Paula Deen had a bit of a freak out last week on the set of the "Today Show" after an NBC staffer accidentally walked into the shot and hid behind a kitchen island.
"Oh my goodness, can you all see? What is he doing in here? Does he work here?" Deen asked Al Roker as she prepared her Nutty Orange Coffee Cake to promote the New York City Wine & Food Festival. "He doesn't have a gun does he? Should we pull out our knives?"
Roker laughed along with Deen, although it became a bit awkward after he asked her what she was making.
"Nervous. That's what we're making -- nerves, nervous," she said. "Is he from this country?"
But all became hunky-dory once more when Deen learned the man did indeed work for NBC.
"Oh so you do work here, well here," Deen said as she handed him a slice of cake.
Vibrant Swiss chard from the Torrance farmers' market. Photo: clayirving, Flickr.
In the "treacherous food landscape" of today's supermarkets, noted New York Times contributor and author Michael Pollan has culled a collection of "Rules to Eat By" to help readers navigate "through the minefields of the modern-food marketplace or restaurant menu."
He requested suggestions from New York Times readers in March as research for an upcoming book and received more than 2,500 in just a few days. With food policies ranging from the innate ("Don't eat egg salad from a vending machine"), to quirky ("Don't yuck someone's yum"), to moral ("Don't eat anything you aren't willing to kill yourself"), Pollan's 20 favorites provide a helpful guide to eating right.
As food takes a longer and longer path -- and transformation -- from its origins, and the food industry gains increasing influence over what is deemed "nutritious" according to federal standards, eating right has become more and more abstruse. With the constant rise of misguided or unsound food principles -- Paula Deen categorizing her strawberry cake as "fruit" on "The View," KFC's Double Down sandwich swapping its bun for two servings of fried chicken, a markedly "Supersized" culture -- Pollan stresses the importance of the elementary practice of trusting culture, and following our leaders -- mothers and fathers and friends -- rather than increasingly convoluted federal nutrition guidelines when making appropriate food choices.
Weary of the "era of dazzling food science, supersize portions and widespread dietary confusion," Pollan published "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" and "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," took the James Beard Award for best food writing and is currently the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley.
With more upscale restaurants open for breakfast, doughnuts are popping on many of their menus.
Celebrity chefs, including Guy Fieri, Paula Deen and Anthony Bourdain, hit the road like rock stars on tour.
A Sydney restaurant has been fined for topless food handlers, just one of many food safety infractions on New South Wales Government's Name and Shame Web site.
The New York Times reports that Paula Deen's QVC-exclusive line of cast iron cookware is being voluntarily recalled after consumer complaints of pans shattering and cracking during heating. Meyer Trading Corporation, the manufacturer of the pans, alerted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission of the issue in July, prompting QVC's recall letters to purchasers in August.
The CPSC will announce the recall on its Web site this coming Monday. Consumers may remain confident that Deen's "Butt Massage" flavoring rub is still safe for consumption.
Paula Deen and her artery-clogging Southern home cooking aren't for everyone, but as we gathered from an actual look into her home cooking routine, without the crispness of network television, she might swing you over to her motherly foodie ways.
Paula has started a new cooking station on YouTube called Get Cookin' with Paula Deen, one that's a bit different than her Food Network show. Instead of the high-production quality of a hit series, this is a hand-held, casual affair more akin to a home movie. The fattening family delicacies, however, are still there. For this round, Deen makes Pimento Cheese with her son Jamie. It's a large slop of caloric extravagance, one that should be made using a whole lot of mayo because,"after it comes out of the refrigerator, it'll be as hard as my arteries," as Paula instructs her son.
If Paula's casual cooking leaves you hungry for more, check out sister site AOL Food's interview with Ms. Deen and hubbie Michael Groover right here.
Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:
From the freezer to the jar to the mouths of lucky recipients: YumSugar marinates and jars artichoke hearts. Too bad they only keep for a week!
David Wondrich's book "Imbibe!" -- "part cocktail-making manual, part biography and part bartending history" -- outlines the beloved hooch of yesteryear.
What do you think would happen if Regis and Kelly put Gordon Ramsay, Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse in the same room? If you guessed a flurry of BAM!s, f-bombs, butter, and Crocs, you guessed right.
For Halloween this year, Live with Regis and Kelly got cooking with a little help from Guy Fieri (the real one), and you can check it out over at eatmedaily.com. Good ol' Regis is basically Philbin in chef's outfits, not bothering to try an accent to play Ramsay, and saying nothing but "BAM!" for Lagasse. But Kelly -- she steals the show getting accented to play Deen and Lawson, and revelling in butter kebabs on one end, and sultry, chocolate-covered spoons on the other.
Seeing that mess of craziness, methinks I want to throw a chef-themed costume party pot luck. Make a dish from one of their books, and come in costume and character. Anyone in?
Paula Deen really likes her political figures. She has chilled with Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, and now she's jumping on the campaign trail and itching to party with the potential first wives. The AP reports that Paula Deen is cooking with Michelle Obama in an upcoming episode of Paula's Party, which will air on the Food Network on September 20.
