Paula Deen has fans eating out of her hands
SALEM – Paula Deen had Salem and Roanoke Valley fans eating out of her hands Saturday night.
Well, not literally, but the 2,400 people in the Salem Civic Center couldn’t get enough of her at “Paula Deen Live” at the Salem Civic Center.
Paula Deen, Food Network star and restaurant owner, entertains fans at the Salem Civic Center. Photo by Valerie Garst
The Georgian had the crowd hooked from her first “Hey, y’all” and she kept them entertained for the 90 minutes she and her husband, Michael Groover, were on stage.
Just about everybody, including Deen and Groover who shagged her around the stage to the opening sounds of “Sweet Carolina Girl,” seemed to have a good ol’ time.
“Paula Deen is a hoot,” many people said.
“It was worth the price,” commented one woman heading out the door after the show, referring to the $54.75 per ticket. “I would have paid more.”
Deen became a household name in the last dozen years because of the success of her southern cooking at The Lady & Sons restaurant in Savannah, Ga., and now the Paula Deen Buffet at Harrah’s casinos; her Emmy-award-winning Food Network television shows, “Paula’s Home Cooking” and “Paula’s Best Dishes,” 13 cookbooks to date and her own magazine.
More recently, she came out with a line of cookware in Walmart and Big Lots in Salem, sponsorship by Smithfield – parent company of Salem’s Valleydale – pork products and for the live show in Salem and the night before in Richmond, Grand Furniture that carries her furniture line.
“I’m glad to hear somebody say ‘y’all’ and mean it,” commented Beth Day of Roanoke, who was at the show and a “meet and greet” with Deen and her husband before the actual show.
A number of the pre-show group who had their pictures made with the couple had ties either to Smithfield or Grand Furniture.
Northwest Roanoke residents Kirk Barrett, Smithfield’s regional sales manager, and his wife Lynn, were among those who got to meet the couple, as were an aunt and uncle, Perry and Carolyn Day who live in the Cave Spring area, Windsor Hills, to be exact, and Jeanette Warwick of Elliston.
“It’s a great story of her life,” said Warwick. From the stage, Deen referred to her late start experiencing life, after being basically housebound early in her marriage by 20 years of agoraphobia – fear of open spaces.
Deen kept people laughing and entertained with her down-home observations and interaction with the audience. Although it was an adult show and at times, a bit on the racy side, Deen responded to several children in the audience. She called one little girl, Jennifer, onto the stage to sign the child’s science poster about Deen and her Chocolate Volcano Cake.
From the start, she responded to the audience. “I can’t see y’all,” she said, peering out into the darkened civic center arena, “but I can feel y’all.”
Then she quipped about her husband, “I’m probably like most of you other girls out there. I let him think he rules the roost, but I rule the rooster.”
To people calling out from the audience, “We love you, Paula,” Deen replied, “And I love y’all, too. I feel such a connection with all of you girls out there.”
Among the crowd in the dark were two of Deen’s classmates from Albany High School in Georgia, Carol Slaughter Blake of Roanoke, whose daughter, Pamela Blake, had bought tickets to Deen’s show as a birthday surprise for her mother.
Deen asked to see Slaughter’s picture in the 1963 yearbook Meg Hibbert, editor of the Salem Times-Register and a fellow class member with Blake, had brought, and tried to show them to the audience on the in-house cameras.
“That’s when the only makeup we had was lipstick and eyebrow pencil,” pointed out Deen, who now wears false eyelashes on camera and couldn’t live without her clip-on hair, she tells fans.
After the show, Carol Blake mentioned her other daughter, Cathalene and husband Bobby Christian, held their wedding rehearsal dinner at Deen’s Savannah restaurant two years ago.
Deen told stories about her sons, Jamie – the father of her adored grandson, Jack, who turned 4 in August – and Bobby, whose girlfriend is an actress that has a role on “Mike and Molly” television show.
Deen waited a long time to get that first grandchild. “I was hell bent I was going to have my own grandchild. Jamie got married one year after Michael and I did.”
She didn’t cook at the Salem show, to the disappointment of some. Deen got so wrapped up interacting with fans who had questions for her after she opened up the program for those that her sous chef for the evening, Chef Jeff Bland of US Foodservice in Salem, had little time to show off the pork loin with dried-cherry sauce and a chocolate pecan cobbler he prepared from Deen’s recipes.
She isn’t allowed to actually feed people, Deen pointed out, but she did everything but put food in her adoring fans’ mouths. Deen cut up the pork loin into bite-size portions, searched the stage kitchen to find forks and passed out samples to the audience.
Printed copies of the recipes were supposed to be available in the lobby after the show, but were snapped up by eager fans.
The cobbler recipe is posted at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chocolate-pecan-cobbler-recipe/recipe/index.html.
Smithfield has a recipe for Pan Fried Pork Tenderloin Medallions with a Fresh Cherry Sauce at http://www.smithfield.com/recipes/recipe/pan-fried-pork-tenderloin-medallions-with-a-fresh-cherry-sauce. Since it wasn’t cherry season, Chef Bland used dried cherries and rehydrated them for the sauce.
Paula Deen’s Chocolate Pecan Cobbler
from the Food Network
6 tablespoons butter
1-3/4 cups sugar, divided
1 cup self-rising flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, plus 4 tablespoons
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup toffee bits
1-1/2 cups boiling water
Caramel Whipped Cream, recipe follows
Ice cream and chopped pecans, for serving
Caramel Whipped Cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons caramel syrup
Cobbler directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put butter in an 8-by-8-inch baking dish and put the dish in the oven until butter is melted, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove baking dish from oven and set aside. In a medium bowl combine 3/4 cup sugar, the flour and 2 tablespoons cocoa. Add milk and vanilla, whisking until smooth. Pour over melted butter in the baking dish.
In a separate medium bowl, combine remaining 1 cup of sugar, remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa, pecans, and toffee bits; sprinkle evenly over the sugar mixture. Slowly pour boiling water over top of the cobbler. Bake until top of the cobbler looks set, about 40 to 50 minutes. Top with Caramel Whipped Cream, if desired.
—A Review — For more on Paula Deen’s visit to Salem, read Meg Hibbert’s column in the Oct. 7 issue of the Salem Times-Register, and Meg’s blog on OurValley.org, “Cookin,’ Critters and Chillun.”
