, and I've been writing for eight hours today,
sixteen new shows for this next run here in Tuscany.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So busy, How are you, my friend?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I am fantastic busy. You and I are cut from
the same cloth. We like busy, we like working. I
I know it. I'm not surprised that all to hear
you have all these things going on, and we're going
to dive into your whole beautiful new chapter that you're in.
But I really wanted you to be one of my
first guests for my twenty twenty five you know season,
because you know, I love you. I think you're such
(03:10):
a badass business woman and friend.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And you wonderful producer. By the way.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I don't think people understood just how in charge you
were over your content on our daytime show over many years.
But you brought us such beautiful stories and really worked
extremely hard. I have such respect for you, and thank you,
my friend, for all the work you gave us over
(03:38):
the years on that show. And I hope that our
professional relationship and personal relationship carries on for many many
years to come.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh thank you, me too, Me too. And that means
a lot. And like I said, I just so admire
you as a professional and as a human. It was
a no brainer to have you on to kick off
this new year of shows. And I can't believe it.
I was thinking, I think the last time I saw you,
because life is so crazy and goes in a million
different directions, was when we wrap the show, which we
need to change because that's not okay, this it is.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I have like so many shows now, I can't sleep
ever before o'clock in the morning, and I fall asleep
still working on what I have to type for the
next day or do for the next day.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I'm good, We're good. I have a lot of work.
Believe me, I'm busy.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
No, I know you are, But I'm saying I want
to see you because that's the last time I saw you.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yes, well, you can come upstate and you can come
to Italy. You know, we're here, and we're there, and
we're in New York. We're all over the place. You
can catch us pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Good, Yeah, good, I'm gonna take you up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You a little Santa action, you know, get yourself on
a sleigh.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Gladly. I will gladly do that. Rich. I know you've
done so many interviews or the course of your career.
I think a lot of people who follow you and
follow me they know your story pretty well through reading
your books and through watching you on your show. So
I'm really interested in this beautiful new chapter you're in.
And as I just said, you know, the last time
you and I actually physically saw each other was when
(05:17):
we were wrapping your show, and for everybody listening, I
was on it for the last six or seven seasons,
and that's how Rachel and I met and began this
beautiful friendship. I am a very sentimental, emotional man. I
don't know if it's because I'm Italian or from Jersey.
I don't know what it is. But when there's so
many different life, you know, momentous moments that come and go,
(05:38):
I get very, very sappy and emotional, and I'm curious
for someone like you who always has something going on,
who's always working on the next thing was wrapping your show,
which you did for seventeen seasons, which by the way,
is not the norm. That is an incredible accomplishment for
everybody listening. Very few people have long running shows like that.
It is a rarity, and I don't know if anyone
(05:59):
else is going to be able to achieve that in
this day and age. When you hung up that kind
of talk show hot, what was that like for you? Like,
were you ready? Did you have a grieving process?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I've been working for over thirty years in television and
I never grieve anything.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I look forward. I am a forward thinking person. I
have never.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Been a person to look back. And I don't grieve
anything because I don't lose anyone. I talk to everybody.
I text with all my producers. I send them holiday
presents for Hanukah and Christmas.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I know what Emily's up to and what Goldie's.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Doing, and everybody in my life stays in my life.
I don't grieve anything because I'm not burying anything. Yeah,
And that's what I mean when I say I'll sleep
when I'm dead. I always look forward. I don't look
back because there's no point in it. And I may
made the decision to move on to other things so
(07:04):
that I could do more things with more people. What
I really wanted to explore was how to produce people
that I do not think were properly represented on or
in television. In my lane, you know, it's all kind
of food related and health related, But I didn't feel
(07:25):
that so many people that I really respect their work
and their work ethics and the information they have to
share and the fun that they can bring to people.
I didn't think there was anybody that was filling that
(07:45):
Niche farmer Lee Jones and all of his chef friends
that go to the Culinary Vegetable Institute, and he gets
so excited about standing in his garden and telling you
about seasonal vegetables. Sometimes I worry he's going to pass
out literally in the middle of the field. And he
goes inside with the world's greatest chefs and they cook
(08:06):
the seasonal ingredients that he's been all giggly about. I
call him Giggles, by the way, because he gets so
goofy about vegetables and then you have deb who does
a soul food mash up with all of the cuisine
from around the world that she learned in her decades
as a.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Flight attendant. And then she.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Got kind of kicked out of that club and she said,
I'm going to put myself through culinary school and people
told her no, and she said, oh no, you don't,
I'm doing this, and she has cookbooks and restaurants.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's just the coolest thing in the world. She's a mashup.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
We have Jake Jewish is one of my favorite books,
like in history. It's hilarious and fantastic. We produce him
as well. We're adding in some content next year that's
very exciting. With a couple of in the health space,
let's just say. And of course I have Anna Gas
(09:07):
who is our resident Italian, and she does great history
of Italian food, but like.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Really gets into the nitty gritty of what.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's like to be an Italian and live like an Italian,
cook like an Italian. And then I have the Living
Kitchen Upstate, and I have the Living Kitchen in Tuscany.
So we've got a little something for everybody and that
makes me really happy. And our partners are truly our partners.
A ETN, FYI, Hulu, and Disney are our partners, and
(09:41):
they're literally our partners. Like Free food studios, me and
my buddies, we are their partners, and content are pics
to each other.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I love that sense that we're all sitting at a
big table together.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
That's what I think should be. And we don't fake anything.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
We don't like open a door four times or you know,
start a scene over and over and over again. We
make content that I truly believe in because it's the
real deal. We don't work with a lot of script
or sculpted stuff in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
We're kind of a.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Freestyle, let's just say so. The shows are always surprising
to us too. As we go through and edit them
and air them. We're always like, huh, that happened. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It's fun.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I love the adventure of life, and I really do
believe you should sleep when you're dead. Anytime you open
your eyes, whether it's in the middle of the night
or the first thing in the morning, you should be
grateful for it and start working. Move your brain, move
your fingers, move your hand, move your bodies.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Of course, you know, I work very hard, but I.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Love having my brain come alive and I'm so grateful
for every day that I get blessed with that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I just it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It makes me super super happy. Nothing makes me happier
than work. And what I love about be pretty happy.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But and what I love about this this new chapter
you're in is you're doing things that it seems like
you've wanted to do for a while, right, Like you're
developing people that you find so interesting and that you
just think deserve a platform, and I think.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
They don't have one.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I love I love finding someone that can represent people
that I know. And I think, Wow, you know my
friends so and so and so and so and so
and so. We're going to be so excited to get
to know this person. And my friends that are obsessed
with baking sour dough bread and growing gardens for years
during COVID, Now they could see Farmer Lee and all
(12:07):
of the great chefs that he knows, and they'll eat
more vegetables because now they're watching all this great content
from the world's greatest chefs on his show make these
great dishes with vegetables like that makes me psyched, That
makes me really excited and happy, and I love the
work that I get to do with kids. I've been
(12:29):
to Ukraine six times. I'm planning my seventh with my
friend andri Fute. We're going to go soon into the
new year, and I'm planning a kitchen with my friend
and cobyin Uptown in New York City. I'm going to
build out a children's teaching kitchen there and start like
a vocational program at the center she's working on.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
So I have a lot going on, and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
To see an old friend from my childhood a boys
and Girls club also quick into the new year. And
boys and Girls clubs have been a part of our
giving program through our foundation for a very long time.
