Celebrity chef. Born Rachael Domenica Ray on August 25, 1968 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Raised in Lake George, New York, Ray grew up surrounded by family in the restaurant business. She herself held several jobs in the food industry, including opening Agata & Valentina specialty food market in New York City. It was while working in a gourmet food shop in Schenectady, New York, that Ray developed her signature "30 Minute Meals" classes, which were soon picked up by a local television newscast.The cookin - www.biography.com

According to Rachael Ray, she grew up in food. "My first vivid memory is watching my 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 3 or 4," says Rachael, who insists that cooking is a way of life she was simply born into. "Everyone on both sides of my family cooks" Rachael has parlayed that birthright into a wildly successful career as a syndicated television star, an iconic Food Network television - www.rachaelray.com

In 1968, Elsa Scuderi, a longtime restaurant manager, and James, a retired book publisher, welcome daughter Rachael, whose first word is "vino." "I was a food snob by age 7," Ray tells the Miami Herald in 2006. With her two siblings, Ray grows up in restaurants from Cape Cod, Mass., to upstate New York. "I went to the school of Mama!" the former Lake George High School cheerleader adds. "My mother didn't like strangers watching her children, so we were all in the restaurants." - www.people.com