Paula Deen has a new documentary out called Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. When it was first announced, there was a general assumption that Deen was going to use the opportunity as a chance to stage her comeback, but the self-described expert in Southern hospitality instead used her return to the spotlight to take one final swipe at the late Anthony Bourdain.
Deen’s story is one that has been revisited over and over again, but her enigmatic personality admittedly makes her a fascinating public figure even after all these years. On one hand, she had an almost overnight success story that sounds more unlikely the more you learn about it. A single mother in her mid-50s making butter-toasted meals rarely ends up being the apple of America’s obsession, even appearing on Oprah in her heyday of the 1990s. But that quick wit and Southern charm were impossible to look past.
Then suddenly, as Deen gained more fame and fans, other chefs — including Anthony Bourdain — started calling out her meals as unhealthy, to which Deen responded that she’s a chef, not a doctor. Then her charm was suddenly revealed to be deceiving after an employee filed a lawsuit against her (which Deen ultimately won) that revealed she had used racial slurs. And if there was anything to learn from the Hulk Hogan death, such revelations can follow you even after your death.
According to Yahoo! Deen is seemingly focused on the fellow chef’s legacy in her upcoming documentary. Bourdain was among the loudest voices against Deen’s cooking style, accusing her of being the “worst, most dangerous person in America” for her deep-fried cooking. Deen was very harsh in her response years later in the documentary, reportedly saying, “I don’t know what he was off in these foreign countries eating bat brains, or something like that. I think I’ll just stick with my fried chicken.”
However, the specific part of the documentary that shocked fans was an old clip of Bourdain saying, “I like the quote [of hers]; it was, ‘Well, he has had his demons, I hope he had them under control.’ He’s probably still shooting dope, is probably what she’s saying in a nice kind of Southern way.”
Deen hasn’t changed her tune about the famed chef’s death either. She reportedly said of his passing: “God rest his soul. I felt like he didn’t like anybody. Not even himself, maybe.” Which is certainly one of the most backhanded displays of remorse ever shown by anyone in the public eye.
Considering this was how Deen chose to reestablish herself with the greater public, it’s rather unlikely this will be what makes people warm up to the 78-year-old chef. That being said, she has cozied up to the Donald Trump administration, so maybe she can at least get honored by the Kennedy Center before his second term ends.
Paula Deen joins former President Trump and Lara Trump. pic.twitter.com/tYKvOWPwft
— Yashar Ali(@yashar) October 17, 2024
The documentary has yet to secure a distributor, but it will probably eventually find a home on one of the streamers. And while Anthony Bourdain certainly had his mental health struggles, for any fan who ever watched his travel show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, the one common conclusion they would come away with was this: here was a man who loved a lot of people from a lot of different cultures.
