Jake Cohen Dishes On Collaborating With “Icon” Rachael Ray On His New Cooking Show ‘Jake Makes It Easy’: “Nothing But Endless Love And Admiration For Rachael”

Jake Cohen has served up his legendary cooking content on practically every medium, and is now taking 10 tasty main course and dessert pairings to a brand new audience: Cable TV subscribers.

Jake Makes It Easy, a collaboration with Rachael Ray‘s Free Food Studios, spotlights the self-proclaimed “king of dinner party”s signature “aspirational yet attainable” approach to cooking. This, along with “unique” personality, is what Cohen thinks sets his new cooking show apart from others on the air and streaming.

Cohen, who grew up watching Ray’s show and cited her as “a huge mentor and supporter over the years,” also name dropped fellow TV chef inspirations Giada De Laurentiis and Ina Garten, highlighting the 90-minute block their shows aired in.

“I feel like I fall into some kind of mash up of the three of those women,” he mused.

For more of Cohen dishing on his biggest tips for beginner chefs and dinner party hosts and which Real Housewives cast has tried his culinary creations, check out his full conversation with DECIDER below.

DECIDER: As a faithful fan and follower of yours on Instagram — I literally have your book [I Could Nosh] right here…

COHEN: Love, love, love!

DECIDER: …I know you have plenty of recipes, but this season only consists of 10 episodes. How did you go about deciding which recipes made the cut?

COHEN: The way I wanted to break it down, the whole idea of this show is really getting people invested and passionate about cooking for themselves and those they love, and entertaining being this exercise of joy versus burden. So each episode is an entertaining main [course] and an entertaining dessert. And the idea is that the two can go together so that if you have these two staple recipes in your back pocket, you just need to add in, like, a salad or a starch or a side vegetable, and you’ve got a full party. It was difficult to narrow it down, but also not. I just knew which recipes I wanted to kick off with and then like, again, next season, hopefully there’ll be more.

You pair a main course and a dessert in each episode. How did you decide which recipes paired well together?

Experience. I think it’s a combination of both flavor profile, of like the vibe. Like I do this gnocchi dish that I would then do with a jam-swirled olive oil cake. I do the schnitzel sandwiches, a version of them from I Could Nosh, and I pair that with this chocolate chip cookie brittle. It is of the same vibe in the sense of like, “If I was eating this, I would really love to finish the meal with that.” And that’s just in my head. But that’s just the start. The other half of it is understanding how things work logistically because I never want my recipes to end up creating this negative relationship with cooking. So, the whole idea is that it has to begin with being able to navigate cooking two things for the same event at the same time and keeping your cool the whole time.

I know this show is a collab with Rachael Ray’s Free Food Studios. What it was like working with such a revolutionary cooking icon, such as her?

Icon. Icon. Icon. Icon. Icon.  So, I grew up watching her show. She was a huge influence for me in kind of really dreaming to follow in her footsteps and have this be my career. I’ll never forget; I did a pre-record when my first book came out for her show. It was just like a thing where I self-taped. I made a recipe from the book. I sent it in and that was it. And then on the day of launch, it aired. And she had set up the segment and started talking about how much she loved my book, and it was one of her favorite cookbooks of the year. I started hysterically crying because, I don’t know, it just felt like everything was happening. So then to have someone I looked up to for so long be such a huge mentor and supporter over the years, and now to be in the place where she’s given me such an opportunity to truly live out my dream. I mean, nothing, nothing but endless love and admiration for Rachael.

Aside from Rachael, do you have any other TV or film chef inspirations? Or, are there any other cooking shows or movies that you’ve taken inspiration from?

It’s a trio, and it’s because they were in a block. So, it was 90 minutes — I just would not move, and it was Ina [Garten], Giada [De Laurentiis] and Rachel. And the three of them, I feel like I fall into some kind of mash up of the three of those women.

Do you ever see a collaboration with the other two in the future?

Of course. Again, dream big. I see collaborations with everyone. It’s like — why not?

How does filming a cooking show differ from your own content creation on social media?

Drastically. I have a lot of experience in every type of medium. It’s one of the things that I’m quite lucky in that I’ve done everything from live cooking to pre-records, to short-form social, to then even the still photography for book shoots. I’ve done it all. This is the hardest — no, live is the hardest. But this is so hard because you have to distill a recipe, understand the blocks of segments, because you have commercials. So, you’re creating these kind of acts of like, “What am I looking to accomplish in act blank — in act one and act two and act three and act four?” And then from there, how am I conveying both instruction and just entertainment? Because you really need to meet people somewhere in the middle where they have to be entertained in the sense of they’re just enthralled by watching you and then they’re inspired to make the dish. Then the final step is by watching you they have to know how to do it seamlessly. So, when you can do all of those at the same time, it’s quite a powerful relationship of trust that you build with the viewer. And that’s a really fun challenge to tackle.

