Rachael Ray's Recipe for Career Success

You could say that Rachael Ray is an accidental multi-media star. She readily admits to having stumbled upon her superstar status. "I never wanted to be on food television or daytime television," she confesses. "I never thought I'd author a cookbook. I just knew that I wanted to work in food, and the rest of it's sort of a combination of luck and very weird circumstances."

The Emmy-winning TV star almost inadvertently catapulted from hanging out in her mother's kitchen to hosting her own syndicated talk and lifestyle show, starring in three Food Network series, writing cookbooks based on her '30 Minute Meals' concept and launching a magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray.