Photo credit: Melanie Dunea for Woman’s Day

Paula Deen shares dieting tips in the February edition of Woman’s Day magazine, on newsstands Jan. 8.

The Savannah culinary mogul, long known (and in some cases derided) for her high-calorie concoctions, has shifted gears to become an advocate of healthier cooking and eating since disclosing her battle with diabetes last year.

Deen’s 2011 cookbook, “Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible,” made it to the list of Five Worst Cookbooks of 2011 by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Since then she’s lent her name to healthier dishes, though. The first recipe that pops up on her website at the moment is one billed as a “Lighter Hoppin’ John salad.”

A slimmed-down Deen graces the cover of Woman’s Day and in an accompanying interview urges moderation and proper portion size.

“I want to be here for my grandchildren,” Deen told the magazine. “I think about them every day. My daddy was dead at 40. My mother was dead at …

Continue reading Paula Deen shares dieting tips »

AP photo

Paula Deen’s health is back in the news. The blogosphere, anyway.

The Daily, which seems to have a source with access to Deen’s medical records, as it was the first outlet to report Deen’s diabetic diagnosis, suggests a second health revelation is in the ether.

Deen was taping a segment with Dr. Mehmet Oz the other day when he asked, “You have another secret, don’t you? You have high blood pressure.”

This sent Team Deen into “a tizzy,” The Daily reports, with a publicist leaping in to stop the interview with the admonition: “You can’t air that.”

Actually this isn’t exactly breaking news. The Daily links to a story that our former AJC colleague Jim Auchmutey wrote in 2007, in which Deen told him she took blood pressure medication. She also shared details of a recent day’s worth of dining.

“Yesterday was so bad,” Deen said in that 2007 interview. “I started off the day with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardee’s. For lunch, I had a fabulous chocolate-stuffed, …

Continue reading More health revelations from Paula Deen? »

Paula Deen says she hasn’t had a glass of sweet tea in years, but that diabetes will not keep her from using butter.

The Savannah chef and cookbook author, who has gone public with a type II diabetes diagnosis and will now become the endorser for a diabetes drug, said she is taking steps to improve her health. Giving up butter is not one of them.

“I will never use a substitute for butter,” she told Parade.com following her much-anticipated announcement that she does have diabetes. “Margarine is one molecule away from eating plastic.”

She says she will cut back, “but will I cut butter out of my life completely? No. I will take measurements to manage it.”

Sugar, of course, is the bigger issue in the case of a type II diabetes diagnosis. Deen says she has taken major steps to cut down on sugar.

“The first thing I did was give up sweet tea because I drank so much,” she told Parade. “I’d start drinking at lunchtime and wouldn’t set it down until I went to bed. When you calculate …

Continue reading Paula Deen: “I will never use a substitute for butter” »

Paula Deen posed for this photo with Dantanna's Chef Tim Mastalski during her October visit to Atlanta.

Food Network personality and cookbook author Paula Deen has type II diabetes and will soon go public with her condition, according to a report on The Daily website.

The butter-loving Savannah chef is not responding to questions about the report. Her most recent tweets include a links to a ham and bean soup recipe and question asking followers about their favorite Super Bowl recipes, although one recent tweet mentions a workout and includes a link to a photo of her on the treadmill.

(The Food Network’s most recent tweet, by the way:  “Get the best price of the season on @Paula_Deen’s Everything Pan http://ow.ly/8sQyl.”)

The Daily report quotes an anonymous source saying Deen is “going to have to start cooking healthier recipes,” and will soon become the celebrity endorser for a pharmaceutical company. (The company also did not respond to questions.) Sources also muse about …

Continue reading Report: Paula Deen to reveal she has diabetes »

 Loading …

Frenemies?

The venerable gossip tabloid National Enquirer dabbles in political scandal from time to time (they were the first to report on former presidential hopeful John Edwards’ love child, remember?)

Now the Enquirer gets back into politics with a report alleging a “food fight” between Food Network personality Paula Deen and First Lady Michelle Obama. Really. Here’s the link.