What do you think sets Jake Makes It Easy apart from other cooking shows currently on the air, or streaming?

Oh, that’s easy. Me. I think at the end of the day… I’ve always kind of described my approach to food as aspirational yet attainable, where you’re making dishes that are quite simple. And yet, are just ever so elevated, are ever so impressive to those around you, to really kind of create this allure around making easy things quite ornate. And my personality is quite unique. I think I am probably the only person who treats themselves like a clown, which is how we all should. Because we can’t be so serious. Like, I have a cooking show. That was always my dream. My dream was not to, I don’t know, become a doctor or something of like, high moral value to society. But, what I’m doing I think is quite important and I really love it. It comes from such passion and joy, and that’s what reads. So, to me, the best part about a cooking show, and why there’s so many opportunities, is — it’s almost like, “Who’s your favorite pop star?” You can love all of them, but you have one diva. It’s no different for people who love Food Network or now — again, what Rachael’s doing with A+E is quite the same. She is a pioneer, a trailblazer, icon, legend, the moment, mother. She is curating this next kind of group of talent as A+E goes into the food space. The idea is very much that people will love hopefully everyone, but they’re going to gravitate towards the person that they really identify with in the kitchen. And I know my audience, I can say the only thing that I can do is just be authentically myself. And those who love it are not going to be able to run away.

What new audience do you think this show can connect you to, if any?

People who watch cable. I love it. The second I heard that, I was like, “That’s so amazing,” because I never like to be in one lane. I never like to be distilled into one thing or one platform. So it’s like, okay, I have the TikTok and I have the Instagram and then I have the people who buy cookbooks and read cookbooks or who see me on daytime talk shows. There’s so many different groups of people that are introduced to me from a different medium, and this is just another one, because all you gotta do is meet me, and I know you’re going to fall in love. And it’s just about the time. I’m very into manifestation, a lot of “woo-woo” stuff, so it’s just like, they’re going to come to me one way or another. I was bound to be introduced to them and make them fall in love with cooking, and whether that was going to happen on Instagram or on cable, this is just a means to get more people in the kitchen.

Was the show shot in your own kitchen? If not, how did you go about creating a home-like feel when filming?

They offered that, and I said no. Mainly because it’s quite difficult with the intensity of shooting a show. When you only have one oven, one sink… it’s quite difficult to be dealing with swaps to kind of stay on track. Also at the time, it was in my old apartment, which was all windows, so they’d have to block it off because the light was constantly changing. We opted for a studio and I brought everything. I brought all of my tchotchkes, all of the things I love, all the tools. I was very keen on using the things that I use in the kitchen, which is just how I do. I’m going for a weekend on vacation, I’m packing the tools I love, let alone for something as personal as my first cooking show. So it really did end up coming off like my version of my kitchen in a studio way. I’m in a new kitchen now that probably would work really well for the next season. We’ll have to watch what happens. 

I love your “Hello gorgeous” tagline at the start of every episode. I have to ask if this is an homage to Funny Girl.

Of course, of course it is. But here’s the funny thing. So, “Hello gorgeous” [is] for the first two episodes because they premiere on the same night. But then from there, every episode, I actually do a different introduction. I refer to people differently every single time. So one time it’s like, “Hi, diva,” “Hey, friends.” It’s going on and on, just because I — again, clown. That’s the thing. I’m just missing the red nose. I want people from the first second to not take themselves so seriously, because if they take themselves so seriously, then they get nervous. When it comes to cooking, they get nervous, when it comes to baking, they think that the stakes are so high and they’re too overly critical. And really, we just need to be having fun. 

You’ve written two cookbooks and you’re currently working on a third. You’ve been teasing recipes from the third on your Instagram, as I’ve seen. Is there anything you can tease to us about your next book? 

Ooh, okay, what can I tease. It’s very much in the realm of entertaining. Yeah, it’s in the realm of entertaining. My editor will kill me. That’s why I always say like “JC3,” it’s a reference to Lady Gaga because she very early on started referring to her albums like “LG3,” “LG6,” “LG whatever.” And I just love that because, already I’ve had so many instances with projects where the name changes and it’s like, I’m someone who’s such a yenta and I’m such a big mouth that already with this book, half the people in my industry know it as one title. I just changed the title last week. It is what it is. They’ll live. But, the reason that I do everything is around this kind of concept of really making people fall in love with cooking, fall in love with entertaining and hospitality. And it’s not through the lens of tablescapes and flower arrangements and place settings. No, it’s through the idea of like, “How do I make a series of recipes go together for people coming over?” And that’s something that — the format of which this book is super unique and I think it’s something that hasn’t been done. There are a couple of other books in the same vein, but at the end of the day, mine’s better. What can I say?

