Over a month removed from a fire that ravaged their upstate New York home, Rachael Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, have been living in their guest house, a place she calls "strangely homey."
During a Zoom call with French chef Jacques Pepin, Rachael described how she built the guest house to a be a small replica of her main home (the one that burned down in August).
"We were allowed to make it a little higher, and it is literally a small version of what our home was," she said.
While the current home isn't as big as the fire-stricken home, it is still quite large.
"Basically I designed the house so I can see everything that's going on in the house from the kitchen," she said. "So although we lost our home, this is strangely homey because it is literally a small version of our house."
The guest home has a refined rustic feel and even comes with a see-through fireplace in the middle of the great room.
The affable cook also praised Chef Pepin and his wife, Gloria, during the tour.
"I want everyone to know that after our fire, which was obviously catastrophic, many, many, many, so many friends wrote, I didn't know for days because I didn't have a phone for days, but Jacque and Gloria were the only friends that literally said we could go and live with them, we could go live in their guest house," Rachael said. "It is so beautiful of you."
Rachael had been filming her eponymous talk show and cooking segments at the home amid the coronavirus pandemic. State fire officials later determined the blaze was started by accident in a chimney.
Racheal has said that she and John were alerted to the fire by a neighbor on an ATV.
"This man comes running through the backyard, he jumped off an ATV, and he's in our backyard screaming, 'Your roof is on fire! Your roof is on fire! Your roof is on fire!'" she said.