Maxim's choice of Paula Deen as sexiest TV chef made my day.

[nolabear]

If I was into high hair I'd look a lot like her, though a little younger I think. I do have the zaftig, the white hair and the bright blue eyes. I think she is cute, but I also enjoy the attitude. She is a character I know but she created that character out of a lot of Southern women I know, mostly Sweet Potato Queens or one of their outgrowths. Since Southerners and large women and non-PC cooks get beat to a pulp in the media sometimes a little affirmation does one good...though I would make one of her recipes about once in a Kentucky Blue Moon.

[bluesbassman]

1. OK, I give. What's a "Sweet Potato Queen"?

I've led such a sheltered life out here in California. :P

BTW, I've seen your photograph and you're waaaay cuter than Paula Dean!! :loveya:

[nolabear]

2. Awww, thanks Baby. As for Sweet Potato Queens

They started out, I think, as a book by Jill Conners (I think that's right). Then they started having a parade in Jackson MS on St.Patrick's Day and it all went to hell from there. It's pretty fabulous, actually. My stepbrother is one of the Rude Men, which is sort of the Mens' Auxilliary, who are allowed to build the floats and be the slaves to the Sweet Potato Queens, who are the objects of adoration for many a gay Southern fella.

I love the South.

[bluesbassman]

4. Wow. Well the furthest south I've been was a stretch at Ft. Leonard Wood.

Did my basic and AIT there. Never saw any Sweet Potato Queens, so I suppose it just ain't quite south enough. :)

One of these days I'd love to make it down there.

[sarge43]

5. Jill Connor Browne

As in The Sweet Potato Queen's Field Guide to Men: Every Man I Know Is Either Married, Gay or Dead

She's picked up Florence King's fallen crown and wears it well.

[nolabear]

18. I knew I had that name wrong. But St. Patrick's Day is SPQ Day in Jackson MS.

The Rude Men and the drag contingent alone are major wonderment.

[Bake]

8. I had to laugh when you mentioned the Sweet Potato Queens!

I was living in Jackson, MS and rode in the parade car with the Queens one year. What a hoot!!! Including the mandatory guy in drag as a Queen!!

:rofl:

Bake

[madinmaryland]

3. Damn! I could just eat a stick of butter about now, but I have none here.

:sad:

[LiberalFighter]

6. I absolutely do not like Paula Deen! She's a pompous twit.

[RebelOne]

9. Well, you are a pompous twit for not liking her. n/t

[nolabear]

11. One man's pompous is another man's confident. But twit? LOL!

She's smart as a whip and richer than God. You?

[Orrex]

25. Don't know if she's pompous, but she's annoying as hell

If I had to choose between sitting down with her for an hour's worth of conversation or being deep fried with butter and bacon, I'd choose the latter.

[KamaAina]

7. A number of NOLA bloggers and I were having impure thoughts about the Barefoot Contessa.

Sure, they're mainly political bloggers, but it's NOLA: "Other people eat to live. In New Orleans, we live to eat!"

[nolabear]

10. Food, sex, all the same, eh cher?

[KamaAina]

13. You're making me hungry....

:-)

[trof]

28. Aww...'cher'...

My Cajun momma-in-law used to call me that.
:-)

[BulletproofLandshark]

12. I'd have to hand the "Sexiest TV Chef" crown to Nigella Lawson.

IMO she's got to be the hottest 50-year-old woman on TV. Maybe ever.

[progressoid]

21. Yes please.

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Yes, I agree.

[pokerfan]

14. Paula Dean is hot

but I'm more of a Rachael fan...

[wickerwoman]

15. What? No love for Sandra Lee?

:sarcasm:

[Ilsa]

16. I think Marcela Valladolid is very pretty and sexy. (Mexican Made Easy) nt

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Holy Shit!

And she cooks, too?



Although Ingrid Hoffman is still my favorite Cuban chef...

[kwassa]

17. Any relation of Jimmy Dean?

[Bake]

22. Now THAT is some gourmet sh*t right there!

Mmmmmmmmm!

:hi:

Bake

[grasswire]

19. it must be something regional

Paula Deen is about the last person I would think of as sexy. I would rank her about par with Jerry Falwell for "sexy."

[Skittles]

20. I think she is fucking DISGUSTING

[Orrex]

24. Can't stand to hear a single syllable from her

[Skittles]

26. Y'ALL Y'ALL Y'ALL

from her greasy food to her faux accent, she is GROSS

[trof]

29. OK, she does have that coastal Georgia nasal twang.

You have to get that 'Yawl' WAY up in the back of your throat and nose.
I can do it pretty well.
;-)

And she says 'PEE-cans'.
Maybe that's a Savannah thang, but to most of us southerners it's 'puh-KAHNS'.

But I think she's funny, and I have to admire what she's done with her life and the success she's had.
:-)

[Skittles]

30. sorry trof, I just cannot stand her

I find her literally nauseating - she strikes me as a complete phony

[trof]

33. On one level, she is a phony.

But she's SO into her phoniness.
It approaches camp.
It's her schtick.
:shrug:

[nolabear]

31. I laugh about the pee-cans thing too. Most non-southerners don't get how regional the accent is.

I used to be compared to Brett Butler all the time, which is far more my voice and personality type. Except for the drinking.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

34. As I understand

Paula is originally from Albany Ga
Pronounced ALL-benny
My great grandparents were from Terrell County, northeast of Albany

[nolabear]

32. All y'all crack me up. PD is a caricature, and I'm sure a deliberate one.

She's kind of Southern drag. But I do know people who are that dramatic and broad-charactered, and I tend to enjoy them. For the most part I'm far more serious, a bit of an old Southern smart hippie New Orleans Gulf Coast PC bleeding heart liberal transplanted to the Northwest, but those Sweet Potato Queens ust let their flags fly and I gotta love that. Beats being glum and weak (those women will slap you sideways)and neurotic and pinched.