Rachael Ray’s Big Chicago Block Party!
Rachael Ray filmed her fourth season premiere as part of a “Big Block Party” on Friday on the streets surrounding Wrigley Field. At the event the Emmy winning talk-show host brought in people from the city to enjoy a free family-friendly street fest filled with delicious local food, Chicago sports teams, celebs, cooking demos, karaoke and even Cookie Monster!
To kick off the event, Rachael welcomed friends and fans with the Chicago Fire Department. They even made her an honorary Chicago Firefighter! Following her intro, people piled into the streets where they were offered fresh fruit, Frontera faves, frozen yogurt, sliders, and hot dogs!
On the main stage of the event, Rachael brought in some exceptional faces. First up, Kool and The Gang played some of their most well known hits, opening their set with “Get Down On It” shouting to the crowd, “Ya’ll ready to get down with Rachael Ray?!!!!”
Following the upbeat and impressive performance from Kool, Rachael introduced her next guest and Chicago Native, Jenny McCarthy! Jenny, now an LA vegan, claims she grew up a Giordano’s girl and swears by their sausage pizza!
The two discussed a lot of the recent activity in Jenny’s life, including her love for Chicago, work with Weight Watchers, her son Evan, and Jim Carrey, the main man in her life.
Jenny loves her hometown Chicago and exclaimed how proud she is to be a part of it. However, mid-interview, as the Red Line rushed by, she made the shocking confession that in all her time in the city, she’s never been on the “L”!
A Chicago girl who doesn’t ride the train or eat pizza? We were struck with disbelief!
We can’t really blame her though. Jenny confessed that during her pregnancy with her son Evan, who’s now seven, she reached her heaviest weight at 211 pounds. However, her sudden weight gain appears to have been a blessing in disguise.
Throughout her weight loss project, Jenny not only learned how to be healthy but she discovered how food can truly shape your life. Evan, who was born autistic, shaped his diet into a cleansing ritual that improved his life, severely decreasing his autistic tendencies, almost curing him entirely. As Jenny put it, “removing certain foods changed Evan’s life. Food is everything in health.”
Additionally, to drop the LB’s, Jenny joined Weight Watchers where in about one year, she reached her goal weight, in addition to adopting a lead in the companies’ Lose For Good program, encouraging people to join by announcing, “now is the time to join. You can lose weight while giving back.”
Seems like things in Jenny’s life are going pretty well. Hot new bod, fabulous family, not to mention a handsome and hysterical man!
Jenny admitted that Jim Carrey is “everything I’ve ever dreamed a man could be. We all go through our struggles, but now, things are so good.”
Rachael took one glance at Jenny’s life and and sarcastically exclaimed, “oh yea Jenny, our hearts bleed for you!”
Following the interview, Rachael made her way around to all the local food booths to enjoy some tasty bites, and offer her appreciation for their help in the event.
While she was touring the tents, some fellow chefs got up to demo some of their favorite flavors. Rocco DiSpirito made some delicious looking swiss steaks, while another Chicago name, Rick Bayless (winner of Top Chef Masters) also offered some quick recipes.
The Boots Girls got a quick minute to chat with the chef where he told us about his new restaurant and his experience on Top Chef.
On his new restaurant, Xoco, opening up in two weeks on the corner of Clark and Illinois, Rick described the food as being “all inspired by Mexican street food.”
More detailed, Rick revealed, “we’re going to be featuring two really delicious preparations; the first is tortas, which are like Mexican submarine type sandwiches, but with a rustic element, as wells as meal-in-a-bowl soups called caldos. Very simple food but gutsy and full of flavor like everyone expects from us.”
On his time on Top Chef Masters, Rick admitted, “it was really hard but I’m glad I did it. It was a really serious competition, but an amazing experience to go through.”
Some other celebrity appearances included Biggest Loser’s Jillian Michaels who had an active children’s play area, and American Idol’s Kimberly Locke and Justin Guarini who helped kid’s in the audience sing some killer karaoke.
We even got a chance to chat up our new furry bestie C. Monster!
To close out her segment, Rachael made her own take on a sweet but healthy lemonade as well as some healthy and delicious looking sliders!
She thoroughly enjoyed her time in our city and hopes to be welcomed back soon! Tune into Rachael’s Big Block Party as it premieres September 14th on WGN-TV airing at 10 am.