The bloom is off the Paula Deen rose

Back in the days when Food Network was new to me and Paula Deen wasn't so over the top as she is now, I loved her. I loved watching this older, chubby woman with normal hair cook and sometimes feed her dog that would be loitering around. For the past handful of years however, her star has faded for me. I ended up not re-subscribing to her magazine. When switching to limited basic cable package and the end of Food Network, I mourned her until Food Network came out with their own magazine and I got my fill that way...until that even became too much.

Now there is a big brouhaha over her style of cooking and her recent announcement that she has diabetes and has known about this for 3 years. Conveniently, the announcement comes at a time when she is advertising the drug that she takes. Also a popular complaint was that she knew all this time that she had it while still doing shows which doesn't really exemplify healthy eating. Her response? That she tapes all of her shows within a certain time period so she's not eating like that all the time. To the idiot viewer, they don't know this and could very well be taking meal ideas from her show and not spreading them out in amongst salads.

Another chef, Anthony Bourdain, has blasted her about this from the very beginning (and again recently as seen here) and while I normally am not a big fan of him and his crusty demeanor, he has a point. Yes, she isn't a doctor and yes people have to realize they can't use the Paula Deen amount of butter in every recipe but I lost a lot of respect for her with these recent decisions and comments.

I want my old Paula Deen back.