Back in 2013, popular Southern food chef Paula Deen was accused by a former employee of making racist remarks, using racial slurs, including the N-word, and even stating that her Black employees should dress like slaves.
When asked about the allegations, Deen admitted to using racial slurs, including the N-word, stating that it was normal behavior to use those words and to make jokes about minorities among her family, friends, and professional colleagues.
To say that this did not go over well would be an understatement, and Deen soon found herself canceled, impacting her appearances on television, her cookbooks, and her other ventures.
Deen also faced criticism from others in the food and cooking industry, such as Anthony Bourdain, the late food critic and cultural traveler.
Bourdain was particularly critical of Deen's recipes and expressed concern about the health of people who might regularly use her recipes. The food critic went so far as to call her "the most dangerous woman in America" and said it would take "nuclear war" for Bourdain to eat Deen's cooking.
Deen later snubbed Bourdain in response, calling out his more varied eating habits.
"Let me tell you something, girlfriend. Maybe [my food] is bad for you, but I don’t go around eating or serving unwashed anuses of wildebeests."
"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."
Bourdain later addressed some of Deen's critical comments, brushing them off.
"I like the quote, 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."
Now in 2025, Deen is addressing her cancelation, cancel culture, and much of the criticism she's received over the years in her documentary Canceled: The Paula Deen Story.
In her documentary, she highlights her feud with Bourdain and decides that she's going to have the last word.
"He started something with me, and I'd never even met him."
"Anthony Bourdain did call me the most dangerous woman in America."
"God rest his soul. I felt like he didn't like anybody. Not even himself, maybe."
This left a bad taste in many viewer's mouths, as Bourdain committed suicide in 2018 at the age of 61 after decades as a professional chef and world traveler.
But Bourdain fans were critical of Deen's comments and would not let them go by without comment.
Though Deen might have felt like she did something here, Bourdain's continuing fanbase was not about to let her have the last word.
It seems this upcoming documentary might be an attempt on Deen's part to revise the history around her career, but what the documentary will not change are the accusations and admissions of derogatory and racist slurs, which are even echoed in some of her comments about the foods Bourdain was willing to explore and celebrate.
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