Southern hostess Paula Deen, known as the “Queen of Southern Cuisine” burst on the food television scene in 2001 when she filmed a pilot called “Afternoon Tea Party” in 2001. In November 2002, the Food Network found a place in its regular schedule for her trademark hit show, “Paula’s Home Cooking.” Recipes from the show can be found on Paula Deen’s web site and on the Food Network’s site.

Paula’s Early Years

Paula’s overnight success on “Paula’s Home Cooking,” making recipes she has been working with all her life, followed many years of work in the restaurant, cookbook, and catering business. With her sons Jamie and Bobby, who often help cook recipes on “Paula’s Home Cooking,” Paula Deen owns and operates a successful restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in Savannah, Georgia.

Paula had a tragic early life, losing both her parents to death when she was 23 years old, and coping with bouts of agoraphobia while she struggled to make ends meet as a bank teller.

The 1990s

In 1989, after divorcing her first husband, Paula transformed her home cooking recipes into a catering business called The Bag Lady. She made sandwiches and other potable dishes, which Jamie and Bobby delivered to keep the business growing.

The Savannah catering business was extraordinarily popular, and in 1996 the catering business grew into the popular Lady & Sons restaurant, which popular newspaper USA Today named “International Meal of the Year” in 1999. Paula’s home cooking, along with recipes for Southern dishes like cheesy meat loaf, hoecakes, and garlic cheese biscuits, made the restaurant a perennial favorite with Southerners.

Cookbook Author

Paula incorporated her home cooking recipes in several cookbooks, notably “The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking” and “The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cooking 2.” She has since published two more cookbooks. In addition to her appearances on the Food Network, she has appeared many times on QVC and even on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

In 2007, Paula Deen published her autobiography, “It Ain’t All About The Cookin’.” The Food Network has also aired a video biography of Paula Deen on its biography series, Chefography.

Television and Film Star

In 2005, Paula Deen made he film debut in the Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom “Elizabethtown,” playing a character much like herself in real life. The Food Network created a special presentation, “Paula Goes Hollywood” to commemorate her success.

Since 2005, Paula has filmed “Paula’s Home Cooking” and prepared recipes for the show, from her lakeside Savannah home.

Tags: cooking recipes, food network, paula deen, southern

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