Beth and Howard, you know, we are so deeply involved
(13:15):
with North Shore Animal League America. So everything we're doing
in life, all of our brand is supporting how we
help people, children and animals.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So that's going really great.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
We still have furniture and all of our home goods
and all of that and that supports that work, and
we have businesses that create and generate monies for our foundation,
so we don't have to worry about asking people just
give us a pile of cash. We could just sell
stuff and say here's.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
How we generate that money.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It's just all very very exciting this chapter of our lives,
and I mean our because John, I wouldn't have any
of this possible if it wasn't for my trusted friends
and my beautiful, sweet husband who also happens to be
a lawyer and a great musician. I'm a very good cook,
by the way, so I couldn't have built any of
(14:13):
this without him, and I love him desperately.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Aside from nurturing and developing people that you know deserve
to have that happen to you, you're doing so much
giving back and you always have. People don't realize, and
I mean many do, but many don't because you're not
bragging about every single thing you do out there for
so many people. And I know because we're friends, but
you really do have one of the biggest hearts in
the world. And I think it's so cool that there
(14:41):
are people I know, Jake, and I think it's so
cool that you're investing time and energy in people because
I imagine there was a point in your career where
you felt like somebody did that for you, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, many many. My dear dear mentor and very good
friend Brooke Johnson.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Was a whopperdoodle there.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
She's the one who told me I could work on
cable and I could work in daytime, encouraged me always,
has always given me terrific advice. Uh, and had my
my my sales had had my back. Wonderful. But you know,
my mom, my Grandpa. So many people in my life,
(15:24):
and people like Jacques Papin Jose Andras people that I am.
I'm weirded out to call them my friends, but they
are and I love them so desperately and I've learned
so much from them about how to live, how to be.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm just overwhelmed. Michael J. Fox the most optimistic person
maybe ever.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Uh. Multiple Prayers Presidents that I've worked with, and first
Ladies Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Mo, Hi, Michelle, and I just.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I I am so, so so lucky because I got
to meet all these people that I just got to
absorb everything I learned from them and try and incorporate
that into something I can do with my life or
my brand or my work. Moving forward. And that's the
(16:23):
great part about always moving forward, because you can take
any inspiration you get from a meal, from a person,
from a leader, from all these different angles, and you
can pour that like my husband making a cocktail or
something and pouring it through a strainer.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You can distill that. Uh. I also have my own.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Gin which I received yet and my friend Brian makes
that in Upstate, New York with all of my favorite ingredients,
and we worked on it a really long time together,
and I couldn't love him more either. But so we
learn more about that world too all the time, and
how we really craft specialty spirits or special types of
(17:10):
food or special ingredients. It's just so exciting. Life is exciting.
I never look back, I always look forward. Well, I
love really long answer to your question, No, and I love.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I love that zest for life. I mean, I wake
up every day and I'm not really religious, but I'm
very spiritual, and I say out loud, like what I'm
grateful for if I'm walking to the gym, if I'm
walking to the subway, I just kind of do it,
you know, either in my mind or softly to myself.
And I always say, I feel so lucky to be here,
like to be chosen to be on this earth, because
I do have this zest for life, and I think
it's what we make it. And I think we have
(17:43):
one life to live. Let's fucking make it awesome, right, So.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I agree with you, brother, I just.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I'm so good.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
The same prayer I've said every night for decades my
mommy wrote and through circumstance, she unfortunately left the Catholic
Church eventually, but my mama gave us a prayer to say,
and I say it to this day. Good Night, Dear God.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I love you.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Dear God, Please givet me the knowledge and the courage
to help myself, to help others and to do good.
God pless help protect and forgive us. It's simple, it's clean,
it's in and out, and it just says, make me
useful today, universe, let me be of some help to someone,
(18:28):
and let me be more decent than I was yesterday.
Let me learn something with my day today. And so
that's my go to thought.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's beautiful, that's so my vibe. I love that so much.
I think that for you. One of the reasons why
I'm so drawn to you as a human is because
I feel like you worked and continue to work in
an industry that over the years you had to fight
to earn your place, and you had to fight to say,
look at me, I deserve to be here. It's a
male dominated world sometimes we live in especially then, or
(19:03):
at least the men like to think so. And you
made it happen. And I was raised by pretty much women.
I love women. Shocking in my gay man that loves women,
but I love women, and I in my interviews one
of the biggest things I get, you know, was a
question from people is, oh, is you know Anne Hathaway
(19:26):
or Meryl Streep, Like are they really nice? Because we
heard they could be so tough. And I'm like, you, guys,
why tough? Why because there's a successful woman in business,
like it drives me crazy. Do you feel like you
ever had to deal with that?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And my ladies, I've always said the opposite of that. Yeah,
I've been asked a million times. Do you feel like
men in your industry, like Emerald or Bobby?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
You know, we're given more than you.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Anytime I earned less money than a man in my
same business, it was because I asked to, because I
wanted more money for the studio or the staff, or
putting more people in the back kitchen or onto the
production staff. I those were my choices. I made those choices.
(20:19):
I think I've been treated very fairly by men and
women most all of my adult life, and people that
didn't care for me or my work. No one says
everybody is going to like you on the playground.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I've said this for decades. That's grow up like.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Not everyone will dig what you dig or the way
you teach or the way you think.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
And that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
There is more than enough room in this world for
everyone to do exactly what they want to do, and
you don't have to be mean to other people to
accomplish it. In my opinion, so I'm not I go
with like the Bambi, you know, Thumper's mom kind of thing.
If you don't have something nice to say about someone,
shut up, don't say.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Anything at all.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And I really feel that I've been treated very very fairly. Look,
I'm a waitress from upstate New York who ended up
with this amazing life. I'm sitting in my husband's studio
in Tuscany, you know, in my beautiful home that I decorated,
and I doodled on a piece of paper. I am
(21:32):
grateful and nothing but nothing, but I have a dream
life because I worked hard, and I move forward, and
I don't complain about anything. I really don't, And I
don't complain about the way anybody treated me. Ever, I
really don't every bad thing that ever happened to me.
I wouldn't change one brick or one stitch of my life,
(21:56):
not one brick, not one stitch, because everything could be
the thread you pull that makes your sweater fall apart
or the blanket rip apart. You need all of who
and what you are period.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Hmmm, yes, yes, yes, yes, Well I think that's also
inspiring because a lot of people who are listening they
want a long career, and not many people can say
they've had longevity like you have. It's a very difficult
thing to achieve, it really is, and a lot of
people want that, especially the younger generations. But now there's
this world that we live in with such toxic social media,
(22:34):
and yes there's many benefits to it, but there's a
lot of gross mean chatter all over the internet, and
people are always being inundated with opinions. So you've always
been someone to let that roll off your back, like
you don't pay attention.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They don't pay attention to it.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, you have the life you choose. Everybody does. We
have free will. Everyone can pick the life they choose.
They can pay attention to them, or they can pay
attention to minding their own life and making their own choices.
(23:09):
Your choices shouldn't be based on other people's opinions of
what you look like, or what you did yesterday or
what you're doing tomorrow. It should be about what you
want and need. And also, you know, you have to
set realistic expectations. You can't say I want to be
(23:31):
doing this for thirty years. No one knows if they're
going to get thirty years of anything in a career.
