Paula Deen

[bigwheel]

Yeppers that accent is awful. Dont think I ever heard anybody sound quite that Southern countrified. She must be from E. Texas or Arkieville one or the other. I aint never seen her make anything which appeared fit to eat. I like to look at Rachel Ray much mo betta. Now If I want to know something about cooking stuff..I prefer Alton Brown. Emeril is a dumb portugese yankee from Falls River Mass. Whut could he know huh?

bigwheel

Originally Posted by panini

Koko,
Alot of people experience the same thing. Most of those packets havr Disodium inosinate,guanylate.and sulfiting agents etc.

I personally like here alot. She is great for the home cook, I just can't seem to get beyond that awful accent.

[cakerookie]

I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would not get involved in anymore Food Network discussions here but something keeps pulling me into these things.Curosity? Heck who knows but what I do know is that when it comes to all things food science Alton is the man on Food Network. I picked up a copy of one of his books today at the library and thumb through it I must say it does not do him justice would not buy it.

Rgds Rook

[bigwheel]

Ahhhh a person after me own heart here . Now whut ever happened to our other girlfriend named Jaqui Malouff? I woulda traded in the wife and family on that deal most likely. Sure glad she finally dumped that red headed goose loser she was associated with for a while. Mango chipolte chutney salsa would gag a gut wagon maggot no doubt. Smart thinking.

bigwheel

[Suzanne]

I recently worked on Ms. Deen's forthcoming book, Paula Deen Celebrates. According to material in it, she is indeed from Georgia -- a native and lifelong resident, iirc. My guess is that the TV accent has grown thicker as she becomes more popular, for effect. Just a guess, because I haven't seen her show in years. So I also can't comment on her on-screen habits. But she's not professionally trained, and never claims to be -- in fact, her story of how she started her catering company, and then the restaurant, is probably viewed as quite inspirational.

As for the quality of her TV recipes: well, at least she gets people into the kitchen and cooking more than, say, Sandra Lee. Gotta remember, not everyone feels comfortable even opening that can of frosting. The only criticism I will voice is: That woman uses a TON of sugar!

Changing subjects slightly: if you want some really basic, honest Tennessee-mountain cooking mixed with a few condensed-cream-of and Jell-O-and-Kool-aid recipes (not in the same recipe, though ), be on the lookout for Dolly's Dixie Fixin's, due out later this year or early next, by . . . Dolly Parton! Really a delightful book to read, and some of the recipes are actually worth having.

[Pete]

A couple of things:

Regarding her accent, yes she may play it up a bit, but not much. Have you ever met someone from the middle of Georgia (she was born and raised in Albany, before heading to Savannah). Their accents can be so thick they almost drip. For any Northerner who hasn't spent time in the deep South, not all Southern accents sound alike. A Texan sounds very different than a Georgian, who sounds very different from someone in New Orleans, who sounds very different from someone from Kentucky, who sounds very different than someone from N. Carolina. There are also degrees in the thickness of an accent stemming from where they are from.

As for her using way too many "processed" ingredients. Have you ever looked really looked through a bunch of church or Junior League cookbooks? Pick up any locally produced, home-spun cookbooks and you will see considerable use of processed ingredients. She cooks like a lot of people of her generation do. A judicious amount of processed products, at times, but still can turn out food, from scratch that rules. Reminds me of my Grandmother. She could make a pie crust as tender and flaky as the best pastry chef. She would make and hand cut egg noodles for every holiday, and bake cookies until the cows come home, but she was also the queen of convience foods so she wasn't always spending time in the kitchen. I remember that she used to make the best Iced Tea in the world and then one day I saw her using Lipton Instant Iced Tea and I was blown away.

And again, I find myself defending Food TV. Don't get me wrong, I can't stand most of the shows on there, but the Execs. there are not idiots. They put on what sells, what turns a profit for them. And ultimately that is their goal, to make the biggest profit they can for their shareholders. Everyday I hear from people (not associated with this website) about how great Rachel, Paula, Emeril and Bobby are. Face it, we are in the minority. And we also tend to be overly critical, with the exception of our discussion about "Semi-ho-made." Just saw the last few minutes of her show a couple days back. I find nothing redeeming about her or her food.

[skilletlicker]

Originally Posted by Suzanne

Changing subjects slightly: ...be on the lookout for Dolly's Dixie Fixin's, due out later this year or early next, by . . . Dolly Parton! Really a delightful book to read, and some of the recipes are actually worth having.

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely watch for it.

[cakerookie]

Suzanne did Dolly actually write these things? I might glance through it in the bookstore but I doubt it will be high on my list of wanted books. Not saying that the book will not be any good just have a hard time associating Dolly Pardon with a cookbook.

Rgds Cakerookie...aka Rook

[diane]

Our food network will obviously be different from yours, we do get a lot of English programmes. But we do have Alton, Emeril, Paula Deene, Flay etc. Of course most of these are several years old. One recent pleasing prog. is conducted by a very elegant Maori woman, so it is all local ingredients. My daughter recently told me what s'mores are. Pass, thank you.

I think, in general, that the US diet has substantially more sugar in it than NZ. But that is changing unfortunately. And as for Paula, well I find her accent somewhat, umm, penetrating. My favourite of all time is Rick Stein. I like the travelling programmes from the US as well, showing me a country and people/foods I will never otherwise see. I can't remember if it was Roker on the Road, or Flay that showed an omlette being made on the flat top by a fellow who had clearly made at least a million before. And the ribs, huge flats of smoked and dressed and BIG. Nothing like that here. And Alton of course, we really like him. Tyler, naturally. I would quite like Emeril, except for all the braying from the audience. It gets so loud. Having said all that, I know I could never do what these people do. And they are teaching people, even if they do things like cracker soup, or whatever, at least it isn't coming from McDevils et al. Even if one person learns, the simplicity of soup, the joy of good casserole, the ease of a roast dinner. And that they don't need dessert.

[Suzanne]

Originally Posted by cakerookie

Suzanne did Dolly actually write these things? I might glance through it in the bookstore but I doubt it will be high on my list of wanted books. Not saying that the book will not be any good just have a hard time associating Dolly Pardon with a cookbook.

Rgds Cakerookie...aka Rook

You can be sure that it sounds a lot like her! And I know that the recipes have been tested -- which is more than I can tell for some of the fancier books I work on!

[bigwheel]

Ya know this talk of celebrity cookbooks got me to yearning for one I used to possess but loaned out to some future ex-daughter in law and aint seen it since. It was called Granny's Hillbilly Cookbook and was supposed to have been by Irene Ryan and some other lady who prob done the work. The book had a bunch of good recipes including some cornmeal and pork recipes which seemed to be based on the diet of folks from NC or maybe TN circa 1950 or so...with many recipes I had not seen before or since. The book always start out the recipe with a cute story about how it got the name or some of the ingredients..then you got two columns one of which was the joke recipe..and the other of how to really make it. Spent a lot of fun hours reading the book and playing around with the recipes. If anybody see a copy up for sale be good to grab it I think.

bigwheel

Originally Posted by Suzanne

You can be sure that it sounds a lot like her! And I know that the recipes have been tested -- which is more than I can tell for some of the fancier books I work on!