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Rachael Ray »

Rachael Ray Named One Of The Top 10 Worst Celebrity Tippers
Posted on August 18th 2011 by Jillian Madison

Yahoo Sports blog “The Post Game” recently compiled a list of the Top 10 Worst Celebrity Tippers. The list was comprised of offenders like Tiger Woods, Bill Cosby, Mariah Carey, Usher, and Food Network’s own Rachael Ray.

Congratulations on the dubious distinction, Ray-Ray. Here’s to hoping your years of stiffing hard-working waitstaff on $40 a Day haunts you for years to come.



Other posts on Food Network Humor:

---Mariah Carey Dresses Like Man, Ends Up Looking Like Duff
---Rachael Ray Coins Annoying New Word
---FNH RECAP: Rachael vs Guy Celebrity Cookoff, Episode 3
---FNH RECAP: Rachael vs Guy Celebrity Cookoff, Episode 1
---Aaron McCargo Named One Of Last Decade’s Sexiest Chefs (Really?)

    88 Responses

  1. Oob Oob Yittik says:

    This picture of Ray-Ray? It is disturbing. Wow.

  2. MoreBeef says:

    Anthony Bourdain has publicly called her out on this one. In his speaking engagements he talks about $40 dollars a day and says “Hey Rachael, I have a helpful hint for you, TIP BITCH!” This is usually greeted by rousing applause.

  3. Meg says:

    RayRay looks like she’s got nuts in her cheeks! Scary….And almost as many teeth as Giada. REAL scary!

  4. coffee-n-toast says:

    Whoooaaaaa…. that is a TERRIBLE picture of her.

  5. Squirrel says:

    That picture is burning my eyeballs. What’s up with the freaky looking wrinkles on her temple? She grosses me out.

  6. Sue says:

    Ages ago I realized the only way she could do anything on $40 a day was to not tip. And she’s pretty blatant about it too. I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed. (And I hope that her production crews follow along and actually do tip at the places she goes!)

    As for the freaky looking wrinkles… That’s where the botox doc missed. It’s the only part of her forehead that moves!!!

  7. Elle says:

    Because I don’t want to sign in with the yahoo nonsense, I’ll post it here.

    Shaq is a lousy, lousy actor and a pretty good basketball player. He was, however, a pleasure to serve and a good tipper (that may be because I never asked him about Kazaam! though)

    • Natalie says:

      Hey Elle, we don’t care that you didn’t want to sign in with yahoo. You’re still in the wrong place! This is about Ray Ray and not tipping. Please go away.

  8. DerekLutz says:

    I think she usually tipped around 8-10% on her $40 a day show. It’s on Travel Channel in the morning if you’d like to waste your time to verify. She’ll be using coupons at every opportunity.

    20% RR, that’s how servers make a living.

    • Ferd Berfle says:

      MadTV did a parody of RayRay’s $40 a day show which was very funny. Perhaps it’s on youtube. The “calculations” the Rachael impersonator did to add up to $40 were priceless. Of course, there was no tip.

  9. Emily says:

    Rachael Ray is indeed a terrible tipper. I’ve been saying that for years.

    But that is a terrible caption. There’s nothing wrong with tipping less than 20%. Less than 15%, yes. But I’m getting tired of the notion that 20% is the new standard.

    Yes, servers’ living expenses have gone up. So have restaurant prices, so therefore so has the 15% tip.

    It’s not uncommon for me to tip 20%, but that is for stellar, noticeably great service. Not minimum service.

    • NP says:

      Thank you, Emily! When on earth did that 20% nonsense begin??? A tip is 15%, more if you were great (Also, when did I have to start tipping for picking up my own food – like at a pizza place – the tip is for the server)

      • Erica says:

        I always tip at least 20% on my bill at a restaurant. On the flip side, I NEVER tip a penny for picking up my own food. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that.

      • Steve says:

        I’ve noticed that the more loudly someone who works as a server complains that she *deserves* 25%, 30%, or more, the more I’m inclined to think “if you act like this at work, I’m surprised people are leaving you anything.”

