Chef Jake Cohen Dishes on the ‘Real’ Rachael Ray & His New ‘Makes It Easy’ Cooking Show

Before hosting your next dinner party, Jake Cohen wants to show you how to bring the wow factor to your guests. The viral chef and best-selling cookbook author serves up his trademark pizzazz while creating unique dishes for Jake Makes It Easy. The new cooking show is part of A+E Networks’ partnership with Rachael Ray’s Free Food Studios. 

During the half-hour episodes, Cohen cooks a main course and dessert, bringing unique takes to classic dishes rooted in heritage from his kitchen. His approach is to keep it simple. Kicking things off the NYC culinary master plates Iraqi salmon and date brownies. Also, on the menu in future episodes include balsamic and soy brisket, challah monkey bread, baked gnocchi, and soup-less chicken soup. 

Here Cohen talks about how he brings stories of food and family to life through making these meals, and the real Rachael Ray he has gotten to know.

What does it mean to have your first cooking series?

Jake Cohen: This is everything. This was my childhood dream. This is what I’ve always envisioned. Everyone was like, “How did you fall into food?” That was never it. I was always someone who dreamt of doing exactly what I was doing. I’m very blessed to live out my dream on a daily basis. To have this be the final piece of the puzzle, which is to cook on TV. To also have the origin story of wanting to do this rooted in watching Rachael Ray on TV and then having her be supportive of my cooks. To have her call me up and say, “Hey, you should be cooking on TV. We’re going to give you a show.” There is no world where I would say no. there was no way I wouldn’t put my heart and soul into this because it’s a blessing. 

Was the idea always to focus on the dinner party?

When I came to the table, that was the only thing. This is what I’m doing here. It was I’m doing this or maybe I’m not doing it. It’s so integral to who I am and what I feel my purpose is in the food world, which is to really help people not just learn how to cook but cook through this lens of hospitality. I want to turn the kitchen into a source of how people can build connections for those they love. That is how I really learned how to build community as a teenager. I would throw these dinner parties for my classmates. It’s how I made friends and learned how to be social and learned how I became an adult. 

You really do give an idea of where you come from and who you are through the stories you tell while making the food.

When it comes to anyone in the public eye and food, you have two options. Are you going to add to the conversation? Or are you going to add noise? There are a million shows and recipes that make things. Whatever is generic or what they expect the world to like. For me, I know one of my superpowers is conveying such human foundational elements to these stories. These anecdotes are why I cook these things. Where they come from. What’s the use of how they became part of the culinary lexicon in my kitchen? It could be from traveling different generations through traveling to many countries or it could be I really like something. 

That it was tied to some story or meaning around a friend, lover, or family member that at the moment made sense. I want to show that to people because they will see themselves in these stories whether they are of the same background or not. That is the most beautiful thing about food. It is this connector that by creating these human elements behind these anecdotes people from other cultures will see themselves within me and more so see these recipes as a source of a feeling rather than just a type of cuisine. That’s a huge honor. It is also not that deep. We’re just cooking. Fully embracing cooking for those you love and doing it in a sustainable way. 

You pair a main course and dessert in each episode. What went into what to cook?

For me, I think one of the things is making a delicious recipe, and giving someone a delicious recipe is just the foundation. That is the bare minimum I need to be doing in my job. It’s not doing some recipe solo and calling it a day. If people are coming over, I have to feed them. With this show, I wanted to create this structure of how you make these two recipes together in tandem and give you the little verbal cue that this is what you are going to do. If you want to make it a full meal, great. It’s about understanding the concept of the entire picture around how you feed people. I think what has been missing a lot is we’re teaching people how to cook but not giving them the foundation tools for how to host. Not in a tablescape kind of beauty way but in a logistics way. A good relationship with cooking where it doesn’t add stress but joy. 

You’re used to creating content online. How was it filming a TV show?

It was more that it was a place of gratitude that I’m getting to see what this is like. Having multiple cameras, seeing how to best showcase the food, showcase myself, when to be talking, and to be focusing on the action. Juggling all these moving parts. I know these recipes work because that’s why I put my heart and soul into making them. Now it’s more than making them but conveying how to get people to have no other thought in their head other than I need to make this immediately. That’s a fun challenge and a great little exercise to get through this season. I can tell you it’s just the beginning of a lot of fun projects to come. 

