Cooking Light Subscription: Pauladeen

Pauladeen

Paula Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947) is an American cook, cooking show host, restaurateur, author, actress and Emmy Award-winning television personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published fourteen cookbooks. Though married in 2004 to Michael Groover,[1] she uses the surname Deen, from her first marriage.[2]Deen was born Paula Hiers in Albany, Georgia,[3] the daughter of Corrie A. (née Paul) and Earl Wayne Hiers, Sr.[4][5] Her parents died before she was 23, and an early marriage ended in divorce. In her 20s, Deen suffered from panic attacks and agoraphobia. She then focused on cooking for her family as something she could do without leaving her house.[6] Her grandmother Irene Paul had taught her the hand-me-down art of Southern cooking; one of the only places she felt safe was at her own stove, making thousands of pots of chicken and dumplings.[7] She later moved to Savannah, Georgia, with her sons. In 1989, she divorced her husband, Jimmy Deen, to whom she had been married since 1965.[1] She was left with only $200[3] and money was tight raising both her kids and her younger brother, Earl (“Bubba”).