 Paula Deen as Aunt Dora
Hundreds of patrons line up everyday in front of The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah just to catch a glimpse of the owner.
Paula Deen''s (Aunt Dora) bestselling cookbooks, hit show - the Food Network's “Paula's Home Cooking” - and, her personal story have become a positive force for millions of people.
Living with a 20-year agoraphobia affliction and a crumbling marriage, Deen was left with two growing sons and no source of income. As a girl reared in the Deep South, Southern cooking was in her heritage and the kitchen became her only hope. With only $200 and her sons, Deen launched a home-based lunch delivery service called The Bag Lady in June 1989. The business model was simple: she made the sandwiches and her sons went out and sold them.
Two years later, with The Bag Lady growing too quickly to stay a home-based operation, Deen opened her first restaurant on Savannah's Southside. Called The Lady, within five years it also became too successful for a small space with limited seating. In January 1996, Deen and her sons moved an operation that had started as tuna fish sandwiches wrapped in saran wrap to a downtown restaurant in Savannah's City Market. The Lady and Sons opened its doors to faithful customers, a celebrity clientele, and thousands of Savannah visitors seeking out Deen's world-famous fried chicken.
Deen self-published her first cookbook in 1997, The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook. When a literary agent unexpectedly came into the restaurant for lunch to escape a thunderstorm, she immediately saw its potential and bought the book. A major publishing house soon picked it upand the following year, Deen began her road to national recognition by promoting its sale on QVC television; quickly, it became one of the best-selling cookbooks. In 1999, she published her second bestseller The Lady and Sons, Too!;her third, The Lady and Sons Just Desserts, followed in 2002. Simon & Schuster published her most recent cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends, in April 2005.
“Paula's Home Cooking” first aired on the Food Network on November 16, 2002 to rave reviews; the showwas immediately embraced by the public. Her special, “Paula Deen's Wedding,” ranks as the highest special for the Food Network.
In 1999 USA Today awarded The Lady and Sons restaurant the “International Meal of the Year” and a guest appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” triggered hundreds of letters from women who took charge of their lives after watching Deen tell her story.
Deen's deft hand in the kitchen, combined with her flair for dramatic touches, has set her restaurants and cookbooks apart from any other. Her determination, hard work, and innate, warm Southern charm have done the rest.
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