Food - News
The Controversial Origins Of Rachael Ray's Iconic Catchphrase
By LAUREN FARKAS
In a 2016 interview with "Hot Ones'" Sean Evans, Rachael Ray shared a surprising response when asked, "Can you give me the strangest origin story for one of [your signature] phrases?" Her iconic catchphrase, “Yum-O,” it seems, came about after she received heavy criticism for something she’d initially said.
On her first Food Network cooking show, Ray felt she had to say something special after tasting her food. What came to her mind was, "Yum, oh my god, that's good," but this seemingly innocent utterance quickly got her flak from viewers, who took offense to her nonchalant use of the word "god" on TV.
Ray received a lot of backlash, mostly in the form of hate mail, which prompted network executives to step in and ask her to stop using the g-word. Following the incident, Ray would begin to say “Yum, oh my god…" out of habit, but stopped herself mid sentence, resulting in her saying “Yum-O,” instead.