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6B ♦ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2006 TV cook Deen fattens Savannah’s tourism by serving up fans By RUSS BYNUM Associated Press Writer SAVANNAH - Paula Deen can’t shop at her favorite produce market without hearing that fans dropped by asking where she lives, and she’s spotted tourists with cameras ducking behind the bushes at her home. Cable TV’s queen of Southern-fried comfort food is still coming to grips with the Paula-mania that’s seized Savannah since her Food Network show took off in 2002. But Deen, who called her self The Bag Lady when she started a catering business in 1989 with her last S2OO, has nothing ungracious to say toward her fans _ even those who go a little off the rails. “Some days you wish you could be invisible, days you don’t have makeup on and your hair looks like poo poo,” Deen, 59, told The Associated Press after tap ing the final show for her second Food Network series. “But isn’t it great for some body to love you like that?” A decade ago, John Berendt’s best-selling book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” was the pop-culture magnet that drew tourists in droves to Savannah. These days, it’s Deen, who is whipping up a fan frenzy that fattens the coastal city’s $1.5 billion per-year tourism industry. Outside The Lady & Sons, the local restaurant Deen opened in 1996, visitors start lining up at 8:30 a.m. - 2 1/2 hours before the doors open for lunch - to load their plates with fried chicken, collard greens and cheese bis cuits. The restaurant served 400,000 people last year, nearly 1,100 a day. “Paula Deen is why we came to Savannah,” said Gerry Adams, 59, of Ft. Myers, Fla., wait ing in line with two friends and more than 100 other people on a recent Saturday morn ing. “We’re going to come back and get in line for supper. We’ve got to come to Paula’s as much as we can.” Old Savannah Tours hasn’t had trouble fill ing buses for its Paula Deen tour, even at $53 per ticket. Since the tours started in March 2005, more than 15,000 tourists have taken the four-hour, 20-mile trip devoted to Deen trivia, from Deen’s down town restaurant to the small brick home in the southside suburbs where she started The Bag Lady to the quaint chapel where she mar ried her husband, harbor pilot Michael Groover, in 2004. “These people want to know what kind of toothpaste she uses,” said Rachel Butler, marketing manager for the tour company. “We had somebody the other day wanting to know where Always Wish Upon a Star! JLiyfitiny St cro 926 Carroll St. • Perry, GA 31069 478-224-8888 T-F 10am-spm SAT 10am-2pm they could get a Paula Deen tattoo.” Others gladly pay $250 apiece to attend Deen’s cooking classes. It’s the only way her fans are guaranteed to see her in person. She rarely appears at her res taurant anymore _ though sons Jamie and Bobby still oversee its management. “It’s hard for momma to come in, because it’s like if you went to Graceland and Elvis walked out,” said Jamie Deen, 39. “If mom’s on the dining floor, it stops everything.” There’s been no stopping Deen in the decade since she opened The Lady &amp; Sons. Random House picked up her self-published cook book in 1998 after an execu tive wandered into the res taurant. Four books more have followed. USA Today gave the res taurant its “Meal of the Year” award in 1999. A mutual friend introduced her to TV producer Gordon Elliott, who gave Deen a guest spot on his show “Door Knock Dinners” before producing “Paula’s Home Cooking.” Besides promoting its silver-haired hostess, the show has kept a spotlight on Savannah with Deen featuring the city’s home grown businesses _ from sampling pralines at River Street Sweets to shopping for a cookout at R&amp;R Restaurant Supply. “What Paula’s done for Savannah is invaluable,” said Melissa Yao with the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau. “My measly budget isn’t going to be able /'just & Mont TIIAN 120 SWMT TtMrTATION* \ 5J (I i jSm i ilk*a /'* PAULA H. DEEN AUTHOR. OF T»f LADY ¥ SONS SAY ASS AH COVSTKY COOKBOOK AND TH« LADY ¥ BOSS TOO; A VTHOU NtVf BATCH OF BFCIFtS F* OM SAVANNAH to touch all the exposure Paula has given to the city.” Re HI There’s no sign of Deen slowing down. Besides film ing a fifth season of “Paula’s Home Cooking,” the Food Network this year opted to expand the Deen fam ily franchise with two new shows. Jamie and Bobby Deen debuted their own program - “Road Tasted” - to