        • No Nic says:

          F*** it, I’ve given lousy waitstaff 20-30% tips because I could see they were having a bad day.

          And, yeah, I had a teenager at Waffle House (the awful house) once who was TERRIBLE at what she did, stressed out, making no money, had an enormous attitude, and had even earned the hatred of the cooks and senior waitstaff. She deserved to be stiffed, but guess what, I’m not her mother, it was Xmas eve, and the cook didn’t need to pay for her incompetence. When I have a good line cook at WH I always leave a bunch extra and instruct the server to tip out the cook.

          Maybe restaurant managers should spend a few hours fucking training their staff rather than hiring any perky idiot and expecting them to be a customer’s dream, how about that, huh?

          (And they do train pretty well at the big chains–they train the servers to be annoying as hell, but I can hardly blame them for the crappy job that they have on those rare occasions that some of my “friends” drag me to one of those miserable places–TGIF, Crapplebee’s, Chili’s, etcet.)

    • Ah yes. Spoken as people who have never waited tables in their lives.

      • Barb says:

        I waited tables for many years and always tip 20%, but when the servers are both incompetent and assholes I tip 10%. Here’s the thing. The rich-ass owners of many restaurants should pay a living wage. The minimum wage laws should require it. Then a tip is really a tip.

        I had relatives visiting recently. We went out on a sailboat cruise, about $35 per person. The crew begged for tips. It was a one-hour cruise and there were 50 people on the boat so do the math. Why does the crew need tips? Because the weathly owner of the business doesn’t pay them what their work is really worth.

        Same for a horseback ride I took my nieces on. There are people making millions who have employees begging us for tips folks. That doesn’t mean don’t tip. That means start asking questions. Just sayin.

        • VZG says:

          I agree so damn hard. It’s disgusting that they’re legally allowed to pay less than minimum wage because tips are “expected” to make up for it.

          • No Nic says:

            We need to push this politically, though. Stiffing waitstaff and worker bees to “stick it to the man” doesn’t work and never has.

            We need to get rid of all minimum wage exemptions. That includes farm work. Maybe less Americans would be unemployed if they weren’t trucking in guest workers who are so desperately poor (or afraid to go home b/c of gang violence) that they’ll accept indentured servitude in exchange for a hot meal once a day.

            In Germany, not only do waitstaff get a living wage, they get mandatory paid vacations as well. Never had a bad restaurant experience in Germany despite my poor command of the language. Actually, the service people I dealt with were all rather nice! (Which, considering this is Germany we’re talking about, is saying something.)

            Now the funny thing is that you cross the border into Czech Republic and order something in a restaurant (well, the owner-operated, counter-service kind) and the attitude is insanely pissy. But my Czech guide explained that small business owners like that were the sort who were flying high in the Communist Party before 1990 and don’t much like being regular peons today. (Ironic? Yes, indeed. Who knew that in former Communist Bloc countries that ex-Communist = Chamber of Commerce president with John Birch Society sympathies?)

      • Kelley says:

        Uh… I waited tables for a very long time and I didn’t expect a 20% tip if I was having a bad day and not doing a good job. I don’t wait tables anymore, but I remember very well what it was like so I try to leave a 20% tip AT LEAST every time. But the truth is, I not always have enough to leave a 20% tip and waiters DON’T ALWAYS deserve it! If I have to wait twenty minutes to get a menu at a restaurant that is nearly empty because the server is being a lazy ass bum, please explain to me why I have to leave a 20% tip instead of a 15% tip? If I wanted good tips, I had to work hard to earn them.

        • No Nic says:

          Good point, but why would you go out if you don’t have enough money to tip properly? Get take-out.

          I hear you about a bad day. When I was a bus driver and went to work already feeling like I was having a bad day I always got the NASTIEST attitude from riders. In people businesses, whatever you project gets magnified back at you by a factor of four… and since you’re already having a bad day it’s hard to muster up the patience to deal with it all. (Fortunately, having a bad day for me was rare–otherwise I might have quit!)