You can't say I want this amount of money. I
truly have never been a person that has ever worked
for money in my whole life.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Money isn't what matters.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What matters is your integrity and whether or not you
actually love what you do. If you're not afraid of
who you already are or where you've come from, you
can't be afraid of anything moving forward, because the worst
that can happen is you go back to who you
were yesterday, And so what, As long as you have
(24:08):
peace with that, you're good and you're groovy and everything's
going to be fun. You have to be a little
bit fearless. But in the other way, you can't expect
and be fearless about the future because you don't know
what's going to happen. You have to be strong enough
to say, if I try this and I lose, worst
(24:28):
that could happen, I go back to me yesterday. So
what that was, Okay, I survived. And that's the way
I think about it. I think about it kind of
the opposite of the way I probably most people think
about it.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So you've always had that mentality.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Always because that's the way I was raised.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
My grandfather was my best friend, and my no No
was my nanny. Really he was my babysitter and raised
me when I was a little baby, and my mom
was his first born, so she was always his number
one in the kitchen and always by his side, and
they were very, very extremely close. They're they're very much connected.
(25:08):
And I lived my life basically the same way I
did when I.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Was baby two, three, four, five years old.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is when I learned who I would become, and
I've always been the same.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
God. It's so it's so cool hearing that from someone
like you, because I think a lot of people sometimes
romanticize the journey of falling into a spiral in their
lives and having to overcome such you know, hardships in
their line of work in terms of Oh, I didn't
(25:45):
feel like I was worthy, or I didn't feel like
I should be chosen, or I felt like the world
kind of was against me. And you've always had this
mentality of like, I'm gonna work hard, I deserve to
be here. I'm gonna tune out the noise, let's go.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I love to work, and I come from a long
line of people that love to work. Like my grandpa
would work eighty or more hours a week, go home
and sing to his children in the middle of the
night and cook all night and have the food ready
for them when they would get out of school the
next day. My mama worked one hundred hours a week.
It would sleep in a booth at Howard Johnson's, you know,
(26:19):
after twelve buses of Canadian skiers and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I just I like to be around people that like
to work.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It makes me feel it makes me feel period, and
I think that's why I love working in Ukraine and
working with kids. I feel like my life actually matters
when I'm with people that work hard, fight hard, try
(26:48):
hard at everything, and are still happy, Like they find
a way to smile and hug each other and share
food and love one another. Beautiful thing to watch and
feel and absorb. It changes everything to be in that climate.
(27:10):
From the time I was a kid to now my
mid fifties, it is the most significant thing in my life.
Even on our honeymoon when we were in Africa. You know,
you're in communities where some of the community works at
resorts and in town and stuff, and they bring back
their money and they give it to everybody so all
(27:32):
the children can have school books in a school uniform.
It's just these beautiful situations that I've seen all of
my adult life now because I was trained that way
as a child.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I really.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
There's nothing I'm more grateful for in my whole life
than the way I was raised.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, I'd set you up for this entire life journey
that you were on, and it's so beautiful. I think
that's really cool. And it's evident you hold your life
so close, which I think is a secret sauce recipe
in life. It's not forgetting those people along the way right,
holding them near and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Dear, No, I talked to it, as I said, I
talked to most everyone that I've worked with over the
last couple of decades often and text and send Christmas
boxes and Hanukkah gifts, and you know, they're a part
of my family.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And I feel that your family can grow every year.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It depends on you, know, if you can grinch out
and make your heart tend sizes too big or not.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
You know, you just got to make room for more
and more people.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So is there a way over the last few years,
you know, so much has changed in your life, You're
developing so many new projects, You're in a new chapter
of your entire life and career. Is there a way
that you can pinpoint that you think you've changed? Or
does change not really happen for you so much because
you've kind of maintained that consistent girl that you've been
your whole life.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
No, I think that we can always change, and I
strive to.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I get lazy at it. Though I've been studying Italian
for like a decade. I shouldn't be there. I should
be done. My husband studies it now too, and I'm
so happy for him because I think he's up to
like one hundred and forty eight days.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Of due lingo in a row or something.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Wow. I do these lessons from my friend Lorenzo Mararia,
and they are really tough. He's a toughie and I
work so hard on him, and then if I see mistakes,
he sends back the corrections. You know, I get so
broken hearted him. I let him down. But I'm always
(29:49):
trying to learn something new. And I love to draw,
I love to read, I love to write. And I
was just making notes today on not only the shows
that I'm trying to accomplish right now, but on books
I want to do. I want to do a foodles
book because I love drawing foodles.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I draw the pictures of a recipe and then I
write the recipe and I put them in the Christmas
boxes at the holidays, as you know. So I want
to do a book of foodles for kids. I wanted
the Living Kitchen Upstate and the Living Kitchen Tuscany. I
want to do some back writing about what I love
(30:33):
about the places we live and why, and do a
couple more cookbooks along the way.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
That'll be thirty one and thirty two. I think I
don't know a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
But I love that feeling of a little bit of
excitement mixed with a little bit of pressure. When am
I going to get to this one? And when am
I going to get to that one? You know, it
makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
There's not many things you haven't done, and this just
popped into my mind. Would you ever do anything or
do you have any interest in the scripted world?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I've thought about it over the years. I'm Mary Juliani.
Always wants me to do something scripted with her. She's
a little my little firecracker, that one.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I love her.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You know, I.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Wouldn't say no, but it's not like top of my list.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
But please feel free if you'd like to put me
in something stripped me.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
A shout because like, what can't you do at this point?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I mean, come on, I don't know it's fun, But
I friend, I have such an annoying voice.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'm shocked still have a job.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh please please? Well that voice is all over the
podcast world now, which I love. I am a very
tough podcast critic listener. I love your show. I love
your show. It's like you were born to do it.
For you, like, what made you want to do a podcasts?
It's a very different medium for.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You, because I believe in the concert that life is
so beautiful if you wake up in a positive frame
of mind and want to accomplish something with each and
every day that you open your eyes. And I'm fascinated
by people, all types of folks, like I had Rebecca
(32:20):
Divine on. She was one of the last ones I
just taped in the last few weeks. And this is
a woman who was told she had six months to
live and that was like over seven years ago.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
It's just.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I find so much joy in learning about people that
beat every odd that you can think of, and people
that find ways to make things work when they shouldn't,
or when things when they've been kicked down a lot
(32:56):
and they popped right back up like a cork.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I love stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
It makes me super happy, and I just love diving
more into that than you can do in five minutes
on a chat show. You know you have very limited time,
and they're always trying to rush you through different segments.
I don't want to rush through everything in life. I
(33:21):
want to let people tell their whole story, not just
four minutes of their story.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I want to hear as much of it as possible.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
So that was what excited me about going a little
bit down that road, is, Hey, let's listen to a
longer format of people that I truly respect and really value,
and what can we learn from each other from one another,
(33:50):
and let's just share that with as many people as possible.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's why I got into it.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, And I imagine, knowing you as well as I do,
you're some with so much heart and curiosity, and when
you're talking about something, you're really talking about it. You
don't like fluff. You're not a fluff person. So I imagine,
you know, like you said, the talk show so fast
and it's so small and condensed, and your little blocks
here and there, I imagine that wasn't probably as fulfilling
(34:19):
as something like a podcast or like this. And I
feel that way in some of my work too, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
As you can expand you can expand on things, you know,
like when I'm on with someone like Harlan Coben, my
my dear, dear friend, and I respect and love his
work so much, obsessed, but I can really chat with
him because I trust him and we are truly friends.
