Be Rachael Ray for A Day: Dine & Dish # 4

This event has now officially closed and you can read the results here. But being Rachael Ray is so much fun, if you want to show off your home town on $40 a day, just go ahead and do it!

Rachael Ray: Love her or Hate her, this month you all get the chance to be her when you take part in Dine & Dish, the hottest monthly blogging event in the Foodblogosphere, started by the fabulous and inimitable Sarah of The Delicious Life. Your challenge, should you dare to bite, is to show off the best of your local dining on a a budget of just US $40 a day.


(Click on the picture to enlarge the photo, just don't look too closely at my belly, ok?)
First I have to blow some huge air kisses to Sarah down in LA. I want to thank her for inviting me to be the first ever Celebrity Guest Blogger (her words, not mine) to host Dine & Dish and for letting me take part in this photo shoot too. It's amazing what they can do in Photoshop these days. Look how white they made my teeth!

But what about Rachael Ray - just who is this cutesy little upstart anyway?
Although Rachael is fairly well known in the USA, foreign readers might need a small explanation. Ms Ray is a TV Chef who is much derided in some circles for her unrefined style whilst others argue that her detractors are nothing but food snobs. Either way you look at it, she must be raking in the money. Rachael hosts three shows on the Food Network. The first is a cooking show for which she makes 30 Minute Meals. In the second, Inside Dish, she visits the homes and kitchens of celebrities to discuss their favourite foods. For the third show, the one we are most interested for this month's challenge, Rachael visits cities all over the world and eats, as a tourist, on a $40 budget. At this point I have to confess that this is the only one of Rachael's three shows that I have actually seen. And even then, I only watched the San Francisco episode as a matter of curiosity. And what did I think? Firstly I thought - if I wanted to show off the best of San Francsico, I'd choose completely different places to eat. Secondly, I thought, "Hey, I could do that", and so, here I am doing it, and I want all of you to do it too!

How to be Rachael Ray For the Day...
Instructions for Participating in Dine & Dish #4:
This is the perfect chance for you to show off your favourite, good-value, eating-out options in your hometown. If you are travelling you can still take part, by being even more like Rachael and posting your entry from the point of view of a tourist.

So here is the deal - your Dine & Dish #4 blog post should cover a whole day's worth of meals eaten outside of your home - breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks (if you have enough money), including drinks, for the total sum of $40. Take out options are viable too. A sandwich in the park for lunch, will help keep your budget down and leave you more pennies to spend on dinner.

Make your post informative. Imagine it is being read by a tourist who wants to try out your choices. Pictures would be great if you can manage them. Link to the vendors' websites if they are available and make a note of the cost of each part of your meal.

(Shhhh! Nobody will know if you cheat a little and don't actually visit all the places on the same day, just make it look as if you did for the sake of your post.)

I think Rachael includes the tip in her budget, but we aren't going to enforce that here, because different countries and different people have different ideas about how much a tip should be. So just tip as extra, as you would normally do, and don't bother to include that part of the transaction in your post.

Click here for a currency calculator if you are outside the USA, to find out how much $40 equals wherever you are in the world.

Try and show off the good things about the area you are posting from. Rachael is nothing other than orgasmically happy about everything she consumes for $40 A Day and you should be the same.

Absolutely not: No taking vegetables home from the market and cooking a fabulous meal. This challenge is entirely about eating out and has nothing to do with eating in!

The Dine & Dish Deadline is Monday August 22nd. Please post your entry on, or just before, that date. Then send me an email with I AM RACHAEL RAY in the subject line.
Information I need in the email please:
Your name:
Your Location:
Your Blog Name:
Your Blog Url:
Your Blog Post Title:
Your Permalink Url for your Dine & Dish #4 post:
Your Final Budget Total:

email to becks dot posh at gmail dot com



PS.This edition of Dine & Dish is going to be the best ever $40 A Day. If you love her, you can be her. If you hate her, you can show her. Either way I am not quite sure how any of you will be able to resist this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend the whole day pretending you really are none other than Rachael Ray!

posted in Food and Blogging and Dine&Dish and San Francisco and Rachael Ray and Bay Area

Be Rachael Ray for A Day: Dine & Dish # 4