Paula Deen 4th best paid food personality, according to Forbes
What next, Forbes? Top 10 best-paid ukelele players?
The magazine knows media types like me love lists. So they’ve compiled the top five best compensated food personalties. Savannah’s Paula Deen comes in fourth. The magazine estimated she pulled in $17 million between May 31, 2011 to May 31, 2012.
Although critics fried Deen after she announced she was diabetic last year, she turned that diagnosis into her financial advantage. The magazine said she is earning at least $6 million over three years from Novo Nordisk, a diabetes drug maker.
Forbes then listed many of her business deals. A sampling:
Partnerships with Walmart for baked goods, Smithfield for hams, and Harrah’s for a growing chain of Paula Deen restaurants at casinos in the South are still going strong. Deen has got her own branded line of nuts, a frozen seafood line, plus a partnership with Springer Mountain chickens. And in June, she announced a new partnership with Nanco (the firm run by the Nanula family of Tops Friendly Markets) to launch her own line, Paula Deen Foods.
Mario Batali is at No. 5, thanks to his restaurants and gig on “The Chew,” the new syndicated show.
Wolfgang Puck is at No. 3 with $20 million. Rachael Ray is at No. 2 earned $25 million.
Tops on the list? Gordon Ramsay, the man with seemingly an endless array of reality shows, pulled in $38 million.
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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk
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56 comments Add your comment
Gorgon Ramsey
July 25th, 2012
12:25 pm
PISS OFF PAULA!!!
notaracist
July 25th, 2012
12:28 pm
If Rachel Ray did not have her hands in a bit of everything, I would’ve been surprised to know she actually out earns legendary chef Wolfgang.
Rickster
July 25th, 2012
12:59 pm
Someone’s been doing some serious air brushing on Paula’s pic!
Mmmmm
July 25th, 2012
1:02 pm
How about that yummy Giada??
top chef
July 25th, 2012
1:33 pm
Paula Deen is a cook not a chef.
Mercedes S.
July 25th, 2012
1:40 pm
My neighbor on Wilmington!
Greg S.
July 25th, 2012
1:42 pm
I love our society. We reward fame with fortune. Yet the true movers & shakers in life go largely unnoticed….
JB
July 25th, 2012
1:51 pm
Greg S. I agree, but you ought to read Paula Deen’s story. Wasn’t long ago she couldn’t feed her two boys or rub two nickels together. I”m proud for every dime she has made.
JB
July 25th, 2012
1:55 pm
top chef…………..I’ve seen her cooking and I’ve seen a chef take a sea bass and stuff it up a goats butt with a sauteed fig leaf with a reduced owl crap sauce………..I’ll take Paula’s cooking thank you.
Eric
July 25th, 2012
1:56 pm
@ JB
July 25th, 2012
1:51 pm
I totally agree! She has a real rags to riches story. I just went to Savannah a few weeks ago and went to her restaurant. It was awesome! I also purchase her products. So to those like Gorgon Ramsey who make ignorant comments like “piss off Paula”…… I say “Paula we are proud of you”!
Paul Dean
July 25th, 2012
1:59 pm
Take away Paula’s deep-fryer, and she couldn’t toast toast. What a fat pig, no talent she is.
Taxi Smith
July 25th, 2012
2:00 pm
Lot of snobs on here, lot of snobs.
Bubba
July 25th, 2012
2:02 pm
Well durn, guess i really bring up the rear, im also a chef, cook, bottlwasher etc, and I make a whopping $261 a month from social security! True story.poor but proud
Savannah Native
July 25th, 2012
2:03 pm
Her restaurant is still good, but back before she made it big in the early 90’s her restaurant at the other location downtown was a lot better. I like the fact that she fly’s the UGA flag on top of her restaurant! Go Dawgs!
bobbydeenshairpiece
July 25th, 2012
2:03 pm
Thank GAWD you didn’t refer to that thing as a “chef”. She’s no more a chef than I am a brain surgeon. She’s not even all that good a cook. She’s an artificially manufactured media creation sent by the devil himself to drive anyone with any class or taste to suicide. Every time I see her spray Pam on a frying pan and then pouring cooking oil in it right after I just want to go through the TV screen and slap her cross eyed. What kind of incompetent fool does something like that?
