Rachael Ray breaks down in tears over visits to war-torn Ukraine
Rachael Ray broke down in tears over her emotional visits to war-torn Ukraine during a new interview on entertainment tonight Thursday.
The 54-year-old celebrity chef, who has made three visits to Ukraine, was visibly moved as she reflected on the “strength and bravery” of the Ukrainian people and recounted how she cooked for them.
Ray’s most recent trip to the Ukraine saw her travel to Lviv, the country’s seventh-largest city, with the star saying: “Every trip I take there, this was my third, it’s filled with so much emotion.”
“I have never met stronger or braver people of all ages, from children to grandparents. These are the strongest, most resilient, most brilliant, most loving people, and it’s hard to be there because you see the ruins of war.
Tears: Rachael Ray broke down in tears over her emotional visits to war-torn Ukraine during a new interview on Entertainment Tonight on Thursday.
‘You see the amputated limbs and you see face to face and you look them in the eye, displaced people. All they want to be is free, free and fair elections and govern themselves and have normal lives and great careers and great lives.
And now they have nothing. Their lives are reduced to the contents of plastic bags, and the lucky ones have a suitcase or two and drag them miles to reach a more secure border, a safe haven, or just the hospital.”
It’s very emotional. I love him more than anything in the world. It gives me purpose. it fills my heart. And I have a wonderful meal there and I have a wonderful life among the Ukrainian people, but then I come home and I am so obsessed with their suffering and their pain that I just cannot not be with them.
“So every trip I take is always about what we need to do when we get back. It doesn’t even occur to me not to come back.
Heartbreaking: The 54-year-old celebrity chef, who has made three visits to Ukraine, was visibly moved as she reflected on the ‘strength and bravery’ of the Ukrainian people and recounted how she cooked for them (illustrated scenes from Rachael’s documentary)
The star reflected on teaching classes in a kitchen she built at St. John Bosco Orphanage, and the time she cooked beef borsht and chocolate cake for children whose parents had been killed in the war.
She said; ‘The chocolate cakes exploded because there was too much batter for the mixer. And the kids were eating it off the counters and the side of the bowls.
‘It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. It was like Christmas. It was better than Christmas.
‘I just felt, wow, this is great. They have lost so much, they have lost mom and dad, they have lost their homes, but look at the joy they can still feel and how much they love each other.
And everyone hugged and shared and traded toys. They weren’t fighting each other. They were sharing and exchanging and I thought, what exemplary children. What beautiful little creatures these people are.
Devastating: The star reflected on teaching classes in a kitchen she built at St. John Bosco Orphanage, and the time she cooked beef borsht and chocolate cake for children whose parents had been killed in the war
She added: ‘This is a magical, magical place. It is an orphanage but it is also a school. It is also his place of worship, of course, and is a professional training center.
‘They have five different programs for children and I built the kitchen with my friend Giancarlo. We ordered this material through Italy because it was easier to get it from the EU to Ukraine than from the United States.
‘We upgraded all the electricity so it could handle it. We built the kitchen with induction cooktops because it was the easiest option, and we had to upgrade the electricity to do that, and then we upgraded the ventilation so we could all cook together.
Speaking about the work she and her team do for Ukraine, she said: “One of the things we do on every trip is provide these top of the line kits that are built for NATO.” [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] Standards for turnstiles.
Cook: She said; ‘The chocolate cakes exploded because there was too much batter for the mixer. And the kids were eating it off the counters and the side of the bowls. ‘It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen’
’17 elements in all. I think the most important item is the gel that you put under a tourniquet where you injured yourself. If you have shrapnel, if you’ve been in a missile attack, if you’ve been shot, you’d put the tourniquets on first, and then you’d put on this gel to keep enough blood in the injured part of your body so you don’t lose that limb or maybe that organ. It gives you a little time.
“The places where you gather materials for people, people who are being trained, civilians who are now combatants, these particular security teams, these things have to move all the time or they are military targets for the Russians. So, you’re really working on safe houses.
‘You have to move that facility every few weeks where you build these kits and work. It is an abandoned place. It’s a cold, empty warehouse where you work, where you process these kinds of materials.’
Ray’s special about his trip to the Ukraine airs Thursday on The Rachael Ray Show.
Ray has previously said of his decision to visit the Ukraine: The simple answer is that he couldn’t look away, and he couldn’t just look.