a blog by students in Dr. Talinn Phillips' "Writing About Culture" courses at Ohio University .
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
"Southern"
What is the role of our “southern
associations” in Paula's Home Cooking? What associations (and stereotypes?) does Deen draw
on for her show? Why? To what effect?
The southern stereotype validates Paula. It gives her credibility. Most people with cooking shows, such as Gordon Ramsey, or Emeril Agassi can stand behind the cooking degrees or successful restaurants. Paula however has does not have a degree, so she must use the southern stereotype to validate her cooking. The way Paula uses these stereotypes also drives the viewers curiosity about the south. Paula is talking about how we would do things this way in the south, and you would have to do things another way in the north. This makes viewers feel as if they are looking at an exhibit in a zoo; the southerner in their natural habitat.
In Paula Deen's show about southern cooking she seems to play up our associations with southerners and the way they like to eat. Through her simplification or recipes, strong southern accent, and production of fatty fried foods she is only confirming our worst assumptions of what a southern housewife or grandmother makes for dinner every evening. The lack of vegetables and the quantity of meat and dairy in all of her dishes is almost shocking, but again, Paula uses these dishes to show her viewers that everything they think about southern cooking is true. I think that many people, northerners especially think that people in the south eat a lot of fish and meat, and very rarely try to make a dish healthier. We associate southern cooking with the words homestyle, warm, gooey, cheesy, and delicious. Paula makes comfort foods that remind people of home and that is exactly why her food is popular. Nothing about a cold salad says "Yes, I feel like I'm home again." But a plate full of steak and mac and cheese does exactly that. Deen uses these associations to attract viewers and consumers of the "traditional" model of southern cooking that she produces.
I think the stereotype that Paula Deen plays up the most in her show is the “Southern hospitality” stereotype. The show takes place in what looks like the kitchen of just a normal upper-middle class home, not a big studio with expensive appliances. She talks to the audience the whole time as if they were her friends or family. She tells them stories about her past and talks about why the foods are good for children and friends. She also talks about a letter she got from an audience member as if it was merely a letter from a friend thanking her for a recipe. But the letter was really nothing more than fan mail. She also uses her accent to play up the fact that she is southern. The long draw and the southern accent make her feel more homely and simple, which makes people feel like she is a grandma, not a businesswoman. All of these factors combine to make it feel like she is really trying to help you out as a friend by teaching you how to make stuff. But something I noticed about this persona is that she sneaks around the fact that she doesn’t give you the measurements for the ingredients, to get those you will have to buy her cookbook.
In the food she also uses a lot of salt and butter, which fits the southern stereotype. Likewise, she talks about stuff that fit more in the southern persona. Like going out and shopping in roadside markets, while in the north people would be much more likely to shop at a supermarket to get all of their ingredients. She talks about it as if she goes to a different family store for every single ingredient she uses. For example she talked about how to get peanut you’d go to a family store in the south, but in the north you’d have to go somewhere else.
As a class we addressed several “southern associations” concerning food. Deep fried, grease-filled, butter, sugar, oil, and simplicity were a few of the main points discussed in class that were used in this particular episode of Paula’s Home Cooking. These key associations were used as part of the show’s ingredients creating a recipe that was meant for company and might even have had a family memory attached to the recipe. Deen used oil to pop her “vegetable,” popcorn. Sugar and water were dissolved and peanuts were added to create a movie treat. Butter and mayonnaise were combined for cheese spread. Bacon, cheese and bread were combined with a mix of grease, buttery pan-fried goodness. Each of these associations are used by Deen to create a “simple” batch of recipes that reflect the southern lifestyle. Paula incorporates family into her show and, by doing so, uses family recipes and influences of her southern background. To help develop her overall persona and aid in the theme of the show, the stereotypes associated with southern cooking must be used. Each recipe has it’s own unique flavor, background and associations with it, but all reflect a “typical southern lifestyle.” The problem with these associations is that the nutritional value is overlooked. Nutritional values of foods that contain a variety of negative connotations is something that can effect the viewing audience in many ways. These stereotypes can cause viewers to avoid the show entirely, or watch the show and think that cooking in this manner is an appropriate way to feed family and friends.
