Born in Cape Cod, where her family owned a number of restaurants, Rachael Ray grew up in an environment where cooking and food were a major part of her life. When she was still very young, she moved to upstate New York, where her mother worked as the food supervisor of a restaurant chain. As an adult, Ray moved to New York City, where she worked in gourmet food markets, but after a few years there, she came back to Lake George, where she had grown up, and managed the bars and restaurants at the Sagamore Resort.