I agree.

It’s like, “I know. I know. I know.”

As the self-proclaimed “king of dinner parties,” is there a secret ingredient to the perfect dinner party?

One hundred percent. Okay. The first thing is taking a deep breath and remembering that nothing matters. Like half of your recipe — not if you’re making my recipe, but let’s say you’re using someone else’s books, watching someone else’s show and you’re using those recipes and something turns out poorly. You just have to pivot. Like, you can order a pizza. You can do whatever. The number of dinner parties where I get lazy and I decide the day before, everyone’s coming over and I’m like, “Great.” I’ll put the effort in desert and for dinner, we’re having pizza bagels, and I make fancy pizza bagels. And they’re so easy. And people go crazy for them, they go just as crazy for if I made some, like, wild roast chicken dinner. Nobody cares as long as you are doing it from a place of joy and fun. That’s kind of the main thing. And the second is make sure there’s enough food. Leftovers are a blessing. Don’t shy away.

Do you have an overall biggest or best tip for beginner chefs?

The thing that I say to everyone is open up Amazon, or go to the store, and buy yourself a kitchen scale and an instant read thermometer. Those two things, I talk about this a lot in the show, those two things will change your cooking and baking game. If you start measuring all of your flour by grams, and you don’t have to use grams for everything, but just for flour. When it comes to a thermometer, using that as your guide for cooking chicken, making sure you don’t overcook it, but also for cakes and breads. Like, that’s how you know. You know your cake is done, not by the toothpick test, because sometimes there’s different — it’s by temperature. That’s what I know. And then if it’s at the right temperature, and it comes out and it doesn’t have the structure, that’s an issue with the recipe, not with the bake. Figuring out those things and starting to understand the science behind it is so much easier when you just have these two tools that help you start to navigate really everyone’s first — first thing is they learn how to bake a cake, they learn how to roast chicken, they learn how to do whatever — this is the easiest thing to step it up.

Good to know. I’m about to add those to my own Amazon cart.

There you go.

I’ve really resonated with the importance of Jewish culture in your cooking, and I wanted to ask if you could speak to that?

For me, I think that anyone in the food world, and you see this in every show, they’re a representation of their unique voice to the food world. I truly believe that you’re either adding to the conversation or you’re just adding noise. So I could just make recipes, which again, sometimes I do. Sometimes it’s just a recipe that I really just love and throw together. But more often than not, it’s tied to these kind of deeper anecdotes of comfort, of history, of family. And that’s just through my lens, which happens to be this Jewish upbringing in New York. That’s going to be different for everyone else, which is why you’ll have this beautiful show where you’ll watch someone from another culture that you are obsessed with. I’m not from Italy, and yet I could listen to Giada say different Italian words. She could say Parmesan cheese all day. I mean, obviously she’s saying “parmigiano” or whatever, but it’s like, I can listen to her just do that all day and it’s because she’s giving her unique perspective on food through the lens of her upbringing. And I love that. I’s the same way with someone in the specifics of this group of shows that Rachael’s doing with Free Food [Studios]. Like, Deborah VanTrece is an icon. I’ve loved her for so long. And her show is just that. I didn’t grow up in the South. I didn’t grow up with soul food. And yet I want to know more. I want to eat more. I want to cook more when I watch her because she’s saying it with such passion. So if I’m going to talk about food, if I’m going to share my recipes, it’s always going to have that little twinge because, at the end of the day, I’m just like, if Rachael Ray and Fran Drescher were mashed together, that’s what I am.

At Decider, we’re a site that’s dedicated to all things streaming. What are you streaming right now?

Obviously, I’m watching [The Real] Housewives of Salt Lake City and RHONY right now. I’m on the next episode of RHONY… I’m friends with some of the girls, so I’m cooking a whole bunch of recipes from my next book for all the women. And then, I really love Nobody Wants This. I’m big into rom-coms. Love it. And then I loved Pop Star Academy. I thought it was such an interesting look at the — I have so many friends that are in the music world, so to get that kind of look into what goes into a K-Pop group was intense. Again, though, now I watch it and I’m like, “Maybe I could be in a K-Pop group.” I always say that like, “The sky’s the limit,” and there’s no world in which I couldn’t be an Oscar-winning actor or a pop star. Most likely pop star over actor just because I mean, maybe not Oscar. If I get an Oscar, it’ll be for like “Animated Short,” but yeah, pop star maybe. I have enough friends who would just like — enough autotune and a little bit of styling, I think I could be a pop star.

Jake Makes It Easy premieres on Monday, 10/28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FYI.