Ready to go back in time?
With the end of the show on the horizon, we're taking a look back — at our first episode EVER in 2006!
And Rach's first audience chat, too, which honestly could not have been sweeter.
"I'm very, very excited, because this is my first show. Not only of this show, but my first show with people for five years! Right? Think about that. For five years I've been on Food Network, national television, talking to vegetables!"
Or, as she called them, her "special little friends." HA!
"I'm so excited that we have people here. I'm just beside myself and it's — how do you like the apartment? How do you like the digs? I'm so happy you said that. 'Cause I actually went shopping for this stuff, so if you guys are gonna start criticizing the furniture, I was gonna cry!"
"I actually brought a lot of stuff from home and I went shopping for these seats. I haven't really scotch-guarded yet. And we eat here, every day, so please be careful not to spill. And I haven't really paid for them yet either, so, um.... Oh, heads up to you guys. See how you're spinning. That's very cool... the studio audience gets to spin around the house... Hey, why don't you wave to everybody at home? That'll be fun. Hi, America!"
"So, firsts in my life... Yeah, I remember first day of school. I remember the dress I wore, I remember the books I brought with me. Um, I remember — oh, I remember my first car, 'cause that wasn't so long ago! I didn't actually learn to drive until I was like 25..."
This next memory really gets us, though!
"I definitely remember — remember the first bad perm you ever got? Oh, I'm so glad the '80s ended. Those were very bad hair years for me! And I remember, oh, my first color television when I was a kid... It's why Richard Nixon, to this day, remains my favorite president. Listen, I know... kind of a surprising choice. But listen, we were the last kids to have a black and white TV. My mom, you know, she's a very practical Sicilian woman. She doesn't throw anything away until it's done. Until it dies naturally, right? So we have the last black and white TV, and Nixon comes on and my mother, at 20 paces — she's 4'11" — gets her back up, that's what we call it. She got her back up about Nixon, took her shoe off, big stiletto shoe, and at 20 paces — she's one of them shoe-throwing mamas — boom! And it hits it at exactly the right angle... Shoe goes into the tv, blows it up, fireworks in the living room, and we finally got color TV! I'm running around the living room screaming 'Nixon! Nixon!' And my mother voted for McGovern, so me running around the living room screaming 'Nixon,' not so great!"
