Paula Deen: Chef, Cookbook Author and Restaurateur

Paula Deen: Chef, Cookbook Author and Restaurateur

Business Owner · Food & Beverage

Savannah

Paula Deen built a Savannah restaurant, The Lady & Sons, with her sons, wrote fifteen cookbooks and became a Southern-cooking television personality.

About Paula Deen: Chef, Cookbook Author and Restaurateur

Paula Ann Hiers Deen (born January 19, 1947, in Albany, Georgia) is an American chef, cookbook author and TV personality who lives in Savannah, Georgia. She has published fifteen cookbooks and owned and operated The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen, until its closure in 2025. Deen was the daughter of Corrie A. Paul and Earl Wayne Hiers Sr. She was 19 when her father died unexpectedly at 40, and her mother died four years later at 44. At 18, before her father's death, she married Jimmy Deen; they had a first son, Jamie, in 1967 and a second, Bobby, in 1970. In her twenties she suffered from depression and agoraphobia and began to spend more time preparing food for her family, something she could do without leaving the house. Her cooking style was informed by her grandmother Irene Paul, who taught her Southern cooking that she has described as "real farmhouse cooking". Sources: English Wikipedia (Paula Deen, accessed September 2026).

Basic Information

Chef, cookbook author and restaurateur; former owner, The Lady & Sons

Company Details

The Lady & Sons (Savannah) / Paula Deen Enterprises

Restaurants, Cookbooks, Food Media