SPICE GIRL

Spotlight

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Rachael Ray has been compared to Gidget, Oprah, and Rosie, but she insists she's "a burger flipper and a Chatty Cathy." She is constantly described as "the girl next door," though she says she's more "your ^ cousin." If you call her a chef, she puts her foot down: "I'm just a cook." And the word "celebrity"? Nope. "If you grow up in a service industry," she explains, "you always feel in many ways subservient to people. That's the way I think of myself: I'm a waitress. And I think that's a great thing. I'm good at trying to understand what my customers want and need, and giving it to them."

Good at trying to understand? This five-foot-three phenomenon— America's bouncy, booming champion of the 30-minute meal—has cornered the market on all things cooking. She has two hit shows on the Food Network: 30 Minute Meals and Tasty Travels. She has a monthly magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray, an overnight success that's outperformed much tonier titles since its launch, in 2005. And she's transformed the market for cookbooks, selling in the millions (her last four were No. 1 best-sellers within a week of publication), and outselling the bad-boy chefs who disdain her "easy-peasy" approach. A new cookbook, Just in Time, is due out November 6. As if all this weren't enough, Ray's onehour eponymous daytime show begins its second season on September 10. Having debuted last fall, the program was the No. 1 syndicated launch in 2006, with the highest premiere and May-sweeps numbers since Dr. Phil, in 2002. So is it safe to say Ray has the beginnings of her own media empire? "I hate that," she says. "'Empire' is such an evil word." O.K., we'll use two of her words: Rachael Ray is "screamin' hot."

FOR AN EXCLUSIVE, IN-DEPTH RACHAEL RAY PROFILE BY LAURA JACOBS, GO TO VF.COM.

LAURA JACOBS