Even with the dollar in the Dumpster, $18 million is a lotta, lotta money. And that’s how much Rachael Ray rakes in annually from her various shows and food-related ventures, according to Forbes.
The princess of perkiness, the poster child for Gidget Disease, tops Forbes’ list of the 10 top-earning celebrity chefs. However, Ray is not a chef and to her credit, she is the first to say so. (When she’s not saying gag-inducing things such as “yummo” and “sammies.” I can not take seriously a grown woman who calls a sandwich a “sammy.”)
In second place, with restaurants, cookbooks and a very sweet deal selling his cookware and cutlery on television, is Wolfgang Puck at $16 million per year.
Rounding out the top 10 — Emeril is conspicuous by his absence — are:
3. Gordon Ramsay – $7.5 million
4. Nobu Matsuhisa – $5 million
5. Alain Ducasse – $5 million
6. Paula Deen – also not a chef – $4.5 million
7. Mario Batali – $3 million
8. Tom Colicchio – $2 million
9. Bobby Flay – $1.5 million
10. Anthony Bourdain – $1.5 million
As high as some of those figures are, I can’t help but notice they don’t begin to compare with the obscene amounts paid to the true gods and goddesses of America’s culture of celebrity: athletes and actors.
Still, nobody on the list is likely to be feeling the pinch of higher food prices. So next time Ray-Ray whips out a small $4 bag of green beans that were purchased already trimmed and $10 worth of fresh herbs for one dish, remind yourself that at $18 million it’s easy to be out of touch with one’s audience.
Hell, no wonder she’s always gigglling.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
ella, I have been waiting for the oppotunity to share with you my useless two cents about Rachel. Thanks for sharing!
Can’t say I’ve ever watched her for any length of time: I find her voice and demeanor one of the single the most irritating experiences that I can expose myself to, second only to nails scraping on a blackboard.
She is often back to back with Nigella on TFN, and the contrast is beyond absurd: Nigella with her sultry, dulcet tones, whipping up extravagant indulgence with sensual, elegant, sophisticated aplomp; then Rachel like she’s had one too many from Dunkin’ Donuts, sounding much similar to a clanging gong, an homage to the worst type of caricature of the Ugly American one could imagine, all perky and unsubtle and, well, like something from a discount warehouse.
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry over her income: it doesn’t bode well for the state of things here at home.
Money can’t buy a lot of things: elegance, understatement, and sophistication is obviously one of them.
Only in America. Sigh.
Blue Smoke of Paradise’s last blog post..For My Father
Oh, blue, I am so there with you re: Rachael and the contrast between her and Nigella (in my blogroll from day one) could not be more stark. I have a feeling not many people are fans of both — choose your camp!
Funny you should say Only in America. I had that in the piece and deleted it, since I tend to say it frequently. But it’s so true. Consider this: everyone on that list owns at least one restaurant except RR and Bourdain, and he is classicly trained (CIA) and worked as chef for many years. RR isn’t even trained. Heck, even Paula “let’s fry us up some butter, y’all” Deen has a restaurant. Only in America indeed.
Perhaps he said it best about RR (from my piece Marry me, Bourdain) – “We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So…what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough.”
To think that between the two of them, RR and Deen pull down $23 million is both astonishing and disheartening.
Thanks so much for your comments!