(34:45):
So I can have that real time and share that
with people in a way that I know, hey, I know,
talk about this and less about that, and let's have
some fun. Let's get in there and show people a
little bit a broader side of someone like that because
(35:09):
I know them a little bit better. I also love
to have on people that I've just met, like Rebecca,
who we were just at a retreat together, a health
retreat together, and that's how I met her, and I
just said, I'm obsessed with you. She has her own
(35:32):
brilliant podcast, Brainy Bond, and she is gorgeous, beautiful woman, smart,
funny and has learned so much about how to stay alive.
Quite frankly, the mom of four, by the way, looks
like bounce a quarter off of her.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
She's so fit.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And I just find bringing someone like that into the
bright spotlight for anybody that might be listening, could change
their life, you know, if they're battling cancer, if they're
scared to go to the doctor to even find out
if they have cancer, get screened, and then to hear
(36:14):
a story like that, I could literally save a life
that day. I love that too. So there's the here's
the new, Here's this someone I love and being able
to talk to that those two types of people and
share that information with as many people as we listen.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
That's cool, that's really fun.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, that fuels my No, you're doing it, it fuels
my soul. And that's why I started this show, right, Like,
I love the work I get to do with extra
on the carpets, and it's fun and it's the thing.
But you get three minutes with someone, it's not real conversation.
And I was craving more of that connection. And I
often saw people I was interviewing wanted to have a
substantial conversation, but you just can't in those formats.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Wait, it's formatted.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, yeah, And that's how this show was born. So
I always ask this question in every episode of the
show based off the title of this show, which for you,
I imagine might be a difficult one to answer. But
the name of the show is called I've never said
this before, And that was born from having real moments
because I was tired of the fake I was tired
of the clickbait. I was tired of the headlines. I
(37:23):
wanted real moments and to give people the space to
say something whatever that question means to them that they
maybe haven't had the chance to talk about in a
two minute or six minute interview before.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Being someone there's anything left time.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I know, I'm like being someone that's talked for decades now.
I don't know, But is there anything you can think
of that you maybe don't always get the chance to
say whatever that means to you.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Well, I think I've.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Already kind of said it just in chatting with you,
because I love you and trust you so much. But
I've never wanted to be someone else ever. I have
never said to myself I wish I were that person.
And I have never allowed someone to break me in
public or in an interview. I just won't have it.
(38:09):
I just won't have it. If people try and take
you down, it's not going to get you anywhere. You
can go home and you can cry, or you can
tell your husband, your lover, your dog how much that
bothered you. But I just don't do anything like that
ever in public. And the first time I saw my husband,
(38:31):
I thought he was gay and I tried to set
him up on a date with a male friend of
mine and he said, but I'm not gay, and then
I was like check please, And I could not wait
to get him in the sack.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That's my girl. That's my girl. That's my girl. I
couldn't love you more. Wow. Well it was a very
memorable evening.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
It was, and he is a blessed man.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Oh my god. Yes, this is not stuff we were
talking about on your talk show. I am here for it.
Somewhere John is smiling with like a cocktail and hands,
saying that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I had to buy two different sized suits for his
wedding from Prada.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
His jacket was one size, his trow is another.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh okay, Rachel Ray, Yeah, I am here for this
chapter of your life. And I hope you still are
enjoying this chapter of your life if you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I certainly am. I'm a very lucky lady.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Oh my god, I kind of love you more as
we wrap up the show coming from you, I think
this is a really cool answer to get. So I
would love to know. How do you define success?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
That is so different than everybody else. It has nothing
to do with money. Did you do your best today?
Did you work as hard as you could? And did
you share? Did you make food for people that were hungry,
that are standing in the same room or the same
house with you? How much did you give? How much
(40:13):
did you give is always how I define the success
of my day one hundred percent. How much did I
give to my dog, to my friends, to my neighbors,
to my husband, to my family. What did I do
today that allowed me to share with people is the
most important element of every day of my life.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
God, that's beautiful. Wow, the truth. I'm letting that sink
in for a minute. That's truly beautiful. Thank you for
sharing that. Thank you for hanging out. I don't know
if I've ever fully expressed to you over the years
how much you changed my life. From being on your show,
I mean, and getting to know you and giving me
a chance and giving me a shot and inviting me
back and becoming a regular in your family, it really
(40:58):
put me on the path, brought me to where I
am today. And you were a person you were You
were a person who.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Bring me, A talented person who sees people, who really
sees people and their their whole self, And you brought
us so many beautiful shared moments with very very special people.
You are truly truly gifted, talented, loving, sweet person.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I adore you. I always have and you know that.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I met you it was it was a pretty instant chemistry. Absolutely, John,
You're lucky I'm gay, because i'd be I'd be sliding
right into Rachel's d MS and trying to pick her up.
So you're lucky. You're lucky. Although from what I heard,
you don't have to worry about anything. You're very gifted,
I've heard.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I love you, Tommy, and I have such respect for you.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
And I hope, I hope you do my podcast and
that I can do yours again anytime you like.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I just of sharing time with you. You know that.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Oh, I feel the same way. I love you guys.
Thank you for hanging out, and we might pop up
upstate or in Italy. Do you well eat your whole
kitchen out, so be warned.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
All right, but I put you to work. You can't
just come and eat for free. You gotta put a
little bit. You gotta put a little bit of those
muscles into it too.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
All right. I got you, I got you. Oh, here's
Jill popping it from GMA. Say hello, beautiful face. Oh
here we go now I.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Hear you, Hi, Love. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 1 (42:35):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
John? You guys we have to get all together at
the same time.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Please come to Italy. Yes, wherever you want. Wherever we are,
You're always invited.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Italy, You're upsafe. The magic is where you are.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I love you guys, Love you guys, Thank you for
hanging out. Bye bye. I've Never Said This Before is
hosted by Me Tommy Dedario. This podcast is executive produced
by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio and by Me Tommy, with
editing by Joshua Colaudney. I've Never Said This Before is
(43:13):
part of the Elvis Duran podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts.
For more rate, review and subscribe to our show and
if you liked this episode, tell your friends. Until next time.
I'm Tommy de Dario
Hey, guys, welcome to I've never said this before with me,
Tommy Di Dario. I hope you had an absolutely beautiful
New Year celebration. It's twenty twenty five. Let's go twenty
twenty five. We are ready for you, and I am
so excited to kick off the year with probably one
of my all time favorite people in the world, my
dear friend, the iconic Rachel Ray. Rachel is, of course
(00:24):
a brilliant cook, a television personality who has done more
shows than I can even list. She's a badass businesswoman,
a best selling author, she's a brand new podcast host.
I mean, I can go on and on, because what
hasn't she done? So I met Rachel through her syndicated
daily daytime talk show, The Rachel Ray Show, which was
on for an incredible seventeen seasons. That's an accomplishment achieved
(00:48):
by very few people in the business. I'm telling you,
it's so rare, and I'm so proud of her for it,
and her magnetism is why that show continued to go
on and on. I joined her show for the last
seven or so years of its run, and I was
one of her main lifestyle contributors, which was amazing, and
I quickly fell in love with this amazing human. Rachel's
not only a dear friend, but also an incredible mentor.
(01:08):
And to have the opportunity to sit in front of
her and turn the tables on a woman who meets
so much to me personally and professionally, ah man, it
was a full circle moment. It truly was a treat.
