Paula Deen, the sassy, brassy down-home dame who cooked her way to fame and fortune after overcoming a bad marriage and panic attacks that kept her prisoner in her own home for years. From the time a bank robber put a gun to her head to the day she took charge of her life and turned it around with only $200 to her name. It’s all on the kitchen table with Paula Deen, the mom who has made millions doing what she loves most: cooking.

Paula Deen is now an Emmy-winning host of Food Network’s “Paula’s Home Cooking” and “Paula’s Party.”

Her New York Times best-selling book, “It ain’t all about the cooking” rose up the charts in record time and Forbes magazine included her on its list of 2007’s most powerful celebrities. DCM sat down with Paula again for a second interview as the holiday season and the end of 2007 approaches.

Delaware County Magazine: Since Forbes said you were one of the most powerful celebrities, has that changed you in any way? Do you feel ‘powerful?’

Paula Deen: No! It was a shock that they said that and put me on a list. I never see myself in that kind of position, or in a class with Oprah. It’s a nice little honor, but life goes on.

DCM: When last we talked you said that doing the book was fun but a real chore to manage, write and get it done while you were doing the TV shows. Now after it made the NY Times “best seller list,” how do you feel about all the work that went into it?

Deen: I did a lot of crying and a lot of laughing while it was being done. Sherry Cohen worked with me on my book, and she’s just my little Yankee sister, you know. She lives in New York, and she came down to Savannah and we got it done. She did such a good job. She actually says “y’all” and thinks she’s a southerner and she had her sons start calling her mama.

DCM: Is the southern lifestyle different? Would you have been different had you grown up in the north instead? Your family had a strong impact on you...

Deen: Well, I think it’s mainly who’s around you when you grow up. The area really doesn’t mean too much though the south seems to be a bit more friendly and laid back than say New York which is more aggressive.
The stronger the parents, the stronger the child. I’ve had two parents that gave me all the security, gave me everything I needed. I actually grew up in my grandparents’ business. They were in the lodging and restaurant business and we lived at River Bend and it was a motel, taverns, skating rink, swimming pool, and restaurant.
My grandma was making always making doughnuts, and then my mother and father owned the service station across the street, and we lived in the filling station, in the service station. I had the swimming pool. I had the skating rink. I had my aunt Trina who was just three years older than me and we were big buddies. I had my playmate and life was good. We had everything that we wanted, and on Saturdays we would take the Trailways bus into town and go to Cresses. Life was good, honey.

DCM: Were you a kid who liked to cook at all even then?

Deen: No. I mean, food was very, very important. Of course, I was in my grandmother’s kitchen, and, of course, my mother’s kitchen, and my Aunt Peggy’s kitchen, but I didn’t start cooking until I married, and that was...I was 18 years old because I had a very busy social life. That’s pretty typical in the South though, isn’t it? You know, back in the ‘60s, yeah, it wasn’t all that unusual. I don’t recommend that anyone do that, but I have two fabulous sons. They’re still the best work I’ve ever done.

DCM: When did things go south for you? Right after your marriage fell apart?

Deen: Well, I knew kind of early on that there was probably going to be some problems, but I was raised, you know, that if you made your bed, you lie in it, and I was constantly trying to fix things, you know, and make things right. I’m a slow learner, you know. I finally figured out at 40-years old that you don’t have the capabilities of changing the other person. The only thing that you can change is yourself, but, like I said, I’m slow. Academically, I was not at the top of my class.

DCM: When did you find out that you had panic attacks?

Deen: They started the night my daddy died when I was 19. Some people have heard of them but don’t know what they are. It sounds like you’re telling people that you’ve just stepped in from Mars. It sounds so bizarre, but all of a sudden a fear overtakes you. Your heart is beating so fast and so hard you know you’re going to have a heart attack. In my case, my arms would go numb. If I was in situations that I was real frightened, I could get them fairly often, but as long as I was at home in my little safety zone I was ok. I could usually get them under control in a few minutes, but I never went anywhere without a brown paper bag because when you breathe in the bag, it circulates whatever it is that calls you down, and my children remember especially one day I had taken them to J.C. Penney and they said all of a sudden they looked around and their momma was crouched down behind a rack of clothes breathing in my bag, you know. I never knew when they were going to hit me, but it’s the most terrifying, uncontrollable feeling. I was able to get it under control though. I treated myself, and it took me 20 years to do it.

DCM: I know that you smoke as well, which seems weird to me for a chef to be a smoker. Doesn’t that kill the food palette in terms of taste and smell? Don’t foods taste different through the nicotine and make them harder to prepare in the course of making new recipes?

Deen: Yes, I do still smoke, but I'm still trying to quit...

DCM: Are you a heavy smoker?

Deen: A pack and a half a day...I don’t think it affects my cooking or food prep. I say that if food tasted any better I'd weigh 500 pounds. [laughter]

DCM: So when did cooking become a profession?

Deen: I started cooking when I was 18 years old, but I turned professional when I was 42 years old.

DCM: Did you ever work in a restaurant or as a short order cook?

Deen: Nope, I worked for myself. When I was 42 years old, I took responsibility for myself, you know. I knew that I needed to make changes in my life, and over the years off and on I had been a bank teller. I think my check every two weeks was like $379.16, and I could not take care of myself on that kind of money, so I said, ‘Paula, what can you do? You were not listening in school. You have no talent. You can't sing or dance. What are you going to do, girl?’ And I had become a pretty good cook, so I turned to the one thing that I knew to make me a living, and that was my stove, and I would lay in bed at night and think about how I could turn that into a living, and so I decided that I was going to open this business called the Bag Lady made wonderful little lunches and I sold them to businesses.
My two sons helped deliver them. I kind of pimped them out to work for me. I knew the girls in the offices I delivered to would like it. I knew they will love the food and they will love the boys dropping in on them every day so, much to my boys dislike, I drug ‘em in, and I had them going all over Savannah selling the food that I was preparing. It paid the mortgage and we got by fine.

DCM: How did you get the Food Channel show?

Deen: It’s another miraculous story. I met a girl in a restaurant that had moved to Savannah that had worked and lived in New York. Her name is Carol Perkins. She moved to Savannah to start a new business called Harry Barker’s. And she was a Victoria’s Secret model in New York so she kind of traveled in the business circle. And she used to come in the restaurant all the time and one day she said, “Paula, do you know Gordon Elliot.” And I said, “No, I don’t know him.” I said, “Of course I know of him.” She said, “Well, he’s one of my closest friends, and he’s coming to Charleston to do a door-knock dinner show.” And she said, “I just think the two of you all need to meet.” So Carol told Gordon to come to Savannah. He did, and two years later they finally bought it.

DCM: Now you do the show out of your own home?

Deen: Yes. “The Paula’s Party” show is shot out of our seafood restaurant, Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, mine and my brother’s restaurant. But “Paula’s Home Cooking” is definitely in our own home.