Background
Deen, Paula H. was born on January 19, 1947 in Albany, Georgia. 2 stepchildren;children from previous marriage: Bobby, Jamie.
chef restaurant owner television personality
Deen, Paula H. was born on January 19, 1947 in Albany, Georgia. 2 stepchildren;children from previous marriage: Bobby, Jamie.
She was a cheerleader.
Owner catering business The Bag Lady; owner The Lady and Sons restaurant, Savannah, Georgia, since 1990; Host (television series) Paula's Home Cooking, Food Network, since 2002, Paula's Party; author: (cookbooks) The Lady and Sons Too, The Lady and Sons Just Desserts, 2002, The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook, 2005; co-author (with Martha Nesbit): Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style, 2005; author: (magazine) Cooking with Paula Deen, since 2006; actor: (films) Elizabethtown, 2005.
Deen is Baptist, and she talks about God a lot.
She is probably conservative, but mostly just gets hell from liberals.
She grew up Baptist, and is still deeply devoted to her faith. As the Southern cook turned she said, prayer has been as big a part of my life as food.
She even credits God for telling her what to pray for in order to meet her husband. For Paula, everything happens through God.
Nevertheless, she says the Baptist belief that everything happens for a reason led her down a dark path. After her father died when she was 19, she decided that God had taken him because she herself was going to die soon. God knew her father wouldn’t be able to take that, so He took her father first. The fear of her own death caused Deen to suffer from severe agoraphobia for years.
But prayer and cooking helped her through and made her into the successful entrepreneur she is today. She never forgot about God along the way–and she certainly never misses an opportunity to talk about Him.
In public, Paula Deen doesn’t endorse candidates or talk about partisan issues, but she’s most likely conservative–even if only because outspoken liberals seem to hate her.
First, Deen is known for her fatty and sugary recipes. So after she announced that she was both diabetic and would be promoting the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug, she was accused of profiting from America’s obesity epidemic. Deen says she’s encouraging people to be healthier and make changes in their lives:
I have made simple changes in my life, like cuttin’ back on one of my favortie things: sweet tea!
Holding back on those deep fried pickles and the donut burger might also be in order, but I digress.
She also incited the ire of the left with her endorsement of Smithfield Pork. The company has been accused of poor working conditions and cruelty to animals. Deen didn’t have much to say to critics, but she did partner with the company to donate food to Americans in need. She said,
Thank goodness for the generosity that Smithfield shows.
Finally, she has been accused of using racial slurs against Obama. If that’s true, I suppose we could assume she didn’t vote for him. She did have Michelle Obama on her show, though, and they had a grand time frying up some seafood
Quotations:
"There was one thing my daddy wouldn't tolerate in any shape, form or fashion, and that was being unkind or rude to somebody. That was just very important to my folks. And as it turns out, that was a legacy that he left me that money can't buy, is how to be able to treat people."
"I was determined to share my positive approach and not let diabetes stand in the way of enjoying my life."
"Down South, even our vegetables have some pig hidden somewhere in it. A vegetable isn't a vegetable without a little ham hock."
"Growing up, I had a very busy social life. It wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that I asked Mama if I could come into the kitchen and have her teach me how to cook something."
Overcoming poverty, self doubt and health challenges to achieve success and acclaim she could never have imagined, Paula has become one of the best-known personalities in the world of cooking. Yet the most remarkable part of Paula Deen's journey from her kitchen to fame and fortune is that Paula has remained every bit as genuine, real and full of love as she was the day that the first meals left her kitchen.
Quotes from others about the person
Deen has faced extensive criticism for the high amounts of fat, salt, and sugar in her recipes. She faced particularly strong objections with the release of Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set, a cookbook aimed at children, with Barbara Walters saying of the book, "You tell kids to have cheesecake for breakfast. You tell them to have chocolate cake and meatloaf for lunch. And french fries. Doesn't it bother you that you're adding to this?" Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain commented in 2011 that he "would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it's OK to eat food that is killing us".