You'll Never Guess Rachael Ray's First Food Job

Cookbook author and host of a self-titled TV show, Rachael Ray is a star in the food world. "The Rachael Ray Show" launched in 2006 and has been incredibly successful thanks to fans who can't get enough of easy and quick meals and Ray's bubbly personality. The show is currently in it's 16th season, per Hollywood Reporter. Ray's life may seem like a dream between cooking meals and chatting on TV as if she were talking to a friend. And Ray admits that parts of her job are what she would do anyway, if she wasn't a TV personality — cooking and chatting with friends, according to ABC News.

Although many fans think she got her start as host of "30 Minute Meals," which was later aired on the Food Network, her first food job was something else entirely. Big cities may seem like the land where dreams are made of, but Rachael's big TV break didn't happen while living in New York. It happened living in the Adirondacks, per ABC News. However, New York did offer her the opportunity to have her first food job.

Rachael Ray sweetened up people's lives

You might think that Rachael Ray's first food job was working in a restaurant as a host or as a server, but there are many other ways to work in the food field. For Ray, her introduction to working in the industry was weighing and selling sweets while working the candy counter at Macy's, per the Food Network. Sweetening life with chocolates and sugary confections doesn't sound like a bad job. Soon after, she was promoted to "manager of the Fresh Foods Department," according to Food Network.

Today, Ray is quick to share that it was her time in the Big Apple and working at Macy's that offered her an opportunity to appreciate and learn about gourmet foods.

Even part-time jobs or jobs that we take on to fill in the blanks while we wait for something else can lead somewhere exciting. Opportunities abound everywhere, and sometimes when we least expect it, new ideas flourish. In Ray's case, her first job acted like a stepping stone into learning about food, and look at how far she's gone.