Hey Y’all! We Met Paula Deen!

Posted by Greta on June 9th, 2008 ·

Yesterday, Janet and I were lucky enough to meet Paula Deen, US Food Network mega-star, while visiting QVC in West Chester, PA. She was as nice and cheerful and delightful as we expected her to be, and not pretentious at all, considering her phenomenal success, appearances on Oprah, TV shows, cookbook empire, restaurants and food products (and the list goes on). In fact, when we met her, she was standing the kitchen, ironing her pink linen shirt before going on the air. She called me “hon” and “darlin’” and I was instantly drawn to her warm demeanor. We chatted briefly, I showed her our Eat, Shrink & Be Merry cookbook and told her about our Food Network Canada TV show, and she said something like “Well, I’ll be! Gosh darn that’s somethun’ else, ain’t it?” (At least that’s what I think she said. Because, just in case you haven’t seen or heard Paula Deen, her Southern accent’s pretty thick. And so charming!!) Janet and I chatted with her about the importance of having fun in the kitchen and having a good sense of humor, not taking cooking too seriously, etc., and she told us she wanted to have a look through our book, so we signed it for her and left it in her dressing room. All y’all never know, we could end up having an Iron Chef cook-off someday: The Pod Squad vs. Paula. (She’d probably kick our butts.) I’ve also decided that I’m going to start speaking like her. I’m from the South too (Southern Ontario), and I just fell in love with her accent, so I’ve decided I want one myself. After micro-analyzing the way she speaks, I know I’ve mastered her style and lingo. For example, I would normally say something very boring and typical like this: “I really hate my hair.” Now, with my new Paula Deen Southern accent, I’ll sound like this: “Uh rilly hate my hay-er.” Totally different, isn’t it? This is so exciting! Oh, the people I’ll meet and places I’ll go now that I’m charming! Thanks Paula! Luv yuh, hon!

7 responses so far ↓

1 Sacred Suzie // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:49 am

Oh that is so much fun! She truly is the queen of southern cuisine although my goodness, her cooking style couldn’t be more different that yours when it comes to calories. I’ve never seen anyone use that many sticks of butter within a half hour segment before.

Southern accent, LOL, I love it. Too funny!
2 Ola S. // Jun 10, 2008 at 10:37 am

I did that when I went down south and became friends with Texans! I wanted their accent SO badly that I started mimicking them! haha My personal favourite is the oh-so simple “ya’ll”; and in it’s plural form it’s “all ya’ll”!! hahaha When my friend talks to me she typically calls me “girl” with the occasional “lil darlin” (haha) and I just love that! Those southern folks are just so gosh darn friendly! It’s great!
P.S. Now why would ya’ll hate yur hayer? It’s so beautiful!
3 Sandra Young // Jun 13, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Hi y’all! I am a big fan of Eat Shrink & Be Merry. I have the cookbook and it’s my bible as I love to cook healthy meals for those that I love. My sister has the cookbook and she attempts to cook (not a cooker!). I’m also a Paula fan but sadly I wouldn’t follow her recipes, thus can’t figure out why I keep watching her show! Must be that she’s just so darned cute to watch and she even occasionally feels guilty about the volume of butter she uses. Yikers! Thank you Janet & Greta, you make my time in the kitchen an absolute pleasure when I follow your recipes!
4 AJ Rawlek // Jun 15, 2008 at 10:40 am

Hi ladies. I first read about you two in Readers Digest. I found that what you have to say and your meal ideas are great. Here is one thing that I would so very much to know. How would you creat meal ideas for truck drivers? See, there is very little physical exercise and alot of times, well we eat while driving. Not really healthy, but some times that is the only way to eat. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I just watched your show on tv this morning and it was great. I am hoping that I can catch as many of them as possible. Good luck with your books and much success in all that you do.
5 Mary // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:19 am

You can’t help but like Paula Deen….she seems like such a sweetie.

However, she’s GOT to do something about the way she cooks….my god I put on 10 pounds just watching her!

I true southern fashion, almost everything she cooks has a ton of butter, shortening, cheese or cream in it and often it’s a combination of all four.

Janet and Greta, I just wanted to say “I love your cookbook”. I’ve made several of your recipes and have not been disappointed in one of them.

We just had the Butter Chicken the other night. Here’s something interesting: I ran out of low fat sour cream so I added a bit of low fat yogurt instead…..tasted wonderful.
6 Donna // Sep 6, 2008 at 6:21 pm

Hello girls: I made a pecan pie bar recipe from Paula Dean and it took two pounds of butter and endless cups of sugar. That can be your next challenge a better for you pecan pie bar against Paula
Good Luck the bars were very good
7 teresa // Nov 9, 2008 at 6:47 pm

the book that paula deen wrote, it ain’t all about the cooking, she should change it to:

It ain’t all about the hooking. she had an affair with a married man for 10 years. she was on larry king live and told him. he was an electrical engineer. i am glad she made sparks with another woman’s husband. larry asked her if the man’s wufe ever found out about her and she said. i never did know if she ever found out or not. so she is assuming no. i just think it is horrible for her to have an affair for ten years and his wife never find out that her husband was cheating on her. and another thing. she has lived in savannah for years. she told the story of how she met michael groover. well she told it in the beginning and then when she told it, it was slightly different. but i really believe that she planned for her dogs to go over in his yard so she could meet him. she knew he was well off and this is when she kinda was and before the million dollar qvc weekends, the extra two shows, bo bby and jamie’s shows, this is when gertie used to be on. way in the beginning. then she has the show where her and michael are not married and she said girls incase they spend the night. and laughing. well, girls i have something to tell you, michael spent the night last night and i am fixing breakfast and tell him when i have it done and he is going to serve it to me in bed. wow what a role model. Ina Garten would never do that because she is married to jeffery! paula’s behavior is insane!

Eat Shrink And Be Merry

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