I'm still smiling like a dork thinking about it. And
the nuggets of wisdom that she throws down, they're going
to inspire you to make the most of your entire
next year. So let's see if today we can get
(01:29):
Rachel to say something that she has never said before.
Rachel Ray, my friend, it is so good to see you.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm great. I'm in Tuscany. How bad could it be? Right?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I don't think that at all.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Getting ready for the next run of The Living Kitchen Tuscany.
We did all of the holiday shows in the Living
Kitchen upstate. I just also finished shows for so many
of our talents that we produce with Free Food Studios.
I work on my own podcast as well, which you
should do because you're definitely someone who exemplifies I'll sleep
(02:11):
when I'm dead, so.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
I'm living the life.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Man.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I'm having a good time.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
We've had four Christmases so far oo NN's family, my family,
and two kind of friends family. Christmas is here, and
we have another one on January first, and I think
one more after that, so we're going to have five
different Christmas holiday celebrations in all.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So we're busy.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
We're busy, and I've been writing for eight hours today,
sixteen new shows for this next run here in Tuscany.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
So busy, How are you, my friend?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I am fantastic busy. You and I are cut from
the same cloth. We like busy, we like working. I
I know it. I'm not surprised that all to hear
you have all these things going on, and we're going
to dive into your whole beautiful new chapter that you're in.
But I really wanted you to be one of my
first guests for my twenty twenty five you know season,
because you know, I love you. I think you're such
(03:10):
a badass business woman and friend.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
And you wonderful producer. By the way.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I don't think people understood just how in charge you
were over your content on our daytime show over many years.
But you brought us such beautiful stories and really worked
extremely hard. I have such respect for you, and thank you,
my friend, for all the work you gave us over
(03:38):
the years on that show. And I hope that our
professional relationship and personal relationship carries on for many many
years to come.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh thank you, me too, Me too. And that means
a lot. And like I said, I just so admire
you as a professional and as a human. It was
a no brainer to have you on to kick off
this new year of shows. And I can't believe it.
I was thinking, I think the last time I saw you,
because life is so crazy and goes in a million
different directions, was when we wrap the show, which we
need to change because that's not okay, this it is.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I have like so many shows now, I can't sleep
ever before o'clock in the morning, and I fall asleep
still working on what I have to type for the
next day or do for the next day.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I'm good, We're good. I have a lot of work.
Believe me, I'm busy.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
No, I know you are, But I'm saying I want
to see you because that's the last time I saw you.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yes, well, you can come upstate and you can come
to Italy. You know, we're here, and we're there, and
we're in New York. We're all over the place. You
can catch us pretty much anywhere on the planet.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Good, Yeah, good, I'm gonna take you up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You a little Santa action, you know, get yourself on
a sleigh.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Gladly. I will gladly do that. Rich. I know you've
done so many interviews or the course of your career.
I think a lot of people who follow you and
follow me they know your story pretty well through reading
your books and through watching you on your show. So
I'm really interested in this beautiful new chapter you're in.
And as I just said, you know, the last time
you and I actually physically saw each other was when
(05:17):
we were wrapping your show, and for everybody listening, I
was on it for the last six or seven seasons,
and that's how Rachel and I met and began this
beautiful friendship. I am a very sentimental, emotional man. I
don't know if it's because I'm Italian or from Jersey.
I don't know what it is. But when there's so
many different life, you know, momentous moments that come and go,
(05:38):
I get very, very sappy and emotional, and I'm curious
for someone like you who always has something going on,
who's always working on the next thing was wrapping your show,
which you did for seventeen seasons, which by the way,
is not the norm. That is an incredible accomplishment for
everybody listening. Very few people have long running shows like that.
It is a rarity, and I don't know if anyone
(05:59):
else is going to be able to achieve that in
this day and age. When you hung up that kind
of talk show hot, what was that like for you? Like,
were you ready? Did you have a grieving process?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
I've been working for over thirty years in television and
I never grieve anything.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I look forward. I am a forward thinking person. I
have never.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Been a person to look back. And I don't grieve
anything because I don't lose anyone. I talk to everybody.
I text with all my producers. I send them holiday
presents for Hanukah and Christmas.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
I know what Emily's up to and what Goldie's.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Doing, and everybody in my life stays in my life.
I don't grieve anything because I'm not burying anything. Yeah,
And that's what I mean when I say I'll sleep
when I'm dead. I always look forward. I don't look
back because there's no point in it. And I may
made the decision to move on to other things so
(07:04):
that I could do more things with more people. What
I really wanted to explore was how to produce people
that I do not think were properly represented on or
in television. In my lane, you know, it's all kind
of food related and health related, But I didn't feel
(07:25):
that so many people that I really respect their work
and their work ethics and the information they have to
share and the fun that they can bring to people.
I didn't think there was anybody that was filling that
(07:45):
Niche farmer Lee Jones and all of his chef friends
that go to the Culinary Vegetable Institute, and he gets
so excited about standing in his garden and telling you
about seasonal vegetables. Sometimes I worry he's going to pass
out literally in the middle of the field. And he
goes inside with the world's greatest chefs and they cook
(08:06):
the seasonal ingredients that he's been all giggly about. I
call him Giggles, by the way, because he gets so
goofy about vegetables and then you have deb who does
a soul food mash up with all of the cuisine
from around the world that she learned in her decades
as a.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Flight attendant. And then she.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Got kind of kicked out of that club and she said,
I'm going to put myself through culinary school and people
told her no, and she said, oh no, you don't,
I'm doing this, and she has cookbooks and restaurants.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's just the coolest thing in the world. She's a mashup.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
We have Jake Jewish is one of my favorite books,
like in history. It's hilarious and fantastic. We produce him
as well. We're adding in some content next year that's
very exciting. With a couple of in the health space,
let's just say. And of course I have Anna Gas
(09:07):
who is our resident Italian, and she does great history
of Italian food, but like.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Really gets into the nitty gritty of what.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's like to be an Italian and live like an Italian,
cook like an Italian. And then I have the Living
Kitchen Upstate, and I have the Living Kitchen in Tuscany.
So we've got a little something for everybody and that
makes me really happy. And our partners are truly our partners.
A ETN, FYI, Hulu, and Disney are our partners, and
(09:41):
they're literally our partners. Like Free food studios, me and
my buddies, we are their partners, and content are pics
to each other.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
And I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I love that sense that we're all sitting at a
big table together.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
That's what I think should be. And we don't fake anything.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
We don't like open a door four times or you know,
start a scene over and over and over again. We
make content that I truly believe in because it's the
real deal. We don't work with a lot of script
or sculpted stuff in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
We're kind of a.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Freestyle, let's just say so. The shows are always surprising
to us too. As we go through and edit them
and air them. We're always like, huh, that happened. It's fun.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It's fun.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I love the adventure of life, and I really do
believe you should sleep when you're dead. Anytime you open
your eyes, whether it's in the middle of the night
or the first thing in the morning, you should be
grateful for it and start working. Move your brain, move
your fingers, move your hand, move your bodies.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Of course, you know, I work very hard, but I.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Love having my brain come alive and I'm so grateful
for every day that I get blessed with that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I just it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
It makes me super super happy. Nothing makes me happier
than work. And what I love about be pretty happy.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
But and what I love about this this new chapter
you're in is you're doing things that it seems like
you've wanted to do for a while, right, Like you're
developing people that you find so interesting and that you
just think deserve a platform, and I think.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
They don't have one.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I love I love finding someone that can represent people
that I know. And I think, Wow, you know my
friends so and so and so and so and so
and so. We're going to be so excited to get
to know this person. And my friends that are obsessed
with baking sour dough bread and growing gardens for years
during COVID, Now they could see Farmer Lee and all
(12:07):
of the great chefs that he knows, and they'll eat
more vegetables because now they're watching all this great content
from the world's greatest chefs on his show make these
great dishes with vegetables like that makes me psyched, That
makes me really excited and happy, and I love the
work that I get to do with kids. I've been
(12:29):
to Ukraine six times. I'm planning my seventh with my
friend andri Fute. We're going to go soon into the
new year, and I'm planning a kitchen with my friend
and cobyin Uptown in New York City. I'm going to
build out a children's teaching kitchen there and start like
a vocational program at the center she's working on.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
So I have a lot going on, and I'm going.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
To see an old friend from my childhood a boys
and Girls club also quick into the new year. And
boys and Girls clubs have been a part of our
giving program through our foundation for a very long time.