The supermarket publication quotes Deen dishing on the first lady, who once made an appearance on Deen’s show:

“She probably ate more than any other guest I ever had on the show! She kept eating even dur ing commercials. Know what (the Obamas’) favorite foods are? Hot wings. Y’know – those kinds of foods that aren’t necessarily top-of-the-list healthy foods.”

Me-yow!

Mrs. Obama, of course, is known for her efforts to combat …

Continue reading Paula Deen vs. Michelle Obama? »

Cookbook author, magazine mogul and Food Network personality Paula Deen was in town over the weekend. She had an appearance Saturday at the BJ’s wholesale club in Woodstock.

Sunday night, she showed up at the Dantanna’s in Buckhead.

She ordered the “Buffalo Trace Bourbon BBQ Giant Beef Rib” menu item, along with potato salad and chicken wings. She apparently raved about the potato salad, saying only her own recipe is better!

For dessert she had the Krispy Kreme bread pudding.

She must have enjoyed her meal – look at this nice photo of her posing with Chef Tim Mastalski!

- Jennifer Brett/The Buzz/jbrett@ajc.com

Continue reading Where did Paula Deen dine in Atlanta? »

Butter-loving celebrity chef Paula Deen will be among the judges at the the next Miss USA pageant. The Donald Trump production, at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, is May 16.

“Y’all I am so excited!” said Deen, who tweets just like she talks, in a recent Twitter post. “I’ll be in Las Vegas in about a week. I’m so looking forward to the pageant and to meeting all those great young women.”

Not to be confused with the far more chaste Miss America pageant, Miss USA is being promoted on a flashy Web site that says, “See you in Vegas, baby!” and features racy photos of the contestants wearing sultry come-hither looks and little else.

Contestant Cassady Lance of Savannah

The Georgia contender, by the way, is Cassady Lance, 25, of Savannah. Like the other young lovelies she appears in a provocative pose clad in lacy lingerie.

From her photo, we are guessing Lance is probably not a regular at either The Lady and Sons, Deen’s meat-and-three palace in downtown Savannah, …

Continue reading Paula Deen to judge Miss USA »

Fred Schneider has teamed up with RuPaul and the Foo Fighters in the past and now has his sights set on a new collaborative partner.

Paula Deen.

Or maybe the B-52s frontman was kidding when he said he was angling for a guest appearance on her cooking show.

His latest project, with the rock band The Superions, features the single “Who Threw the Ham at Me?” (Watch the nutty video here).

And Deen is the butter-loving spokesperson for Smithfield who once got clocked in the head by flying pork at an Atlanta food bank. (Watch that nutty video here!)

Perfect!

Photo from Smithfield Foods

“But I’m a vegetarian,” Schneider sighed. Oh, well.

He hammed it up, pardon the pun, with close friends Tuesday night at Bistro Niko. He’s in town for “Fred Schneider’s Spring Thang Bingo Dance Party,” a benefit for Pets Are Loving Support (PALS) and the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

The dinner party was hosted by PALS supporter Cathleen Smith Bresciani, Schneider’s close friend of more than 20 years. …

Continue reading B-52’s Fred Schneider and … Paula Deen? »

Just in time for Thanksgiving, filmmaker Tyler Perry and Food Network personality and author Paula Deen are making sizable gifts to area hunger relief organizations.

Deen and representatives from Smithfield Foods will be here Monday to deliver more than 25,000 pounds of protein to Hosea Feed The Hungry and Homeless.

“We want to get as much food as possible to as many needy families as possible,” Deen said.

Meanwhile, Perry is supplying the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless each with a $50,000 donation of food and a $25,000 contribution toward operating expenses.

“There are so many people who need so much more this year, and Tyler Perry’s generous donation will make a big difference in so many lives,” said executive director Elisabeth Omilami.

Taking a cue from the boss, the cast and crew of “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” are donating more than 2,250 pounds of edibles to area food banks.

“Tyler Perry’s support …

Continue reading Tyler Perry, Paula Deen donate thousands to Atlanta charities »