Paula Deen was born and raised in Albany GA, and she was a housewife and bank teller before she exchanged women’s work clothing for a chef’s hat. Both of her parents died when she was nineteen, and her husband decided to move to Savannah, GA in 1989. Shortly after the move she divorced her husband, and she found herself broke with two teenage sons to support. Since she had always been an excellent Southern cook, she began a catering company with the name “The Bag Lady”. She confected sandwiches and other quick meals, and her sons delivered the food. She herself tried to avoid going out because she had agoraphobia – fear of public places. She thinks that this phobia began after she had been held at gunpoint by bank robbers. The Bag Lady became so successful that it quickly outgrew her home kitchen.

She took a job in the kitchen at Savannah’s Best Western Hotel, and she worked there for five years before she opened her own restaurant, The Lady & Sons, in Savannah’s downtown in 1996. The constant contact with the restaurant’s clients helped her overcome agoraphobia; and the restaurant became such a success that she moved it to a larger building located in the historic district of Savannah, where in 1999 it was named the International Meal of the Year by USA Today. The Lady & Sons’ specialty is a buffet which includes such dishes as macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, deep-fried Twinkies, and cheesy meatloaf. Every meal is served with garlic cheese biscuits and Paula’s signature hoecakes. Read the rest of this entry »