Bali79 I watched this cooking show for a few times before I wanted to pull my hair out. Just one question.....Who CAN'T cook a slapped together plain meal in 30 minutes when everything you need is at hand, already bagged, sometimes pre-chopped and you have very little else to do except chop a few greens. Also, almost every cooking show on TV is 30 minutes and most of these chefs do all of their prep work (except for Sandra Lee), during their show. Oh and yep....they do full meals too.Love the comment by the guy who hated the "EVOO" comment. Add "DE-LISH" to my list of stupid tag words. Then you have the obvious....a Loud, gregarious woman who is truly her own best audience. She laughs at her own lame comments, mugs too many times for the camera because she wants to convince us that she's as good as the thinks. NO she ain't "the cutest thing." She's a 40-something year old woman who isn't DE-LISH.

BlackJack_B A long time ago when I got my satellite dish, Food Network Canada was one of the more popular channels I would watch and 30 Minute Meals was one of the shows I would watch. Host Rachael Ray cooks up some very good meals with all sorts of themes and she indeed has them ready by the end of the show. Many of her meals are quite good and she was at one point fun to watch...However, as a Canadian, we have access to programs from all over the world. While Food Network U.S.A. has mostly American programming, the Canadian version has programs from Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan (Iron Chef) and the U.S. I seem more comfortable watching the cooks who don't rely on over-the-top theatrics or glib personalities (and many of them aren't the Americans). My problem with Ray is that she seems to have some phony mask on; as if she is trying to sell us that her personality is the real deal. However, the fact that a 37 year-old woman thinks that acting 20 years younger on T.V. is cool to everybody isn't the case. The novelty has worn off and now it is painful to see her act like a Valley Girl. It kind of reminds me of Tiny Toons' Babs Bunny, who needed to be a poser to stand out among the otherwise cooler characters at the Looniversity.Still, the show is pretty good and if you can stand dealing with her mannerisms, giggles, and saccharine personality you'll pick up some good recipes. Otherwise, Ina Garten, Giada DeLaurentis, Mario Batali, or even Emeril (who is genuine in my book) are better and if you live in Canada there are even more good choices. If you really need to see Rachael, just watch $40 A Day or her other new travel show. Here, she fits in better.

ArcticShadow Rachael Ray makes some decent meals for the amount of money spent. However, she is a very annoying. Her vocabulary is loaded with unusual abbreviations and her own slang. She uses words like "fryolator" , "EVOO" , "sjhuzzjh" , "yum-O" , "delish", and whatever else she can make up. And she uses these strange words much too often. Rachael's choice of clothing could be a lot better also. A positive point for Rachael is that she can make some good meals quickly.This show would be good for those who don't want to spend a lot of time or money cooking, and who can tolerate her quirky behavior.

Registered_User If you've never seen 30 Minute Meals, then you cannot possibly begin to comprehend how annoying this woman is. You can't begin to imagine how irritating she is, or how such a mediocre talent manged to get a cable TV cooking show, all words and intelligent thoughts will fail you. Ray has a goofy mouth and all the charms of a parrot. She loves everything and thinks it's "awesome" (a word she uses roughly 87 times per telecast). And she's constantly using horrible, unfunny catchphrases like "EVOO" (Extra virgin olive oil!). SHUT UP! What's worse is Ray has TWO other shows on the network! I think this is some elaborate conspiracy by the terrorists. Give me more Tyler Florence! Ray is lame.