          Also, this is the US, and some people are just LOOKING for somebody to piss off, just to make their day. I swear, we have a narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder EPIDEMIC. I did love the sweet little old ladies I used to drive around who would tell me about their grandchildren. Made the whole slog worth it.

      • SummerGirl says:

        I always tip 20% but that’s only because it’s easy math. The correct, expected tip is 15%. Not 20.

    • MsFoodie says:

      Waiters/waitresses LIVE on their tips, do you not know that?? Do you know what I made an hour when I worked as one? $2.13. You tell me what the hell bill that’s gonna pay every month. 20% IS the standard, whether your cheap asses like it or not. I tip 20% at least, and I will easily tip more if the service warrants it. I hate people like you.
      “Stellar, noticeably great service.” PFFT. That warrants a good deal more than 20%. Cheap asses.

      • Ferd Berfle says:

        Of course, there is the option of finding another job, one that pays an actual hourly wage.

        • Ferd Berfle says:

          Oh, and by the way, before I get pilloried, I tip 15-25%, depending on the service provided.

        • Bianca says:

          Yes, because well paying jobs (or jobs in general) are just falling from the sky nowadays.

          • Kelley says:

            Although that’s true, then the waiter has to actually EARN the 20%-25% tip. Some waiters don’t even try and they believe they are entitled to a high tip for bad service. And before you start whining: “spoken like someone who has never had to wait a table in her life”, let me tell you: I was a waiter for a very long time and I believed then, and believe now that I had to be a good server in order to earn good tips.

        • Brown Sugar says:

          Ferd, ya done struck a nerve here. I agree with Bianca. “Jobs” are not handed out upon graduation with your degree. And I know servers who are serving because they were downsized or outsourced, and then there is the huge population that is not capable of being doctors or engineers, or college graduates of any kind. Should they let someone else support them? For some people it’s the only option. And for the people commenting here that your local servers make minimum wage, I’d say you live in an ideal kind of place; please don’t assume it’s like that in most of America. Here, like most places, it’s $2.13 an hour. Servers deal with hungry people all day, and even the nicest people in the world can get a little touchy when they’re hungry. I’m not suggesting you tip over 15% if your service was lousy, or even if that’s just what you think you should tip. I’m saying don’t act like everyone is there because they don’t want a ‘real’ job. Maybe it’s the only job they can get, maybe they have a passion for service and a love of feeding people, or maybe they’re doing it to keep their family off Welfare.

        • No Nic says:

          Hey asshole, why don’t you just not go out?

          Somebody needs to take that job as long as you are supplying the demand, so where do you get off treating that person like shit?

          Most of the lousy service I’ve gotten lately was actually the fault of the owners and/or kitchen, not the poor flunky who was trying so hard to serve me.

          Kinda makes me feel bad because I don’t go back to places that suck… maybe the servers there can get another job (at a successful restaurant)?

          Your attitude sucks.

    • Toad says:

      From Wiki:

      …The customary tip until the 1980s was from 10-15% of the total bill before tax, for good to excellent service, and since then has risen to 15-20% before tax.[41] Tipping percentages may fall when the economy is poor.[42] Waiters, on average, fail to report at least 40% of their tips according to the IRS.[43]

      In a 2003 auditing conducted in a research report under advise of faculty member Ron Worsham at Brigham Young University, found that the data collected from sample restaurants for report had an average tip percentage ranged from 13.57 to 14.69% between 1999-2002.

      • No Nic says:

        If an independent audit shows that real tipping rates are 3-5 percentage points lower than IRS claims, in other words, anywhere between 3-32% lower in terms of take than the IRS is assuming, can we fairly say that 40% of IRS statistics are just made up???

        Furthermore, what about restaurants where the manager skims the credit tips, or where the manager skims the cash tips, or where it’s customary to tip out the cooks (who make more than min. wage most places), etc?

        What about unclaimed losses for when a customer stiffs you? I doubt most servers do their taxes in such detail, but this really does happen and most owners/managers really do take it out of the server’s pay.

