The Food Network has dropped Paula Deen from her roster for admitting to making racial comments. Is this the end for the Southern food star? Fans hash it out on social media networks.
Celebrity chef Paula Deen in front of various Smithfield meat products. Smithfield Foods said it was dropping Deen as a spokeswoman days after the Food Network said it would not renew Deen's contract after she said she used racial slurs in the past.
Smithfield Foods via PRNewsFoto/AP
EnlargeHaving been fired from the Food Network, Paul Deen has officially entered the next chapter of her cooking career. Whether it will continue to sizzle or now be shelved in the back of the food-celebrity pantry remains to be seen.
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But there's no question that Ms. Deen's fans are now serving heaping helpings of outrage.
"The majority of the people that we all love in the world of entertainment are racist and have other view points that we would cringe and rage over. I don't care if [Paula Deen] is or isn't racist. I just want to watch her make a pie. This is foodnetwork. Not lets play politically correct network," writes April Campbell on the Food Network's Facebook page under a photo of "30-minute pasta salad." More than 400 people showed support by "liking" Ms. Campbell's comment.
Just a few short years ago, Ms. Deen was the Grand Marshal of the 122nd?Rose Bowl parade in Pasedena, Calif. Today the queen of Southern cooking and author of 14 cookbooks has been kicked out of the food court and into the center of swirling racial controversy.
In case you missed the news, The Christian Science Monitor (among others) reported earlier this week that the now former Food Network star and Savannah, Ga., restaurateur said in a May deposition related to a harassment lawsuit, that ?of course? she had used the "n-word," but not in a ?mean way.?
While the Food Network. and now Smithfield Foods, has dropped any and all affiliation with Deen, the passionate response to her confession and follow-up apology video continues to heat up social media sites.
This is the second time during the past year that Deen has been the center of controversy.
The first came with the public announcement in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with diabetes and was changing course in what and how much she ate, embracing low-cal recipes and advocating moderation in portion sizes. In a January 2013 issue of People magazine Deen was profiled along with her husband focusing on the family's collective weight loss and efforts to stay fit.
Deen's cuisine has never aimed much above low-brow. Her original restaurant in Savannah, Ga., was loved for its buffet of Southern fare: sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, meatloaf, fried chicken, greens, hoecakes, and deep-fried Twinkies.
But following her public announcement of her diagnosis, which she had kept private for several years, Deen also became a spokeswoman for Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Victoza. Her affiliation drew criticism from those who viewed it as a profitmaking venture on a diet-related condition that she was helping to perpetuate through her calorie-laden recipes.
These earnest efforts toward reforming a diet, and the attempts to rectify the most recent PR disaster, have become a bulls-eye target in the blogosphere, drawing reactions from fans and Deen-haters alike.
A "We support Paula Deen" Facebook page already has nearly 307,000 "likes."?
One website in particular that has been hit with a wave of opinions following the racial controversy is The Food Channel ? not to be confused with the Food Network. The Food Channel began in the 1980s as a newsletter and has expanded to a website with cooking videos. The similarity in names has managed to attract the torch burning, pitchfork waving crowd to The Food Channel's website. But surprisingly it is not Deen they are after, it's the Food Network itself for their quick decision to pull the plug on Deen's Food Network show.
The Food Channel became so quickly flooded with responses to the Deen debacle that they posted a response on their website titled, "For Those Who Love Paula Deen":?
"Attention all those who love Paula Deen. We?ve been getting your emails. Your phone calls. We?re pretty sure the good old fashioned mail will soon follow. We get that you are mad about her contract not being renewed. The problem is, you are calling and writing the wrong people.... We are not owned by Scripps. We are independently owned.... So, the best we can do is point you to the Scripps Television Network snail mail address....
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