How are Paula Deen cookbook sales faring?
A highly publicized racism scandal has already cost celebrity chef Paula Deen her Food Network contract. Will readers still buy her cookbooks?
Paula Deen has long held a monopoly on the Southern cookbook market, with 14 bestselling cookbooks, including 鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 Southern Cooking Bible鈥� and 鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 The Deen Family Cookbook.鈥�
Carlo Allegri/AP
Are Paula Deen鈥檚 days as bestselling cookbook author over?
A highly publicized racism scandal has already cost Deen a lucrative contract with the Food Network and may also cost the Southern cooking icon her deal with shopping network QVC. Whether fans can stomach the latest news and continue to purchase Deen鈥檚 14 cookbooks remains to be seen.
The celebrity chef became embroiled in scandal last week after she admitted in a deposition that she had used racial epithets and tolerated racial jokes and pornography in the workplace, according to news . The deposition was part of a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee.
According to news of the deposition, which found its way online over the weekend, Deen admitted to using the N-word; making jokes about black people, Jews, and "rednecks"; and considering planning a plantation-themed party complete with black men 鈥減laying鈥� slaves.
Deen has posted several online apologizing for her comments and mistakes, including one in which she tells fans, 鈥淚 beg for your forgiveness.鈥�
The question is, will Deen鈥檚 damning comments sour her cookbook sales?
The queen of cooking has long held a monopoly on the Southern cookbook market, with 14 bestselling cookbooks like 鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 Southern Cooking Bible,鈥� 鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 The Deen Family Cookbook,鈥� and 鈥淭he Lady and Sons: Savannah Country Cookbook.鈥�
(She also oversees an empire of TV shows, restaurants, cookware, a magazine, and endorsement deals.)聽
Some publicity experts say the damage has been done and Deen will never enjoy the same popularity, onscreen or on the shelves.
鈥淗er brand is now tainted beyond recourse,鈥� Mark Pasetsky, CEO of public relations and marketing content firm Mark Allen & Co., told .
Added Howard Bragman, vice chairman of Reputation.com, 鈥淧aula Deen will survive but she will never be whole again. She will never make as much money, she will never have the respect that she once had, there are people that will never be in business with her again.鈥�
Still, recent articles are rife with reports of Deen fans lining up outside her restaurants, swelling online forums in support of the celebrity cook, and devotees vowing to boycott Food Network, which dropped her shows.
Seemingly overnight, a 鈥淲e support Paula Deen鈥� Facebook bubbled to the surface, with almost 300,000 likes and calls to support the Southern cook鈥檚 products, businesses, and books.
鈥淟et鈥檚 support Paula by bumping up the pre-order numbers for her October release,鈥� reads one post urging fans to buy Deen鈥檚 forthcoming book, 鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up.鈥�
How are those cookbook sales faring?
聽鈥淧aula Deen鈥檚 Southern Cooking Bible鈥� has been on 鈥檚 top 100 list for the last 184 days, though it has dropped to number 78.
She鈥檚 still got a monopoly on the 鈥淩egional/International鈥� cookbooks category on , with at least three popular books on that bestselling list, not including her son Bobby Deen鈥檚 book, 鈥� From Mama鈥檚 Table to Mine: Everybody鈥檚 Favorite Comfort Foods at 350 Calories or Less.鈥�
Perhaps most notable are recent comments on Deen鈥檚 page, where those pledging support for the doyenne of Southern cooking outnumber her critics.
鈥淚 wanted to do more than just speak out in support of Mrs. Deen. I wanted to offer some monetary support. So I elected to buy a Paula Deen cookbook... Good luck Mrs. Deen,鈥� wrote commenter WakkyWabbit.
鈥淚 don't normally buy items for a policical [sic] statement but this time I have. Paula has freedom of speech and I have the power of the buck... Time for American to grow up beyond the age of ten years old, get over the polical [sic] correctness crap and get on with life,鈥� another comment, by Sher, read.
And then there was this, from commenter truesouth: 鈥淭he great thing about this book is that Paula provided me with a professional black man to hold it open while I cooked. I didn't even have to pay him! Talk about Southern hospitality! The recipes taste like a cool drink of water from a fountain that says 'for whites only.'. The book literally drips with butter and oppression, but in that charming 'I'm not a racist' Southern way. My favorite is her recipe for burnt cross buns.鈥�
Whether Deen鈥檚 books will survive cracks about 鈥渂urnt cross buns鈥� remains to be seen.聽
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.