  10. Tina` says:

    Geez I only tip 20% if the server is rude. I always tip at least 30%. These hard working folks only make 2.00 and something an hour

    • Skats says:

      As of late, a lot of establishments are paying servers and bartenders minimum wage PLUS tips. The minimum wage where I live is $8.67 an hour(it varies state to state), so a lot of people go into the industry knowing that a bad tip for good service can be rectified through hourly wage.. I agree that 20% is pretty much standard…and it only goes up from there with great service. Rachel Ray should know better than this.

      • yoyomama says:

        in illinois there’s this lovely thing called waitress wage which allows waitresses to be paid half minimum wage, as they are expected to make the rest up in tips. if you are trying to make a living as a server in illinois, a less than 20% tip can ruin your day.

    • laura says:

      I am with you. I also do not tip less if the food is bad. That is not the servers fault. I have waited tables, and my husband is a chef.
      I also have another job, but I will always give 15% and usually 20-25 for good service.
      It is not easy dealing with the public.

    • Doug says:

      These people make $8 to $12 in California and that is BEFORE tip. When you add on the tip they are the highest paid employees in a resturant outside of the head manager. They make more than the chefs who make the food. It is scary that the people who make your food are paid less than the people who bring it to the table.

      • No Nic says:

        That may be true at fancy establishments, but is certainly not true at more humdrum places with less custom, and at many places the servers have to tip out their coworkers so they do not keep the entire tip. (Take one of those snooty establishments with wine service: every one of that army of help is getting a cut, however small, of the tip.)

        Also, I’m not sure why a sous-chef or preparer necessarily should make more than a server, unless you’re just expressing some rank sexism here. Top chef talent? Sure. A really great line cook? Should be tipped out generously by the servers every night. But every shmoe in the kitchen is not worth more than a top-selling server. Servers are the sales staff of the restaurant, and high performers, as in any sales job, can and do make more money than your non-front-line people.

  11. Mandy says:

    Where I live, we have to pay 10% government tax and 6% (up one percent from last year) of service tax for every single meal we have out.

    We don’t tip.

    • john says:

      That’s nice. You don’t like taxes, so you stiff the waitstaff. Yeah.

    • Bun says:

      So, you’re punishing the servers because the government taxes you when you eat out? That seems a little unfair…

    • Deena says:

      If it’s a hardship for you to go out, then don’t go out. But to not tip at all, is really wrong.

    • Pishposh says:

      Interesting how where you live, your legislature is also your waitstaff. That IS why you’re taking it out on them, right? Because otherwise, it would just be a dick move to try to “stick it to the man” and “make a point” on a completely unrelated third party while the people you’re trying to send a message to don’t know and don’t care about your little “rebellion.”

    • Jana says:

      You are a huge jerk. Do you think the servers get out of paying that tax? How does this justify your cheap butt?? I hope the next server spits a huge bloody loogie in your food tightwad.

    • SPA GIT TEEEEE says:

      Wow, that is convoluted. Why not write letters to your legislature, local newspapers, etc. or get involved in a grassroots organization if you feel that strongly. Meanwhile, continue to provide tips for your meals out because the people who serve you have nothing to do with such ludicrous legislation and meanwhile still have bills to pay, mouths to feed, lives to live.

    • Mandy says:

      Ah well, didn’t expect anyone to agree. It was never in the culture of my country to tip… Unless it was a top notch restaurant. Maybe waiters/servers here earn sufficiently for basics etc? I don’t know. But we have never tipped. First time I heard about tipping was from Western TV shows. So yeah… anyway. Moving on!

  12. Jan_el says:

    I didn’t grow up wealthy by any means, but my mom always taught us to tip well. So I leave 20%…more if the waiter/waitress seems to be having a busy frazzled night. I hate to see other diners make them jump through hoops and then leave a bad tip …so tacky. They work hard.

    Some of these stiffing “celebs” need to remember how many people there are waiting to replace them.