Oh, I’ve been to her restaurant in Savannah. Canned veggies out the wazoo! I’ve had better fried chicken at KFC. I’m glad I got the chance to eat there once, so I’ll know never to bother going there again.
Newbie
July 25th, 2012
2:04 pm
How about “Top 10 Snake Charmers” or “Top 10 Soda Jerks” or “Top 10 Boondoggle Road Projects.” Glad you had a good experience at her restaurant in Savannah but Hubby and I had another. We waited 2 hours to get in and a table, our food was bland and only tepidly warm, and the service was less than spectacular. We never got the water we asked for and were never offered dessert or coffee. When reminded, the server was apologetic but forgot to return. He spotted us as we were leaving and offered another apology that he was really busy. Ok, but if that is indicative of the restaurant, I’ll go elsewhere. Not going back.
Vince Doodley
July 25th, 2012
2:11 pm
Rachel Freakin RAY? Gross.
urban redneck
July 25th, 2012
2:13 pm
paula deen sucks. eat this fried stuff, y’all. i got diabetes, y’all. i’m not going to say anything for a couple years, y’all. now i have new sponsors for my health kick, y’all. now you should grill this stuff, y’all.
urban redneck
July 25th, 2012
2:16 pm
went to paula’s restaurant in savannah after a christening. our service was terrible and the food mediocre. our server was fired before we left the premises.
and her accent is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over the top.
Joeybitenmyass
July 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
They did not earn it without the help of big government/obama.
Vince Doodley
July 25th, 2012
2:24 pm
Paula Dean 4th highest paid but 4th rate cook.
samt
July 25th, 2012
2:26 pm
why are the nasty, personal slams against Paula? Jealous?
bobbydeenshairpiece
July 25th, 2012
2:27 pm
That accent is as fake as can be. If you can find any video of her when she first made any appearances on TV in that old show where they would take a chef (in her case a cook) and send them into someone’s home and cook them a meal with whatever they could find in the kitchen, she sounded NOTHING like she does now. That limey creep Gordon Elliott (her long time producer) is responsible to this over the top hick/rube lingo she’s yakking now. She sounds like a retarded redneck hillbilly from so far back in the woods when the sun came up on Monday morning they didn’t get the light until Tuesday.
She is an embarrassment to the south and to the nation. But sadly I’ll bet she could care less what anyone thinks of her. She’s reached the stage now where her attitude is “I don’t care what you say as long as you spell my name right, and the check clears before I get there”.
bobbydeenshairpiece
July 25th, 2012
2:31 pm
When she says “where’s my spachler”, or “I need some confectionant sugar”, that pretty much says it all. Moron. And has anyone else noticed the constant vulgar sexual references she makes. I’ll never forget her giving that male country singer a meat clever and telling him on camera to “ok beat ya meat”. He was flabbergasted.
Rachel Ray
July 25th, 2012
2:37 pm
25 millions buys a lot of smokes and vodka!
JB
July 25th, 2012
2:38 pm
Bobbyd @2:31………..We get it……..go back to mid town and polish your light loafers.
Bestie
July 25th, 2012
2:39 pm
Paula is one of my oldest and dearest friends. She is the same person now as she was back then. She is kind, loyal and giving! And her personality on her shows matches her everyday life. I am proud of my friend!
Kentucky Colonel
July 25th, 2012
2:43 pm
bobbydeanshairpiece got it right.
I am born and bred in the South and I would rather stick bamboo shards under my fingernails than listen to her over the top “y’aaaaaaall” after every sentence.
Certainly some southerners grew up with dirt driveways and learned that hick accent, but plenty did not, thankfully.
As to her Savannah restaurant, I went there once – and only once – and cannot believe anyone other than a tourist would ever go there. Virtually no local would ever darken the door and certainly not go back twice. The people who might actually eat at, or even enjoy, that canned food palace would never pay the prices she charges for the stuff. I like good southern cooking, but my mother and grandmother could cook better than that if they were blind and cooking over a can of sterno with a stick for a spoon and using dirt for seasoning.
