Paula Deen

Celebrity chef, television personality, restaurateur, cookbook author

  • Born: January 19, 1947
  • Place of Birth: Albany, Georgia

Significance: Paula Deen is an American celebrity chef and restaurateur best known for cooking Southern-style foods. She runs several restaurants, including The Lady & Sons in Savannah, Georgia, with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. Deen has hosted several cooking shows, published several cookbooks, and debuted cookware and specialty food lines.

Background

Paula Deen was born Paula Hiers in Albany, Georgia. A former head cheerleader in high school, she learned to cook from her grandmother, Irene Paul. After high school, Deen married and started her family. She worked in a bank for a short time and then became a homemaker. Her parents both died by the time she was twenty-three years old.

Deen began to suffer from depression and then developed an anxiety disorder known as agoraphobia, the fear of going out in public places. The condition severely affected Deen's ability to leave her house. While inside, however, she was able to master the Southern cooking style taught to her by her grandmother. She called the cooking process therapeutic and said it helped with her panic attacks.

In 1989, the Deens divorced, and Deen was left to care for her two teenage sons. She had only $200 to her name but had an idea for a way to make money. She based her business on the years she spent packing school lunches for her sons. She made ham salad, chicken salad, and barbecued pork sandwiches and packed them with cups of pudding into paper bags. Because of her panic attacks, she always kept paper bags in the glove compartment of her car that she used to breathe into when she needed them. She sent her sons to sell the bagged lunches to office workers during lunchtime in downtown Savannah. Deen quickly gained a following for what became a catering business called The Bag Lady.

Over time, Deen began to overcome her agoraphobia. In 1990, she opened her own restaurant called The Lady & Sons at the Best Western Hotel in Savannah. The restaurant quickly gained recognition in the community for its Southern-style cooking. A few years later, Deen relocated The Lady & Sons to downtown Savannah.

In 1997, she self-published her first cookbook, The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook. She gained further recognition for appearances on the shopping network QVC, where she sold her book. USA Today recognized Deen's restaurant for the Most Memorable Meal of the Year in 1999.

Life's Work

Deen first appeared on the Food Network in 1999. Her own cooking show, Paula's Home Cooking, debuted on the network in 2002. That same year, Deen was featured on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that focused on women who found success with home-based businesses. In the years that followed, Deen saw her star power rise. In 2005, she made her film debut in Elizabethtown. The Food Network then featured her in two additional shows, Paula's Party and Paula's Best Dishes. She also guest-starred on several other projects.

While Deen remained popular with many fans, she had some controversies surrounding her cooking. Deen received criticism for the unhealthiness of her recipes—many contained high amounts of sugar and butter. Some people also did not agree with her use of prepackaged food items such as boxed cake mixes, instant puddings, and canned fruits.

Despite these criticisms, Deen saw tremendous success throughout the rest of the 2000s and into the early 2010s. She launched a cooking and home magazine and published subsequent cookbooks. In 2011, she introduced Paula Deen Foods, which she expanded to include baking mixes and seasonings. She also developed a cookware line.

In 2012, Deen announced that she had been diagnosed with diabetes and began working with a diabetes medication company. Many people called her a hypocrite for continuing to cook Southern dishes laden with fat and sugar while she promoted drugs to treat the medical condition.

The following year, Deen was part of a lawsuit against her and her brother, Earl "Bubba" Hiers, by a former employee at their restaurant, Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House. During testimony, Deen admitted to using racial slurs. This damaged her reputation. The Food Network decided not to renew her contract. She also lost several contracts with other companies. Deen apologized and spent the next year trying to repair her reputation. She retreated from the public eye for a time as she fought several lawsuits and tried to salvage her career. From an estimated net worth of $17 million, her fortune was rapidly depleted. She filed for bankruptcy.

Deen emerged in 2014 with a cooking tour called Paula Deen Live! She also launched an online channel called the Paula Deen Network, which hosts new content and her old cooking shows that she purchased from the Food Network. The following year, she introduced a podcast, What's Cooking with Paula Deen, and a radio show, Get Cooking with Paula Deen. She launched a dog food line and published the book Paula Deen Cuts the Fat: 250 Favorite Recipes All Lightened. Also in 2015, Deen competed on the reality dance competition Dancing with the Stars. The celebrity chef returned to television in 2016 with two shows, Positively Paula and Sweet Home Savannah. In 2021, she was a guest host on the competition reality series MasterChef.

Deen continued to publish cookbooks. Paula Deen's Southern Baking arrived in 2019. Love & Best Dishes, which was published in 2023, is both a cookbook and a memoir. She also launched a jewelry collection, which was sold on JTV. By 2024, her net worth was an estimated $14 million.

Impact

After suffering from agoraphobia and seeing her twenty-four-year marriage end, Deen was able to pick up the pieces and begin a new life. With little money to her name, she used her Southern cooking skills and charm to launch a lunch bag business. From there, Deen watched her empire grow to several restaurants, cookbooks, cooking shows, and other products. Several incidents in the 2010s derailed her career for a time, but she was able to regain her fame through several new projects featuring her Southern style of cooking.

Personal Life

Paula Deen married Jimmy Deen in 1965, and they had two sons, Jamie and Bobby, who later became television chefs and restaurant managers. The Deens divorced in 1989, but Deen kept her first husband's last name. In 2004, she married tugboat captain Michael Groover.

Bibliography

"Cookbooks." Paula Deen, 2023, www.pauladeen.com/cookbooks/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Dowd, Kathy Ehrich. "Paula Deen Thanks Food Network for '11 Great Years' after Firing." People, 22 June 2013, people.com/tv/paula-deen-fired-from-food-network-after-racial-slur-scandal. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Dunn, Billie Schwab. "Paula Deen Is Still Thriving Years After Scandal." Newsweek, 27 June 2024, www.newsweek.com/paula-deen-still-thriving-years-after-scandal-chef-1915597. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Kim, Eun Kyung. "Paula Deen Returns to Today, Talks Racism Scandal: 'I Disappointed Myself.'" Today, 23 Sept. 2014, www.today.com/food/paula-deen-returns-today-talks-racism-scandal-i-disappointed-myself-2D80165767. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

Moskin, Julia. "From Phobia to Fame: A Southern Cook's Memoir." New York Times, 28 Feb. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/dining/28deen.html. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.

"Paula Deen." Hollywood Life, hollywoodlife.com/celeb/paula-deen. Accessed 9 Oct. 2024.