When Bethenny Bakes....People Listen
By Jenny Kellner

When celebrity natural food chef Bethenny Frankel stepped into the paddock at Aqueduct Racetrack last week, she was entering familiar territory. Granted, a great deal had changed since she used to pose as a child in the winner’s circle photos with her stepfather, John Parisella, and horses such as Cheap Seats, Jones Times Machine and Am Capable.

“Back then, John was on a roll,” said Frankel, 36. “I practically grew up on the racetrack, although things are different now.”

But if Aqueduct has changed over the years, so too has Frankel. The daughter of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel (her parents divorced when she was four years old), Frankel has parlayed her status as an A-list Hollywood celebrity chef into a burgeoning career as a reality television star.

On this unusually warm fall afternoon, Frankel’s every move was being recorded by a Bravo television crew filming the network’s newest docudrama series. Tentatively entitled “Manhattan Moms,” the hour-long show gives viewers a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the lives of an eclectic group of Manhattan socialites, according to Bravo vice-president of programming Frances Berwick.

“We'll watch as they juggle calendars packed with charity fund-raising galas and the social whirl of the Hamptons, with interviews for elite private schools and high-powered careers,” she said in a news release about the still-untitled show, scheduled to air in early 2008.

Frankel, who is single and lives in New York City with her dog, Cookie, is the only cast member who is not a mother in the show, which on-line pundits have likened to “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” only set in Manhattan.

The height of fashion in black ankle-high boots, elbow length leather gloves and a miniskirt, Frankel celebrated her birthday as she dined with friends at Equestris Restaurant overlooking the Big A, and then visited the paddock before the third race, in which a horse trained by her father and owned by longtime friend Lewis Lazzinnaro was entered. Completely at ease even with two cameras circling, she chatted with a co-star as Owners Manual was being saddled, and explained her life growing up a child of the racetrack.

“I used to be a hotwalker, and spent every summer at Saratoga,” she said. “Some of the best moments of my life were at Saratoga. I was here when Empire Maker won the Belmont Stakes.”

Despite her pedigree, Frankel had no interest in becoming a lifelong racetracker.

“It wasn’t in my blood,” she said. “I didn’t want to be dirty half the day. I didn’t want to be around horses or involved in a sport with things that moved. In surfing, the water moves, but the board doesn’t, so it’s different.”

Instead, it was a natural segue for Frankel, who spent many evenings as a child at Don Peppe’s in Ozone Park, to use that connection to food to develop her career as a celebrity chef.

“I was living a lifestyle where we’d be out to dinner every night,” she said. “We were all very, very involved with food, which lent itself to what I do now.”

Having run a special events firm in Los Angeles as well as a chain of natural food stores named Blanche’s Organics in New York, Frankel decided to attend the Natural Gourmet School in New York and began developing her ideas for healthy treats. After attracting an investor, she formed BethennyBakes in 2001. But that was only the beginning.

Not long afterward, she took her first steps into the world of reality television when she finished second on NBC’s Martha Stewart Apprentice. Along the way, she began working as personal chef for such fellow natural foodies as Alicia Silverstone, Paris Hilton and Denis Leary. Her cooking videos are a popular item on Youtube.com and recently, she was hired as the new spokesperson for Pepperidge Farm's Baked Naturals Snacks. She also writes a column for Diet.com.

“It’s about building a brand,” said Frankel, who lists her top five healthy eating tips as: “Don’t eat everything on your plate; load up on veggies; use fresh ingredients for flavor; simply substitute, and don’t be afraid to experiment.”

Her goal, as she explains on her website, is to “democratize health” by making a healthy, balanced lifestyle accessible to all and toward that end has just completed writing “The Thin Book: The 25 Rules to Being Thin Without Ever Dieting Again.”

And to think it all began at the racetrack.

"It seems like an odd thing to say comparing the racetrack to cooking, but I can't think of a place filled with more characters, personality, action, excitement and drama,” she said. “It is the ultimate recipe: one where you go with your gut, throw things together, and often end up with a delicious final product. No matter how much time goes by between racetrack visits, it will always be part of who I am. It’s what makes me an action junkie, a gambler, fearless and a survivor -- the perfect ingredients for huge success."