    • SPA GIT TEEEEE says:

      I do the same. When I see another table acting like assholes and the waiter/waitress handles it with grace and dignity, I feel compelled to leave a larger tip just in the service of humanity. And I do not make big bucks; I teach elementary school. It’s just hard to watch people be treated with such disregard and disrespect.

  13. yoyomama says:

    i grew up watching my dad tip 20% rounded up to the nearest 5 dollars. as poor as we were, we knew that those poor girls made even less than he did and they work so hard. it really kills me when i am with people who are shitty tippers and they say “ugh, can you believe we actually had to ASK for straws? she should have brought them in the first place. no way she’s getting 20%.” how inconsiderate can you be? you’re probably worse than that at YOUR job. and you’re not their only table, you can’t expect them to remember everything all the time.

    • No Nic says:

      They probably are worse than that at their job. I’ve worked service, blue collar, and white collar and I’ve never seen so much dead weight as in the white collar environment.

      Theoretically white collar is expected to be able to read and write and do figures to justify the light hand, but a shocking number of office workers can’t do those things well either!

  14. Kumba says:

    I go 15-20% rounded up to the nearest dollar. It’s hard for me to justify much more and the tip usually end up over 20%. Plus I like round numbers, so the tips are always like $4.28.

    However, my one cardinal sin is letting my drink go dry outside of a reasonable timeframe. If my drink is empty and 8-10 minutes go by, the tip falls to 10%. The only time I will make an exception is if it’s only 1-2 waitresses and they get a 30-40 person rush. I will usually preempt that scenario by telling them to just bring me two drinks while they run around.

    My definition of great service is when they just bring me a pitcher of drink after my second refill. :)

    • No Nic says:

      I guess you’re not the only one because I’m the opposite–kinda tired of waitstaff constantly topping off my drink or giving me new ones when I’m clearly not drinking it or drinking it slowly. Eccch. Lay off.

      But clearly most people like those drinks to stay filled!

  15. drew says:

    O.K. I could posibbly understand the Bill Cosby’s and Sean Pean’s of the worls tipping horribly. They have really never worked for a living like people in the food industry does, but Racheal Ray promoting tipping under 20%??????? Come on! She has worked in the food industry all her life starting with her mother in a little cafe where her mother had to rely on tips. I think she is a disgrace to the people working in the food industry and I hope if her mom is still alive will have a few choice word for her when she see her next.

  16. sue says:

    This is hardly news. RR has been known for YEARS as being a lousy, cheap, miserable ahole. God, I wish she’d really go away.

  17. NK says:

    Don’t be a waiter/waitress then if you don’t like getting paid $2-$3 an hour.

    No one is making you have a job like that. So you should know going in that some nights you might make a $100 in tips and some nights nothing. If you have bills to pay then find a job that pays better. I am so sick of people complaining about what they get paid when it is your choice to work there.

    • laura says:

      Well, let me see…Go Hungry? or work….Or would you rather the person go on public assistance which I am sure something would be said about that..
      Like.. why don’t they get a job. Stop being lazy..
      Well, you can not have it both ways..

    • Gatsby says:

      I totally agree! You choose where you work. If you can’t pay your bills, then find another job. I didn’t know that it was all or nothing, either be a waitress or not be a waitress and starve.

      • VZG says:

        Are you COMPLETELY unaware of what’s going on around you, then? Lots of people have NO jobs right now. The unemployment rate is high. Minimum wage for a person just out of college is normal. There are people falling from comfortable weekly/yearly pay rates to jobs just like my minimum wage one, where people practically fight to get hours.

        So, yeah, it is fucking “be a waitress or starve” to a lot of people. And it’s not just them paying the price for not having a job — it’s their children, their spouses, their elderly parents that rely on their care.

        Good for you and your spoiled ass that you get to choose. I’d kill for that luxury right now.

    • No Nic says:

      If everyone took your advice there would be a general strike and you would have to crack open your own can of beans.

      Sit down and think about that one, cowboy.

