Paula Deen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 At Home With Paula |
|
| Born | January 19, 1947 (age 60) 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 Ann Groover, better known as Paula Deen (born Paula Ann Hiers on January 19, 1947), is an American cook, restauranteur, writer, and 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 bubbly, "down-home" personality, which makes her a favorite among TV viewers. On her shows, books and appearances, she still uses the surname Deen, from her first marriage.
Born in Albany, Georgia, Deen is a notable graduate of Albany High School. 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 as a result 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 decided to parlay her cooking experience into a catering service. 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. She was hired by a Best Western hotel in Savannah to cook meals, where she worked for five years. The hotel restaurant struggled at first, but it turned around after Deen opened a buffet line. The stress of working all the time at the restaurant and on The Bag Lady strained her relationship with her sons, and she ended up divorcing her husband in 1992. 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 Paula'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 Paula's famous hoecakes. Because Paula is busy with her television show and other activities, the restaurant is run by her sons, when they are in town.
In 1997, Paula self-published The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2, cookbooks filled with traditional Southern recipes such as the Gooey Butter Cake, also known as the Chess Cake (a variation of the Chess Pie recipe, popular in Texas). The cookbooks were very successful as well, and she has since published two more. She has appeared on QVC many times and went on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2002.
Deen's relationship with Food Network began in 1999, when a friend introduced her to Gordon Elliott. 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, perhaps influenced by the 9/11 attacks, led to Food Network's giving Deen her own show, Paula's Home Cooking, which premiered in November 2002.
She 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.
Paula also has one grandchild, a boy, Jack, born August 21, 2006.
Paula 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.
Following the example of other Food Network chefs, Paula launched a lifestyle magazine called Cooking with Paula Deen in late 2005.
Paula's Home Cooking was originally taped in Millbrook, New York (according to her magazine's debut issue), at the home of Gordon Elliott, the show's executive producer. Paula 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.
Paula's latest show, entitled Paula's Party, was first broadcast on the Food Network in fall of 2006.