Beth and Howard, you know, we are so deeply involved
(13:15):
with North Shore Animal League America. So everything we're doing
in life, all of our brand is supporting how we
help people, children and animals.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
So that's going really great.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
We still have furniture and all of our home goods
and all of that and that supports that work, and
we have businesses that create and generate monies for our foundation,
so we don't have to worry about asking people just
give us a pile of cash. We could just sell
stuff and say here's.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
How we generate that money.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
It's just all very very exciting this chapter of our lives,
and I mean our because John, I wouldn't have any
of this possible if it wasn't for my trusted friends
and my beautiful, sweet husband who also happens to be
a lawyer and a great musician. I'm a very good cook,
by the way, so I couldn't have built any of
(14:13):
this without him, and I love him desperately.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Aside from nurturing and developing people that you know deserve
to have that happen to you, you're doing so much
giving back and you always have. People don't realize, and
I mean many do, but many don't because you're not
bragging about every single thing you do out there for
so many people. And I know because we're friends, but
you really do have one of the biggest hearts in
the world. And I think it's so cool that there
(14:41):
are people I know, Jake, and I think it's so
cool that you're investing time and energy in people because
I imagine there was a point in your career where
you felt like somebody did that for you, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, many many. My dear dear mentor and very good
friend Brooke Johnson.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Was a whopperdoodle there.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
She's the one who told me I could work on
cable and I could work in daytime, encouraged me always,
has always given me terrific advice. Uh, and had my
my my sales had had my back. Wonderful. But you know,
my mom, my Grandpa. So many people in my life,
(15:24):
and people like Jacques Papin Jose Andras people that I am.
I'm weirded out to call them my friends, but they
are and I love them so desperately and I've learned
so much from them about how to live, how to be.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I'm just overwhelmed. Michael J. Fox the most optimistic person
maybe ever.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Uh. Multiple Prayers Presidents that I've worked with, and first
Ladies Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Mo, Hi, Michelle, and I just.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
I I am so, so so lucky because I got
to meet all these people that I just got to
absorb everything I learned from them and try and incorporate
that into something I can do with my life or
my brand or my work. Moving forward. And that's the
(16:23):
great part about always moving forward, because you can take
any inspiration you get from a meal, from a person,
from a leader, from all these different angles, and you
can pour that like my husband making a cocktail or
something and pouring it through a strainer.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
You can distill that. Uh. I also have my own.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Gin which I received yet and my friend Brian makes
that in Upstate, New York with all of my favorite ingredients,
and we worked on it a really long time together,
and I couldn't love him more either. But so we
learn more about that world too all the time, and
how we really craft specialty spirits or special types of
(17:10):
food or special ingredients. It's just so exciting. Life is exciting.
I never look back, I always look forward. Well, I
love really long answer to your question, No, and I love.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
I love that zest for life. I mean, I wake
up every day and I'm not really religious, but I'm
very spiritual, and I say out loud, like what I'm
grateful for if I'm walking to the gym, if I'm
walking to the subway, I just kind of do it,
you know, either in my mind or softly to myself.
And I always say, I feel so lucky to be here,
like to be chosen to be on this earth, because
I do have this zest for life, and I think
it's what we make it. And I think we have
(17:43):
one life to live. Let's fucking make it awesome, right, So.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
I agree with you, brother, I just.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I'm so good.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
The same prayer I've said every night for decades my
mommy wrote and through circumstance, she unfortunately left the Catholic
Church eventually, but my mama gave us a prayer to say,
and I say it to this day. Good Night, Dear God.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I love you.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Dear God, Please givet me the knowledge and the courage
to help myself, to help others and to do good.
God pless help protect and forgive us. It's simple, it's clean,
it's in and out, and it just says, make me
useful today, universe, let me be of some help to someone,
(18:28):
and let me be more decent than I was yesterday.
Let me learn something with my day today. And so
that's my go to thought.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
That's beautiful, that's so my vibe. I love that so much.
I think that for you. One of the reasons why
I'm so drawn to you as a human is because
I feel like you worked and continue to work in
an industry that over the years you had to fight
to earn your place, and you had to fight to say,
look at me, I deserve to be here. It's a
male dominated world sometimes we live in especially then, or
(19:03):
at least the men like to think so. And you
made it happen. And I was raised by pretty much women.
I love women. Shocking in my gay man that loves women,
but I love women, and I in my interviews one
of the biggest things I get, you know, was a
question from people is, oh, is you know Anne Hathaway
(19:26):
or Meryl Streep, Like are they really nice? Because we
heard they could be so tough. And I'm like, you, guys,
why tough? Why because there's a successful woman in business,
like it drives me crazy. Do you feel like you
ever had to deal with that?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And my ladies, I've always said the opposite of that. Yeah,
I've been asked a million times. Do you feel like
men in your industry, like Emerald or Bobby?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
You know, we're given more than you.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Anytime I earned less money than a man in my
same business, it was because I asked to, because I
wanted more money for the studio or the staff, or
putting more people in the back kitchen or onto the
production staff. I those were my choices. I made those choices.
(20:19):
I think I've been treated very fairly by men and
women most all of my adult life, and people that
didn't care for me or my work. No one says
everybody is going to like you on the playground.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I've said this for decades. That's grow up like.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Not everyone will dig what you dig or the way
you teach or the way you think.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
And that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
There is more than enough room in this world for
everyone to do exactly what they want to do, and
you don't have to be mean to other people to
accomplish it. In my opinion, so I'm not I go
with like the Bambi, you know, Thumper's mom kind of thing.
If you don't have something nice to say about someone,
shut up, don't say.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Anything at all.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
And I really feel that I've been treated very very fairly. Look,
I'm a waitress from upstate New York who ended up
with this amazing life. I'm sitting in my husband's studio
in Tuscany, you know, in my beautiful home that I decorated,
and I doodled on a piece of paper. I am
(21:32):
grateful and nothing but nothing, but I have a dream
life because I worked hard, and I move forward, and
I don't complain about anything. I really don't, And I
don't complain about the way anybody treated me. Ever, I
really don't every bad thing that ever happened to me.