The pair chat about their familes' favorite meals and make super-tasty, super-healthy dishes like fried shimp and french fries. Deen recently said of Obama: "She was getting her hands dirty. I think they are like us -- they like real food, not a bunch of prissy food." But it looks like only the women are allowed to get their hands dirty. Deen says that's she also invited Cindy McCain to cook with her, as well as running mate Sarah Palin. No Barack, no John, no Joe. Hey Deen, Palin is the vice presidential running mate; she's not a potential first wife. I know, this is not the presidential campaign you're used to, but times they are a-changing.
Sometimes I could shake that woman, but instead, I think it'd be more fulfilling to grab that butter drinker and put her in a new reality show -- one where she has to eat all vegan fare and "prissy" foods. Think Survivor, but without the bugs. She spins the wheel, dying to get the Twix, but instead lands on the ... confit! Or the gelee! It'd be great.
Yes, proceeds from the sales of Nutrish will indeed go toward funding no-kill shelters and awareness campaigns, and it's not as if she's the first media-centric chef to go to the dogs -- or cats (remember Rocco DiSpirito's Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys?). Still, I'm continually shocked by the branding stretches some of these folks are making.
(Aaaannnd I've just run across Paula Deen's Butt Massage. I know it's likely a handy and delicious mix of herbs, spices and faerie dust, but still. Ew.)
I don't think there's any food better to feature on Valentine's Day besides a vividly colored red velvet cake. This one, by Bakerella, meets all the criteria of food porn too: rough edges, myopic focus and thickly spread frosting. Could someone please get me a slice and a fork? If you want to whip up one of these for your sweetie as an after dinner treat tonight, here's a link to Paula Deen's family recipe as well as the recipe for cream cheese frosting that Bakerella used on the cake you see above.
Forget the two-layer birthday cakes and the double-chocolate cookies. We're talking wild, sumptuous, no-holds-barred desserts that throw caution - and your diet - to the wind. From deep-fried Mars bars to peanut butter fudge ripple cheesecake, we've gathered five of the most devilishly delicious sweets we could find. Paula Deen makes an appearance, as does The Cheesecake Factory.
Take a minute to gaze over these swoon-worthy desserts, and then let us know: what's the most decadently outrageous dessert you've ever eaten? What made it so incredible? If it's wild enough, it just might make it into a future Outrageous Desserts post.
We all know Paula Deen for her thick Southern accent, enthusiastic laugh and willingness to cook up recipes that incorporate 12 sticks of butter. Despite her occasional trips to the land of excess, she can often be depended on to offer up tasty recipes that can be cooked up quickly and without too much effort. Her Thanksgiving leftovers menu from this year is an example of her reliable cooking.
She's got you covered whether you want to make turkey pot pie (with butternut squash and cranberries cooked right in), potato croquettes (preferably cooked in peanut oil) or (because Paula never forgets dessert) pumpkin bars. If those recipes don't float your boat. If those recipes leave you cold, check out Michael Chiarello's Turkey Soup, George Duran's Turkey in a Cone or Ann Volkwein's upscale Thanksgiving in a Sandwich.
Is your family totally devoted to canned cranberry sauce, despite all your best efforts to sway them to the world of orange-scented homemade compote? If so, maybe you're looking for a way to spice up that cranberry sauce (because serving it in the shape of the can does leave something to be desired). Paula Deen, in her trademark over-the-top style, has come up with a new way of serving canned cranberry sauce. Here's how she described it in a USA Today column.
"I gave a twist to cranberry sauce one year. You take a can of the jellied sauce and slice it in quarter-inch pieces. Then you mix up cream cheese and hot sauce and a little mayo, and you make up sandwiches - no bread, just the cheese mix in between cranberries."
Sounds like an interesting approach to cranberry sauce to me, although the purists would have a heart attack if you suggested adulterating their precious canned sauce with mayo and cream cheese.
Since Mother's Day is right around the corner, I've been searching for some recipe ideas and started wondering how Paula Deen, probably the best-known mother in the cooking world, would celebrate Mom's Day? The answer, of course, is by inviting her sons over to cook with her. After a quick search, I found out that the Food Network would be airing her Mother's Day special today. Paula, Jamie and Bobby will apparently be preparing a brunch feast which includes Nutty Orange Coffee Cake, Benedictine Sandwiches (pictured, above) and Eggs in a Nest, which essentially equates to a ham and cheese omelet served in phyllo pasty - nice twist on the original.
If you watch her often, you'll know that Paula isn't afraid to mix things up a little in the morning with some wine - and in this case she is preparing Wine Spritzers which I'm fairly certain would be light and refreshing after a heavy brunch.
What do you think would happen if Regis and Kelly put Gordon Ramsay, Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson, Mario Batali, and Emeril Lagasse in the same room? If you guessed a flurry of BAM!s, f-bombs, butter, and Crocs, you guessed right.
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