Here or there, she’s always in touch with the joy of cooking

RACHAEL RAY is really cooking these days. As the Food Channel’s breakout star, she has a smorgasbord of shows such as “$40 a Day,” “30 Minute Meals” and “Tasty Travels”; a new cookbook, “Express Lane,” due in the spring; and a magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray, which marked its second issue this week. But the piece de resistance may be a syndicated talk show coming in September that will take her out of the kitchen and onto a sofa.

Ray, a 37-year-old Lake Luzerne, N.Y., resident, found time for her personal life too, getting hitched in September to longtime beau John Cusimano. And she’s even managed to put all the projects on the back burner for a spell and plan a weekend out West.

This town really rocks

Whenever I’m in L.A., my first stop is always Amoeba Records. I have a huge collection of vinyl, and the staff is always thrilled to help. You can tell them that you like the Foo Fighters, but Dean Martin too, and they don’t blink an eye. Later, people usually want to take me somewhere loud and fussy for dinner, but I recently went with friends to the Little Door on 3rd Street. It has a charming garden/courtyard area, and the food is fabulous. I had a salad with walnuts and beets and a mushroom fricassee with polenta.

Then I’ll go back to the Sunset Marquis, where I always stay. They have the softest bathrobes on the planet, and rock stars really do stay there. I was in an elevator with the band Garbage once, and I thought to myself, “How about that!”

Santa Barbara-bound

On Saturday I’d drive north and stop at the Cold Spring Tavern in Santa Barbara for breakfast. When I first went there, I met the owner, who was about 100 then, and she was absolutely funny and smart and wore big, tall boots and canvas pants. Kind of like John Wayne in a woman’s body. There’s old wood furniture and a crackling, wood-burning stove. They serve flapjacks and gigantic slabs of bacon and ham and huge glasses of juice.

Then we’d head over to the Santa Ynez Airport and go for a ride in a glider. It’s so quiet when you’re up there, it’s like being a bird, or like jumping out of a plane, but it lasts longer. The last time I was there, the pilot did all these loop-de-loops, and I had the time of my life.

Then we’d check into a small inn and in the evening we’d go to the Santa Barbara Shellfish Co. They do a whole grilled lobster on a Caesar salad, and it’s a great bargain, and the view is phenomenal. There’s jazz, and the waiters are all in black. It’s a really fun place.

Horsing around

On Sunday, we’d walk around Solvang and look in the shops and get a little something to eat and then go horseback riding at the Rancho Oso stables in Santa Barbara. They have great trails around there. Then we’d stop at some wineries; Sunstone is nice, very French-looking. We’d get a bottle or two and then stop at a food stand and get some cheese, grapes, pears -- make a little picnic.

Then we’d head back to L.A. and have a quiet dinner at the Sunset Marquis. No clubs for me; I dislike them intensely. My idea of a club is a supper club. The clubs are all for kids, so let the kids have fun.

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-- Mark Sachs