Review of Paula Deen's Memoir It Ain't All About the Cookin'

Paula Deen fans know her as the butter-lovin' Georgian who cooks up traditional Southern cuisine on her two Food Network shows, "Paula's Home Cooking" and "Paula's Party". Paula's velvety southern accent draws the audience to her as she explains how to fry chicken and make biscuits from scratch while telling stories about her family. Paula is consistently full of life and laughs easily at herself. Paula's down-home charm and delicious recipes have made her one of the most popular personalities on the Food Network. Paula Deen's memoir, It Ain't All About the Cookin' is a very personal, and at times brutally honest, account of the famous cook's life.

The memoir feels very authentic from the first words you absorb to the last. The book successfully captures Paula's voice. The utilization of Paula's true vernacular makes the book extra special. The publisher didn't try to perfect her English (think of her signature, "y'all") so the memoir reads as if Paula is sitting in your living room telling you her story. Her fans that love her energy and her story-telling abilities will not be disappointed with Paula's accounts of the major events of her life. Reading the memoir feels like you are being treated to sweet tea and pecan pie while Paula takes you through the journey of her life.

Although Paula often tells funny and sweet stories about her family on her shows, her fans will be surprised at how much they will learn about Paula from reading her memoir. Paula gives flinchingly personal details of events that were certainly not her proudest moments because she wanted to tell her life story "warts and all". Fans will be surprised to discover that she has been a smoker for most of her life, had an affair with a married man, struggled with finances for most of her adult life, and wasn't always the perfect parent.

Paula wrote four cookbooks prior to penning this memoir. Just as food has always been the framework of Paula's life, a few of her recipes can be found at the end of certain chapters in the book. The few selected recipes that are present in the memoir are the same foods that she would eat during those times in her life. For example, the recipe for "Courage Chili" appears at the end of the chapters of the book where Paula discusses her longtime battle with agoraphobia. All of the recipes fall into the category of comfort foods, and rightfully so, because that is exactly what the food was providing for Paula during those difficult times in her life. It is clear from reading the memoir that Paula had a relationship with food from the earliest days of her life. She learned that food can provide comfort for people and that knowledge helped her create a successful catering business and then the very successful restaurant, The Lady and Sons. Paula's love affair with divine southern food and realization that good food can connect people to you on the most intimate level is one of the keys to her success.

Some of Paula's most endearing qualities are her honesty and ability to laugh at herself in a way that is so candid, it tugs at your heart making you want to be one of her friends, or just know her. Paula's memoir provides intimate details of her childhood, a failed marriage to an alcoholic, the loss of her parents, life in poverty, a twenty year battle with agoraphobia, parenting struggles, and how she not only survived, but also became a restaurant owner and star on the Food Network. The fact that Paula found an abundance of both personal and financial successes later on in life shows everyone that is it never too late to follow your dreams. Paula failed many times before landing firmly on her own two feet. Paula Deen's memoir is an excellent read not only for her fans, but for anyone who needs to be reminded that the American dream still exists.