Thursday, July 14, 2005
Rachel Ray is a menace to society
This was up on Slate today. It is a fairly even handed account of Rachel Ray, the food network Everywoman. It focuses on her cooking show however and fails to point out a major flaw in her travel show "40 dollars a day" which has many restaurant workers pounding the walls in frustration. The premise of the show is that she goes to a city or place popular with tourists and eats her way around spending 40 dollars or less for 3 meals. To make her budget, she tips poorly which provides a terrible example to viewers. The following is my post on Slates forums regarding the article:
"40 dollars a day is a terrible disservice to waitstaff in this country. In order to make her budget, Ray tips poorly if at all. Besides being a cheap thing to do to servers who are bringing her food as well as coping with the filming aspects of Rays presence, it is a terrible example to provide for viewers.
Tipping is part of the bill, not an option to be dealt at the whim. When calculating the cost of your meal, you can't just look at the prices on the menu, you need to factor in the tip. Instead, Ray seems to treat the tip (always coupled with tax on the shows calculations, a cheap way to make it seem larger than it is) as whatever is left in her budget for the meal after the food is paid for. This amount is always less than adequate and treated as a necessary evil by her recounting.
As for her cuisine, why is it so refreshing to see someone cutting corners and using prepared foods? It's the food network! I don't watch ESPN to see beer league softball games, I watch it to see the pros at the top of the game. People already use shortcuts and prepared foods, there's no need to teach it.
Finally, she isn't that good looking in my opinion and her personality is unnerving. She reminds me of a kindergarten teacher who lost the ability to switch out of her "talking to children" mode."
"40 dollars a day is a terrible disservice to waitstaff in this country. In order to make her budget, Ray tips poorly if at all. Besides being a cheap thing to do to servers who are bringing her food as well as coping with the filming aspects of Rays presence, it is a terrible example to provide for viewers.
Tipping is part of the bill, not an option to be dealt at the whim. When calculating the cost of your meal, you can't just look at the prices on the menu, you need to factor in the tip. Instead, Ray seems to treat the tip (always coupled with tax on the shows calculations, a cheap way to make it seem larger than it is) as whatever is left in her budget for the meal after the food is paid for. This amount is always less than adequate and treated as a necessary evil by her recounting.
As for her cuisine, why is it so refreshing to see someone cutting corners and using prepared foods? It's the food network! I don't watch ESPN to see beer league softball games, I watch it to see the pros at the top of the game. People already use shortcuts and prepared foods, there's no need to teach it.
Finally, she isn't that good looking in my opinion and her personality is unnerving. She reminds me of a kindergarten teacher who lost the ability to switch out of her "talking to children" mode."
# posted by Yossie @ 9:12 AM 