Southern living is seen as almost a down to earth type of living and I think that Paula Deen works with that to make her more relatable. Her recipes are simple and that too can try to work with more people because then her cooking and recipes would not intimidate them. They would be very willing to try them out because with the mere simplicity of the recipes, viewers watching would not only have the time to make them, but considering the simplicity of the recipes, there is almost this dummy proof feel to them. It is so straightforward that you would have to practically try to mess it up in order to get it wrong.
One thing that I know about Southern stereotypes when it comes to food is how fatting it is. There is always either butter, oil, sugar, salt or a combination of them in a recipe. When she was making the popcorn balls, she used oil to make the popcorn, and had sugar, butter and a “little” bit of salt in it as well. It definitely appeals to people who have a sweet tooth and really do enjoy foods that are not good for them. Clearly, she is not trying to appeal to the “health nuts.”
Honestly, she seems as if she has this persona that southern cooking allows for people to be able to understand and be willing to connect with. When she talks to them about her family, there is less of a disconnect between the audience and herself even though there is a camera between the two of them. This of course is playing with the idea that people from the south are friendly.
The “southern associations” play a dominant role in Paula Deen’s Home Cooking. The southern aspects thrown into her overall presentation of herself and her cooking resembles what she is all about, which is your fair priced, yet awesome tasting dishes from the help of heavy in fat cooking materials. The southern stereotypes of fattening foods and family is something that Deen repeats often in her show. She is illustrating a nostalgic, relatable type of family oriented life based around food and cooking. She speaks to the audience as if she were speaking to a kitchen teeming with family and friends.
Her inclusion of the audience, making us feel like we are apart of it as if she is cooking these very dishes for us almost draws us in. I feel that her southern boisterous laugh and guilty pleasured smile is welcoming enough to sit down with her in the kitchen and chow down. Also, speaking of “chow down,” a good portion of her vocabulary is that “southern” slang. Making Paula seem like your everyday grandmother.
Paula Deen uses her southern roots as a relating to the people in America, speaking to the “average American”. With her accent, she comes off as more genuine and because the south has a reputation as having southern hospitality it all goes hand in hand. Her audience trusts her as they would trust their own grandmother’s and enjoy learning new southern recipes, regardless of the health risks. She’s older, so the fact that she is able to eat these foods and is still around to continue cooking, her foods don’t pose as a necessary threat the consumers diet. She often relates back to her childhood or conjures up stories of her own children, thus speaking to the mothers of America. In the episode we watched she prepared a lot of simple, quick, and easy meals that pose as snacks and necessarily meals for large groups of people. While making her bacon and cheese covered breadsticks she even referenced how she usually makes them for 100 people at a time. Her show’s success for over 5 years, and her success as a cook and television personality proves that there is a demand for what she does.
When you hear someone talk about southern cooking, many thoughts cross your mind. You might envision large portions contaning deep-fried and buttered food, or maybe a dish with simple ingredients that is not for the calorie conscious. Most Americans view Paula Deen as the goddess of Southern cooking. She embraces every aspect of true southern cooking to the maximum. There is not one episode that goes by that does not involve butter, oil, or salt. Typical southern cooking reflects these ingredients continuously throughout every meal.
There is such thing as “Southern Hospitality” and Paula definitely has that. She makes the viewers feel as though she is sitting right in front of you having a conversation. Her kitchen is nothing spectacular, but it is just like any other person’s kitchen, which makes it inviting. Music or effects cover nothing up, just Paula talking to you as if you were an old friend dropping by for a visit. It is hard to not think of Pala Deen when you think of southern cooking.
Paula Deen is highly Southern. Everything about her personality, her actions, her voice, and most of all her food, yell to you that Southern cooking is what I do and Southern cooking is what your going to get. It’s almost hard to put in to words what being Southern is, but in this case it seems that being Southern is to draw on every stereotype that any other person not from the South could possibly cook up.
The first thing that is instantly noticeable is Paula’s dialect. It’s easy to pick up that she was born and raised in the South and that’s what she’ll always be just by listening to her voice. She draws on that stereotypical thought of a Southerner’s voice being twangy and instantly recognizable by any person with the ability to hear.
