The problem with Natalie Dupree is she had NO personality as a food presenter. Paula Deen became a star directly after 9/11 when the Food Network realized that people wanted homey, over-the-top American comfort food instead of shows devoted to wine and nouvelle cuisine. And with her engaging personality (not to my taste but to a lot of people), she became a superstar and a multimillionaire. Hats off to her! She started out as a single mother on food stamps!
I, personally, believe they are trying to get rid of her because of her enormous success. The media probably doesn’t even know that she’s pretty much a liberal Democrat.
Natalie Dupree may have been a nice person but she just didn’t come off as warm and fuzzy. I think many people like Paula Deen because she has the ability to make the viewer “feel” like they are sitting in her kitchen with her and they have known her for some time. IMHO, a lot of anti-Deen folks focus on the health of her recipes BUT the real hatred is for Southern cooking. Hence, the real dislike is for the South in general. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned “nouvelle cuisine”... a type of cooking that many people simply don’t want or appreciate. It simply isn’t practical for most families. Bourdaine can talk all he wants about slurping marrow from bones and how exquisite it tastes... my kids and I would prefer a casserole, thank you very much.
Deen has always said that her recipes are for special occasions. They aren’t for every day eating. Her Pound Cake recipe is divine and I make it a few times a year. I must have re-printed that recipe a dozen times for family and friends. I don’t know anyone who would ask for a good “bone marrow” recipe.
I, personally, believe they are trying to get rid of her because of her enormous success. The media probably doesn’t even know that she’s pretty much a liberal Democrat.
And that’s the problem with today’s culture; people want “over the top” mega personalities and not necessarily real people. Paula Deen is a caricature of Southern and not any more representative of Southern than Snookie from the Jersey Shore is representative of all people in NJ. And the teenage moms on that MTV show have made a lot of money too, but I wouldn’t encourage anyone to follow in their path. Just saying.
But over the top and overly indulgent is what the media pushes and sadly what people seem to want to buy now days. And that’s a shame because Natalie Dupree, while not an over the top presenter and personality is actually a much better cook (not nouvelle cuisine) and knows a lot more about real and traditional Southern cooking than Paula Deen could ever hope to. But hey, Paula Deen “talks real funny” and she makes outrageous over the top dishes and lots of commercials where she sells a lot of crap products with her name on it, including now a drug for diabetes; a disease that in some ways her cooking contributes to (a win-win for her), so that must be better – right? Just because someone is good at marketing, doesn’t mean that what they are marketing is good, but I digress.
There is nothing wrong with “comfort food” and Natalie Dupree offers comfort food that is actually good food. She may not be an over the top personality but she actually knows how to cook and what good food is. Personally when I watch a cooking show, I actually want to learn about ingredients and cooking techniques and not about how over the top and outrageous the personality and the food is. Perhaps that’s just me.
As a culture we have now become all about the over the top and the “personality” rather than about their substance and value. Sad.