NEED TO KNOW
Rachael Ray is opening up about why she paused her podcast.
The celebrity cook and TV personality, 57, launched I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead in October 2024, and released episodes weekly through December of last year.
While hosting Blue Moon Burger Bash 2.0 at the New York City Wine & Food Festival on Oct. 17, Ray weighed in on whether fans can expect new installments in the near future.
“I haven’t decided,” she tells PEOPLE. “I got such a huge order for new shows with my company, Free Food.”
Courtesy of Rachael Ray
In 2024, Ray’s production company, Free Food Studios, partnered with A&E Networks to bring “in the kitchen” content and new shows from Ray and other culinary talent over the following two years.
“We have so many talents that we’re managing,” she adds. “And I have so many episodes to write. I want to. I would love to. We have to find the time to, is the problem.”
“Plus, I live in two different places,” she noted. Ray and her husband of 20 years, John Cusimano, now split their time between New York and Italy.
On Oct. 16, A+E announced in a press release that the network ordered 110 new episodes of Ray’s programming, including Meals in Minutes, that will “focus on her approachable and comforting cooking style.”
The announcement added that episodes will begin production this fall and air across the Home.Made.Nation multiplatform lifestyle programming block on A&E and FYI in 2026.
Ray spoke to PEOPLE about the most rewarding parts of her podcast during the 2025 South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February.
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The eight episodes that premiered last year featured interviews with a wide range of personalities, including actor Billy Crudup, chef Jacques Pépin and the late Anne Burrell, a longtime friend of Ray’s.
“I never had the format on daytime to do long format with people I truly respect and care about,” she said while hosting Mike’s Amazing Burger Bash.
Ray then reflected on her experiences interviewing people on her podcast versus on TV, noting, “I like introducing people to new people, people that are new to my life, but I also reintroducing them to people I already love and respect, and being able to expand and expound on what I wish I had the time to do in formats I couldn’t do it in before.”
“I had people on that are celebrated actors and people that I have known for a real long time, but that I never got to spend more than four or five minutes with,” the cookbook author added. “It’s amazing.”