Most of all the thing that screams SOUTHERN!!!, about Deen is the food. Everything is just layered and coated in a think layer of this fat or that fat, it doesn’t really matter what it is. Butter is the most often used and also the primary reason for this thought of her show being nothing but fatty foods. It’s easy to see why Bourdain picked on sweet little Paula, because the things that she cooks up on her show are nothing short of monstrous globs of butter caked in sugar or bacon, and a lot of cheese.
Northerners have a lot of stereotypes about southerners (as they also do about us), and I think Paula Deen plays right into those stereotypes when trying to appeal to her audience.
It is assumed in the north that people in the south put a lot of importance on family and big family meals, and that there's a lot of time to cook, to relax, etc. Life is seen as "slower" in the south. Deen draws on these ideas, emphasizing the importance of family while making food in "Paula's Home Cooking," and always cooking for large groups -- ie: "I usually make one or two hundred of these."
Deen plays up her accent and stories of growing up in the south, drawing out her vowels and repeating "y'all" more than is necessary. It seems like she does this to make herself look more southern, so that her audience buys into the appearance that she is the epitome of both southern life and southern cooking.
We expect food in the south to always be fried, salty, fatty, sugary and covered in butter, and Paula does nothing to dispel those ideas. In fact, she emphasizes them, rarely cooking anything that doesn't use one of the above ingredients or techniques.
Deen is such an oddity, cooking southern style with fat and sugar in a world that force feeds us the benefits of dieting and healthy food, that she is embraced by people who want to step outside the lines and indulge, in a way that is not just unhealthy (like fast food) but is legitimately delicious and worth the calories.
By cooking delicious but almost disgustingly unhealthy food on a network where many of the shows focus on a balanced lifestyle helps Paula Deen stand out. She also emphasizes that her dishes are "simple," despite the association that southern food is complex and takes all day.
Coming from up North, there are many stereotypes I associate with the South and Southern culture. When I think of Southern food, I think fried and buttered, made with love, and always in humungous portions. I believe one aspect of Southern Pride is in the homemade cooking, as well as being very friendly to your neighbor. Paula Deen incorporates these aspects in to her show to make us viewers feel invited and comfortable watching her cook. She is not afraid to tell us a personal story about her family, or do a little victory dance after she finishes a dish, or take as little taste and say “yum! That is good” in her Southern accent. Paula Deen draws on these associations on the south to make her show stand out from other cooking shows. Instead of being in a Studio, cooking expensive dishes and sticking to a script, Paula invites you in to her home and shows you the easy and fun way of Southern cooking. This allows her to connect to the audience, allowing them to feel like they know Paula well, and therefor make her character more watchable than a generic T.V chef. She caters to an average American, giving her validity and popularity amongst the masses.
In Paula Deen’s show, there are many “southern associations” that help to craft the image of Paula as a down to earth, run-of-the-mill, average lady who enjoys to cook and share her recipes with others. Throughout the show, she constantly calls on a family story from her past, in order to help depict herself as a family oriented individual and make her audience feel as if they are apart of her family. In addition, she reinforces the stereotype (and almost fact) that southern foods tend to include higher volumes of unhealthy ingredients such as butter and mayonnaise, in order to add flavor. On multiple instances throughout the show she uses such ingredients in excess and giggles, smiling at the audience as she does so.
Paula’s Home Cooking relies heavily on its association with the south. The show must cater to a specific demographic which, like Paula herself, is southern. The centerpiece of the show is Paula’s thick accent and warm appearance. Paula makes the assumption that these people are also very family oriented. Most chatter not directly relevant to the recipe or cooking process include some allusion to children or family. She also tends to draw on the low income stereotype from the south. Her recipes are often simple and don’t consume much time. This leads to fatty “hearty” down south cooking to be the result. The reoccurring colors and music enforce this dynamic, giving the show a very genuine feel. An apparently low budget keeps the show from being too pompous as well. The final affect leaves Paula as a trusted and knowledgeable voice to her appeal audience.
