Rachael Ray is sharing her secret ingredient for a healthy marriage.
For the 30 Minute Meal alum and her husband of 19 years John Cusimano, that means that neither of them ever holds their feelings back from one another.
"It's very hard, especially for hot-tempered or creative or vociferous—shall we say—loud people to be able to just calm it down," Rachael explained on the Oct. 22 episode of her new podcast I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. "John and I don't calm it down ever. We have huge screaming matches all the time, but I think that's healthy. I really do."
In fact, the 56-year-old just doesn't "trust people that are too quiet," joking that being around someone who doesn't get as loud as she does makes her feel like she's in a horror movie.
"Too quiet freaks me out," she continued. "I prefer that you tell me what you think when you think it and let's just get it all out there."
And when it comes to post-screaming matches, Rachael's guest Jenny Mollen—who has been married to actor Jason Biggs since 2008—was curious who is the first to apologize: Rachael or John.
"I don't know that we ever apologize to each other," Rachael confessed. "Eventually I pat him on his ass or he kisses me on the head, and that's just sort of it."
She added, "That's the apology. It's just sort of understood. 'I still like your ass.' 'I still like your head.' It's kind of in that zone."
The Food Network icon also shared how she and John met, admitting that she had a very different first impression of him.
"When we met, he had no idea what I did," she explained, "and I thought he was gay."
According to Rachael, John started telling her what he'd whipped up for dinner and she thought "it was so impressive."
"He told me he was a lawyer," she continued. "There's no way a straight guy knows what tilapia is, or he was trying to spice it up with some homemade tomatillo salsa and he made maque choux spilling out of an avocado on the side."
Rachael joked that she thought to herself, "'Of course you're gay,'" and started telling John about a friend of hers that she thought he'd be great with.
"I said, 'He's a great guy' and I started to describe him," she recalled, "and he said 'I'm not gay. And I'm like 'Check, please!'"