Paula Deen and reality show producers should thank their lucky stars that there are enough toothless inbreds in the world to permit them to get rich. More power to her for that, but her food and accent are awwwwwwwwwwwful
JB
July 25th, 2012
2:48 pm
Bestie….ignore crud comments on here. Most are frustrated bread servers at High end ATL restaurants in mid town living with 5 or 6 other people making about 400 bucks a week. A South Georgia gal making 20 mil per year with country fried steak is more than they can handle. Meow.
JB
July 25th, 2012
2:50 pm
@2:43………..Same here with a gay chef telling way more than I care about knowing about him or the crap i can’t recognize he’s about to serve me.
Chef Boyardee
July 25th, 2012
2:50 pm
Uhhhh…..I believe I am the highest paid chef.
Just Me
July 25th, 2012
2:52 pm
Love Gordon Ramsey… can’t believe all the freakin shows he has in constant rotation both here and across the pond. And now a cookware line at Kmart.
FCM
July 25th, 2012
2:52 pm
I do not watch Rachel Ray….looking forward to Justin though!
Watching food network it is easy to think chefs make big bucks…truth is they don’t.
JB
July 25th, 2012
2:55 pm
I do not watch Rachel Ray……….But I would do her, just say’n
Watch who you follow.....
July 25th, 2012
2:56 pm
Rachael Ray is where she is because she bowed at the alter of Oprah.
Bestie
July 25th, 2012
3:00 pm
JB: Thank you for your kind words.
david c
July 25th, 2012
3:01 pm
So. JB. That “gay” comment told me everything I don’t want to know about you.
Hungry
July 25th, 2012
3:02 pm
Could someone pass the Grey Poupon, please?
JB
July 25th, 2012
3:04 pm
david, i hope the comment at 2:55 did also
david c
July 25th, 2012
3:07 pm
Pigs On The Wing.
Tommy
July 25th, 2012
3:13 pm
How did the hot female with the store bought headlights rank.
Elvis Prez
July 25th, 2012
3:19 pm
I thought Paula was from New Jersey?
Ellenton, FL
July 25th, 2012
3:23 pm
To:bobbydeenshairpiece —-JEALOUSY GETS YOU NOWHERE, POOR BOY!
Captain Herb
July 25th, 2012
3:28 pm
why is the headline “4th best” and not highlighting the winner?
Yuuuup!
July 25th, 2012
3:31 pm
Poor Emeril. Gone, and forgotten
topaz49
July 25th, 2012
3:38 pm
To all you ignorants who think that just because someone says “Ya’ll” and talks with a southern accent, that means they are dumb as hell. You are showing your stupidity. Paula Deen is a wonderful person, genuine, kind and smart. And if she does play up the camera with alot of southern charm, good for her. She can laugh at you all, all the way to the bank.
Smitty
July 25th, 2012
3:51 pm
Paula Deen where is the punch line. How many people that live Savannah gone to Paula Deen more than once. If you can’t sell to locals then you shouldn’t be listed as one of the best.
Irony at its best
July 25th, 2012
4:04 pm
I am constantly in Savannah on Business and have eaten Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons Restaurant. Here in Atlanta we have the same Restaurant it’s just called Golden Corral. That place is gross. Saying Lady and Sons is great Southern Food is like saying CiCi’s Pizza is great NY Style Pizza. In Savannah if you want GREAT Food you are in the right place to find it. Try Mrs Wilkes, Zunzi’s Takeout or Olde Pink House. The best food in South is in Savannah hands down!!
Becky
July 25th, 2012
4:07 pm
I went to her restaurant at the old location, it was great..The food was fresh and the service was great..I haven’t been to her new location, but have heard from lots of people that it’s not as good as before..I enjoy watching her show and have no problems with the way that she cooks…I don’t care if she’s a cook or chef..If Bobby Flay can say good things about her food, must be pretty good…
Irony at its best
July 25th, 2012
4:35 pm
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