I think that the role of our culture’s ‘southern associations’ are amplified by Paula’s Home Cooking. Paula uses all the traditional ingredients and expected portions of food that we associate to the southern-style cooking. The fact that Paula ignores health issues with her recipes is something that I associate with southern-style cooking; southern portions are larger than normal and use a lot of ingredients like butter, mayonnaise and cream that add unhealthy characteristics to her dishes. Stereotypes such as simple and fatty are also associated with southern cooking and amplified by Paula’s cooking. Paula often referred to her dishes to be ‘simple and easy to make’ which is one of the things that southern chefs take pride in. Her fatty ingredients also represent southern-style cooking. Since her recipes are quick and easy dishes, she uses ingredients that can be in a home for long periods of time and do not spoil easily. This also ties to the stereotype that southern people need to cook on a budget and can’t afford spending a lot of money on ingredients. Paula’s nice, friendly personality and southern hospitality shown throughout her show also represent a southern stereotype of being nice and open to others. Her inviting personality as she cooks shows that she is a ‘southern gem’ like many audience members would expect from a southern woman.
I have watched a lot of Paula’s home cooking shows, they are very interesting I have never seen some one add so much fat to here food. I have seen a lot of these shows where frying is the main purpose of cooking. This is what a lot of Europeans think about how Americans cook, by frying there food, and adding a lot of salt to it. However as I have lived here for nearly four years I know that is not entirely true. Yet this stereotype sticks to Americas, but I think it is more likely to be a southern thing then it is to be northern but I can be completely wrong. Paula thinks that the southern heritage of food is slowly being forgotten and that is one thing that she doesn’t want to happen so she tried to keep it in here family as much as she can; she says that she wants to be remembered by the food that she makes. So that when her children make that southern food they can say “my mama made these for me”. Food has a lot to do with the culture and society that you raised in there is a lot of meaning behind it whether you truly think so or not. I know I can’t eat a lot of American food because there is way too much salt in a lot of it. Here shows are really fun to watch because it feel as if you are in her kitchen with her when she is making the food, she is very clear on the things she is making but sometimes I don’t understand how she can put so much butter into a mean. she is a very traditional when it comes to cooking her southern foods.
The southern stereotype validates Paula. It gives her credibility. Most people with cooking shows, such as Gordon Ramsey, or Emeril Agassi can stand behind the cooking degrees or successful restaurants. Paula however has does not have a degree, so she must use the southern stereotype to validate her cooking.
ReplyDeleteThe way Paula uses these stereotypes also drives the viewers curiosity about the south. Paula is talking about how we would do things this way in the south, and you would have to do things another way in the north. This makes viewers feel as if they are looking at an exhibit in a zoo; the southerner in their natural habitat.
In Paula Deen's show about southern cooking she seems to play up our associations with southerners and the way they like to eat. Through her simplification or recipes, strong southern accent, and production of fatty fried foods she is only confirming our worst assumptions of what a southern housewife or grandmother makes for dinner every evening. The lack of vegetables and the quantity of meat and dairy in all of her dishes is almost shocking, but again, Paula uses these dishes to show her viewers that everything they think about southern cooking is true. I think that many people, northerners especially think that people in the south eat a lot of fish and meat, and very rarely try to make a dish healthier. We associate southern cooking with the words homestyle, warm, gooey, cheesy, and delicious. Paula makes comfort foods that remind people of home and that is exactly why her food is popular. Nothing about a cold salad says "Yes, I feel like I'm home again." But a plate full of steak and mac and cheese does exactly that. Deen uses these associations to attract viewers and consumers of the "traditional" model of southern cooking that she produces.
ReplyDeleteI think the stereotype that Paula Deen plays up the most in her show is the “Southern hospitality” stereotype. The show takes place in what looks like the kitchen of just a normal upper-middle class home, not a big studio with expensive appliances. She talks to the audience the whole time as if they were her friends or family. She tells them stories about her past and talks about why the foods are good for children and friends. She also talks about a letter she got from an audience member as if it was merely a letter from a friend thanking her for a recipe. But the letter was really nothing more than fan mail. She also uses her accent to play up the fact that she is southern. The long draw and the southern accent make her feel more homely and simple, which makes people feel like she is a grandma, not a businesswoman. All of these factors combine to make it feel like she is really trying to help you out as a friend by teaching you how to make stuff. But something I noticed about this persona is that she sneaks around the fact that she doesn’t give you the measurements for the ingredients, to get those you will have to buy her cookbook.
