Tasty Travels Insider

The Monterey Herald recently profiled Sonya Edelman, "one of the producers of [Rachael] Ray's popular cooking/travel show." Edelman says that the California Coast episode of the show almost didn't happen when Rachael's flight to Monterey was cancelled. But they found a way to make it work and the episode will air tonight (9:30 p.m., ET/PT).

Here's how Edelman ended up working for Tasty Travels:

If her life were a TV series, the synopsis would go something like this: Young woman from small town studies to be a professional flutist, but becomes a nanny to pay the bills. The father of the child she's caring for happens to be a show-business writer who recognizes her talents, and helps her land some behind-the-scenes work in television. Soon, she's riding the wave of popularity in home improvement/cooking/ lifestyle shows, producing first for HGTV's "Designed to Sell" and then hooking up with highly visible Ray.

Isn't that the way it always works? One thing leads to another and someone ends up making it big. My favorite part of the article was Edelman's description of Rachael and what it was like to work for her:

Edelman described Ray as driven, energetic and personable, focused and fun. And the job has been a dream.

"We stay in nice hotels and eat great food," she said. "We have the best crew. You get to travel and people are so excited to have you there. They treat you so well. It's really ideal in a lot of ways."

. . .

Typically, Ray will have some restaurants in mind, and the staff scopes out additional spots, Edelman said. The crew arrives before Ray, does some shooting and other preliminary work, then Ray comes in for a day or two and goes to a few of the spots for more taping.

For the longer version of how Edelman ended up working on Tasty Travels, read the whole article here.

[Source]