Rachael Ray Has A New 'Italian Dream Home' Show. Here's What We Know
If you watched the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" and thought, cute story but that would never really happen, Rachael Ray has some good news for you. The Food Network chef, daytime talk show host, magazine maven and author of the soon-to-be-released book "This Must Be the Place" has had yet another project up her sleeve since pre-pandemic times, and she is finally ready to share it with the class (via Rachael Ray Show). It turns out, Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, bought a little bit of land in Tuscany three years ago, and then gazed longingly from afar as the global pandemic made visiting their new abode impossible.
Once restrictions were lifted, however, it was straight to business — a dilapidated structure in the shape of a house sat on that property, and Ray spent the summer turning it into the Italian villa she's dreamed about since she and her husband tied the knot in Tuscany many moons ago. In an Instagram post, the chef shares that she'll be premiering a Facebook Watch show called "Rachael Ray's Italian Dream Home" on October 19, through a partnership with A&E, and a trailer shows the host saying things like "I'm literally standing in my life's dream come true."
The host experiences some ups and downs with their renovations
The "Rachael Ray Show" tells us that the new series will begin streaming on the A&E Facebook page on October 19, and even shares an aerial picture of the house before the renovations, and the gorgeous villa it becomes afterwards. "We're trying to turn a stable into a villa!" Ray said about the project, which she also calls her "life's work." However, the trailer on Ray's Instagram suggests it wasn't all red wine and rainbows trying to pull off a Tuscan villa reno with the cameras rolling and pressure of an upcoming anniversary serving as the end-of-summer deadline.
At one point, the celebrity chef herself turns to the camera and says, "You know the worst thing about my house? The kitchens. Guess what I do for a living? I cook!" With many Italian relatives, on both Ray and Cusimano's sides of the family, and with the couple's own connection to the place, this move has been a long time in the making. "Since I was a girl, I dreamed of having a place in Italy," Ray says in a video on Instagram. "I'm 52 years old and I've worked all of my life for this."