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Paula Deen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007) |
| Born | January 19, 1947 Albany, Georgia, USA |
|---|---|
| Cooking style | Southern |
| Restaurants | The Lady & Sons Restaurant |
| TV show(s) | Paula's Home Cooking (2002 – Present) Paula's Party (2006 – Present) |
Paula Hiers Deen, (born Paula Ann Hiers on January 19, 1947), is an American cook, restaurateur, writer, and Emmy Award-winning TV personality.
Deen owns The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Georgia, where she resides, and runs it with her sons, Jamie and Bobby. She has also published four cookbooks. She is known for her "down-home" personality. On her shows, books and appearances, she still uses the surname Deen, from her first marriage.
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Born in Albany, Georgia, she married her first husband after graduating from high school in 1965. As documented in the Food Network special Chefography and Paula Deen's Official Website, her parents both died by the time she was 23, and her husband decided to move closer to his family, which was a good distance from anything Paula had ever known. As a result of her parents' deaths she developed a fear of death which led to chronic agoraphobia. She was a proficient Southern cook, a talent she used to help her deal with her condition. In 1986, she felt well enough to take a job as a bank teller. She was robbed at gunpoint the next year, and that incident led her to deal with her agoraphobia head-on. After the family moved to Savannah in 1989, she divorced her husband and parlayed her cooking experience into a catering service.[1] She made sandwiches and other meals, which her sons delivered.
The Bag Lady, as the business was named, was wildly successful and soon outgrew her kitchen. On January 8, 1996, she opened her own restaurant, The Lady and Sons, in downtown Savannah on West Congress Street. Within a few years, the restaurant moved to a larger building in Savannah's historic district. USA Today named The Lady and Sons the "International Meal of the Year" in 1999. The most popular meal at Deen's restaurant is her buffet, which can include sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, cheesy meatloaf, greens, beans, and creamed corn, plus many other items. Every meal comes with a garlic cheese biscuit and one of Deen's famous hoecakes. Because Deen is busy with her television show and other activities, the restaurant is run by her sons when they are in town.
In 1997, Deen self-published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2, cookbooks filled with many traditional Southern recipes such as the Gooey Butter Cake, also known as the Chess Cake (a variation of a Chess Pie recipe). The cookbooks were very successful as well, and she has since published an additional two books. She has appeared on QVC many times and went on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002, and twice in 2007.
Deen's relationship with Food Network began in 1999, when a friend introduced her to Gordon Elliott.[citation needed] He took her through the city for a series of Doorknock Dinners episodes. She also appeared on Ready, Set, Cook!. Deen got to shoot a pilot named Afternoon Tea in early 2001. Food Network liked it but didn't have a place for her yet. An American trend toward comfort food, led to Food Network's giving Deen her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, which premiered in November 2002.[citation needed] In an early episode, while making hot wings, Deen became the first host to be censored on Food Network.[citation needed]
Deen remarried on March 6, 2004, to Michael Groover, a tugboat pilot in the Port of Savannah. Michael has two children, Michelle and Anthony, from a previous marriage. The wedding and preparation were documented by Food Network and aired in late 2004.
Deen has one grandchild, Jack, who was born August 21, 2006 to Jamie and Brooke Deen.
In April 2007, Simon & Schuster published Deen's memoir It Ain't All About the Cookin'.
Deen made her film debut in Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. In the movie, she plays the aunt of Bloom's character, and her cooking is showcased heavily. The film premiered on October 8, 2005. A special, Paula Goes Hollywood, premiered on Food Network in conjunction with the film's premiere.[2]
Deen launched a lifestyle magazine called Cooking with Paula Deen in late 2005.
Paula's Home Cooking was originally taped in Millbrook, New York at the home of Gordon Elliott, the show's executive producer.[3][4] Deen mentioned in an interview aired on the March 13, 2006, edition of The Daily Buzz that the next batch of episodes of her show will be taped at her home in Savannah, Georgia. According to the first of those episodes, actual production at her new Savannah home began in November 2005.
A televised biography of Deen was aired on an episode of the Food Network's Chefography program in March 2006.
Deen's latest show, entitled Paula's Party, was first broadcast on the Food Network in the fall of 2006.
In June 2007, Deen won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and Outstanding Lifestyle Program (for Paula's Home Cooking).[5]
- ^ http://www.ladyandsons.com/paula2.php
- ^ http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_sp/episode/0,,FOOD_9994_40480,00.html
- ^ http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/08/Taste/Deen_of_the_kitchen.shtml
- ^ http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/travel/3731009.html
- ^ http://www.emmyonline.org/mediacenter/daytime_34th_creative_winners.html
- Official Website
- The Lady & Sons Restaurant
- Paula's Home Cooking Show Website at FoodNetwork.com
- Cooking with Paula Deen Official Magazine Website
- Paula Deen at The Internet Movie Database
- TBO.com Table Conversations podcast with Paula Deen
Categories: Articles needing additional references from January 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | American chefs | American food writers | American film actors | People from Albany, Georgia | 1947 births | Living people | People from Georgia (U.S. state)