Okay, I'm jumping into the fray. I want to go on record first thing by saying that I have never met Paula Deen. I did get a call from her team years ago, but I was booked.
I have never watched her show for more then 10 minutes in all the years she has been on television. Not my food taste. But, when I've seen her, I think she is charming. And it's hard for me to fault a woman that obviously buys that much jewelry and isn't afraid to wear it.
She's worked hard for her money, I'm glad she enjoys it. I love an American success story.
I used to say that the caterer learns too much. You go into people's homes and see things you wish you hadn't. As it turns out, as a food stylist or culinary producer, the same rules apply, but what you learn is multiplied by consecutive days of intense television shooting.
Pressure, stress, and performance are what the talent provides so that a BRAND is made and a whole lot of people work. During tapings you learn the good, the bad, and the ugly about said talent.
I've worked with many celebrity chefs from Food Network, Bravo, TLC, Lifetime, Disney and Hallmark... um... who am I forgetting? I can say to the world that networks need and want to make money. Mostly television is about entertainment and selling shit. Can it be a forum for education, health, history or politics? Of course. But I know that at least 10 years ago Food Network sent out press releases to everyone in the media stating that they were moving from information to entertainment. Pretty clear message.
At first, the viewing public liked Paula's wild abandon when she melted a whole stick of butter. Then her show continued to play on it. The already very fat America that had tried low-fat food and failed simply loved Paula Deen. Let's keep in mind; America has been obese for a while. Ask the billion dollar diet industry.
Here comes the slippery slope. After making millions of dollars, and finding out she has Type 2 Diabetes, that savvy businesswoman makes a huge deal with a drug company. From what I can tell, that's what people are really are pissed off about. She kept her diabetes a secret. How dare she! A celebrity with a secret!
How we love to tear down idols.
Is it Paula's responsibility to America and her fans to be honest and tell the truth, or decide it's nobody's damn business and she'll keep quiet until she is ready.
How amazing the same network is now showing her son's show, Not My Mama's Meals, which centers on lightened up versions of Paula's recipes. How timely! (Not to mention the network already owns a lot of the material... cost saving. I can see the meeting in my mind when the idea was born... reuse, recycle, re-air.)
Could they have known and decided to launch another Deen family extended BRAND? Sure. Is there anything wrong with that?
Now Paula is being attacked by other food professionals. This is where it gets interesting. I'm supposed to believe that she is one of the most "dangerous women in America" from a former heroin addict who smoked cigarettes for about 45 years and has made his BRAND on being a "Bad Boy." Okay, I think Anthony Bourdain has worked his own great BRAND with his entertaining writing. Is knowing his past dangerous to other chefs coming up? Will they try hard and heavy drugs and then say, "But Anthony Bourdain turned out famous, rich and successful, he's on television!" Is he a danger to the "war on drugs"?
I've worked with television chefs that couldn't chop an onion. That's right, they can't cook. I've worked with a famous vegan chef smoking Marlboro's during her breaks. I worked with cooking stars whose breath was so stinky from vomiting after every meal, the crew looked forward to the vodka they used as mouthwash. Or the numerous married television chefs that are also fat and whose girlfriends call the production's telephone line to find out when their "sweetie" will be finished. Have I mentioned the famous chef that arrives so hung-over every single time I've worked with him that it's a given that he will ask for a cocktail at 7 a.m.? Or my favorite, a long dead old TV chef that proclaimed his love of GOD and his wife at every show, when in fact wasn't married, he liked young men. And kept/paid them as assistants. Oh my. Now that's a fucking secret.
I want to wrap this up by saying that I don't get my values, eating habits, or belief systems from television personalities, celebrities or politicians. I know right from wrong by being raised by great parents who drilled into me that I was responsible for my own behavior and life.
So, my Americans, if you are obese, don't eat processed food, walk everyday, try eating more vegetables. We as a nation would be stronger if we stopped blaming others for our problems.
Denise Vivaldo is food stylist in Los Angeles, and has written seven cookbooks.
She wants to mention that she has never asked Kim Kardashian for marriage advice.
Follow Denise Vivaldo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/foodfanatics
You don't have to like Paula Deen. You also don't have to eat her food.
As for big pharma, I have many complaints, but still I am thankful beyond words I live in a time of modern medicine. If not for all that dangerous medicine, half of us would be dead already. Death really puts a crimp in your culinary exploration, and your medicine taking.
I think your perspective on Paula D. is realistic and fair. I've watched bits and pieces of her show for years and it was just a matter of time before her diet would lead to health problems. I have to admit my first reaction to her becoming the drug spokeswoman was a little on the critical side. It changed when I saw a Jenny Craig & Weight Watchers commercial come on last night and wondered how over weight celebrities becoming spokeswomen for diet products is any different than Paula's. Think about it, they ate themselves to an unhealthy weight and now are promoting companies who target people to lose weight with their services/products.
Nancy Fagan, The Divorce Reporter
www.TheDivorceHelpClinic.com
Keep on trucking, Denise, the show must go on.
I have to trust that Jon did this all for his nonprofit. Okay, maybe he didn't, but he's really handsome and I like that he acts like he loves his wife. (I only read trash magazines on airplanes and I don't own a TV. Why do I feel like I still need to justify myself?)
As for Paula Deen, I found her charming that first season and then she seemed to morph into something beyond real. That said, I don't really think that people who take the time to cook every night put a stick of butter in their food. Maybe at Thanksgiving in the sweet potato casserole, but SURELY America is not following her lead on a nightly basis. Surely it's coming from fast food and processed food, not nightly home cooked meals.
That's one of the things about cooking—it stops you in your tracks when you follow decadent recipes to the letter. You see the butter you're melting or the cream you're pouring in or the sugar you're stirring in, and you think, wow, jeez, better each just one cookie. Make that half of one.
And frequently, I see what she sees. I was thinkin' the very same thing about Bourdain. He makes a living out of being a bad boy, and glorifying his sex-drugs-and-rocking-the-line days--hasn't cooked in a decade or more, and he sees fit to castigate Paula? People have choices. If you don't like her or her food, there are at least 400 other channels of crap you can watch. Like Denise implies--don't git your nutritional advice from an entertainer--or your marriage advice!
Actually, many D2 people, like me - find it appalling that we continue an era where celebrities are paid HUGE sums by Huge Pharma to influence people to "ask their doctor" about created drugs that seemingly take the place of managing one's health by living in health as you do.
I am also a person who radically changed my diet and body maintenance upon learning I had diabetes. I don't need Bon Jovi and Paula Deen to influence me. Sadly, Huge Pharma seems to think otherwise. Very sad....