 

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How is it working with Rachael Ray and having her support?

She is the top. She the dream. She is the icon. She is a legend. She is Mother. Her main thing was, “I came to you because I‘m obsessed with who you are. You have to bring that to the show. You can’t try to be someone else when the cameras are on because it reads that way and falls apart.” It’s so crucial to have authenticity as the foundation of the relationship you have with the viewer. That’s how I approached my books, my persona online. It has always been that way. So if I didn’t do that in the show, I’d be doing myself a disservice. I’m someone who does their homework. I don’t throw away opportunities. I have many friends who are great Food Network stars. I called up different icons saying, “I’m doing my first cooking show. What did you do when you did yours?” 

I’m going through everything around that. Funny enough one of the big things I got from a friend of mine who was really talking about building a relationship with your culinary team. The culinary producer on the show. I was so nervous about that. It was someone I hadn’t worked with. However, there was a reminder Rachael picked her for me because Rachael only works with the best people. She was incredible. We had the most incredible relationships. It shows in every episode because the food looks delicious, I was able to crank through these recipes and everything was perfect. So, trusting the process, trusting the community people within the Rachael Ray orbit has never steered me wrong. 

Jake Cohen/A+E Networks

Her show was on for so long and resonated so much with you and many others. How has it been to get to know her at this stage of her career?

She is someone who is truly passionate about what she does and approaches every day with such love, connection, and attention. To be able to witness it up close and personal has been such a privilege. I think she has done more good within the food world than people even know, but she doesn’t do it for recognition. She does it because she is of such high moral character. To go out and eat at a restaurant with her and see the passion she has for food and the respect and joy she gets by celebrating other chefs is contagious. The biggest thing I can say is it’s my dream to one day pay it forward in the way I’ve seen her do to me and many others. 

Is there anything we don’t see in public that we should know Rachael?

She is exactly what you see. That’s it. I think one thing we see but not enough maybe is how much of an animal lover she is. Truly the way she loves her dogs and cares about animals in such a deep way, I think people would fall deeper in love with her. It’s like it would be hanging out with Cesar Millan all day. She has the same compassion for food as animals and it’s incredible to see. 

What kind of feedback has she given you about the show?

At the end of the day, this was the reason why she picked me. She wanted my bubbly face on TV making the recipes I know and love and telling the story I’ve told her and told the world and do it for a new audience that will fall in love with me the same way she has. 

Talking about dinner parties, you posted some photos on Instagram from a Yom Kippur gathering rocking a Fran Drescher shirt. That looked fun with some fun guests like Ali Wong.

I was in LA at a friend’s house. I was with Benny Blanco, who I’m very close with. He threw a beautiful Yom Kippur that I cooked a lot for. Ali is very sweet and funny. We always have a crazy mixture of friends and family and chosen family. We had everyone like my best friend from high school was randomly in LA, so I brought him. There were a couple of musicians. There was an actor I loved in town. It becomes this thing where if anyone needs a place to celebrate, they have a place to have a bagel and schmear. Benny and I were fasting, so it was an intense day. 

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Did you have an ultimate party and what that was like?

I have done a couple. I cooked breakfast for the Second Gentleman and a couple of friends at my apartment. I made homemade bagels and we had a whole appetizer spread. It was incredible and impactful. I’ve also done a lot of holidays. I’ve done a joint family Thanksgiving, A party for Passover, and even a Hanukkah party. I’m planning the wildest Hanukkah party. Each party is amazing. I treat a small intimate table for four the same as I will a hundred people in the apartment going wild. They are all different experiences, but I love them equally. I just love sharing my love of cooking. It can be anything, even when someone stops by on a Tuesday night, and I make a pot of pasta and we chill and catch up and it’s magic. 

What do you want to say to people about entertaining with a dinner party for the holidays coming up?

Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun with it. We’re all clowns. This will be the best. You’re going to crush it. I say it a lot in the show. I believe in you. You got this. Everyone needs to hype themselves up more than they do. 

Jake Makes It Easy premiere, October 28, 10/9c, FYI

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