      PS: Not that a general strike wouldn’t be long overdue in these United States.

  18. Em says:

    I have never commented before but this compelled me enough to say something.

    I am a BROKE MOTHERFUCKER. But when I go to a diner and get $4 worth of food, I freaking leave 10 bucks and say keep the change. Money does not come easily to anyone, so share what you have, and someday someone will share it with you too.

  19. Jessica says:

    This makes sense because whenever she did that stupid $40 a day show, she would write “Tip – 4 cents”. So clearly she is a terrible tipper.

  20. Steve says:

    First off, every tip I’ve seen on $40 a day is 15%. Now, that may not live up to some people’s standards, but 15% isn’t egregiously inappropriate. (The problem I have is that she’ll tip 15% even if it means leaving exactly 85 cents, or whatever. Personally, I won’t tip less than $2-3 for a meal, even if that works out to a higher percentage because I ate alone and ordered a sandwich).

    Second, even if you insist 15% in unacceptable, I think she’s clearly the odd one out on this list. The other celebrities listed (allegedly) tipped way less than 10% or even 5% on extravagant bills; that’s a lot worse than advocating a 15% tip IMHO.

    Third, I don’t understand the chips that some servers have on their shoulders about the admittedly hard and relatively low-paying job they choose to do. Plenty of other low-paying jobs suck, too, and don’t even include tips. (And the $2.13 an hour minimum wage is misleading – if the server’s tips aren’t enough that her overall wage is at least as much as the “real” minimum wage, the employer is required to make up the difference).

    • Brown Sugar says:

      Steve, the employer is NOT required to make up the difference here, or in the previous state we lived in.

    • No Nic says:

      They don’t have a chip on their shoulder–they are being required to hustle for their bread and it hurts when you work really hard and don’t freaking get paid.

  21. Jana says:

    I have been in one service industry or another my whole working career. I have been the tired waitress and I’ve got to say-if you give your server some decency, respect, and patience they will bend over backwards to make sure you’re taken care of and yes, I tip very well. Servers remember you for being lousy and being generous and serve accordingly. I am now a hairstylist and have been for almost 20 years. My clients that are servers and bartenders are my BEST tippers. Rachael Ray grew up in a restaurant and she should be ashamed.

    • VZG says:

      I’ve gotta say, I wish that were true. Usually I have nice, attentive servers, but I have certainly been ignored before, and I always do my damnedest to be nice. I don’t think I’ve ever tipped below 15%, but servers are people, too, and that means they can be great people or they can be the server that would rather focus all their attention on someone who looks wealthier.

  22. Scarab83 says:

    I tip ~15%, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

  23. Really? says:

    I don’t really comment a lot, but I have to say some of you people are assholes. Get a better job? Servers are doing the jobs you think you’re too “good” for. Without them, who’s going to be bringing you your meal? Have a little respect for people who make your lives easier, even in the slightest way.

    I have not waited tables (but worked in customer service jobs) and it is not always easy to work with the public. If you don’t want to pay for the tip, don’t go out to eat, plain and simple.

  24. Danielle says:

    Rachel Ray is a neighbor I can assure you from my personal knowledge that she is nothing but a major bitch, and not a very bright one at that. She is widely regarded for being cheap and tacky and I have heard from others she is a lousy tipper.

  25. GET A LIFE says:

    CAN YOU SAY PHOTOSHOPPED! Like it’s not completely obvious. Anyone who is negative towards her is just jealous. Also considering the tipping scale is 15% and if I’m not mistaken that is less than 20%, and I’m not mistaken.
    Really if the maker of this picture honestly has nothing better to do than make up stupid stories and FAKE pictures about someone they need to take a good look at themselves in the mirror and see where their lives are going. Bet you wish you were 10% as successful as she is. FIND A NEW HOBBY!!

    • Hosoir Swabbydoe says:

      Shut up. These white-knights get on my nerves. That pic isn’t photoshopped, she really does have a mouth like a basking shark. She can’t help it I guess, but what can I say? The internet is a bitch.

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