ReplyDeleteIn the food she also uses a lot of salt and butter, which fits the southern stereotype. Likewise, she talks about stuff that fit more in the southern persona. Like going out and shopping in roadside markets, while in the north people would be much more likely to shop at a supermarket to get all of their ingredients. She talks about it as if she goes to a different family store for every single ingredient she uses. For example she talked about how to get peanut you’d go to a family store in the south, but in the north you’d have to go somewhere else.
As a class we addressed several “southern associations” concerning food. Deep fried, grease-filled, butter, sugar, oil, and simplicity were a few of the main points discussed in class that were used in this particular episode of Paula’s Home Cooking. These key associations were used as part of the show’s ingredients creating a recipe that was meant for company and might even have had a family memory attached to the recipe.
ReplyDeleteDeen used oil to pop her “vegetable,” popcorn. Sugar and water were dissolved and peanuts were added to create a movie treat. Butter and mayonnaise were combined for cheese spread. Bacon, cheese and bread were combined with a mix of grease, buttery pan-fried goodness.
Each of these associations are used by Deen to create a “simple” batch of recipes that reflect the southern lifestyle. Paula incorporates family into her show and, by doing so, uses family recipes and influences of her southern background.
To help develop her overall persona and aid in the theme of the show, the stereotypes associated with southern cooking must be used. Each recipe has it’s own unique flavor, background and associations with it, but all reflect a “typical southern lifestyle.”
The problem with these associations is that the nutritional value is overlooked. Nutritional values of foods that contain a variety of negative connotations is something that can effect the viewing audience in many ways. These stereotypes can cause viewers to avoid the show entirely, or watch the show and think that cooking in this manner is an appropriate way to feed family and friends.
Southern living is seen as almost a down to earth type of living and I think that Paula Deen works with that to make her more relatable. Her recipes are simple and that too can try to work with more people because then her cooking and recipes would not intimidate them. They would be very willing to try them out because with the mere simplicity of the recipes, viewers watching would not only have the time to make them, but considering the simplicity of the recipes, there is almost this dummy proof feel to them. It is so straightforward that you would have to practically try to mess it up in order to get it wrong.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I know about Southern stereotypes when it comes to food is how fatting it is. There is always either butter, oil, sugar, salt or a combination of them in a recipe. When she was making the popcorn balls, she used oil to make the popcorn, and had sugar, butter and a “little” bit of salt in it as well. It definitely appeals to people who have a sweet tooth and really do enjoy foods that are not good for them. Clearly, she is not trying to appeal to the “health nuts.”
Honestly, she seems as if she has this persona that southern cooking allows for people to be able to understand and be willing to connect with. When she talks to them about her family, there is less of a disconnect between the audience and herself even though there is a camera between the two of them. This of course is playing with the idea that people from the south are friendly.
The “southern associations” play a dominant role in Paula Deen’s Home Cooking. The southern aspects thrown into her overall presentation of herself and her cooking resembles what she is all about, which is your fair priced, yet awesome tasting dishes from the help of heavy in fat cooking materials. The southern stereotypes of fattening foods and family is something that Deen repeats often in her show. She is illustrating a nostalgic, relatable type of family oriented life based around food and cooking. She speaks to the audience as if she were speaking to a kitchen teeming with family and friends.
ReplyDeleteHer inclusion of the audience, making us feel like we are apart of it as if she is cooking these very dishes for us almost draws us in. I feel that her southern boisterous laugh and guilty pleasured smile is welcoming enough to sit down with her in the kitchen and chow down. Also, speaking of “chow down,” a good portion of her vocabulary is that “southern” slang. Making Paula seem like your everyday grandmother.
