Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts) is a celebrity chef and author who hosts at least four different programs on cable television's Food Network: 30 Minute Meals, $40 a Day, Inside Dish, and Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels. She has authored a series of cookbooks based on the 30 Minute Meals concept. She will also host a syndicated TV talk show starting in 2006.

Ray's family owned a restaurant in Massachusetts and her mother managed restaurants in upstate New York. Rachael started at the candy counter at Macy's in New York, New York. She helped open Agata & Valentina, a New York City market. Moving upstate, she worked as buyer and chef at the Cowan & Lobel market in Albany, New York. With the success of her "30 Minute Meals" classes, Albany TV station WRGB asked her to continue on their newscasts. This, along with a public radio appearance and the publication of her first book, led to a Today Show spot and her first Food Network contract.

Ray teaches simple recipes that she says can be prepared in thirty minutes or less. Like many cooks, she uses garlic and chicken stock as simple ways to boost flavors. She says that measuring "takes away from the creative, hands-on process of cooking", and instead favors approximations such as "half a palmful" and "eyeball it". On her television programs she has coined catchphrases such as "E.V.O.O... extra-virgin olive oil" (explained with each use, defeating the apparent purpose of the acronym), "Yum-O!", and "How good is THAT?".

Her signature tool is the santoku chef's knife. She claims to dislike baking desserts and to be notorious for burning bread under the broiler. Ray says her late Sicilian maternal grandfather, Emmanuel Scuderi, served as a strong influence on her cooking. To critics of her shortcut techniques, Ray responds, "I have no formal anything. I'm completely unqualified for any job I've ever had."

In her shows that emphasize tourism or celebrity interviews, Ray will typically eat and discuss other cooks' food rather than prepare her own.

Recipes from Ray's programs appear on the Food Network web site as well as in her books and magazine.

Ray owns a cabin in the Adirondacks in upstate New York and a more recently acquired multilevel apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Ray married John Cusimano, a lawyer and member of the band The Cringe, on September 24, 2005 in Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy. Her dog is a pit bull named Isaboo. Ray said in an interview, "I do 200 sit-ups every day, and I do 100 pushups too. Man pushups."

Ray launched her own magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray in conjunction with Reader's Digest. The magazine premiered on October 25, 2005 and plans bi-monthly releases in 2006.

In addition to her television hosting duties and cookbook series, Ray has endorsed products for Price Chopper supermarkets and Burger King, and has developed her own line of cookware and cutlery. (When she endorsed Wüsthof's , sales rose dramatically, and she now endorses her own line of santoku knives . In 2003 she posed for the men's magazine FHM. The New York Times wrote, "The shots feature Ms. Ray in short-shorts with an exposed midriff, licking chocolate off a big wooden spoon, eating a strawberry and sitting in a sink, laughing as suds cascade down her thighs."

In late 2005 Ray signed a deal with Oprah Winfrey and King World Productions to host a syndicated daytime TV talk show in 2006. (According to Whois records King World has registered the RachaelRayShow.com domain, but as of December 2005 there was no web site for the new show.) Recurrent appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show will be used to fuel the launch, much as the Dr. Phil show was spun off based on his own frequent visits to Oprah.The show will film in New York City, and Ray will still appear on the Food Network. Ms. Ray said, in coordination with the syndication announcement, "People know me for my love of food, but I have so much more I want to share".

In addition to Oprah, Rachael Ray has appeared on The View, The Today Show, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.