I wouldn't change one brick or one stitch of my life,
(21:56):
not one brick, not one stitch, because everything could be
the thread you pull that makes your sweater fall apart
or the blanket rip apart. You need all of who
and what you are period.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Hmmm, yes, yes, yes, yes, Well I think that's also
inspiring because a lot of people who are listening they
want a long career, and not many people can say
they've had longevity like you have. It's a very difficult
thing to achieve, it really is, and a lot of
people want that, especially the younger generations. But now there's
this world that we live in with such toxic social media,
(22:34):
and yes there's many benefits to it, but there's a
lot of gross mean chatter all over the internet, and
people are always being inundated with opinions. So you've always
been someone to let that roll off your back, like
you don't pay attention.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
They don't pay attention to it.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, you have the life you choose. Everybody does. We
have free will. Everyone can pick the life they choose.
They can pay attention to them, or they can pay
attention to minding their own life and making their own choices.
(23:09):
Your choices shouldn't be based on other people's opinions of
what you look like, or what you did yesterday or
what you're doing tomorrow. It should be about what you
want and need. And also, you know, you have to
set realistic expectations. You can't say I want to be
(23:31):
doing this for thirty years. No one knows if they're
going to get thirty years of anything in a career.
You can't say I want this amount of money. I
truly have never been a person that has ever worked
for money in my whole life.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Money isn't what matters.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What matters is your integrity and whether or not you
actually love what you do. If you're not afraid of
who you already are or where you've come from, you
can't be afraid of anything moving forward, because the worst
that can happen is you go back to who you
were yesterday, And so what, As long as you have
(24:08):
peace with that, you're good and you're groovy and everything's
going to be fun. You have to be a little
bit fearless. But in the other way, you can't expect
and be fearless about the future because you don't know
what's going to happen. You have to be strong enough
to say, if I try this and I lose, worst
(24:28):
that could happen, I go back to me yesterday. So
what that was, Okay, I survived. And that's the way
I think about it. I think about it kind of
the opposite of the way I probably most people think
about it.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So you've always had that mentality.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Always because that's the way I was raised.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
My grandfather was my best friend, and my no No
was my nanny. Really he was my babysitter and raised
me when I was a little baby, and my mom
was his first born, so she was always his number
one in the kitchen and always by his side, and
they were very, very extremely close. They're they're very much connected.
(25:08):
And I lived my life basically the same way I
did when I.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Was baby two, three, four, five years old.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is when I learned who I would become, and
I've always been the same.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
God. It's so it's so cool hearing that from someone
like you, because I think a lot of people sometimes
romanticize the journey of falling into a spiral in their
lives and having to overcome such you know, hardships in
their line of work in terms of Oh, I didn't
(25:45):
feel like I was worthy, or I didn't feel like
I should be chosen, or I felt like the world
kind of was against me. And you've always had this
mentality of like, I'm gonna work hard, I deserve to
be here. I'm gonna tune out the noise, let's go.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I love to work, and I come from a long
line of people that love to work. Like my grandpa
would work eighty or more hours a week, go home
and sing to his children in the middle of the
night and cook all night and have the food ready
for them when they would get out of school the
next day. My mama worked one hundred hours a week.
It would sleep in a booth at Howard Johnson's, you know,
(26:19):
after twelve buses of Canadian skiers and stuff.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
I just I like to be around people that like
to work.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
It makes me feel it makes me feel period, and
I think that's why I love working in Ukraine and
working with kids. I feel like my life actually matters
when I'm with people that work hard, fight hard, try
(26:48):
hard at everything, and are still happy, Like they find
a way to smile and hug each other and share
food and love one another. Beautiful thing to watch and
feel and absorb. It changes everything to be in that climate.
(27:10):
From the time I was a kid to now my
mid fifties, it is the most significant thing in my life.
Even on our honeymoon when we were in Africa. You know,
you're in communities where some of the community works at
resorts and in town and stuff, and they bring back
their money and they give it to everybody so all
(27:32):
the children can have school books in a school uniform.
It's just these beautiful situations that I've seen all of
my adult life now because I was trained that way
as a child.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I really.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
There's nothing I'm more grateful for in my whole life
than the way I was raised.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, I'd set you up for this entire life journey
that you were on, and it's so beautiful. I think
that's really cool. And it's evident you hold your life
so close, which I think is a secret sauce recipe
in life. It's not forgetting those people along the way right,
holding them near and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Dear, No, I talked to it, as I said, I
talked to most everyone that I've worked with over the
last couple of decades often and text and send Christmas
boxes and Hanukkah gifts, and you know, they're a part
of my family.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
And I feel that your family can grow every year.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
It depends on you, know, if you can grinch out
and make your heart tend sizes too big or not.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
You know, you just got to make room for more
and more people.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
So is there a way over the last few years,
you know, so much has changed in your life, You're
developing so many new projects, You're in a new chapter
of your entire life and career. Is there a way
that you can pinpoint that you think you've changed? Or
does change not really happen for you so much because
you've kind of maintained that consistent girl that you've been
your whole life.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
No, I think that we can always change, and I
strive to.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
I get lazy at it. Though I've been studying Italian
for like a decade. I shouldn't be there. I should
be done. My husband studies it now too, and I'm
so happy for him because I think he's up to
like one hundred and forty eight days.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Of due lingo in a row or something.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Wow. I do these lessons from my friend Lorenzo Mararia,
and they are really tough. He's a toughie and I
work so hard on him, and then if I see mistakes,
he sends back the corrections. You know, I get so
broken hearted him. I let him down. But I'm always
(29:49):
trying to learn something new. And I love to draw,
I love to read, I love to write. And I
was just making notes today on not only the shows
that I'm trying to accomplish right now, but on books
I want to do. I want to do a foodles
book because I love drawing foodles.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I draw the pictures of a recipe and then I
write the recipe and I put them in the Christmas
boxes at the holidays, as you know. So I want
to do a book of foodles for kids. I wanted
the Living Kitchen Upstate and the Living Kitchen Tuscany. I
want to do some back writing about what I love
(30:33):
about the places we live and why, and do a
couple more cookbooks along the way.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
That'll be thirty one and thirty two. I think I
don't know a lot.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
But I love that feeling of a little bit of
excitement mixed with a little bit of pressure. When am
I going to get to this one? And when am
I going to get to that one? You know, it
makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
There's not many things you haven't done, and this just
popped into my mind. Would you ever do anything or
do you have any interest in the scripted world?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
I've thought about it over the years. I'm Mary Juliani.
Always wants me to do something scripted with her. She's
a little my little firecracker, that one.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I love her.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You know, I.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Wouldn't say no, but it's not like top of my list.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
But please feel free if you'd like to put me
in something stripped me.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
A shout because like, what can't you do at this point?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I mean, come on, I don't know it's fun, But
I friend, I have such an annoying voice.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'm shocked still have a job.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Oh please please? Well that voice is all over the
podcast world now, which I love. I am a very
tough podcast critic listener. I love your show. I love
your show. It's like you were born to do it.
For you, like, what made you want to do a podcasts?
It's a very different medium for.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You, because I believe in the concert that life is
so beautiful if you wake up in a positive frame
of mind and want to accomplish something with each and
every day that you open your eyes. And I'm fascinated
by people, all types of folks, like I had Rebecca
(32:20):
Divine on. She was one of the last ones I
just taped in the last few weeks. And this is
a woman who was told she had six months to
live and that was like over seven years ago.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
It's just.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I find so much joy in learning about people that
beat every odd that you can think of, and people
that find ways to make things work when they shouldn't,
or when things when they've been kicked down a lot
(32:56):
and they popped right back up like a cork.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I love stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
It makes me super happy, and I just love diving
more into that than you can do in five minutes
on a chat show. You know you have very limited time,
and they're always trying to rush you through different segments.
