Long line for a cooking celeb encounter

The other night, while cruising one of the local outdoor shopping areas, I noticed a sign at the Sur La Table store that Rachel Ray will be making an appearance there soon.

Even before telling my husband about it, I already knew what his answer would be: something along the lines of "NO WAY (are we going)."  You see, we'd already had one close encounter with Rachel Ray.  The year was 2007, and like most of the rest of the free world United States, I was crazy for Rachel Ray.

The line

My cooking style in those days was whatever I could put on the table that was quick and easy and still tasted (to borrow a phrase from Rachel) "yum-o." In those days, I watched her Food Network show, 30-Minute Meals, nearly every day. So...while perusing the newspaper one day, I discovered that she would be doing a book signing at our local Sur La Table store.  I love celebrity sightings, so there was no way (at that time) that I was going to pass up the opportunity to even occupy the same space as meet her.

Rachel Ray making her entrance

I'll admit that I was slightly naïve to think it wouldn't be that big of a deal. We're not such early risers, but that day we got to the shopping area around 9 am.  To this day, I'm not sure how exactly I convinced my husband to let me drag him along. (Ah...the things we do for love...)

Even at 9am, the line was already extremely long. People had been there for hours, and she wasn't even scheduled to come out until around 11am.  But...I really wanted to meet her, so we got in the line, aaannnddd we waited.  Finally, she came out (late) with some of her handlers and made her way to the front of the crowd.  We were so far back in the line that we were near the Sur La Table entrance. My husband was on camera duty, and he snapped a few pictures while she came out of the store.

Q&A

She took questions from the audience for some time and then she sat down at a table in the front to autograph everyone's cookbooks. Some people got their picture taken with her while she was signing their cookbook.  We were towards the back of the line, so it took awhile before it was our turn.

Rachel Ray autographing books

These days, I'm not as much into Rachel Ray and her recipes and cooking methods as I was back in 2007, and I definitely don't want to wait in another long line...so I think I'm gonna have to pass on seeing her this time.