Paula Deen uses her southern roots as a relating to the people in America, speaking to the “average American”. With her accent, she comes off as more genuine and because the south has a reputation as having southern hospitality it all goes hand in hand. Her audience trusts her as they would trust their own grandmother’s and enjoy learning new southern recipes, regardless of the health risks. She’s older, so the fact that she is able to eat these foods and is still around to continue cooking, her foods don’t pose as a necessary threat the consumers diet. She often relates back to her childhood or conjures up stories of her own children, thus speaking to the mothers of America. In the episode we watched she prepared a lot of simple, quick, and easy meals that pose as snacks and necessarily meals for large groups of people. While making her bacon and cheese covered breadsticks she even referenced how she usually makes them for 100 people at a time.
ReplyDeleteHer show’s success for over 5 years, and her success as a cook and television personality proves that there is a demand for what she does.
When you hear someone talk about southern cooking, many thoughts cross your mind. You might envision large portions contaning deep-fried and buttered food, or maybe a dish with simple ingredients that is not for the calorie conscious. Most Americans view Paula Deen as the goddess of Southern cooking. She embraces every aspect of true southern cooking to the maximum. There is not one episode that goes by that does not involve butter, oil, or salt. Typical southern cooking reflects these ingredients continuously throughout every meal.
ReplyDeleteThere is such thing as “Southern Hospitality” and Paula definitely has that. She makes the viewers feel as though she is sitting right in front of you having a conversation. Her kitchen is nothing spectacular, but it is just like any other person’s kitchen, which makes it inviting. Music or effects cover nothing up, just Paula talking to you as if you were an old friend dropping by for a visit. It is hard to not think of Pala Deen when you think of southern cooking.
Paula Deen is highly Southern. Everything about her personality, her actions, her voice, and most of all her food, yell to you that Southern cooking is what I do and Southern cooking is what your going to get. It’s almost hard to put in to words what being Southern is, but in this case it seems that being Southern is to draw on every stereotype that any other person not from the South could possibly cook up.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that is instantly noticeable is Paula’s dialect. It’s easy to pick up that she was born and raised in the South and that’s what she’ll always be just by listening to her voice. She draws on that stereotypical thought of a Southerner’s voice being twangy and instantly recognizable by any person with the ability to hear.
Most of all the thing that screams SOUTHERN!!!, about Deen is the food. Everything is just layered and coated in a think layer of this fat or that fat, it doesn’t really matter what it is. Butter is the most often used and also the primary reason for this thought of her show being nothing but fatty foods. It’s easy to see why Bourdain picked on sweet little Paula, because the things that she cooks up on her show are nothing short of monstrous globs of butter caked in sugar or bacon, and a lot of cheese.
Northerners have a lot of stereotypes about southerners (as they also do about us), and I think Paula Deen plays right into those stereotypes when trying to appeal to her audience.
ReplyDeleteIt is assumed in the north that people in the south put a lot of importance on family and big family meals, and that there's a lot of time to cook, to relax, etc. Life is seen as "slower" in the south. Deen draws on these ideas, emphasizing the importance of family while making food in "Paula's Home Cooking," and always cooking for large groups -- ie: "I usually make one or two hundred of these."
Deen plays up her accent and stories of growing up in the south, drawing out her vowels and repeating "y'all" more than is necessary. It seems like she does this to make herself look more southern, so that her audience buys into the appearance that she is the epitome of both southern life and southern cooking.
We expect food in the south to always be fried, salty, fatty, sugary and covered in butter, and Paula does nothing to dispel those ideas. In fact, she emphasizes them, rarely cooking anything that doesn't use one of the above ingredients or techniques.
Deen is such an oddity, cooking southern style with fat and sugar in a world that force feeds us the benefits of dieting and healthy food, that she is embraced by people who want to step outside the lines and indulge, in a way that is not just unhealthy (like fast food) but is legitimately delicious and worth the calories.
By cooking delicious but almost disgustingly unhealthy food on a network where many of the shows focus on a balanced lifestyle helps Paula Deen stand out. She also emphasizes that her dishes are "simple," despite the association that southern food is complex and takes all day.
Coming from up North, there are many stereotypes I associate with the South and Southern culture. When I think of Southern food, I think fried and buttered, made with love, and always in humungous portions. I believe one aspect of Southern Pride is in the homemade cooking, as well as being very friendly to your neighbor. Paula Deen incorporates these aspects in to her show to make us viewers feel invited and comfortable watching her cook. She is not afraid to tell us a personal story about her family, or do a little victory dance after she finishes a dish, or take as little taste and say “yum! That is good” in her Southern accent.
