Pace Paw Print

Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: www.freerepublic.com The Former Pace Student cooks things up on her popular day-time talk show on ABC.

"My first vivid memory is watching mom in a restaurant kitchen. She was flipping something with a spatula. I tried to copy her and ended up grilling my right thumb! I was three or four."

Now at the age of 39, Rachael Ray has not only gotten four television shows on the Food Network, written books about cooking, has her own monthly magazine, but she's recently gotten her own successful day-time talk show too. It's crazy to think, it might have all started because of Pace University.

Ray started at Macy's Marketplace in New York at the candy counter in which later she was promoted to manager of the fresh foods department. After Macy's, Ray later was involved with opening Agata & Valentina, the celebrated "New York gourmet market," where she was the store manager.

In all of Ray's biographies, it goes from describing her NYC lifestyle, to her moving upstate to the serene Adirondacks. The truth of the matter can be found in a New York Post article that stated at some point in between, "she was a deadbeat who had to leave Pace University because she squandered her tuition money."

"Ray dropped out of college and returned to her family in the Adirondacks, in the process leaving behind angry creditors, some of whom "were threatening her," a family insider told PAGE SIX.

"Her mom gave her money for tuition, but she never paid," the source said. "She spent the money and then she didn't want her mom to find out, so she borrowed money to pay her tuition, and then she couldn't pay it back. She was bouncing checks, and some people were threatening her."

After all of that, Ray returned and managed to run pubs and restaurants at the famed Sagamore Resort on Lake George and was then recruited by a large gourmet market in Albany.

Ray came up with 30 Minute Meals during this time to increase sales during the holidays. It started out as classes that soon enough ended up getting on the local news and traveled all the way to an Albany television station on the evening news. The show, after being picked up by the Food Network, has been nominated for two Emmys, Outstanding Service Show Host and Outstanding Service Show in 2006.

The show, however, has been harshly criticized by viewers for the fact that the meals obviously do not take 30 minutes. Ray does state on her show frequently that for some it may take longer. Her 30 Minute Meals book was reviewed by many who have proved that several of the meals are unable to be done in under than half an hour. Regardless, the show was a hit and has led to many others for Ray.

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