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Published May 10, 2006 in The Albany Times Union By Stacey Morris Rachael Ray is trying to cook salmon for David Letterman and he’s not exactly being helpful. To herald the guest appearance of the Food Network superstar, the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater is transformed into a cooking station not unlike her “30-Minute Meals” set. While she toils at the stove, he fires off questions as rapidly as she answers them. “Do you really live in a cabin in the Adirondacks? Is it a Unabomber kind of cabin?” After Ray splashes red wine into the iron skillet, Letterman reaches for the bottle and chugs. Then, instead of passing her a stick of butter, he grabs it like a candy bar, chomps down and chews as the audience roars. Unrattled, she shrugs while sprinkling capers into the pan as the questioning continues. “Are you a chef? Did you go to culinary school? “I went to the school of MAMA!” Ray exclaimed, without missing a beat. Flash forward to a recent Sunday morning at Sutton’s Café in Queensbury. Ray is there for brunch during a few precious hours of Adirondack downtime. Seated with her are husband, John Cusimano, and Mama herself, Elsa Scuderi, Ray’s role model and closest confidante, who lives in Ray’s Adirondack cabin. Ray has always made no bones about her Italian side of the family being the source of her love of food and a work ethic that would make Donald Trump wilt. But there was no formal schooling where food and cooking were concerned…call it more of a ‘Take Your Daughter to Work’ day that lasted for years. Scuderi often took Ray, her older sister Maria and younger brother Manny, with her to the Lake George restaurants where she worked as manager. Ray’s parents divorced when she was 13. Her father, Jim, lives in Saratoga Springs. “My mother was the type who always wanted her kids around her,” Ray explained. “She didn’t want us with babysitters. We all grew up in restaurants.” She also credits her late grandfather, Emmanuel Scuderi, for being the genesis of the family’s sense of closeness and their love of cooking. “My grandfather and I were best friends,” she recalled. “He loved to cook and grow his own food. In my family, there was always good food. It was Italian stinky cheese, fresh greens and sauces,” said Ray. “We weren’t kids who had Pop Tarts and crap like that; I was a food snob by age 7.” Scuderi smiled in agreement. “I remember Rachael saying about school that ‘the food is bad and people can’t read.’” So it came as no surprise to Scuderi when, at age 11, her daughter presented her with a Mother’s Day dinner fit for an Italian queen: a plate of spinach lasagna pinwheels in a gorgonzola sauce and blanched asparagus. “It was a feast for the eyes,” remembered Scuderi. “She arranged the asparagus around the plate to look like the sun shining.” And it was a culinary gesture that probably brought back memories of her own childhood, where homemade Italian food was always plentiful. Scuderi grew up the oldest of ten children in the Adirondack town of Ticonderoga. “The kitchen was the center of our home,” she remembered. “There were a lot of mouths to feed and we had to learn about food. My mother made wonderful pies and breads, and my dad was great with meats, stews and sauces.” On weekends, Emmanuel would teach the young Providenza (her given name) the finer points of cutting meat, proper food temperatures and canning vegetables from the garden. “He’d take a whole piece of meat and season it with herbs and garlic, put it in a hot oven for half an hour then turn it off and leave it for a few hours and it would be tender and succulent. His food was magnificent,” said Scuderi. “We had to learn about food, learn a little Italian and go to church,” she said. “If we did those things really well, we got into the rumble seat and went for a matinee and an ice cream.” The elements of Scuderi’s childhood were as magical as they were sensual: cookies and pies cooling on the kitchen window ledge, learning lyrics to an opera while making sauce at the stove, and heading out to the garden with a knife and salt shaker to feast on a juicy, red tomato from the vine. When a tree fell near the family’s home, Emmanuel left it where it was and carved seats into it for all the children. “We went out and took food there and listened to his stories,” recalled Scuderi. “Life was good with him. He was a high-spirited, energetic person. There’s a saying by Churchill: ‘as soft as the driving fog and as resistant as marble,’ and that describes Dad.” She may not be fluent in Italian, but the slow-cooking methods for meats and fish taught by her father are embedded for life. “Everything she makes is fabulous,” said Ray. “She’s good at all the soups and stews that I have no patience for.” But Scuderi said that her daughter has taken the essence of her family’s cooking and made it her own. “Rachael can take anything I cook and shorten it.” A trait that not only came in handy later in life, it snowballed into an empire that includes four Food Network shows, more than a half-dozen best-selling cookbooks, and her food and lifestyle magazine Every Day with Rachael Ray. And even though she’s tight with Oprah, and is about to launch her own daytime talk show this fall in conjunction with Winfrey’s production company, there’s one thing she insists she’s not. “I’m not famous,” she said, looking startled at the suggestion. “I’m a blue collar worker who’s had some success.” A modest statement if there ever was one. But now that she’s at the helm of an empire, who better but her mother to be her right-hand woman? “Mom helps run the business. She does the bookkeeping, research, tests recipes when I call her from the road…we’re partners,” said Ray. According to Carl R. De Santis Sr., who employed Scuderi at his chain of Lake George area restaurants for more than 30 years, there’s no one better to have on your payroll. “I’m over six feet tall and Elsa’s about 5’ “2, and I always felt like I was looking up to her when she was giving me the word – and I owned the place,” he said. Scuderi began working for De Santis in the late ‘50s as a waitress at the Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in South Glens Falls. “She was an excellent waitress, but it soon became evident that she had more talent than just waiting tables,” he said. Scuderi went on to duties that included hostessing, managing and training wait and kitchen staff, and catering for banquets and special events. “Her catering was spectacular. She was very creative when preparing recipes and menus,” said De Santis. “Elsa’s philosophy with food is quality, perfection and never serve someone something you wouldn’t eat yourself.” And Scuderi was equally known for an ironclad sense of responsibility. “Having Elsa there saved me a lot of headaches. I don’t remember her taking many sick leaves,” said De Santis. “She didn’t tolerate cooks who didn’t try to put out a quality product. She felt uncomfortable if things weren’t done right.” By the time Ray was in her early teens, she was waitressing and hostessing alongside her mother at the Howard Johnson Restaurant in Lake George. “She was a tough manager,” Ray confirmed. “If you’re not a hard worker, look out. And God help ‘ya if you show up stoned or drunk.” “For Elsa and Rachael, working in a restaurant was never just a job, it was something they loved,” said De Santis. “It doesn’t surprise me that Rachael is so successful. She gets it from her mother.” And now that she’s busy helping to run her daughter’s conglomerate, does she even have time to cook? “I’ve learned that you don’t have to stand in a kitchen for four hours to get dinner – Rachee taught me that,” she said with a laugh. “I’m learning to have more fun and enjoy life. But I love French sauces and bean casoulets and mint salads…I’ll always take the time for that.”
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