ReplyDeletePaula Deen draws on these associations on the south to make her show stand out from other cooking shows. Instead of being in a Studio, cooking expensive dishes and sticking to a script, Paula invites you in to her home and shows you the easy and fun way of Southern cooking. This allows her to connect to the audience, allowing them to feel like they know Paula well, and therefor make her character more watchable than a generic T.V chef. She caters to an average American, giving her validity and popularity amongst the masses.
In Paula Deen’s show, there are many “southern associations” that help to craft the image of Paula as a down to earth, run-of-the-mill, average lady who enjoys to cook and share her recipes with others. Throughout the show, she constantly calls on a family story from her past, in order to help depict herself as a family oriented individual and make her audience feel as if they are apart of her family. In addition, she reinforces the stereotype (and almost fact) that southern foods tend to include higher volumes of unhealthy ingredients such as butter and mayonnaise, in order to add flavor. On multiple instances throughout the show she uses such ingredients in excess and giggles, smiling at the audience as she does so.
ReplyDeletePaula’s Home Cooking relies heavily on its association with the south. The show must cater to a specific demographic which, like Paula herself, is southern. The centerpiece of the show is Paula’s thick accent and warm appearance. Paula makes the assumption that these people are also very family oriented. Most chatter not directly relevant to the recipe or cooking process include some allusion to children or family.
ReplyDeleteShe also tends to draw on the low income stereotype from the south. Her recipes are often simple and don’t consume much time. This leads to fatty “hearty” down south cooking to be the result. The reoccurring colors and music enforce this dynamic, giving the show a very genuine feel. An apparently low budget keeps the show from being too pompous as well. The final affect leaves Paula as a trusted and knowledgeable voice to her appeal audience.
I think that the role of our culture’s ‘southern associations’ are amplified by Paula’s Home Cooking. Paula uses all the traditional ingredients and expected portions of food that we associate to the southern-style cooking. The fact that Paula ignores health issues with her recipes is something that I associate with southern-style cooking; southern portions are larger than normal and use a lot of ingredients like butter, mayonnaise and cream that add unhealthy characteristics to her dishes.
ReplyDeleteStereotypes such as simple and fatty are also associated with southern cooking and amplified by Paula’s cooking. Paula often referred to her dishes to be ‘simple and easy to make’ which is one of the things that southern chefs take pride in.
Her fatty ingredients also represent southern-style cooking. Since her recipes are quick and easy dishes, she uses ingredients that can be in a home for long periods of time and do not spoil easily. This also ties to the stereotype that southern people need to cook on a budget and can’t afford spending a lot of money on ingredients.
Paula’s nice, friendly personality and southern hospitality shown throughout her show also represent a southern stereotype of being nice and open to others. Her inviting personality as she cooks shows that she is a ‘southern gem’ like many audience members would expect from a southern woman.
I have watched a lot of Paula’s home cooking shows, they are very interesting I have never seen some one add so much fat to here food. I have seen a lot of these shows where frying is the main purpose of cooking. This is what a lot of Europeans think about how Americans cook, by frying there food, and adding a lot of salt to it. However as I have lived here for nearly four years I know that is not entirely true. Yet this stereotype sticks to Americas, but I think it is more likely to be a southern thing then it is to be northern but I can be completely wrong.
ReplyDeletePaula thinks that the southern heritage of food is slowly being forgotten and that is one thing that she doesn’t want to happen so she tried to keep it in here family as much as she can; she says that she wants to be remembered by the food that she makes. So that when her children make that southern food they can say “my mama made these for me”. Food has a lot to do with the culture and society that you raised in there is a lot of meaning behind it whether you truly think so or not. I know I can’t eat a lot of American food because there is way too much salt in a lot of it.
Here shows are really fun to watch because it feel as if you are in her kitchen with her when she is making the food, she is very clear on the things she is making but sometimes I don’t understand how she can put so much butter into a mean. she is a very traditional when it comes to cooking her southern foods.