strong ratings in July (a month after People magazine named Bobby Deen, 36, among its 50 hottest bachelors). Deen herself just finished tap ing 13 episodes of “Paula’s Party,” her new series that starts Sept. 29. The new show lets Deen cut loose with her Southern sass in front of a live audi ence at Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, a restaurant run by Deen’s brother, Bubba Hiers, on Wilmington Island just outside Savannah. Deen wraps herself in a grass skirt for an Hawaiian themed episode. Behind the kitchen counter, she sticks to the no-frills approach that’s made her a favorite of every woman cooks, rarely using ingredients too exotic for the aisles at Piggly Wiggly supermarkets. Deen substitutes a pork butt for roasting a whole pig. She wraps chicken chunks in tropical ti leaves, but reminds her audience “you can use tin foil.” For a dessert, she cracks open coconuts with a claw ham mer. When her producer rules out reshooting a scene in which a fan ducks a limbo bar to deliver Deen a bowl of coconut pie ingredients, her buttery drawl turns downright salty: “Well, I’ve already thrown a cup of the FOOD PAULA DEEN & Friends fjfy mi wjpß R lf|t w l|r Ju gyj K - PAULA DEEN fcj !:L iM/! L Ley: i'; I 1 ■ . ■ M ’’ s 1 MA R » " ' '< t SIM ! ””n y damn mix down the sink!” Fans in the audience eat it up. One of them is Kenna Wiggins of Springfield, Mo., who was among more than 600 fans to write the Food Network hoping to attend a tap ing of “Paula’s Party” in Savannah. The 54-year-old teacher said she felt an instant kinship when she discovered Deen while channel surfing two years ago. “Here’s the most charming, bubbly lady making this sinful con coction with Krispy Kreme donuts and but ter,” Wiggins recalled. “I said, 'That’s my kind of cook!’ Between family and butter, those are my two great values in life.” It’s a formula that’s found Deen a solid fan base. “Paula’s Home Cooking” consistently ranks among the Food Network’s top shows. “I really had no idea that America was so hungry for somebody that made them think of momma or grand momma,” Deen says, heading for the rem nants of the crew’s lunch after her shoot. “By the time Food Network got me, I was too old to change. I’ve been around the block and I know what’s important and what’s not.” A spoon, for example, MBgBgSSI Featuring At All Buffets Oysters, Crab Legs, Shrimp. Steak and much much more! w/this ad receive FREE drinks for your table! Fra. a Sat. Night Buffet 4-llp.m. Adults S 10.49 Sunday All day buffet 11a.m.-10p.m. $9.49 Sat a San. Ml day buff at 5 yrs. old & under eat FREEI IBS is unnecessary when Deen starts gulping gazpacho soiip straight from its foam coritainer. She sticks her wad of Nicorette gum to the rini. She quit smoking July 1, to buy more time with her first grandchild, Jack. Jamie Deen’s wife, Brooke, gave birth to the 6-pound, 9-once boy Monday. Deen has been buying produce from Becky Polk Bashlor since she started The Bag Lady, when Deen had her sons sell her bag lunches door-to-door. Back then, Bashlor says, Deen often had to buy groceries on credit, and return with cask from the day’s sales. flow Deen’s paying back the favor. More than 20 tour ists are lined up at the regis ter at Polk’s Fresh Market with armloads of boiled peanuts, red pepper jellies, poppy-seed salad dressings and peach preserves. Bashlor makes S4OO off the visitors before they return to their bus to resume the Paiila Deen tour. “These people come in, bus after bus, and they’re herb for my little friend who stalled out frying chicken and cooking greens, ” Bashlor said. “But she’s just as real as She was back when she was doing bag lunches.” Subscribe May! CM 987-1823 1406 Sam Nunn Blvd. • Perry, GA 478-988-8838 lunch Buffet Mon.-Sat. 11-4p.m. Dinner Buffet Mon.-Thurs. 4-lOp.m. HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Want to know more? The Lady & Sons is located in the Savannah Historic District at 102 W. Congress St. Lines are almost always long. No dinner is served on Sundays. For reserva tions, call (912)233-2600 Paula Deen’s cook books can be bought at all area bookstores or ordered on line. For a wealth of free recipes visit her site at www. foodnetwork.com More information on the restaurant and Deen’s magazines and books can also be found at www.theladyandsons. com Great Deals Free AD for items under SSO Call 987-1823 for details Adults $5.95 Kids 3-5 yrs. $1.99 6-11 yrs. $3.99 Adults $9.49 Kids 3-5 yrs. $2.99 6-11 yrs. $4.99