Paula Deen's been cooking all morning, but she's still hours away from the first run-through of her new show, Sweet Home Savannah. She's not prepping recipes, though—she's feeding the crew: a pot of grits, ham, bacon, toasted bread with butter and homemade preserves, and eggs fried to order. Just because it's a jam-packed day doesn't mean the Queen of Butter's going to phone it in, apparently; she's right at home with a full house and an even fuller schedule.
"It's balls to the wall right now," is the first thing out of her mouth. "I don't know what to say. We've had my whole team at the house since Monday, so I got up this morning, cooked breakfast for everybody, got ready, and now we're getting ready to shoot for two hours. I'm juggling a lot of balls right now."
Deen's returning to her Dogwood home in Savannah, Georgia, where she filmed her original show years ago, to mark her TV comeback in a series (launching Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m. on Evine). The production is unlike anything she's ever done before, and unlike any other cooking shows out there—period.
It's Part Cooking, Part Sales, Part Anything Goes.
Deen's spent years doing the classic stand-and-stir cooking show—and if you're looking for that, you might as well watch her old episodes. First, it's airing on Evine, a shop-at-home network, and as a result, Deen will be doing more than whipping up classic Southern dishes (which ones, exactly, are still being decided). During the show, they'll be selling the products she's using, and also showing off other products in her line, which extends well beyond cookbooks and kitchen gadgets these days.
Second, it's all happening inside her house.
"The only thing that's kind of strange right now is that when you walk in the front door, there's a bunch of beds in the living room," she says. That's because she's doing a segment on her line of bedding—which is a thing—along with Deen-approved throw pillows, Peachy Clean dish scrubbers, cake stands, AirFryers, eyeglasses and even a Super Bowl-champion-sized simulated diamond ring.
You Could Buy the Shirt Off Her Back. No, Really.
The sales part doesn't end there. Even the clothes Deen wears will be for sale—something she says people have been asking her to do for years. "People would always ask, 'Where can I find that top?'" Deen says. "I had tried to get a clothing line up, and finally, the last company I worked with said, 'Sorry, we're not interested, because you're known in the kitchen.' I said, 'News flash! I don't cook naked!'"
She wound up launching a clothing line with Evine—a mix of floaty tunics, elastic-waist skinny pants and drapey cardigans—so the show becomes one more way to tie in all aspects of the Deen empire.
She Gave Her Kitchen a 'Nice Facelift'.
A few years ago, when Deen started filming her digital cooking shows, she made some alterations to her home kitchen. Essentially, this meant repainting the walls, trimming the countertop size, and adding bar stools along the island, so friends and family could sit with her while she cooks. This meant that when Evine came calling, she already had a set in place to film the show—even if she didn't originally plan for her kitchen to become a full-time studio.
"[My husband] Michael and I built that home right before we were married. That was going to be the home we lived in the rest of our life," Deen says. "Then, we started shooting [Paula's Home Cooking], you couldn't get into the kitchen without walking under ladders and around cameras. You could hardly get a bowl of cereal."
At that time, the couple decided to build another house nearby, and turn the house on Dogwood Avenue into a full-time studio for filming her shows.
There's One Beloved Dish That *Could* Appear on the Show.
Deen hasn't finalized her recipe lineup just yet, though she suspects there will be at least a few Thanksgiving dishes featured over the next few weeks. She did confirm that her recipes will run the gamut, featuring a mix of old and new dishes. Many fans will be crossing their fingers that includes her Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding.
"Whether I'm in California, North Dakota, New York, Florida or Georgia, somebody's going to come up to me and say they love it," Deen says. "It's a no-cook banana pudding, and it's totally out of this world."
...And There's a Surprising Recipe She's Dying to Share.
While most people know Deen for her Southern cooking, one of Deen's favorite recipes she makes is Italian—and it involves a surprising hack for fork-tender meatballs.
"Meatballs often come out kind of dry and hard, and I'd tried every way to cook them—deep-frying them, cooking them in a sauté pan on the stove, cooking them in the oven—but they always came out that way," she says. Then, one night, she decided to cook the meatballs in beef broth before adding them to the marinara. "Honey, that was the lightest, most delicious, most tender meatball I've ever eaten," she says. "It rivaled, to me, Rao in New York."
It's Totally Live, Which Means Anything Could Happen.
Every Tuesday, from 6-8 p.m. EST, people will get Deen unfiltered. "I've never had a script," she says. "What comes up comes out, you know? If I had a script, it'd be very distracting to me."
That sort of openness—particularly on live TV—could be unsettling for some networks, particularly in light of her 2013 deposition, where she admitted to using racial slurs in the past. Don't expect anything like that, though—Deen has since apologized multiple times for those words, telling the Today show that incident doesn't reflect who she is or how she views people of different races, religions and sexual orientations.
In this case, 'Deen unfiltered' is more along the lines of her talking about cooking, clothes, and home décor with friends, family and the show's salespeople—giving her honest opinion of what she thinks of products and recipes. It also means she won't feature any item she doesn't use—or stand behind.
"I've just been so blessed because America knows that I'm a truth teller, and I tell the truth," she says. "I think I really have gained their trust and I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."
Deen Wants the Show to Feel Like a Hangout Among Friends.
Though part of the two-hour-long show will involve selling products from her various lines, the comfort-food cook is making steps to ensure it's less of the "buy now!" vibe you'd expect from home sales network. For one thing, she's leaving the actual sales pitch to salespeople, who will host those portions. "I just tell people about the product and what I love about it," she explains.
And, for another, she's trying to keep the tone of the show conversational, like you're hanging out at a friend's house.
"It's a place where anyone who enjoys spending time with me can catch up with me," she says. "Just laughing, having a good time, shaking off all of the droppings that have fallen on you over the week—that's what we're going for."
Candace Braun Davison writes, edits, and produces lifestyle content that ranges from celebrity features to roll-up-your-sleeves DIYs, all while relentlessly pursuing the noblest of causes: the quest for the world's best chocolate chip cookie.