I don't want to rush through everything in life. I
(33:21):
want to let people tell their whole story, not just
four minutes of their story.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I want to hear as much of it as possible.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
So that was what excited me about going a little
bit down that road, is, Hey, let's listen to a
longer format of people that I truly respect and really value,
and what can we learn from each other from one another,
(33:50):
and let's just share that with as many people as possible.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
That's why I got into it.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah, And I imagine, knowing you as well as I do,
you're some with so much heart and curiosity, and when
you're talking about something, you're really talking about it. You
don't like fluff. You're not a fluff person. So I imagine,
you know, like you said, the talk show so fast
and it's so small and condensed, and your little blocks
here and there, I imagine that wasn't probably as fulfilling
(34:19):
as something like a podcast or like this. And I
feel that way in some of my work too, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
As you can expand you can expand on things, you know,
like when I'm on with someone like Harlan Coben, my
my dear, dear friend, and I respect and love his
work so much, obsessed, but I can really chat with
him because I trust him and we are truly friends.
(34:45):
So I can have that real time and share that
with people in a way that I know, hey, I know,
talk about this and less about that, and let's have
some fun. Let's get in there and show people a
little bit a broader side of someone like that because
(35:09):
I know them a little bit better. I also love
to have on people that I've just met, like Rebecca,
who we were just at a retreat together, a health
retreat together, and that's how I met her, and I
just said, I'm obsessed with you. She has her own
(35:32):
brilliant podcast, Brainy Bond, and she is gorgeous, beautiful woman, smart,
funny and has learned so much about how to stay alive.
Quite frankly, the mom of four, by the way, looks
like bounce a quarter off of her.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
She's so fit.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
And I just find bringing someone like that into the
bright spotlight for anybody that might be listening, could change
their life, you know, if they're battling cancer, if they're
scared to go to the doctor to even find out
if they have cancer, get screened, and then to hear
(36:14):
a story like that, I could literally save a life
that day. I love that too. So there's the here's
the new, Here's this someone I love and being able
to talk to that those two types of people and
share that information with as many people as we listen.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
That's cool, that's really fun.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, that fuels my No, you're doing it, it fuels
my soul. And that's why I started this show, right, Like,
I love the work I get to do with extra
on the carpets, and it's fun and it's the thing.
But you get three minutes with someone, it's not real conversation.
And I was craving more of that connection. And I
often saw people I was interviewing wanted to have a
substantial conversation, but you just can't in those formats.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Wait, it's formatted.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, yeah, And that's how this show was born. So
I always ask this question in every episode of the
show based off the title of this show, which for you,
I imagine might be a difficult one to answer. But
the name of the show is called I've never said
this before, And that was born from having real moments
because I was tired of the fake I was tired
of the clickbait. I was tired of the headlines. I
(37:23):
wanted real moments and to give people the space to
say something whatever that question means to them that they
maybe haven't had the chance to talk about in a
two minute or six minute interview before.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Being someone there's anything left time.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
I know, I'm like being someone that's talked for decades now.
I don't know, But is there anything you can think
of that you maybe don't always get the chance to
say whatever that means to you.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Well, I think I've.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Already kind of said it just in chatting with you,
because I love you and trust you so much. But
I've never wanted to be someone else ever. I have
never said to myself I wish I were that person.
And I have never allowed someone to break me in
public or in an interview. I just won't have it.
(38:09):
I just won't have it. If people try and take
you down, it's not going to get you anywhere. You
can go home and you can cry, or you can
tell your husband, your lover, your dog how much that
bothered you. But I just don't do anything like that
ever in public. And the first time I saw my husband,
(38:31):
I thought he was gay and I tried to set
him up on a date with a male friend of
mine and he said, but I'm not gay, and then
I was like check please, And I could not wait
to get him in the sack.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That's my girl. That's my girl. That's my girl. I
couldn't love you more. Wow. Well it was a very
memorable evening.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
It was, and he is a blessed man.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Oh my god. Yes, this is not stuff we were
talking about on your talk show. I am here for it.
Somewhere John is smiling with like a cocktail and hands,
saying that.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
I had to buy two different sized suits for his
wedding from Prada.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
His jacket was one size, his trow is another.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh okay, Rachel Ray, Yeah, I am here for this
chapter of your life. And I hope you still are
enjoying this chapter of your life if you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I certainly am. I'm a very lucky lady.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Oh my god, I kind of love you more as
we wrap up the show coming from you, I think
this is a really cool answer to get. So I
would love to know. How do you define success?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (39:53):
That is so different than everybody else. It has nothing
to do with money. Did you do your best today?
Did you work as hard as you could? And did
you share? Did you make food for people that were hungry,
that are standing in the same room or the same
house with you? How much did you give? How much
(40:13):
did you give is always how I define the success
of my day one hundred percent. How much did I
give to my dog, to my friends, to my neighbors,
to my husband, to my family. What did I do
today that allowed me to share with people is the
most important element of every day of my life.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
God, that's beautiful. Wow, the truth. I'm letting that sink
in for a minute. That's truly beautiful. Thank you for
sharing that. Thank you for hanging out. I don't know
if I've ever fully expressed to you over the years
how much you changed my life. From being on your show,
I mean, and getting to know you and giving me
a chance and giving me a shot and inviting me
back and becoming a regular in your family, it really
(40:58):
put me on the path, brought me to where I
am today. And you were a person you were You
were a person who.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Bring me, A talented person who sees people, who really
sees people and their their whole self, And you brought
us so many beautiful shared moments with very very special people.
You are truly truly gifted, talented, loving, sweet person.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I adore you. I always have and you know that.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
I met you it was it was a pretty instant chemistry. Absolutely, John,
You're lucky I'm gay, because i'd be I'd be sliding
right into Rachel's d MS and trying to pick her up.
So you're lucky. You're lucky. Although from what I heard,
you don't have to worry about anything. You're very gifted,
I've heard.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
I love you, Tommy, and I have such respect for you.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
And I hope, I hope you do my podcast and
that I can do yours again anytime you like.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
I just of sharing time with you. You know that.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Oh, I feel the same way. I love you guys.
Thank you for hanging out, and we might pop up
upstate or in Italy. Do you well eat your whole
kitchen out, so be warned.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
All right, but I put you to work. You can't
just come and eat for free. You gotta put a
little bit. You gotta put a little bit of those
muscles into it too.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
All right. I got you, I got you. Oh, here's
Jill popping it from GMA. Say hello, beautiful face. Oh
here we go now I.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
Hear you, Hi, Love. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 1 (42:35):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (42:36):
John? You guys we have to get all together at
the same time.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Please come to Italy. Yes, wherever you want. Wherever we are,
You're always invited.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Italy, You're upsafe. The magic is where you are.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I love you guys, Love you guys, Thank you for
hanging out. Bye bye. I've Never Said This Before is
hosted by Me Tommy Dedario. This podcast is executive produced
by Andrew Puglisi at iHeartRadio and by Me Tommy, with
editing by Joshua Colaudney. I've Never Said This Before is
(43:13):
part of the Elvis Duran podcast Network on iHeart Podcasts.
For more rate, review and subscribe to our show and
if you liked this episode, tell your friends. Until next time.
I'm Tommy de Dario
Host
Tommy DiDario
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.